Status: Completed! Sequel up soon

Hospital Beds and Memories

Meeting The Brother

I pulled on the leather jacket I hadn’t worn in a year. It had been hanging in this closet since I had moved in with Jack, and now was the first day it ever came out. With the weather being so cold again, I decided it was time to wear it. Even though we were probably only walking to and from the car today, I still made sure I was dressed to keep me warm. I knew I got cold quickly, especially when it was that time of year where the weather started to drastically change. Maybe it was a bit unnecessary, but I decided to better be safe than sorry. For all I knew, the car could break down, leaving us to fend for ourselves while we were outside in the cold. One thing I knew for sure, was that Jack would be fucked if that happened. He was just wearing a t-shirt and a hoodie. Not a good idea if you asked me.

My hair had grown back another bit. It was all over my scalp, getting close to one and a half inches long. I was lucky that my hair tended to grow quite fast--it had always been that way--or I would have still been in that awkward phase where my hair looked like it had been charred off. Sure, it wasn’t growing back in the brown I had before the chemotherapy, it actually looked a lot more orange, but I actually liked it. It wasn’t this orange that made me a redhead, but it was a brown with an orange undertone, something many people wanted. As a child, I always used to hate it when it was that color and was so relieved to see it darken throughout the years, but now I actually liked the uniqueness of my hair color. Even Jack really seemed to like it. Now the only question was if it was going to grow back like this completely, or if I was going to go back to my dull brown.

“You ready to go?” Jack came upstairs to get the shoes he had taken off here last time instead of at the front door. We were confusing that way, sometimes we couldn’t stand wearing shoes indoors, other times we wore them the entire day.

“Yeah.” I nodded and fit the beanie over my head. Although my hair was growing back, it didn’t mean that it was providing any heat. A small breeze of wind already made me feel cold without a beanie on. “We just need to get the cake from downstairs and we can leave.”

“Alright, I’ll go get it.” He ran up to me, giving me a chaste kiss on the lips, before rushing downstairs excitedly.

My mom had given it to me the last time Jack and I went to see her, which was two days prior. After having heard that we were going to visit his parents next, my mom immediately insisted on baking a cake to give to them. With her bakery doing very well, she would make cakes for any occasion even if she had no reason to. I guess you could say she was excited about it. She said the cake she made wasn’t anything too ‘fancy’, but I was still pretty impressed my the chocolate cake she had made. It definitely looked like it was store bought, which technically made sense…

I went downstairs to put on my boots and winter coat, waiting for Jack to return. He had the cardboard box in one hand and his car keys in the others. I quickly took the cake from him, afraid he would drop it and completely ruin the gift we had. It would certainly be awkward if we had to scoop it up from the floor only to find cat hair stuck all over it. I actually wanted to thank Joyce and May for what they did for me, and it was the first time I was going to meet Jack’s brother. This was pretty important.

“Are you sure you aren’t going to be cold in that?” Jack joked, adding an annoying snicker.

I frowned and punched him lightly, turning around to open the front door, “fuck you.”

“Gladly,” he smirked, pressing the button to unlock the car.

I quickly went in, warming up my hands by blowing on them since they were the only body part that wasn’t covered. The fact that the weather was only getting colder actually scared me, I wasn’t going to survive anything that meant me being even more cold than what I was now. I just hoped that Jack would hurry up already so that I could turn up the heating on full blast. This car was just a freezing as outside, if not even worse.

“I haven’t driven this baby in forever!” Jack let his hands caress the steering wheel lovingly, tracing the Lamborghini logo embedded in the leather.

“My baby, not yours,” I pouted and carefully stroked the door handle on my side.

“My baby’s baby, so technically my baby as well.” He pointed out and started reversing down the driveway.

“I don’t remember giving birth to a car.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry to tell you this, but while you were out you had a c-section and instead of there being a human being, there was a car. I feel like you might have cheated on me with a transformer, but I’m not sure why I would think that.”

“Oh, please,” I scoffed, “if I’d cheat on you with anybody it would obviously be with one of the ninja turtles!”

“That’s a…” Jack looked for the right words to use, “concerning thought.”

“Can’t handle the truth?”

Our weird banter and conversation continued like that all the way to his parents’ house. I didn’t even know where we were, having never been here before. It was quite a nice neighborhood on the other side of the city. Of course, it wasn’t anything like where my parents lived, but this was someplace I could even imagine myself living. All the houses were just a bit smaller than where Jack and I lived, meaning that everything seemed so cozy. I never hated the idea of living on a small scale rather than in a huge house. Trust me, being home alone at my parents’ house was a nightmare.

Jack parked the car behind his brother’s since we were the only ones also still leaving that evening. We walked over to the front door and rung the doorbell. I was shivering, trying my best not to make the box with the cake fall out of my hands as I desperately tried to warm up. Jack stood close behind me, running his hands up and down the sides of my arms to try and heat me up.

I was going to say ‘hi’ as soon as the door opened and Joyce was there to welcome us. However, Jack had other ideas. He picked me up underneath my armpits and carried me inside. “She’s turned into an icicle! She needs to defrost!”

I kicked around, trying to get him to let me go, but he continued to bring me all the way into the hallway. When he finally did lower me, I nearly slipped because he hadn’t given me a warning beforehand. I knew that this cake wasn’t going to survive if I kept it in my hands. So, when May came to check in on what all the ruckus was about, I quickly held out the box to her.

“He’s going to make me drop it!” I panicked as Jack started trying to help me take off my jacket. Somehow Jack just turned three times as hyper and weird if he was around his family like he was trying to keep being the spunky clown he always was.

