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Authors Note: sorry about the mixup with chapters 6 and 7
I hope it didn't ruin the plot. comments/suggestions
Previous Reading:
I continued walking around the hospital, the light was dim, and I felt like a ghost walking by the many wards and offices. I didn't know what to do with my life, with Mark, with Jeremy, with anyone. I decided it was best if I sleep till morning so maybe time will clear up my problems. I walked back in the room where Mark was lieing. I sat down on the chair next to him and lay my head down on his rising and falling chest.
I was woken up at 7:30 in the morning by Marks parents. When they first walked in they saw my head on Mark's chest. His father gave me a weird sort of look, like a "What is he doing?" kind of look. But they never questioned why I lied my head on his chest.
"Good morning James!" Mrs Stronach said.
"Good morning guys." I said back, not as cheery as Mrs. Stronachs greeting though.
"How was Mark last night?" Mr Stronach asked.
"I guess he was fine. He has been sleeping, hasn't even woken up so hopefully he will later today!"
"Yup, well we just wanted to drop by and say hello. Oh, and your mom told us that you can take the day off of school today to tend to Mark." said Mrs Stronach
"Oh thats good!" I said.
"Have a good day James." they said before they left to go to work.
There I was, alone with Mark again, but not for long before a nurse came by to check on Mark's condition. She said that someone else would be back in another hour and if I needed anything that I should call a nurse. She closed the door behind her which seemed kind of odd, because they never closed the door until now.
Now I was alone with Mark for a while. I continued looking him up and down, he was so beautiful. I couldn't help but be curious to look at him again. He seemed to be in a deep sleep, he didn't look like he was going to wake up to touching. I tested to see if he would stay awake by putting my hands through his hair. Even though he had short hair, I rubbed my hands through it. It felt rough, probably because he hasn't had a shower in a while. I then felt down from his sideburns and onto his cheeks. I felt little pricks of hair poke at me when I rubbed his cheeks. All of the sudden I felt guilty of what I was doing, I was taking advantage of him while he was in an unconscious state. Plus, when he is awake and well again I think I will have plenty of more chances to touch and caress his body.
I was feeling hungry so I decided to go down to the hospitals cafeteria. Most of the people there were doctors and nurses getting there breakfast. I have never seen so many proffessional looking people come together in one place. There would be tables filled with doctors, and tables filled with nurses and specialists. They all seemed to get along really well. I admired these people because they helped save people and seemed to enjoy it.
The lineup was large to get breakfast. When I finally arrived in front of some chefs I asked if I could have some hashbrowns, fried egg and a peice of toast. I then sat down at a table by myself. The food was great that was served in this cafeteria, nothing like the food at school.
A few nurses then came to the table I was sitting at and gave a puzzling look. They decided to sit down at the table anyways. "Is this your table, because thats ok if you want me to leave." I told them.
"Don't be silly, this is no one persons table." A nurse said. "You can sit here if you like, we don't mind"
I continued to eat while the nurses talked amoung each other, there must have been 4 of them in all. Then I heard one of the nurses say " Did you hear what happened at City Of Lakes High yesterday?" all the nurses had agreed and I decided to tune in on this conversation.
"Aparently one kid stabbed another while in a fight!" a nurse said.
"That is so terrible! What are these kids comming to nowadays? I sure feel bad for the kid that was stabbed."
"Don't worry." said one of the other nurses. "Aparently, the kid who was stabbed is in this hospital, and hes going to be fine."
"That's good!" one of the nurses said. "Do you know why that kid stabbed the other?"
"Kids in the school said on the news last night that the boy who stabbed the other kept on calling those two boys faggots. So maybe they are?" one of them replied.
My stomach sank low then, other people knew of our secret. Maybe my parents already know through the eye witness accounts? Maybe they were trying to hear the truth for themselves straight from the source.
"Thats a sin." replied one of the nurses. "Who cares if the boys are gay, as long as they are happy." She said. The other nurses agreed with shaking of heads of approval.
That made me feel right good inside. To hear those nurses talk positively about being gay made me feel comfortable, because if they thought it was a good thing to be gay, maybe others thought so as well. But these are well educated individuals, I thought to myself. I wonder how people in my school like the hockey team or any other team for that matter will take it. I dread going back to school knowing that I am gay.
I left the nurses to eat their breakfast and went back to Mark's room. I arrived at the door and it was now closed. I knocked to come in, a nurse opened the door and told me. "Mark is now awake, we are running some tests on him now, so if you can come back in another hour that would be great."
"Okay." I said.
