Upon waking up, I do a good stretch and as I am using the bathroom, I hear the lobby door beep. Washing my hands, I then hear someone enter the kitchen and dig through the cabinets. Not thinking too much about it, I return to my bed and change into something new: skinny jeans, my black Converse, a white t-shirt and my green and black varsity jacket that had "B.A." on the back. Instead of standing for "badass", it meant "Blackwell Academy", so I was a little disappointed.
Putting my dirty laundry into the clothes basket near the bathroom, I go to the walk-in closet. As I'm digging around in the closet for my skateboard, I hear something shatter and a very loud masculine voice curse in a foreign language, followed by English. Since I was in the closet, it was hard to tell what the person said, and kind of worried about my roommate—if that's who it was—I open the door and walk to the kitchen.
There, on the floor, were the shattered remains of a red porcelain vase and kneeling beside them was a very pissed-off Dakotah; his hand dyed in a similar color. Running to my bathroom and grabbing a towel, I run back to him. "Here you go." I say, trying to sound nonchalant and not the surprised, happy moron I was. Despite being afraid he might hate me for ditching him earlier.
Dakotah looks up then and has the funniest look on his face: a mix of anger, surprise and maybe joy? His face contorted in an interesting way. "How—" He started to ask, but before he could say more, I shoved the towel into his bloody hand. "Let's get this taken care of, then we'll talk."
"Thanks." Taking the towel, he added pressure to his hand while I helped him get off the floor. It took longer than expected, he weighed a lot and being the wimp that I was, I almost toppled over myself. Once we were both standing straight, I grabbed him by the crook of his arm and led him out of the room, down the lobby and to the elevator. Inside, it was silent, and the descent was faster than I thought it would be; so we made it to the first floor quickly. Leaving the building, we walked along Beech Boulevard towards the hospital.
Dakotah looked pale, sweat covered his near-perfect face and dampened his brow. "Are you okay?" I ask, worried he might be losing too much blood.
"I'm fine." He replied, his bloodied hand shaking a bit. "Fine" my ass, I thought. Taking extra care to slow down a little, he kept pace with me.
Outside the hospital, Dakotah nearly collapses. Catching him like he once caught me, I hold onto him and together with feet dragging, make our way around the fountain, through the doors and towards the reception desk. With a shaky voice, "Excuse me? Can we get some help here?"
The receptionist was on the phone, her voice loud and inciting instructions to some patient or other before she noticed us. With a swift glance, she briefly apologized to whoever was on the other end and hung up. She then dialed a number at lightning speed and after a brief conversation, hung up once more.
"Nurse Adrianna will be with you shortly. Please take a seat in the waiting room over there." She then pointed to a nice waiting room across from her. Inside there was a small aviary that took up one wall and there was a tv hanging from another. There were at least twenty chairs, three tables and a couple of small stands for drinks. Nodding my thanks, I carry Dakotah to the room and like the name suggests: we waited.
About five minutes pass: Dakotah loosing more color as each one had ticked by. His hand had stopped shaking and the towel was a little too red to comfort me. Dakotah also looked tired, his eyes drooping and his head hanging. "Hey, stay with me." Nudging him, his eyes open briefly before closing again.
"Mmm."
"I'm serious. If you pass out or die on me, I'm going to be pissed and I won't forgive you."
This elicited a laugh, or mumble-laugh. "Alright."
We waited another five minutes before the nurse came and got us. "I'm so sorry!" Seeing Dakotah and his terrible state, she led us to the emergency room. Inside, she helped me place him on the table before ushering me out.
With the door closing behind me, I couldn't help but think the worse: will he lose consciousness? Bleed out? Wandering the hallway, a million thoughts went through my mind and unable to stand them any longer, I went back to the waiting room and watched finches, starlings and other varieties of birds twitter and flitter about. Sitting there in the silence, I soon found myself enlightened by their simple life.
I couldn't tell you when I fell asleep exactly. We had arrived at the hospital around noon and now it was 2pm. Stretching, I could feel the tension leave my body, as well as feeling my joints pop and crack in various places. Yawning, I straightened in the chair and just as I did, Nurse Adrianna appears. She looks calm and relaxed, the complete opposite of when she first saw me. "Are you William?"
"Yes. How did you know?"
"Your friend told me." Smiling, she continued. "Dakotah is fine now. The doctor said he should have plenty of rest and a lot of food to recover from the loss of blood. We also had to stitch up his hand. The laceration was deep, but luckily none of the tendons or nerves were damaged. Make sure he doesn't get his hand wet and that he doesn't do anything too strenuous as it could reopen the wound." Checking off stuff on her clipboard, "Any questions?"
"No ma'am"
"Very well, he'll be released in a few minutes once the doctor finishes going over everything with him."
"Thanks." I tell her. She then leaves and I feel a huge wave of relief wash over me. Dakotah was going to be fine and I wouldn't have to say good-bye…at least not today.