It had been a couple of hours since the girls left. I fell asleep during that time, but I’m not sure when. All I remember is being awoken by the light of the television. An oddly bright scene was being shown, and I couldn’t help but squint as I opened my eyes. I mentally chastised myself for forgetting to turn the thing off, and immediately reached for the remote that sat on the corner table beside my bed.
Instead of clicking the power button, I began going through the channels, seeing as it had only just gotten dark outside. I didn’t want to oversleep like I did that morning. It had always been a nuisance of mine to sleep too late into the morning, as if I were wasting away the day.
I continued to search the channels for anything of interest, finding nothing but news and reality TV shows. I sighed and dropped the remote once I had gone through all the channels that were offered to me, allowing the news to play quietly from the speakers. I tried my best to pay attention, but always found myself to be zoning in and out of reality, and trying my hardest to recall whether or not that nurse ever brought my medicine. It’s a good thing I didn’t need it, I thought to myself.
Luckily for me, a tap on the door broke me from my boredom, and grabbed my attention almost instantaneously. “Come in!” I said, just loud enough for the person standing on the opposite side to hear. I knew it would be the doctor, coming in to perform more tests and take down more notes about my condition. Or maybe it would have been the nurse, finally arriving with my medicine, apologizing for her delay.
Instead, the door stayed closed. I began to suspect that whoever was there didn’t hear me, and opened my mouth to repeat myself. I was abruptly stopped at the creaking of the door that echoed in the room. The door opened slowly, and a pink-haired girl stepped into the room, shutting the door behind her. Her hair was as straight as ever, and fell to just below her shoulders, concealing the majority of her face. She turned towards me, and forced a smile across her lips. “Hi, Sky.”
I sat there a moment, unable to bring myself to speak. Finally, I felt the words utter through my lips, “Hey, Pinkie,” Quite honestly, she was the last person I would have ever expected to visit me on her own accord. She was with me the previous night, but only to ensure my well-being, or so I assumed.
She moved across the room and took a seat next to my bed, just where everybody else had before her, and there she sat. Occasionally I would catch her looking towards me, or at the television, but it was never for very long, almost as if she couldn’t focus on anything, like something else was bothering her, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out what that something was. It fell nearly silent in the room, the only sound coming from the TV, which also happened to be the main source of light. “I’m sorry,” she suddenly spoke.
“You’re... what?”
“I’m sorry,” she spoke louder this time, “for everything I put you through...”
“You’ve got nothing to apologize for,” I spoke surely of myself. I knew exactly what I wanted to say to her, and I meant every word of it. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I went behind your back, and held you over Henry’s head. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, and I never meant to hurt you,” I turned to face her. “I should have gone to you, and told you everything. Then, none of this ever would have happened,” I turned and shifted my eyes towards the ceiling once again. “So... I’m sorry, for everything I’ve put you through.”
“But,” I heard Pinkie object from the bedside, “if it weren’t for me, you and Henry would still be friends...” I didn’t understand what she meant, and it must have been clear by my expression. “If I never asked you to go to the football game that night, we never would have gone into the school in the first place. Then, you and Henry never would have fought...”
I eyed her, “You knew that was Henry?”
Pinkie nodded. “He caught me after Dashie and I ran out of the theater room. We were going down a hallway when Dashie heard something from ahead of us, and she ran ahead, trying to catch whatever it was before it could get away. That’s when he found me...
“He asked me what I was doing there, and I told him what had happened. But then I asked him why he was there, and why he was wearing black clothes and a mask. He said, ‘I’m just here looking around, that’s all,’ I knew he was lying, but it just came as a shock to me that he would be breaking into the school to do who-knows-what, and I didn’t know what to say.
“Then he got serious, and grabbed me hard by my shoulder, pulling me closer to his face. I tried to break free, but he wouldn’t let me. He started whispering, ‘Just make sure none of your friends get in my way, alright? And don‘t tell any of them I‘m here,’ I tried to ask why, but he pushed me away and ran off in the opposite direction from Dashie. It took me a few seconds, but I got a hold of myself and began rushing towards where Dashie had gone.
“After a while, I found her looking around the gym room. She was so busy searching for the sound, she didn’t even realize that I was there until I made myself known, but by that point I had already wiped away my tears. And that’s where we found this,” Pinkie reached into her pocket and pulled out the blue, teardrop-shaped pendant that she had shown me that night. “I don’t know why, but it helped comfort me. Dashie told me that she didn’t want it, so she gave it to me, and I kept it this whole time.”
