Welcome to Paradise

I open my eyes, not expect to be able to open them. I expect to be dead, but I don’t feel dead. The lights are bright against my eyes and I want to close them again but I force them to stay open. The room around me is bright and very white, I’m in a hospital! I force myself to sit up, my muscles ache but apart from that I don’t feel bad. I try to remember what happened, all I can remember if this smoke chocking us then nothing.
“Hey” I try to call out but my voice is rough and raspy. “Is anyone out there?”
“Jack thank fuck” Matt appears in my room, I’m pretty sure he looks worse than I do.
“What the fuck happened?” I ask.
“I don’t know, I get back to the bus to find you four passed out and I couldn’t wake you so I called the ambulance. They said there was nothing actually wrong with you, that you would probably wake up in time”
“Is anyone else awake?”
“Only Rian”
“What about Alex?” I ask, thinking of my boyfriend.
“Not yet, what did happen though?” he asks, taking the seat beside my bed.
“Did Rian not tell you?”
“He kept mentioning this storm, but there was no storm, not that I could see anyway”
“Yeah there was, it was like it felt like it was right over the bus. Crashing thunder and lightning, then this smoke, it started to seep into the bus and it was chocking us. We tried to get out but we couldn’t, we couldn’t even break the windows. We thought we were going to die”
“That’s fucking weird”
“I know, I’ve never been so scared in my life”
“How are you feeling though?” Matt asks.
“Bit achy, but fine really. How’s Rain?”
“Same as you”
“Mr Flyzik? Mr Merrick is awake” A nurse comes into the room.
“I better go talk to Zack, you alright on your own?” he asks.
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine”
“How are you feeling Mr Barakat?” asks the nurse once Matt’s left.
“I’m fine”
“You gave your friends quite a scare though” she says.
“Yeah... I wish I knew what really happened” Once she leaves I get up and dress in the clothes I’d been wearing the night before.
“Jack?” Rian puts his head around the door.
“Hey, you okay?” I ask.
“Yeah, bit freaked out still but alive”
“Know the feeling, how’s Zack?”
“He’s okay, freaking out like the rest of us”
“Heard about Alex?” I ask nervously, I feel bad for not going to see him yet but the last time he was in a hospital bed he was dying to save me...
“No sorry”
“I guess I should go and see him, it’s just scary” I admit.
“I know mate, I know but he’ll need you when he wakes up” Rian’s right, I know what it’s like to be in a coma I was lucky to have Alex there when I woke up, I should do the same for him.
“Yeah you’re right” I get up and follow Rian out the room.
“Which one is his?” I ask, looking down the corridor of doors.
“Last one on the left”
“Thanks”
“He’ll be okay Jack, you know that right?”
“Yeah, yeah I know” I walk to the end of the corridor and slowly push the door open. Lying on the bed is Alex, he looks almost normal, his hair messy, his mouth turned down almost frowning, his breathing even and his eyes closed. I smile a little, seeing him so peaceful.
“Hey Alex” I say.
“Is this how you saw me the first time we met? Lying on a hospital bed, not aware of the world around and not knowing if I was going to wake up” A few tears ran down my face.
“I’m sorry I put you through that Lex, it’s horrible” I took his hand in mine, rubbing his ruff finger tips from years of guitar playing, rubbing my fingers down his arm and tracing his tattoo.
“Jack?”
“Oh my fuck Alex!” I pull him into a hug before he has time to register what I’m doing.
“Nice to see you too” he coughs.
“You are okay?” I ask, tears treating to spill again.
“Yeah, yeah I think so. What the fuck happened?” he asks. I tell him everything Flyzik told me.
“I’m so confused” he says, running his hand through his tangled, messy hair.
“You and the rest of us” I say.
“I thought we were dead”
“Me too, I thought I was going to lose you” Alex looks at me and smiles, squeezing my hand.
“Alex... I’m sorry”
“Sorry for what?”
“What I put you through when we first met, finding me on a hospital bed like that. It’s horrible, I’m sorry”
“It’s okay Jack” he smiles. I go to kiss him but he moves and I only get his cheek.
“Hey!”
“Oh sorry” he chuckles. I pull him back so I can kiss him probably.
“Are you ready to start tour?” I ask.
“We’re really going to go out there after this?” he asks.
“Of course Lex, when did we let anything stop us?”
“Right of course” I look at him, that doesn’t sound like something Alex would say but I brush it off. We’ve all been freaking out about what happened on the bus, he’s probably just scared. He’ll be fine once we get out there again... I hope.