Hospital Beds and Memories

Abagail came over for the millionth time this week. Jack had been gone for 3 weeks already, and we still had contact, but it was nice having another friend that wasn’t my brother. Weirdly enough, all the friends I had made also became my brother's friends, which then again also wasn’t that weird because he never went out. Fortunately, Cameron had been waking up at more reasonable times (which was still pretty late) because the doorbell would ring at least every other day. Our loft wasn’t that amazing, yet Abagail always came over, I’d never been to her apartment. With Jack it was more spread out, half of the time was spent at his house, the other half here.

I got a text from Jack saying he was up for FaceTiming in 5 minutes and of course I said yes. If I actually cared about what Jack thought of my appearance, I would be freaking out about how I looked, but I really didn’t care. So here I was, slouching on the couch, waiting for Jack to call me. Time always went by so slow--

My phone started ringing and I was immediately met with Jack’s face when I answered.

“Isle!” He screamed.

“Oh hey, Jack,” I sighed, “Nice to see you again.”

“Oh… “

I laughed, “I always get you with acting serious and annoyed! Of course I’m happy to see you.”

“I’m just too scared to screw up this friendship.” Jack pouted. “I really miss you.”

“Aww, I miss you too fuckface, especially your dick jokes. There’s not enough dick jokes here.”

Jack thought for a while until he snapped his fingers in the cheesiest way. “I got one! What did the left nut say to the right nut?”

“I don’t know?” I raised my hands knowing this was going to be terrible.

“Look at the dude in the middle trying to look all hard.”

I chuckled. “That’s such a bad joke. I can’t believe you stooped so low.”

“It really is bad, isn’t it?” Jack scratched his head.

“It really is.”

Abagail came out of the bathroom with her phone in one hand. “What about that one guy I did that one photo shoot with?”

“No,” I groaned. “Jack, tell Abby that I don’t do relationships and that she should stop trying to hook me up with someone.”

“Don’t even bother trying, Abagail, she’s too stubborn,” Jack laughed.

Before I knew it, my phone was taken out of my hands and Abagail ran back into the bathroom. It was funny at first, and I followed her while giggling. She locked herself up and started talking to Jack. I could hear everything that was being said.

“Yo, Jack, Ireland has a secret,” Abagail overdramatized, “she really really likes you.”

I banged on the door, laughing while shouting out, “of course I do, he’s my best friend.”

“You’re my best friend too!” Jack screamed.

“Shut up!” Abagail chuckled. That’s not what I meant.”

“I don’t get feelings for people, Jack knows that. There’s no point.” I pointed out.

“I don’t care! Let me have my fun!”

I started laughing at first, but my mind suddenly felt muddled up. Nothing around me made sense anymore. My fingers started tingling and I knew something was up. This was not normal, this was exactly what used to happen in the first couple of months after leaving the hospital. Why was it coming back now?! I banged loudly on the door, freaking out and only having one goal.

“Abby! Give me my phone now!” I screamed out of desperation.

“No! I’m not done confessing your love to Jack yet!” She replied.

“No, Abby! You don’t understand!”

“I know, you don’t do relationships. Just let me do this! You know it’s true!”

I would have retorted something witty, but I really couldn’t care less about that. “I need my phone! Now!”

There was another voice coming from the phone. “Is this your mystery girl, Jack?”

Jack answered, “nope, this is just her friend… who I have never met in real life.”

“Abby, please!” I screamed once again.

“Oh well, I still won’t believe you. Plus, there’s too much shouting going on. I’m leaving,” the other voice said.

“I need my phone!”

Cameron stomped up beside me. “Why the fuck are you guys screaming! Can’t you keep it down!”

I banged the door 3 more times, my voice becoming weaker. “Abby!”

But it was too late. My body went completely numb and limp. I saw myself crashing to the floor, my head slowly nearing the hard surface. Cameron caught me, but I still hit the floor with a loud thump. I couldn’t move my body anymore and the only thing I wanted was to sleep. Cam kept softly hitting my face, and it wasn’t till after a couple of seconds that I realized that he was talking to me.

“Don’t faint on me now, Field,” he kept repeating over and over again.

But my eyes felt so heavy. If I could just close them for one second...

“Abagail! Come help me!”

The door unlocked and I could just make out Abagail’s terrified face. My vision was blurry, yet I could still hear everything clearly, maybe even better than I normally did. I could hear Jack asking what was going on, I could hear Abagail trying to help Cam and talk to Jack at the same time, and I could hear Cameron trying his best to keep me awake. But it didn’t work. My eyes closed and I felt peaceful.

----

I woke up to something tightening around my left arm. There was a low buzzing and a beep before the pressure released. I peeled my eyes open slowly and looked around. Apparently, I had been moved onto the couch and my doctor was in front of me, checking my blood pressure. We had this thing where I would always be able to call her if I felt like anything was going to happen, which is why I wanted my phone back so badly. But, obviously, this time I wasn’t able to do. Cam also had her number, so he had probably called her after I had fainted.

“Welcome back, Ireland,” my doctor, Val, said.

“Hi,” I managed to reply in my weakest voice.

“In case you’re wondering, there’s nothing wrong. You’ve been making a lot of progress, but it was going so fast that it took a while for your brain to grasp it all. Basically, your brain went in a slight overdrive. It could have been a lot worse and could have been damaging, but you were lucky. You just have to stay rested and calm the next couple of days. So I’m basically putting you on bedrest, but only so you don’t have too much information to take in.”

I nodded my head sleepily. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been this tired. It definitely hadn’t been for a long, long time. Val said goodbye to me, telling me she had to go back to her scheduled patients, which I didn’t mind. I knew how annoying it was to have to wait for your appointment. Cameron picked me up and carried me to my bedroom, even though he didn’t have to. I guess he just wanted to be the good brother he used to be. Abagail walked into my room as well and gave me back my phone.

“You should probably call Jack back,” she suggested with a forced half-smile. “I kind of hung up on him randomly because I couldn’t help you and talk to Jack at the same time. He’s probably very worried.”

I nodded and watched as both Cameron and Abagail left, leaving me alone in my dark room, my face illuminated by the blue light of my phone. After looking through my contacts, I called Jack. He answered in no time.

“Isle! Are you ok? What happened?!” He rambled with a worried face.

“I’m fine, Jack,” I mumbled, trying to keep my eyes open the best I could. “I’m just really tired. Nothing bad happened, it’s just my progress catching up with me. My brain wasn’t used to knowing so much in one go. I have to stay and do nothing for the next couple of days, doctor’s orders.”

“I wish I could keep you company. I could probably come over when we have a day off or something.”

“No Jack, I’ve got Abagail and Cameron. Don’t waste your days off on me. I won’t be much fun anyway. All I will be doing is sleeping.”

“It won’t be a waste!”

I sighed and turned on my side. “How about this: I’ll put my phone on the side you normally sleep on and I’ll talk to you till I fall asleep, but you’re not going to come here on your day off.”

“Ok…” Jack pouted, trying to guilt trip me, but I was too tired to change my mind.

“I’m sorry Jack. I just feel so tired right now.”

Jack told me it was ok and promised that he wouldn’t come visit unless something else happened to me. I listened to the tour stories he told me in his deep calm voice. It was moments like this that I really loved him. He was always fun to be around with his hyperness and dick jokes, but he also knew when to be serious.

I could feel myself slowly drifting off.

“Hey, Jack? I love you,” I muttered in my sleepy state.

“I love you too, Isle, I really do.”

My eyes closed fully and I fell into a weird world of dreams.