I eyed the pendant as she held it in her palm. She was so happy when she found it, but then, after knowing why it made her happy, I could understand. Had she really been holding onto it this whole time? It looked like any other necklace to me, but it meant so much more to her. “Pinkie,” I began, unsure of where else to go, “you know you still could have told us about-”
“No, I couldn’t,” she interrupted. “He was serious when he told me not to tell anyone, and I’m sure he would have hurt me if he found out I told any of you...”
The comment blindsided me. I knew Henry was an awful person, especially after our last moments together, but this was beyond cruel. “But then, when you heard me threaten Henry...”
“I was hurt that you didn’t come to me first, and at least try to tell me what was going on... You just went straight to Henry and tried to solve everything yourself, without thinking about anyone else that was involved...”
“But that’s exactly what you did,” I couldn’t stop myself. “You tried to handle everything yourself, without getting any of us involved, right?” I paused a moment, only to see whether she would retaliate. She didn’t. Instead, she sat there, and looked away from me. “We could have helped you, but you didn’t want us to even know what was going on.”
“I was scared,” I heard her mumble. “I didn’t want anybody to get hurt because of me,” She spoke louder now, and more surely of herself. “There’s a difference.”
“And I couldn’t sit by and watch Henry hurt you,” I bit my tongue, forcing myself to stop talking. But it was of little use. I sighed, “Like he’s hurt me...”
We were quiet for a while, neither of us moving or speaking to the other. I didn’t want to talk anymore. I just wanted to go back to sleep, or wake up from this horrible dream. I didn’t care which. “Sky...” I threw the sheets off of me, and allowed my legs to fall over the opposite side of the bed, sitting myself up. “Sky-”
“I’m fine,” I said as I rose to my feet. A jolt of pain shot through my stomach, and my hand surged towards my wound, my face twisting in pain. I heard shuffling behind me, and soon found Pinkie by my side, reaching towards me. “I don’t need any help. I’m fine,” I stepped around her, which sent another jolt of pain through my body. I winced, and Pinkie grabbed my arm once more. I shrugged away from her and continued towards the door on the far side of the room. “I’m just going to the bathroom,” I stated.
Another step, and another jolt of pain. I squeezed my eyes shut, gritted my teeth, and held my side to fight the pain, but to little avail. When I opened my eyes again, I was met with Pinkie’s clothes. I looked up, and saw her face for a split-second before she wrapped her arms around me, pushing herself closer to me. My eyes went wide, and pain shot through my stomach, but I ignored it. I raised my arms behind her and brought her closer, holding her tightly to my body.
She was warm against my chest, and I didn’t want to let go. In that moment, I didn’t care that we were arguing. I didn’t care that she kept Henry’s threat secret, or that I had betrayed her. I didn’t care what Henry had done to me. I just wanted that moment to last as long as it possibly could.
But, like all great things, it came to an end. I still don’t know who pulled away first, but it didn’t make a difference. Our eyes met, and we smiled, then we laughed. She looked at me again. “Do you need help getting to the restroom?”
I chuckled. “If you don’t mind.”
---------------
My eyes opened, and I was met with the bright light of the sun outside. I squinted and looked towards its source, the window. I cursed the person who had opened the blinds, and shifted about in my bed, trying to shield my eyes from the awful rays.
I tossed about, only to find myself uncomfortable in any position I happened to come across. I sat up instead, looking straight ahead for a few minutes as I tried to blink away the sleep from my eyes before I turned towards the chair where Pinkie sat, sleeping. Her neck was craned to rest on her shoulder, and her back was arching to one side. She looked painfully uncomfortable, and I warned her so the night before. Yet, she insisted on staying through the night, no matter how much I tried to reason with her. “You’ll miss school tomorrow,” I told her. She simply shrugged, and replied, “It’s okay. I don’t mind missing a day of school! After all, you missed a day too, right?” I laughed it off, saying, “Yeah, but for entirely different reasons.”
I looked at her a bit longer. Her clothes were full of wrinkles, and her hair had become messy through the night. It almost looked to be curling back to its former state, as it was when I first met her. Even with her “less-than-presentable” appearance, she looked peaceful, and seemed to be in a soft slumber. I didn’t want her to stay and miss school, especially over me, but I was glad she did. It helped me sleep knowing that things were better between the two of us, and having her continue to stay there by my side throughout the night helped confirm that fact.
