Page 21

Evan

E verything fucking hurts.

Everything.

My stomach. My chest. Even my freaking eyelids.

What the hell happened?

I blink, squinting against lights that are far too bright, and I whine through a throat that is scratchy and sore.

Am I sick?

I don’t remember getting sick.

“Hang on, love,” a familiar voice says, and I feel a gentle touch to my hand as she says, “Den, can you hit the lights?” Then the voice —my mum’s voice— says, “Don’t try to talk yet. You were intubated. Have a couple sips of water. Just sips.” I feel a straw pressed to my lips. One of those awful paper ones that I hate. But I am thirsty, so I sip and wince as I swallow. “That’s it,” she says gently. “Good.”

“Wha—?” I start, and my voice sounds weird to my own ears. Groggy and strained.

“You’re in the hospital, love.”

Hospital?

Still squinting, and feeling dizzy and disoriented, I ask, “Why?”

Mum tsks . “You don’t remember?”

I’d tell her I wouldn’t ask if I did, but that would take up too much energy. I manage a mumbled, “Nup.”

“There was an accident. You got hit by a car.”

I…what?!

“James said it came out of nowhere. You were just stepping off the footpath at the doctor’s.”

James…

“You chose a pretty good place to get into an accident, at least,” Dad’s voice pipes up from the other side of what has to be my hospital bed.

“That’s not funny, Den,” Mum scolds him.

If I had the energy, I’d laugh, because it did appeal to my lame sense of humour. Dad’s where I get it from.

“Ev thinks it is,” he defends himself, “don’t you, bud?”

“Uh huh,” I force the answer out as my struggling eyelids get heavier.

Mum pats my hand again. I know it’s her, because the touch is soft. Plus it’s on the same side of the bed as her voice. “The nurse said you’ll sleep a bit, yet. It’s okay. We’ll all be here when you wake up again.”

“J’mes?” I ask, because I haven’t heard his voice yet and I need to.

“He took Mia home,” Mum explains. “He’ll be back soon, love. Just rest.”

I give in to the heaviness of my eyelids and drift off.

When I wake up again, there’s less pain and my head feels less foggy. There’s also a big, warm hand closed over mine, and I squeeze it the second I realise that it’s Jay.

“Hey,” he sounds relieved and tired.

I slowly open my eyes and he comes into focus as I adjust to the light. “Hey,” I greet him back. I want to reach out and cup his face, but my limbs feel heavy.

I close my eyes as he cards fingers through my hair. “How are you feeling?”

“Sore.” I frown, vague memories of talking to my mum filtering back to me. “Was I…was there a car?”

Jay’s handsome face falls and he nods. “Guy came flying around the corner just as we were leaving the doctor’s. You’d already stepped out to cross into the carpark. You shoved Mia and me back, but you didn’t have time to get out of the way. He saw you too late. Slammed on the brakes, but…” his voice is thick with emotion. “It was awful, Ev. You were in surgery for hours. I thought…”

“It’s gonna take more than some idiot who can’t follow road rules to get rid of me, baby,” I tell him, and he swallows hard.

“I love you,” he says, then he looks down and mumbles, “I told our parents about us.”

Warmth spreads through me. “Yeah?” He nods. A smile curls my lips. “I’m so proud of you, Jay.”

The blue of his eyes pops against the red rims and dark circles underneath them as he looks back up at me. “You are? Even if I outed you to our parents? All of them?”

I chuckle and then wince at the pain that blossoms in my abdomen and chest. “Yeah, babe. All of them. How’d they take it?”

“They had a bet going,” he answers distractedly, frowning. “You’re in pain,” he fusses, pressing the call button for the nurse before I can stop him. Then he grasps my hands again and squeezes. "Move in with me."

“I don’t need more pain meds,” I insist. “They make me sleepy. And…what? Move in? Baby…"

“I almost lost you,” he explains, sounding as wrecked as he looks. "I know it's fast, but…this just made me realise how much I need you." He gives me emotional whiplash when he follows that up with, “You do need the meds. Sleep helps your body heal.”

“I’m fine,” I start to push myself into a seated position without the aid of the bed’s remote. I immediately regret it as pain lances through me, and I groan.

Yeah, okay, that was a mistake.

Nevertheless, he's just dropped a pretty huge, life-changing bomb on me and we can't pretend he hasn't. "Jay, baby, I can't move in with you. It's too fast, and you're only asking as a knee-jerk reaction to the accident."

His face falls. "But…"

"I'm not saying never. I'm not even saying not soon. But now isn't a great time to make huge life decisions like that." I pout at him. "And now you've got me having to be the rational one. I don't like it, Jay." I try to sit up again and groan again as I remember why I stopped trying a few moments ago. I hate that I can't hold him and promise him that, even though I'm turning him down, I'm still not going anywhere.

"Stay down," he insists. "You're in pain. The meds will help."

"I don't want meds. We need to talk about this."

Then the arsehole pulls out the big guns just as the nurse walks in. “Look; accept the pain meds, and when you wake up Mia will be here, too. She’s been worried sick about you. We all have.”

