TWENTY-EIGHT
Again
NORA AWOKE SWEATING. The dry air of the hospital made her throat scratchy, but she was overheating from the inside out.
Except it wasn’t her, it was Cai. He moved beneath her, twitching uncomfortably. Carefully she sat, straightening the IV and unwrapping his arm to lay it on his chest. Beneath his closed lids, his eyes moved back and forth. His hair stuck damply to his face, and her stomach dropped. He was sick again.
The other boys were asleep as well. Matisse and Seok curled on the other bed; Apollo was splayed in the chair, arms crossed, feet propped on the bed with Ryan in a similar position.
While, for sure, Apollo could tell her he was sick, she wanted the nurses and doctors to make him better immediately. Opening the door slowly, she crept into the hall and down to the nurse’s station.
“Hi,” she greeted a nurse busy at work on a computer.
“Hi.” The nurse smiled. “Can I help you?”
“I’m with Cai Josephs.” She pointed down the hall. “His fever is back, I think, and he looks really uncomfortable.”
“Okay.” Standing, the nurse followed her back to Cai’s room. Once inside, she took Cai’s temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure.
Shuffling from place to place and removing medical equipment wasn’t noisy, but the guys woke up anyway. Not Cai though. Even when the nurse wrapped the cuff around his arm and swiped the thermometer across his forehead, his eyes stayed closed.
“What’s going on?” Apollo asked, dropping his feet to the floor and stretching.
“Cai’s fever is back.”
The nurse grunted, agreeing. “I’m going to page the doctor.” Pushing buttons on the IV machine, she spoke without looking at them.
“Is he going to be okay?”
“I want to make sure the antibiotics are clearing up his infection. He couldn’t be in a better place to be sick.” She finally glanced over at them and smiled. “We have all the doctors and the medicine.”
It didn’t make her feel better. The antibiotics should have worked; his fever had broken. Why was he sick again?
Seok and Matisse both sat on the side of the bed. Their eyes tracked the nurse as well, and after she left, they stayed silent.
Cracking her knuckles, Nora stood by Cai’s bed, staring at him while he slept. Was he sleeping? Or was he unconscious? Was he in a coma? Why hadn’t she thought to ask?
“Apollo?” Her voice cracked, and immediately his hard chest pressed against her back.
“He’ll be okay.”
Matisse appeared at the other side of Cai’s bed, and a moment later, so did Seok and Ryan. “Ryan?” Matisse’s dark eyes flicked up, and Nora’s zoomed in on him. There was a tremor in his voice she’d never heard before. “What are our rights? We’re not his family.”
“We have medical power of attorney,” Ryan spoke while staring at Cai, reaching for his arm. “I did it for him years ago.”
“So they won’t kick us out?” she asked. The idea of being separated from him now made her sick.
“No.” He shook his head. “I should go get the paperwork.”
“Can you do it for me, too? After this? All of you?”
Arms wrapped around her, and Apollo pulled her back against his chest. His breath displaced her curls, and they blew over her forehead. “I’d forgotten we did it.”
“You didn’t do it for me,” Matisse interrupted.
“I will. I’ll do it for you and Nora.”
They stayed in place, staring at Cai’s sleeping form, watching him shift and stretch and with each passing moment grow more flushed. The rash on his neck stood out, red against pasty, pale skin.
“Where is the doctor?” she whispered. Pressing her hand against his forehead, she hissed in a breath. “He’s warmer.”
“Excuse me.” The female doctor from earlier elbowed her way past them. Nora watched as she rubbed her knuckles against his chest, calling his name loudly, “Cai! Cai!”
A groan emanated from him, and he twisted on the bed, but his eyes didn’t open. “Mr. Josephs!” The doctor lifted one eyelid and then the other, shining a small light. Spitting directions and questions at the nurse, she moved around the room. “I need space in here,” she said suddenly, her attention on all of them. “Please wait in the visitors’ room.”
But Nora didn’t want to leave. What if he woke up and was frightened? What if he needed her? “I’ll stay in the corner.”
“Please, Miss, I need space to move, and I appreciate your concern, but I need to focus on Cai.”
Fear punched her solidly in the chest, and she might have lost it if Apollo hadn’t curled around her and pulled her with him. “It’s okay, baby. Come on.”
The doctor had pulled off her stethoscope and was listening to Cai’s chest, eyes glazed as she focused on whatever she needed to hear. Her attention was entirely on him, as it should be. Without another word, Nora let Apollo guide her from the room and into the hallway. Her eyes scanned the guys, all of them sallow and frightened, huddled together but distant.
It hurt her, seeing them so lost. Holding tight to Apollo’s hand, she dragged him to the others, hooking her arm with Ryan and then snagging Matisse and Seok. They needed each other right now; it wasn’t time to turn inward and let fear isolate them.
“We’re together.” She turned to each of them, making sure to catch and hold all of their gazes. “The nurse is right; there is no better place for Cai to be. We’ll take care of him, and we’ll take care of each other.” A tremor traveled from the base of her spine to the top of her head, and she shivered. Clenching her teeth, she focused. “I’m afraid he won’t get better.”
“He has strep,” Apollo answered quickly. “People don’t die from strep. But I am afraid he’ll have brain damage.”
“I snapped at him,” Ryan added. “I’ve been snapping at all of you. I’m sorry.”
“I should have checked on him last night,” Matisse said. “I’ve been so wrapped up in my own shit I haven’t been very much of a friend to any of you.” His eyes lingered on Nora’s. “I’m sorry.”
Seok stared at the ground, hands raking through his hair as he pulled at the strands. “Cai was my first friend. My first real friend. He is a brother to me. It hurts me to see him hurt.”
It didn’t make her feel any better to have all their deepest worries laid out, but it did connect them, tie them together so they weren’t stuck on an endless loop of horror in their minds. They found strength in each other. Matisse wound his arm around Seok, embracing him. Apollo lifted her off the ground, and she wrapped her legs around him before reaching for Ryan and curling her arm around his neck. They stood that way, supporting each other. Moving from one person to another, she was struck by how much they needed each other.
The guys needed each other, and they needed her, but their love for each other was as strong as anything Nora’d ever come across. It filled her with hope; how could they not succeed in their relationship when there was this much love between them all?
Eventually they drew apart, finding places to perch or rest while they stared at the door, waiting for the doctor to return. The sun was up, and she wasn’t tired. Wired, jittery. Nora willed Cai to get better.
Walking to the window, she stared at the gray sky. The hospital was perched on top of a hill, and depending on which side of the building they were, the entire town and Lake Champlain was visible. Today, the clouds hung low, a perfect reflection of her mood. Students, black and blue figures, raced between buildings, some holding umbrellas in preparation for the threatening rain. A pointed chin pressed into the curve of her neck, and she leaned back, gripping Ryan’s arms when he cupped her shoulders.
“There is my frat.”
She followed his gaze to a huge, brick mansion on the corner. “Wow. It’s beautiful. I didn’t know you were in a frat.”
“Ryan completes our multicultural group,” Matisse added. “He’s Greek.”
“Lame,” Apollo scoffed. “But as frats go, Ryan’s isn’t so bad.”
“It’s a community service frat,” Seok said from behind them where he sat on the hard couch.
“You and Cai have a lot in common.” She thought about Cai’s work at the youth center and Ryan’s with Legal Aid. “I need to volunteer more.” She leaned her head on Ryan’s cheek. “You’ll have to help me be better.”