The days that followed were slow. Really slow. Sure, I knew that was how it was going to be (broken bones don’t just heal themselves overnight, after all) but for God’s sake, I didn’t expect each minute to feel like an hour! It didn’t take long before the atmosphere got to me, with the only thing to look at being the white walls of that stupid room. Seriously, would it have killed them to put a TV in there or something?
The sounds I had to listen to were more interesting, but not by that much. More often than not, it was completely silent, with the only sounds I had to listen to being the sound of doctors and nurses walking through the hallways, with the occasional conversation between them thrown in every now and again. It was the same thing all day, every day! Half of the time, I felt like it was going to make me go crazy!
Thankfully, I wasn’t always alone in that room. I occasionally had some company, usually from my brother, who did a lot to help alleviate some of the boredom. On his first visit, he gave me a book to read so I could have something to do, and every time he visited afterwards, he always made sure to stay for a while, giving me someone to talk to for a while. Good old Daze; even with everything he has to be in charge of, he still finds time for me.
He wasn’t the only visitor, though. Every once in a while, Dash came to visit me as well. She never stayed for nearly as long as Daze did, since she always had something on her schedule on the days she visited, be it homework, soccer practice, or some other event that she had to do. Not a problem with me; school is more important, after all, and I was just glad to see her when she did show up. I wished that she could spend a little more time with me than she did, but hey, what can you do?
One of her longest visits was on Wednesday. I was just lying there in bed, whistling a little tune to myself while I closely examined the room. I had just finished reading three chapters of the book Daze had given me, and I wanted to take a break from reading so I wouldn’t finish it before I could leave this place. Normally, I would just use my phone, but its battery was under ten percent at the time, and I really didn’t want my phone dying at that point, so I looked around at the room instead. By that point, I was fairly certain that I had seen the darn room so many times that I could tell the exact layout to any random person who asked. The ceiling lights with the third light that needed replacing, the white tile floor, that little flower pot with four luscious red flowers in the corner of the room… it was all present and accounted for. After I gave the room another glance over, I reached for the book on the bedside table again, but stopped when I heard the sound of a knock on the door. My eyes shot towards the door allowing me to see that my doctor was peeping in.
"Mr. Blitz?" he asked. I nodded. "You have company." He moved to the side, revealing that Dash was standing right behind him, wearing her soccer uniform and a warm smile. The doctor nodded, and walked outside of the room, allowing Dash to walk in. "You know the drill, you two." The doctor said, winking to me before closing the door. Once the door was closed, Dash rolled her eyes as she pulled up a chair.
"Geez, does he really need to say that every single time I come to visit? I swear, it’s like he thinks we’re just going to start making out the second we’re out of his line of sight!” Dash said as she moved a chair to the side of my bed and sat down in it.
“Well, you never know...” I said jokingly. She chuckled at that before lightly elbowing me in the arm.
“Oh knock it off, Blitz!” she said, blushing slightly as she spoke. “Anyway, how are things going with you?”
"About the same as always.” I said, shrugging my shoulders. She nodded understandingly.
“Boring as hell?” she asked.
“Sure is.”
"Believe me, I’ve been there.” Dash said. "I’ve had my own fair share of emergency room accidents, so I know what it’s like."
I sighed. "I just wanna get out of here and do whatever the hell I can do with just this injured leg." I looked up at my leg, buried within the thick white cast. "I’m so sick of just sitting here and listening to other doctors talking!”
"Again, been there, done that." Dash added. "Don’t worry, Blitz, you'll be out of here in no time, and Pinkie told me that she had something planned for you when you are. The whole gang will be there: me, the other girls, Soarin, Spit..."
"Spit?"
"Spitfire." She answered. My eyes widened.
"Oh." I felt my face grow a little warm as I chuckled, rubbing the back of my neck while I did so. Dash giggled a bit. "Duh." I sighed as I looked over at my phone. "At least I can check through Instagram on my phone. That keeps me busy... at least until the phone dies."
Dash looked over at my phone. “It’s out of power?”
“Not yet, but it will be soon.” I answered. Dash stared at me for a moment, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her phone charger.
“I’ll tell you what. Until you get out of here, I’ll let you borrow this.” she said as she plugged the charger into a nearby electrical socket within my reach.
“Really? Are you sure?” I asked.
“Of course! It’s already dull enough in here without having to worry about a dead phone, right?” She plugged the other end of the charger into my phone, causing the screen to shoot to life, revealing that it had only four percent power remaining.
“Thanks!” I said. Her lips curved upwards into a small smile before she responded.