Taking a deep breath, the weight of the situation settles over me. If our situations were reversed, I’d be beside myself, and I'd probably be begging him to never leave my sight again, too.

“I’m sorry for scaring you all.” Not that any of it was actually my fault, mind you. But…I can’t think of anything better to say to express myself right now. Blame the fact that I was hit by a freaking car however many hours ago.

James shakes his head, his grip on my hand tightening. “Don’t apologize. Just focus on your recovery. We need you, Ev.” He swallows again, and his eyes look suspiciously moist. “ I need you.”

I close my eyes for a moment, letting the exhaustion wash over me. “You’re playing dirty,” I accuse him, but then I sigh. “I need you too, you know. I love you.”

“Always,” James replies, his voice filled with emotion. Then he straightens up and sniffs, levelling a weak glare at me. “But if you ever pull a stunt like yesterday again…”

I manage a small smile at his attempt at levity. “I know. You’ll kill me yourself.”

“And don’t you forget it.”

***

“You owe me fifty bucks, bud,” Dad declares when he and Mum walk into my hospital room.

I’m sitting up this time, propped up by the magical adjustable hospital bed, slowly eating the surprisingly not-too-shabby chicken korma I ordered through the hospital’s room service system.

Yep. You heard me correctly. Room service. In a hospital. And it’s not bland slop. Boy, how times have changed since I broke my arm as a kid.

With my fork halfway to my mouth, I frown at him. “For…parking? That seems a little stinge, Dad, even for you. Need I remind you I got hit by a bus—”

“A car,” James lifts his gaze from his work laptop to correct me.

“A huge car,” I embellish, just to stir him, “only yesterday?”

Dad rolls his eyes and looks at my boyfriend. “You sure you want to be stuck with him? You can do better, James.”

“Hey,” I complain, but secretly I’m buzzing inside.

I’ve introduced my parents to girlfriends over the years, but they’ve never treated any of them like they were part of the family. Maybe because they knew I wasn’t serious about them, or because they didn’t know them well enough (which is on me).

But Jay is already part of the family, and their acceptance of this change in our relationship, while not at all unexpected, makes me incredibly thankful that my parents are such great people.

“Why do I owe you money?” I ask again.

“I lost a bet because of you.” Dad sulks, but his eyes are twinkling. He points his index finger at me. “Couldn’t keep it in your pants for another eighteen months, could you?”

Mum moans and covers her face. “Den, seriously?”

I look at Jay. “What the hell?”

“I guess you were still a little out of it earlier,” he replies and shuts his laptop, giving me his undivided attention. Beside him, Mia looks up from her phone and smirks.

“Grandpa and Uncle Den had a bet about when you two would finally realise you were in lurve ,” she drags the word out, making a face. “Still ew, by the way. ’Cause you’re old.”

I point at her. “The other day you said it was because we’re best mates.”

“Either way,” she shrugs, “ew.”

“Anyway,” Jay redirects the conversation, waving his hand vaguely over his daughter’s form, curled into the visitor’s chair, fingers tapping away on her phone screen, “pretty much what she said. Our parents apparently had our feelings figured out before we did. They gambled on when we’d finally work it out. Dad won.”

“By eighteen months,” my dad grumbles, but there’s no heat behind it. “You made it all this time, why not another year and a bit?”

“Half, Dad,” I get playfully condescending, “year and a half.”

He flips me off. Mum sighs dramatically, but then she winks at me. “I can see you’re feeling better, love. How’s the pain?”

“Manageable.” I might have fought the nurse on the last dosage she planned on giving me. I didn’t want to be so drowsy anymore. “And I’m eating. See?” I lift my fork and finally slide the mouthful of curry between my lips. It’s lukewarm now, but still tasty enough. “So,” I add after I’ve swallowed, “they should be letting me out soon, yeah?”

“When you can walk and go to the toilet on your own, yeah,” Jay nods, and I scowl.

“I want to go home now .”

“Geez, you weren’t even this bad when you were eight.” Dad says. He looks at James again. “Seriously, nobody will judge you if you change your mind about him.” He hisses as Mum slaps his chest, and he rubs at the sore spot with a pout. “I was only joking.”

“Idiot,” she mutters. Then she pats my foot, which is covered by the hospital issued white waffle blanket. “You’ll be out in no time. James has called your work and explained the situation, and they’re not expecting you to come back for a couple of weeks at least.”

“Thanks, baby,” I tell him, delighting in the way his cheeks turn pink at the pet name.

On his other side, Mia gags exaggeratedly.

“Get used to it,” Jay nudges her.

“Only eighteen more months and I’ll be at uni,” she responds under her breath. “I’ll think of it like a prison sentence.”

“So dramatic,” I tease. Then I smile widely at Jay. “She does take after me, after all.”

Mia rolls her eyes, but I can tell that she’s trying not to smile.

I love that kid.

In fact , I think as I look around the room, I love everyone.

At first I think I’m just lucky, but then I glance over my shoulder and notice the nurse pumping a new dose of painkillers into my IV.

Or maybe , I muse, I’m just high.