May took it from me just in time, because Jack nearly made me fall over by trying to jank the jacket off my arm. I hit him away and took it off myself instead. He then, like the gentleman he sometimes was, took it from me and hung it up on the coat hanger. I thanked him, hoping he let out all his excitement and would finally act a little bit more calm, which was basically impossible, as I figured out not all that much later.

“What’s in this?” May asked me, still holding the box, trying to open it.

“Oh, it’s just--” I started to explain to her, but was dragged into the living room harshly by Jack who desperately wanted me to meet his brother. I quickly shouted out my answer, “just some cake my mom made!”

“Joe! Joe! Joe, Joe, Joe! Joey! Joooeeee!” Jack called out, looking for his sibling until we entered what I supposed was the living room. He motioned his hand up and body my body. “Are you proud of me?!”

“You’re going to hurt the poor girl if you keep dragging her around like that.” He laughed but got up from the couch nonetheless.

“I’m not hurting her.” Jack pouted and looked at me for any sort of confirmation.

I just lightly rubbed my arm and shoulder. “I’m pretty sure you’re going to pull my arm out of its socket if you keep going on like this. You’ll be the one to have to set it back.”

He pulled a disgusted face, ready to protest, but something made him think twice and shrug instead. “I’ve experienced worse.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!” I gasped, knowing for a fact he was thinking about something that happened with me and not with somebody else.

“How about I introduce you guys?” He loudly changed the subject, knowing he had brought up something he probably shouldn’t have. “Ireland, Joe; Joe, Ireland. I’ve been able to keep her around for almost a year already!”

“I really don’t know how I do it.” I shook my head, pointing at Jack before mouthing ‘help me’.

Joe laughed once again, nodding his head to agree with me, Jack not even realizing our small exchange. “Nice to meet you.”

Joyce appeared behind me. “Tell your mother thanks. I guess I don’t have to worry about desert anymore.”

----

“Ugh, no, really?!” Jack groaned in frustration as he handed the cards to me.

We were playing Cards Against Humanity and I was winning so far. Jack had claimed to be the master at this game but quickly found out I kept getting better cards. So, then his strategy was to never pick my choice when it was his turn, but he somehow managed to choose me again. Of course, the game would be a lot more fun if we were drunk, but Jack had to drive us back home and I didn’t think it was a good idea for me to drink with how little I had eaten (I was still getting back into the whole eating-three-large-meals-a-day thing).

“I hate this game,” Jack moped, crossing his arms in annoyance.

“You just hate it cause you’re not winning,” I teased, poking him a little, “you should be happy for me that I’m winning!”

He continued to sulk, sticking his bottom lip out to express how sad he was feeling about the whole ordeal. The inner child that couldn’t deal with losing was coming out again. I rolled my eyes and decided to help him out with a solution.

I slid the one card he had won into the middle of the table, “how about we put this away, and shuffle your other cards into the pile,” I did so and climbed into his lap, so that I was leaning against his chest but my legs were still up on the couch, “and then you get to play with me.”

He raised his hands in triumph. “Yes! I’m winning!”

I shook my head but could help but smile at how stupid he was being. And so we continued to game. May read out the prompt card, “Puberty is a time of change. You might notice hair growing in new places. You might develop and interest in blank. This is normal.”

Jack immediately pointed to the card that said ‘The Tempur-Pedic Sleep System’. I got his logic behind it, you know, with the whole sleep system working as a sex joke, but I said no. “You see, this is why you keep losing.”

I took out the card that said ‘Running out of semen’ instead. At first glance, it might have seemed the most obvious from the cards we had, but as soon as you started overthinking a choice, it became a lot less funny. The card you chose still had to clearly make sense with what was going on, or it just simply had to be way too absurd.

And believe it or not, we actually managed to win that round as well, which obviously got Jack excited. It was probably one of the better decisions I had made that night, making sure that Jack wouldn’t stay cranky for the rest of the time. I couldn’t have him hold a grudge against me just because I was winning at a game, especially since he was already leaving in two days. This was not going to lead to another time that Jack and I parted while fighting.

I started taking off my jumper, my leather jacket already having gone off a while before. But, we all know that those things are tighter than they should be and are a bitch to take off. Really, it was like a pitch black maze in there. I had gotten part of it over my head, but eventually couldn’t make it move another inch.

“I’m stuck,” I whined and tried to wriggle around so that I could free myself.

Jack chuckled, poking my sides. “You need some help?”

“No,” I said sarcastically and snorted, my arms getting tired from being stuck above my head, “I was actually thinking of starting a new trend in which people always wear their sweaters like this instead.”

“I don’t think I can support this lifestyle choice.” He pulled up the sweater, bringing the t-shirt along with it.

I squealed, “no, don’t take the shirt as well!”

“There is no other way!” Jack dramatically replied and yanked the sweater off my completely.

My t-shirt was placed awkwardly so that half of it was above my boobs and the rest was just below them. Boy, was Jack lucky that I was wearing a tank top underneath as well that he hadn’t managed to pull all the way up. I swear to god, he would have been in so much trouble if I had been here flashing my bra to everybody. I just gave him an unamused look, angrily tugging the t-shirt back down/

“How dare you wear this amazing t-shirt underneath a sweater!” Jack gasped, pointed at the Future Hearts merchandise I was wearing.

“Cause it was the first thing I found in the closet, which should be a good thing because the things that are worn the most often find their way to the top,” I explained even though the only reason this shirt was on top was because I had used it when all of my pajama shirts were in the laundry.

“You better wear it more often!”

I just laughed a little and got comfortable again, snuggling into Jack a bit more than before. He wrapped his arms around me, holding the cards out in front so that we could both see them.