"Hey my man, how's it going?" Scott gave me his usual greeting as he walked in to produce me my shots for the morning.
"You know, the usual, dying. Oh, but I got an awesome new roommate though." I grinned towards Wias who was still sleeping.
"Figured you'd like some company. Here you go." He handed me the injection and I started prodding myself with it.
"Do you think that you could somehow get me out of here? I need to prove to those doctors that I'm not a twig. Anyways, I'm not gonna bleed just by socializing."
"Don't be too sure, there are some tough people out there." I gave him a look and he raised his hands in self-defense. "I'm serious, okay." I jabbed myself the last time and handed him the injection.
"Come on, Scott, twenty minutes. Then I'll come back." Scott looked like he was thinking about it.
"Ten minutes?" Scott scratched his chin, and I scoffed.
"Twenty minutes, with the wheelchair."
"You're kidding, right? I'm struggling from a blood problem I'm not paralyzed."
"We're still running some tests on you, and we can't risk any accidents. What if someone bumps into you? What if you decide to take the stairs? What if you trip and fall? Look, if I let you go and anything happens, it falls on me. I have total responsibility. So, you either take the twenty minute deal, or sit here for the morning." He grinned at me. I wanted to smack him. I sighed.
"Fine." Scott laughed.
"Awesome! I'll wheel you in myself." He said jovially before leaving.
Wias yawned and stretched.
"Hey man, we're going to this welcoming morning thing."
"You're going too?" Wias sounded quite excited.
"Yeah, but don't wait up, Scott's bringing me in a wheelchair." I rolled my eyes to show him how dumb the whole thing was. He nodded sure, and went on to get ready.
***
For some reason as I got wheeled out of my room, I was nervous. I hadn't interacted with people much since coming to the hospital despite the fact that this hospital was made for interaction. It's built so that the patients didn't feel alone, but I did. I was locked up in the room most of the time, and when I did go out it was under the watchful eye of every single person there. It was really starting to get on my nerves so sometimes I didn't go out on purpose. I just hung out in my room and played video games, enjoying the fact that I could be something, and do something in a screen.
It's depressing to think about but most of my memories of this place was filled with video game wins, or moments. Nothing extraordinary. The dance? Forget about it, even if I wanted to ask anyone I wasn't sure I'd be allowed to go. Somehow the previous year I managed to go. I just stood by the side watching all the couples dancing. Before I knew it I was literally the only person not on the dance floor. Even the other's with no dates were at least dancing with friends, but I just stood by the side. Alone. It wasn't all bad though, someone spiked the punch so I got my first taste of alcohol.
There are moments that I've lost forever, moments that I would have loved to have but will never get to. I'm seventeen and I still don't know how to drive. I haven't really lived. As I was wheeled down by Scott I realized how much I wanted to. I just wanted to be able to walk out of that stifling room and do things, break a few rules.
"Hey Scott, pull a wheelie." I asked, as if I was five. Scott laughed.
"Dill, I think you're a little old for that." I turned and looked at him like I was appalled.
"No one's too old for a wheelie!" Scott lifted my wheelchair off the ground for a second and landed it in a jolt. I laughed.
"Wasn't that freeing, Scott?"
"If you start bleeding, it's on me. So, no." But he was grinning.
"Who's she?" I asked, a light brown skinned girl just passed us, who had the biggest brown eyes I'd ever seen. She also looked kind of sad, like she wished she could be anywhere but here. I could understand that feeling. She was also gorgeous.
"One of the newbies, she came literally about a day ago."
"So like, on my birthday? Hmm." I was smiling. Scott laughed.
"I don't even want to know what you're implying." He replied.
"I don't think I'd stand a chance." I told him, and turned to see him shrug.
"You never know." He said. I just shook my head. We finally arrived at the elevator, and one just left so we had to wait a bit. I noticed that there was a huge group of people coming right after us. Welcoming morning is bound to be a success. The nervousness came back as people started to surround us, talking and chatting about mundane things. Life isn't normal, they shouldn't act like it is. But that was unfair, they were doing what we all do, hiding from reality.