It was odd, though, how simple and easy the solution came to us. All that was needed was an apology to make everything right again, and I still wasn’t even sure that needed to be said. In the end, though, it didn’t matter to me why we were friends again, or even how it all happened. I was just happy that we could finally move past everything, and start over from the beginning as friends, not as the painful memories of our pasts.
I had to force myself to look away from her. My eyes settled on the television screen that, by that point, must have been on for at least a full day. The news was on again, just it like it always was, and just like always, it was about something I had little interest in. I reached for the remote and shut the thing off.
I heard movement coming from the chair beside me, and turned to see Pinkie adjusting herself, trying desperately to get comfortable in the chair. I began to feel bad, allowing her to sleep in such an uncomfortable spot. I wondered if it would have been better to offer her the bed, rather than let her sleep there. Her eyes slowly opened, much in the same way mine had, trying to hide from the light. She yawned, then stretched her arms out in front of her before noticing my gaze. “Good morning, Sky,” Although her voice was still overwhelmed with sleep, there was a certain tone in her voice that told me that she was happy to see me.
I smiled, then made an attempt at a reply. “Morning, Pinkie,” I’ll admit that my voice didn’t sound nearly as enthused as Pinkie’s did, but I was just as happy nonetheless. I began to eye the chair she had slept in. “Sleeping like that couldn’t have been comfortable.”
She smiled. “It wasn’t that bad. It’s actually pretty cozy if you sit in it just right!” She pulled her legs up and tucked them against her body, wrapping her arms around her knees. Somehow I doubted what she was saying.
I returned her smile just before my mouth stretched as wide as it could, letting out a yawn that was far overdue. “I’m tired of sitting in this room all day. Wouldn’t they have some kind of entertainment other than TV here?” Of course, I already knew the answer to that. It was a hospital; nothing more, nothing less. Entertainment wasn’t one of their concerns, and rightfully so. I just wished that it were.
I heard a sigh utter from Pinkie’s lips. “I knew I should’ve brought a game to play...”
I turned to her. “You mean, you were expecting to stay the night?” I placed a hand across my chest and smiled at her. “Am I really that predictable?”
She let out a laugh. “No, of course not, silly! I just wanted to be prepared for anything!” I began to laugh alongside her. It was then that I remembered how contagious her laughter was, and how enjoyable it was to laugh with someone.
I sighed, and felt a rumbling in my stomach. “I’m starving, actually. The last thing I ate was what they brought me just before you got here,” I turned towards Pinkie once more. “I guess you’re probably hungry then too, huh?”
She placed a hand over her stomach, then nodded with a kind of shy grin, almost as if she were embarrassed by the fact that she was hungry. “Yeah, I haven’t eaten in a while, actually.”
I returned my gaze to the ceiling tiles. “Well, I guess I could call someone,” I tilted my head just enough to be able to see the buttons that ran along the side of my bed. I reached for the button that said “nurse,” but was clearly labeled for non-emergencies only. It was made clear by the label that stuck just above the line of colored squares.
After just a minute or so, a short, thin woman walked into the room. She was blonde, and wore a white coat, suitable for a nurse. “Yes, Mr. Asher?”
I froze a bit at how she addressed me. I had never been called anything other than “Sky” before, and it was strange, but in a good way. “Uh, yeah. Do you think it would be alright for us to go down to the cafeteria to eat? I’d prefer not to sit around all day again.”
The lady smiled and nodded. “It shouldn’t be a problem at all, Mr. Asher. Of course, you’ll have to use a wheelchair,” I was about to interject when she added, “It’s hospital policy.”
I nodded, and she left for a chair. I turned to Pinkie, who was giggling softly as I grumbled to myself. “This is demeaning,” I uttered as the nurse walked back into the room with the wheelchair.
She set the chair beside my bed, and helped me into it, despite my objections that I was more than capable of sitting in a chair. Soon after, she told the two of us where the cafeteria was, and left the room. I was no expert on hospital policy, but I was fairly certain that the nurse was supposed to be the one who wheeled the patients around. I didn’t say anything, though. I was more than happy that I would be able to wheel myself around.