“Don’t mention it, Blitz. Just make sure you return it once you’re out of here, K?”
“Deal.”
Dash smiled, before pulling out her own phone. “So, you’ve been on Instagram a lot, huh? Seen any of Soarin's pics lately?" she asked, handing me her phone. I took it from her and saw that she was on Instagram, looking at a picture of Soarin and Spitfire together.
"Yeah, I’ve seen them. They’re a pretty cute couple, huh?" I said to Dash while scrolling through the myriad of photos.
"Sure are. Lucky them, I bet they'll have an awesome life together." Dash replied.
"I wish them the best of luck with it." I said. Dash nodded, before silence prevailed. For the next minute or so, we just sat there in silence, sifting through the photos together. As we did, I occasionally shot a glance at Dash. Every single I time that I did, I saw the same thing: her looking at the phone in my hand, not noticing that I was looking at her. I couldn’t help but think about her. There was no point in denying it: I really liked Dash. Heck, I’d even go so far as to say I loved her. Still, I wasn’t sure if she felt the same way about me or not. Even so, I hoped that one day… we would be just like the couple on the phone. Maybe…
“Umm… Blitz? Why are you staring at me like that?” I heard a voice say, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked up and saw Dash, who was looking at me with her head tilted to the side, as if she was confused.
I pushed these thoughts out of my head. There was plenty of time to see if she liked me back. In the meantime, I decided to just keep it under wraps. I just hoped that I hadn’t blown it here…
“Was I staring at you? Sorry about that, I kinda just zoned out a bit. My bad.” I said, chuckling nervously as I spoke. She stared at me silently for a moment, looking unsure about whether I was being honest with her or not, before shrugging it off and taking her phone out of my hand.
“Don’t worry about it. I zone out sometimes too. No shame in that.” She said as she put her cell phone back in her pocket.
“So… does anyone else miss me?” I asked, hoping to make things less awkward.
Dash shook her head. “I don’t think so. I mean, the teachers might care, but I don’t remember any students talking about it or anything. Y’know, aside from the usual suspects. If anyone does ask about you though, I’ll let ya know."
“What do you mean by ‘the usual suspects’?”
“Y’know who: Soarin, Spitfire, the rest of the band?”
“Okay…” I said, before I suddenly remembered something. There should’ve been one other person. One other person who I felt should’ve been asking about me... one other person who was there on the day of the crash…
Dash must’ve noticed my expression changing when I remembered that or something, because she quickly asked me, “Hmm? What’s the matter Blitz? Is something up?”
"Well… what about...” I began before stopping myself.
“About what?” Dash asked.
“What about… the guy who ran into us?" I slowly said out.
"Little Thug?" she asked, before scratching at the back of her neck. "Well... I haven’t paid him much attention, but from the little that I have heard, he's having problems of his own right now. Nothing about you, though."
"He still never said anything to me." I said in a tone that was halfway between angry and annoyed. "He damn near killed me. Hell, I don’t even remember him talking to Soarin about it! Seriously, the least he can do is apologize!"
Dash’s eyebrows lowered into a frown, “Oh don’t worry, he will. Or else he gets it.” She pounded her fist into her other hand, before her frown faded. “But yeah, that's about everyone. Just hang in there Blitz. It’ll get better soon, trust me."
"Hopefully." I said, before loudly sighing to myself. "Still, Rush Down might be bigger trouble than ever. You know, with him teasing me and poking fun at me and the like. That’s gonna be fun."
Dash softly put her hand on my shoulder. "Don’t worry about him, Blitz. If he does try something, Soarin and I will be there to help you out, and I’m sure the others will be there for you as well. You’re not alone on this one, Blitz.” She crossed her arms and began to frown again. "And if that son of a bitch DOES try and hurt you, then I'll..." Her words sputtered out at that point, leaving her in silence. "I-I..."
I looked over towards Dash, and saw her wearing an expression I’d never seen her have before. She looked… scared. Her eyes were wide, her mouth was curled downwards, she was gripping her hands together tightly, and she wasn’t moving at all. I was surprised to see her like that. If there was one thing I knew about Dash, it was that she never let herself look frightened by anything. She always tried to make herself seem like she was unflappable, so seeing her like this was weird, to say the least. She noticed me looking at her and quickly turned her head away, but it was too late. I already saw. She stared at the wall away from me for a good fifteen seconds in silence, before I finally decided to speak up again. "You'll... what?" I asked with my eyebrow raised. Dash still didn't answer. Heck, I’m not sure if she even heard me that time, since she didn’t move an inch after I spoke. I felt goosebumps run through my skin. I’d never seen anything that could intimidate her like that, so seeing her this apprehensive was really beginning to creep me out. I took a deep breath, and raised my voice to as loud as I could get away with before it would disturb other patients, "Yoo-hoo, Earth-to-Dash?" I exclaimed as I snapped my fingers, which got her attention right away.
