“You’re in the hospital, honey.” Mom came into view, next to Jere. Her eyes were rimmed red, informing me that whatever had happened was bad.
“Hospital?” I croaked.
“You don’t remember?” she asked.
“That’s not important right now,” Jere cut in gently. “You had a rough tumble, but it looks like you’re going to pull through. You’re going to have one helluva story to tell.”
I wanted to laugh but couldn’t. I tried to think, except nothing but a blank slate of frustration crossed my mind. Everything was hazy and just as I grabbed onto a memory, it slipped through my fingers like sand. Trying to remember made the pain worse.
“Jere.” I said with a whimper, panic suffusing me.
“Yeah, I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”
I believed him, because even though we lived cities apart, he’d never really gone away. He’d always been there to listen to my complaints about something stupid over the phone. Heck, he’d come rushing to Chicago to save the day after I’d been robbed by an ex-boyfriend. I hadn’t asked him to, I just wanted to complain about it over the phone. The next day he’d shown up, insisting I let him introduce my ex to his fists. He’d always protected me. This time would be no different.
But what did he need to protect me from?
I rolled my head against the crunchy pillow, trying to think about the last thing I could remember, but all I got was a shooting pain in my head.
“It’s okay, Danny. Go back to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up again.”
CHAPTER THREE
Jere
The last five days were a rollercoaster through the nine hells.
I’d zigged and zagged, dipped and soared from rage for the ones that had hurt Danny, to the terror of the possibility of losing him. I’d lost count of how many times I’d nearly left his bedside to hunt down the motherfuckers and do what they’d done to him ten times over. The police would need to scrape their remains off the ground when I was done with them.
The fear of Danny slipping away while I was in search of vengeance kept me glued to his bedside. Any minute could be my last. The doctors had put him into an induced coma, while a part of his skull had been removed to ease the swelling in his brain. A lot of medical jargon had been thrown around, and it had been hard to absorb much except words likeserious conditionandonly time will tell.
Seeing him lying in the bed, bloody and broken, ignited a rage so potent, I wasn’t sure how to control it, or if I even could. Most people considered me a friend, a good guy who could be a bit thick and occasionally said silly things. But I had a dark side, one I tried to hide because I hated to think I’d inheritedanythingfrom my father. But when some assholes had gay-bashed Danny, the demon had awakened, and God have fucking mercy on them.
It wasn’t right. Danny was the kindest, most compassionate man I’d ever known. He was the kind of person who if a bee landed on him, he wouldn’t swat it away. Instead, he’d say something silly like,aww, it thinks I’m a flower.He was the first to lend a helping hand to anyone that needed it. I hadn’t gotten all the details, but his friend, Ronnie had told us he’d stepped in front of the assholes harassing her. There was no justice in this universe for allowing him to be beaten to a pulp. I’d always been agnostic toward religion and gods, but now I was convinced of the absence of such deities, because no loving being would have allowed this.
I looked at Danny's mom, Mrs. Becker. She was sitting in a chair, her head tilted back in sleep, and I was glad she’d found some rest. She was as ragged as I was, only I was better at hiding it.
The few hours of sleep I’d managed to get had been disturbed by the fear of missing Danny’s last minutes. I only left his side to take a piss or raid the vending machines for sustenance. Mrs. B. had to use her mom-voice to get me to go to Danny’s apartment to shower. But the doctors had taken it as a good sign he’d awoken a few hours after unhooking him from the coma-inducing medication. They said they’d wanted to see how he’d react and seemed pleased with his progress. But as they’d put it—he had a long way to go, which was as reassuring as shit.
Ronnie was sitting in the chair across from Mrs. B. I knew her only through Danny, who liked to talk about her often and from the occasional picture Danny had posted on his Instagram. They’d met in college when Ronnie had started transitioning and had remained friends ever since. Her mascara was smeared from tears as she moved her thumb across her phone’s screen. She got up to leave the room, the click-clop of her heels carrying down the hall. Though I didn’t know her well, she was a-okay in my book, as she’d only left Danny’s side for work.
I ran my thumb across Danny’s bruised knuckles, proud he’d fought back. I spoke softly so only he could hear. “You can’t leave us. Your mom and I, we need you. I’ll never forgive you if you leave us.”
I watched Danny closely for any sort of response. It had been four hours since he’d awoken, only to go back to sleep. I wondered if he’d wake up again, or if it had been a fluke. Every time I looked at his battered face covered in blood-soaked bandages, my heart squeezed with a discomfort I wasn’t used to. If he didn’t make it, I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to deal. Despite the circumstances separating us, he was my best friend. I loved the motherfucker, more than I’d ever loved anybody else.
More than I could love anybody else.
Danny took a sudden deep breath and rasped something intelligible.
I squeezed his hand, needing him to know he wasn’t in this fight alone. “Danny? Can you hear me, buddy?”
The lashes of his exposed eye fluttered and he tried to lick his lips. I reached for the ice bucket that was mostly water now and fished out a small cube of ice. I ran it over his lips, the ice melting into his mouth. “Can you feel that? Nice and cool and wet. More?”
He made a small sound, and I retrieved another cube. He responded this time as I moved it over his lips, watching as the water pooled on his skin and dripped down his chin.
“Jere?”
Hearing his raggedy voice was the most beautiful sound in the world right now.