I made it to the door, and no further. I had never realized how tiring it would be to use a wheelchair, not to mention the fact that it caused me great pain to constantly roll myself around. It was almost as if I would have re-opened my wound if I continued on that way. Luckily, Pinkie came to my aid after realizing that I never would have been able to make it all the way to the cafeteria on my own, and offered to push me, which I reluctantly agreed to.
It was more difficult to get to the cafeteria than I had thought, but after about ten minutes or so longer than it should have taken we were able to find our way there. Through the double doors, the room was much larger than that of my own, but not a bit more comfortable to be in. Everything was an eggshell white, save for the people themselves. The smell had nearly knocked any hunger I had previously felt out of my system entirely. I could smell the food cooking in the back room, but it smelled nothing like anything I would ever find myself wanting to eat. “I would rather be in my room,” I whispered quietly to Pinkie.
She suddenly charged the chair forward. “Oh, it’s not that bad! It just looks a little...” She paused, glancing about the room and all its monotonous glory. “... plain. Anyway, I’m sure the food will be good! There are a lot of people here, after all.”
She was right about that. For whatever reason, the cafeteria seemed to be a popular point in the hospital, despite the atrocious surroundings. It didn’t surprise me much though, seeing as this was probably the only place patients could actually get to socialize and interact with one another.
We got a spot in the line, which wasn’t very long to begin with. From what I could tell, the cooks behind the counter would simply take whatever was in front of them and throw it on a plate, claiming that was the meal. We simply waited for the cook to make a couple of plates with whatever they happened to put on them before we found a couple of seats near the back of the room, where I could just roll up to the end of a table.
“See?” Pinkie claimed as we took our seats. “This doesn’t look so bad!”
I glanced down at the food that sat in front of me. “Yeah,” I picked up a spoonful of the white, runny substance on my plate. “But how can someone mess up... mashed potatoes, I think?”
Pinkie giggled. “Oh, come on, Sky! You’re being too picky! It’s gotta be much better than it looks, right?” She picked up a spoonful of the mashed potatoes and stuck it in her mouth, almost immediately regretting her decision. I watched on in horror as she gagged down the stuff. She then stuck out her tongue, quietly declaring that it was the worst thing she had ever eaten in her entire life, and that she had eaten rocks that were tastier than this.
I looked down at my plate once more. There was the soft pile of mashed potatoes, a couple of meat patties (I dared not ask what they were made of), and sweet peas, which wouldn’t have been so bad, if I didn’t hate peas in the first place. “I can’t eat this,” I claimed. “This is worse than the lunch at school, and that’s saying something,” I sighed, slouching down in my seat. “I wish there were some other way to get some real food.”
Pinkie hummed for a moment, before suddenly exclaiming. “I know!” A couple of people turned to look at the two of us, with confused expressions. One man even looked offended that we disturbed his “meal.” I quickly suggested that Pinkie not shout, and she blushed. “Sorry, but I could call Mr. and Mrs. Cake to see if they could bring us something!”
I raised an eyebrow. “Mr. and Mrs. Cake? Are they your parents or something?”
Pinkie giggled. “Something. Now come on!” She suddenly jumped from her seat and began rushing towards the door.
I grabbed the wheels of my seat and called to her. “Uh, Pinkie?”
She quickly turned back and blushed. “Oops, uh, sorry,” She walked back towards me and began rolling me out the door, leaving our plates on the table. I could have sworn I heard somebody call after us on our way out.
Luckily for me, Pinkie knew my room number, since she had been able to visit me in the first place. I, of course, had no idea where my room was, save for the general idea I had from back-tracking our path to the cafeteria.
“Are you sure they won’t mind coming all the way out here to bring us food?” I asked as I was being wheeled at a remarkably fast pace. Some people were even forced to dodge us as we raced down the hall.
“Of course not! I do this kind of thing all the time! Well, I did before I moved here, anyway.”
We continued on, and I felt we were nearing my room, when I suddenly slowed, rolling to a complete stop. “Uh, Pinkie?” I turned around to see her staring at one of the doors. “I don’t think that’s my room, right?” I did my best to turn the chair around, and slowly maneuvered myself towards her.
“Sky...” Her voice was quiet, barely loud enough for me to hear.
“Yeah? What’s up?”
“Isn’t your... Isn’t your dad in the hospital?”
“Yeah, but-” My voice caught in my throat as I stopped next to her, staring at the door alongside her, at the label on the door that read “Marvin D. Asher.”