"Y-yeah Blitz?" she asked, her eyes blinking rapidly.
"What will you do?" I repeated.
“What do you mean by that?” Dash asked as she tilted her head in confusion. I resisted the urge to groan as I begun to explain.
"Y’know, you were saying something about what you’d do if he hurts me, before you kinda just stopped. What were you gonna say there?" I inquired. Dash stayed silent for a moment again, but she at least moved her head and eyes around this time. She looked around the room for a bit, before turning towards me again.
"Well, if Rush or any of his guys hurt you in the state you're in, I'll...” she paused for a moment to look at the floor, “…I'll deal with them." she answered. I didn’t say anything, and just looked at her. Something about the whole thing just felt… off. I was tempted to say something about it, but kept silent. Even so, Dash must’ve noticed that I felt something was up, because she quickly turned towards me and asked, "What?"
I sighed. She knew I thought something was up, so there wasn’t a point in trying to hide it anymore. I just had to figure out how to say it to her. "Umm… you just said that." I began. "That's what you and Soarin will do if he says stuff towards me, not doing physical harm." Dash didn’t respond, so I continued to speak, "I was just wondering; are you going to do something different if he does attack me? I just found it strange, cause you just stopped while you were speaking."
Dash looked up towards me, "It’s just… I just got a little mad when I thought about it." she responded, shaking her head. "I mean, hurting someone when they’re on crutches?? That's just f'ed up!" She got up from her seat and looked outside the window. "I just kinda lost my words there for a second." I just stared at her as she looked out the window. I couldn’t help but feel that she wasn’t telling me the whole story. I knew what Dash was like when she was angry, and that wasn’t it. I wanted to dig a little deeper, but I decided to just let it go for now. Maybe I’d talk to her about it another time, but not right now.
"So, everything alright with you?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.
Dash turned away from the window and nodded, "Everything’s A-okay with me." She said, a soft smile returning to her lips. "Anyway, I just wanted to check with you." Dash headed towards the door. "If there’s nothing else you want to talk about, I guess I’ll be seeing you later.”
"Wait!" I shouted, making Dash shoot her head towards me. "I... You don't mind if you stay a little longer, do you?" I said, feeling the heat in my face return. "I just get bored from being here all day, y’know?"
Dash shrugged. "Sure, I don't mind. Practice doesn’t start for another hour, so I’ve got time." She went back to the chair. "Anything else on your mind?"
"Uh..." I said as my thoughts went dead. I completely forgot what I was going to say to her. After a moment, I suddenly remembered the dance she told me about a little while back, "Oh, um, about the upcoming dance... What was it called again?"
"The Midnight Ball." Dash answered. "What about it?"
"Well, when does it start again?" I asked. Dash put a hand to her chin as she thought for a moment.
"I’m not sure. It was supposed to be three weeks from now, but I heard that there are some staff problems with it being on that day. My guess is that it'll probably be moved to the week after." Dash wiped a strand of her hair out of her vision. "Why do you ask?"
I rubbed the back of my head. "W-Well, I was just a little curious...” She nodded in silence, before I suddenly burst out, “Say, you still got a date?" I nervously chuckled as I quickly realized how desperate that made me sound. 'You idiot' was the only thought that ran through my mind.
Dash deeply blushed when she heard the question. She clearly wasn’t prepared for someone to ask her that. After a moment, she finally said, "Oh, w-well not yet, but I-I'm on my way to find a guy. M-Maybe." Her face grew a deep shade of red, as her eyes locked firmly onto mine. "Why did you ask me that?"
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t even think properly at that moment. I felt like my brain was going into overdrive. I felt like I was receiving so many signals from her. The blush, the locked eyes, the ‘Maybe on my way to find a guy’ bit… it didn’t feel like just a coincidence. I just couldn’t help but wonder… was she… hoping to ask me? I shook my head and attempted to speak again.
"I was just curious." I told her after I had found my voice. "I mean, I just remembered Soarin and his date, Spitfire, so I just assumed you already had one." I tried to put on a smile, "I mean, who wouldn't want to ask you out?" I felt the heat in my face returning in spades. I didn’t even need to look in a mirror to tell that I was as red as a strawberry. I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was no blue left in my face at that point.