"What to do?" I thought. I walked down the stairs to the main foyer of the hospital. There wasn't anything for a guy to do in the hospital so I walked out the door into downtown. I walked by the University where I saw a bunch of cute college guys. They paid no attention to me of course, I looked to young. I walked into a music store and browsed at some cds that I was perhaps interested in. I loved Rock music. My favorite band is the Killers, then Franz Ferdinand and so on. I don't classify myself as a skater or a prep or anything because I think those kinds of groups like to class themselves better than other groups. But unfortunately I am labled as a prep. I can't do anything to prevent the way I act. I am who I am, and I'm not changing myself to fit someone else's image of me.
It was hard to say I am who I am though. I am gay, and I'm afraid to tell anyone. I know I can't change my sexuality, but I can try to keep it a secret for as long as I can. Though that would prove to be near to impossible as the news of the stabbing has spread like wildfire throughout the city and possibly region wide.
After browsing in a few small shops along the road leading to the hospital I decided to go back to visit Mark. An hour was nearly up and I couldn't wait till I could speak to Mark again.
I arrived at the hospital room just before the doctor and nurses left the room. They all filed out of the room before I reached the door and just gave me a simple hello and goodbye. Dr. MacDonald said nothing in particular to me as if we hadn't talked the night before. He just gave me a warm smile and continued on with his work.
I stepped in the room and Mark was propped up on the bed. He looked fine other than he was tired and had a cut on his face from the fight. "Goodmorning Mark! I'm glad that you are alright. How'd the check up go?" I couldn't contain my excitement.
"Hey." he hesitated for a moment. "It wasn't that bad." he replied.
"I was so worried for you Mark." I said in a low tone. I was looking at him, marvelling at how good he had looked even after the incident yesterday.
"Well I'm fine and I will be out of here tonight. Dr. MacDonald said that no organs were punctured and that it wasn't a very deep stab comparing it to the length of the blade. It only cut an artery and they just needed to patch it up. Today they were looking at me to see if I had any infection or whatever. Medical stuff but they say I check out good." he explained.
"Thats so relieving, your parents will be happy to hear that. Your mom was so worried for you. They stayed with you for a while last night and came to check on you this morning. They had to go to work today so that's why they aren't here right now."
I took a seat next to Mark. "You know, I was here all night."
"Oh really?" he said. "I'm surprised they even let you stay with me. They are so strict about having people stay overnight in the hospital nowadays."
"I know, your parents let me stay overnight with you. So that may have helped me be able to stay with you." I then grabbed his hand and held it tight.
"I can't believe you beat the living crap out of Jeremy."
"I can't believe he stabbed you. How do you even remember what had happened? When you got stabbed I saw you on the floor bleeding like mad. " I replied.
"I still could see you throwing punches at Jeremy. You were going crazy, I never ever ever seen you that angry in your entire life."
"Well you'll do some crazy things when you see the boy you love getting stabbed." I replied gripping his hand harder.
"I never even seen the knife in Jeremy's hand. You were the only one that noticed it. You shouting to me that he had a knife could have possibly saved my life. Thank you. " He said then gripping my hand hard.
I leaned forward to brush my hand through his hair. My hand then ran down his cheek and then to his chin. He lifted his head off the pillow and then we shared a tender kiss. No tongues intruded into the others mouth. Then I heard footsteps comming down the hallway so we pulled back. A nurse just kept on walking down the hall minding her own business. "That was close." Mark said.
"Yeah, it was a little too close." I said. We both sat down staring at the blank walls.
Mark broke the deafening silence, "Why did he stab me? I mean, he was the one who started the fight. He was the one that came up to me calling me a faggot and all this stuff and I couldn't take it longer. I didn't want anyone to know about us."
"Well," I replied hesitating for a moment, thinking about what I was going to say next. "I think people already know about us."
"What!?" he screamed.
"Yeah, they do. I was eating breakfast in the cafeteria earlier today and I heard the nurses talking about what happened yesterday at school. They had witnesses on TV saying that Jeremy was calling us faggots before you guys got in a fight and you getting stabbed." I said solemnly.
"Fuck." Was the only thing that seemed to come out of his mouth at the moment. A worried look came across his face. "Do my parents know this?"
"Probably. I think your parents already know because they let me spend the night with you here in the hospital. They probably have watched all the news stories, and probably picked out enough information to make assumptions about us." I replied
A look of dread came across his face. "People know at school, and my parents probably know now. I didn't want it to be this way." Tears started to flow from his eyes.
"I know Mark, I didn't want it to be this way either." I then gave him a big hug, holding him in my loving embrace. I didn't really care what anyone thought of Mark and I. As long as no one took the boy of my life away from me.
To be Continued- Comments/Suggestions writemartin2@hotmail.com