A Place on My Pillow

A few more days passed and Polly showed only the bare minimum of life signs. She breathed and her heart beat, and she had brain activity but that was it. There were no facial expressions. No laughs. Not so much as a twitch of a finger. Alex was beginning to lose hope. He never stop talking to her. He would go home every few days to shower and eat a proper meal, to check his messages and to call Millie, giving her an update. The most he could ever tell him was that she was still alive. This didn’t seem to please Millie. He knew what she wanted to hear. She wanted to hear those magic words. She’s awake. But he couldn’t lie to Millie. He told her what he knew and then would hang up before she started crying. He couldn’t handle the tears. He would head back to the hospital after that, saying hello to the nurses and slip into Polly’s room. He’d kiss her lips and sit down, and just talk. Sometimes it would be stories from his childhood. Sometimes he’d make up a story as he went along, spinning a fairy tale for his unconscious Polly. And sometimes, he would just read aloud to her whatever science fiction book he was reading at that point. He went through books easier nowadays, since he didn’t work.

“Hey Polly,” he said, walking into the room and shutting the door behind him. “I have to be honest,” he started, striding slowly towards her bed and sat down next to her. Her wounds were healing, that was an improvement. “I know who Paul is. I’m sure you know that I know. Katherine visited so of course, she told you that Paul’s my uncle. Which was always weird. I’m older than him and I’m his nephew. How weird is that? It was always awkward when we were kids. People would ask who Paul was and I had to be like, oh, Paul’s my uncle.”

Alex scoffed, shaking head.

“I digress. He was a great uncle. A great friend. You know that though, you were in love with him. What a small world, right? He used to rave about you when he’d come back to see Grandma Mae. He loved you, every single thing about you. I can see why now. You may not be perfect, but Paul saw you perfectly.”

“Stop it,” she croaked. Alex’s head whipped up and he saw her eyelids fluttering, fighting to stay open. He grabbed her hand and she smiled.

“You’re awake.”

“Yeah, dumb ass. I’m awake,” she coughed. “What time is it?”

“More like what day is it!”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s been two weeks,” Alex replied. Her eyes widened.

“Really? Holy shit. Did he really hurt me that bad?”

“You don’t remember?”

“I remember it, alright. I just, I must have passed out before he was done. Oh my god, he didn’t,” her voice broke as she imagined the very worst.

“No, he didn’t,” Alex assured her. She started to push herself up but Alex pressed his hand into her chest gently. “You’re not ready for that.”

“Why not?”

“Coma. Two weeks,” he said shortly.

“Right. So, you know who I am. You know about Paul,” she said, reaching for the ring around her neck. She panicked when she didn’t feel the cool metal under her fingers. Alex pulled it out of the bedside drawer and she breathed out a sigh of relief. She slipped it over her head and kissed the ring.

“Yeah. I’ve known since I met you. Paul used to show me pictures of you all the time. He loved you,” Alex said softly.

“You never told me,” Polly replied.

“I know. I didn’t think you’d want to be around me, if you knew.”

Polly shook her head warily.

“That’s stupid.”

“I know. I know it is. It’s stupid but that’s what I thought. I should’ve told you. But, I couldn’t bring myself to. It’s just, it felt wrong.”

Polly used the button that sat the bed up. She felt all her body ache. She wondered if they would give her a morphine button like last time. She watched as Alex’s face contorted from concern to a very similar expression of worry. He chewed on his lower lip, as Polly thought about his previous statement.

“I never told you about Michael because it felt wrong to me. I couldn’t just tell you about him.”

“Who?”

So she told him of the sociopath.

“He was my student teacher,” she explained. “He was gorgeous. He was intelligent. He was this amazingly well-versed man. And the most alluring thing to me was that he was married. He somehow tricked me into dating him, by telling me that I wasn’t good enough to date him. He convinced me that he loved me and that everything would be mine. He told me over and over that he would leave his wife. We’d be happy. He’d spoil me. We’d have the most adorable babies. We’d have our happily ever after. I’d never have to work. I could take photographs for the rest of my life. He tricked me, with his lies, with his horrible mind games. He made me hate myself one day and then would put me on a pedestal the next day. It hurt one day and the next I’d feel like the most beautiful thing ever. He messed with my mind.”

Alex couldn’t believe his ears.

“He paid for my apartment for my third year of college. And one day, near the end of the year, he told me that I had a month to get out of his apartment. Then, I was on the streets and well, the rest is history.”

She shook her head.

“Your exes,” he shook his head.

“I only have two that matter, Alex.”

“Paul, Michael and Darren,” Alex listed off. She stared at him, her brow furrowed together.

“Why are you counting Darren?”

“You can’t be serious!” Alex barked.

“What?”

“He practically beat the hell out of you. I’m pretty sure he dragged you down to the bookshop and left you there. There’s no way you can possibly forgive him for that! If you do, I have no idea how because that is unforgivable. He should never lay his hands on you. You deserve better than that!”

Polly was smirking by the end of his speech. That was the response she was looking for.

“Alex, you beautiful human being, come here,” she said, holding out her hands. He put his in her outstretched ones, letting her tug him into her bed. She pressed a kiss into his forehead, then on his brow line, his nose, his cheeks, on his closed eyelids. She pressed a kiss onto his ear and then a series along his jaw until she reached his chin. She kissed upwards, first taking his lower lip in between her own and then the top lip. Finally, she pressed a long, hard, passionate kiss into his soft, cushion lips. He welcomed the kiss with all he had, sliding hands into what was left of her hair. He was thankful that she hadn’t realized how beat up she still looked, or how she was missing most of her hair. It would grow back, but even if it never did, she would look just as gorgeous.

The kiss lasted quite a while. Polly’s heart monitor registered an increase in her heart rate but she was too busy kissing her best friend to notice as a doctor rushed in. He saw the pair embraced, panting and practically pawing at each other as if they’d sworn off sex for lent.

“Really, Alex?” Doctor Sears said, leaning in the doorway. “It’s been two weeks!”

They jumped apart, staring at the young male doctor. He shook his head and walked in, grabbing her chart off the end of her bed.

“Alright, let’s run some tests and make sure nothing bad happened to your brain, Pollyanna.”
As he ushered Alex out, Polly caught the boy’s hand and pulled him back.

“Alex, I love you.”

The boy broke out into a grin that wouldn’t fade for quite a while.

“I love you too.”

“And about that home situation,” she said softly, not even bothering to finish the question. He knew.

He repeated what he’d said before, the same words they’d share forever, “There will always be a place on my pillow, if you need the rest.”