The elevator bell rang and I got crammed in with the wheelchair and all of the people. I noticed before the door closed more people lining up. How many people were coming?
When I arrived, I noticed that it was quite a number, it seemed like almost every teenager, and every nurse was brought into the gym/cafeteria space. I scanned the place for a good spot for Scott and I to chill, but Scott was way ahead of me. He suddenly starting wheeling me off to a certain direction.
"Woah, where're we going?"
"You're welcome." He simply told me, and that's when I saw her, she was sitting by herself staring at the block game. I really didn't want to be on the wheel chair at that moment. She was watching Scott, and I was trying to look anywhere but at her. That is, until Scott left me next to her without any food, or anything to distract myself with. I would've been happier if I didn't feel like such an idiot. I was surprised though to find that she was looking at me, and even more surprised to find she looked absolutely exhausted. She had that sad look about her, and she was incredibly tiny, and by tiny I mean like she hasn't eaten a thing. That's when it hit me. I look down for a moment trying to gain some composure to say something to her. Then I looked back at her,
"I, um, I'm sorry about him. He's very... uh, well, excited is the best word, to get me out of my room." My words were tripping. I wanted to ask her what her name was, but the words wouldn't come. Eventually I figured I should just tell her my name.
"I'm Dillion."
"I'm Rhae." I smile as I try not to look at her, the stupid fact that my face is so easily susceptible to red blood cells. I wanted to ask her so many different things, but I couldn't. I just ended up trying to look around and I noticed the block pieces she'd been staring at. She then asked me,
"Do you want to play? I'm really good at Jenga, I'm just warning you."
I smile, "Yeah I guess it won't hurt," I meant it too.
We played the game, and in my opinion I find it a game of luck and chance. She was looking at it as if it's chess, as if every move matters in some significant way. I was just pulling whichever block I needed to pull and stealing glimpses of her when I could. I felt I should ask something to keep conversation going, something simple, not personable, anything.
"Have you been here long?" I asked. I realized how much of a stupid question it was as soon as I said it because I knew she had just come, though she didn't know that.
"Are you trying to distract me?" She looked at me when she said that with a small smirk and I felt a wave of feeling come through me, damn she was hot.
"Well, no, not... that's not..." I stammered trying to hide the face, but I knew she saw it. I stayed behind the blocks gaining composure and quickly pulled a random piece, causing everything to fall all over. Some on her hand.
"Ah! I'm sorry!" I grabbed pieces, quickly, hoping none of them fell on the floor. She was grabbing most of them as well smiling.
"Don't be. It means that I just won." She almost grinned at me. I grinned.
"Do you want to play again?" I asked her. "I mean, now that I have some experience I just might win this time." I got a little close and gave a coy smile. She laughed at me. It was awfully cute.
"I don't think you can, honestly, but sure." She looked so determined as we started again, unfortunately there was a clock ticking on my time here so I couldn't enjoy our second game as much as I wanted to. She won again, despite the fact that I actually concentrated and tried that time, even trying to stare at the blocks as intently as she did.
"Told you." She said smiling with pride and I just shook my head.
"How'd you get so good at this?" It was a harmless question, but it was a memory attached response; she must have played it with someone before, and her face showed me that. I sighed and was about to say something when Scott suddenly appeared.
"We should be heading out now." I turned to him with dismay, but tried to keep my face as neutral as possible.
"Well, uh, see ya later, maybe?" I gave her a cheesy grin.
She sort of smiles. "Yeah. Yeah, I hope so."
Scott started to wheel me out and we passed by a table with three girls and two guys, they seemed to be having fun. When we passed though I noticed them looking at me, and I saw the look, the look of pity. I stared at my hands as Scott wheeled me all the way out. As he was rolling me down the hall, there was a guy my age walking quickly towards us, he looked absolutely enraged, and we had eye contact. I wasn't the least bit afraid of him, I was more fascinated by the anger I saw, it wasn't a morbid anger, it was a sad anger, a deep frustration with stagnant life anger.
Scott stopped us in front of the kid and was trying to talk to him.
"Rally! What are you doing roaming the hallways?"
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