I looked up at Dash, and quickly saw that Dash’s face had also changed shades. Instead of its normal cyan hue, her face seemed to have taken on a bright pink color that would’ve looked right at home on Pinkie. She chuckled and reached a hand behind her head, "H-Heh, thanks. That’s… that’s really sweet of you, Blitz. I mean... Really, I'm flattered." She brushed her long hair back.
I looked at her for a moment, and then continued to speak, "But it’s true! You’re absolutely amazing! You’re nice, talented, and an awesome athlete and musician to boot! Who wouldn't want to date such a stellar girl like you? Hehe..." I scratched at the back of my head nervously.
She smiled weakly. "You’d be surprised, Blitz. Not many people really say that sort of stuff about me. Other than my friends and..." Her smile died down. "Y-You know who."
"Oh…” I said. I wanted to say something more, but I couldn’t think of any words to say. Eventually, I said, “Well, I might be free when the dance comes along, assuming that this stupid leg heals before then. I don't wanna miss the ball."
"You got that right, Blitz." Dash said. "Pinkie told me that she’s helping to plan it out with the faculty, and believe me, there’s not a single person in this world who can plan a better party than she can. It'll be an unforgettable night, I can guarantee that."
"Well, let’s just hope that this leg heals up quickly, then." I quickly looked at my leg, then looked back at Dash. Oddly enough though, Dash wasn’t looking at me. She was looking off to the side with her arms crossed. It was clear from her expression that she was thinking really hard about something. After a moment, she closed her eyes and sighed to herself.
"Blitz..." Dash began.
"Sup?"
"Please tell me the truth." she said. I slowly nodded, and Dash took a deep breath. "I think I know why you asked me that question earlier. You…you want to ask me out to the ball... don't you?" At that point, her face was a bright pink color with a flush of red, and I’m pretty sure my face was that exact shade as well.
A flurry of emotions raced through my mind. I couldn’t think properly. My mind became a whirlwind of emotions, as I felt excitement, dread, panic, curiosity, joy, regret, and who knows what else rushing through my body. It took all of my effort just to get myself to speak coherently!
"W-Why now what do you mean? I-I-"
Dash raised a hand, and placed it softly over my mouth, quieting me down. "Blitz, don't lie to me." she said, still having the blush across her cheeks.
I decided to just spit it out. "I... Yes, I do." I admitted. "I actually... do." A long silence filled the room. I looked over at Dash, who was staring at my cast intently, as if she was deep in thought. I couldn’t help but feel like I’d screwed up royally. After what felt like forever, I finally broke the silence.
"I bet you probably don't want me there, huh? Well, I... I shouldn't have asked. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so…"
"Sure." she interrupted.
"See, I kne- Wait, WHAT?!" I blurted out, shocked by what I had just heard, "Y-You actually will?"
Dash shrugged, a small smile on her lips, "Sure, why not? Better than not being asked out to a school ball at all, right?" She winked at me before continuing, "If you can quickly heal enough for the hospital to let you go, I'm down with having you by my side."
My heart pumped vigorously in my chest, as I felt my blood rushing up to my already burning cheeks. I honestly couldn't believe it. Could…could this really be real? I didn’t know if I was dreaming or not, but if it was a dream, I was hoping that I’d never wake up. "I-I'll be hoping the same thing." I said. "So... You're really with me on this? No joke?"
"Hey, you asked me out, how can a girl say no?" she said, letting out a giggle. I didn’t respond. All I could feel was an uncontrollable burst of ecstasy coursing throughout my body! She was really agreeing to this! It took everything within me to not scream in excitement right there, I was so excited!
Just then, I heard a buzzing sound coming from a phone. Dash quickly looked down at her phone, before her pupils widened in surprise. "Aw, shoot!" she said.
"What?"
"Coach is calling. Apparently, practice is starting a little earlier than I thought. Sorry Blitz, I gotta go!"
“Hey, it’s fine. Practice is important, right?” I said to her.
She let out a sheepish smile, "Yeah. So, I'll catch ya later?"
"Sure thing. I’ll see you later." I said as I gave her a peace sign. Dash smiled and closed the door behind her, leaving me alone. However, this time, I didn’t care. Unlike all of the other visits, where I knew the boredom would start again the second they left, this time I was too excited to even think about being bored! I tried to massage my cheekbones, but they were permanently stuck in an enormous grin.
"Damn..." I said to myself. "It actually worked..."
I looked down at my foot. Whether Dash agreed to go to that dance with me because she liked me or only did it because it was a nice thing to do was anyone’s guess, but at that point, it hardly mattered. I was going out to a dance with a girl I liked, and that was all I needed to smile. For the first time since the accident began, it felt like things were finally looking up…