Cry Until You Bleed

46- Brothers

"Are you pumped?"

"A little, I guess."

"You have to get pumped!" I exclaim into the black phone in the phone bank with such enthusiasm that it just has to flow through the phone and then into Niles, who is on the other end of this conversation.

"I'm pumped," He assures me with a small laugh. "But you do realize that we still have two hours before the game starts, right?"

"Sure but you'll be practicing until then so it's not like I can get you pumped right before the game so you just have to remember my 'get pumped' speech right before the game starts that way you don't lose. Because everybody knows that you need my motivational speaking to make sure that you don't lose the game," I joke.

"Of course," He plays along. "Well, I appreciate it."

"That's what I'm here for. Where are you, anyway? Isn't this game away?" I wonder randomly, twirling the cord between my fingers.

"Yeah, it's away. We're only about fifteen minutes away, a little south," Niles tells me. "This team is pretty good so I don't know. I'll let you know how it goes."

"I'd expect nothing less," I say in response. "In completely unrelated news, though, I think that we're going to finish our party stars tomorrow. You remember that stupid little star that I gave you a little bit ago? My hands ache just thinking about making them again but after tomorrow, we'll be completely done."

"It wasn't stupid," He denies. "It was a nice star."

"Yeah, sure," I mutter. "I wish that you could see these vases of stars. It doesn't look like all that much but it's been basically a form of torture, I think, and it is kind of pretty."

"I'm sure that I'll see pictures," He assures me. "That dance is coming up soon, isn't it? Are you getting at least a little excited?"

"I am pretty excited to see how everything comes together, considering how hard everybody has been working for this," I tell him, leaning with my back against the cinder block wall beside the phone. "Everybody better love these stars though, or I will start shoving them down peoples' throats."

"I don't doubt that," Niles jokes as I look up and see a nurse walking around the corner and then she turns and she's walking towards me.

"Hello, Ana," The nurse, whose name is Mandy, says with a chirpy smile.

"Hang on," I mumble to Niles into the phone and then pull the phone away from my ear to speak to the nurse. "Hi. What's up?"

"You have some visitors," She tells me. "They're waiting in the visitor's room whenever you're ready."

"Oh. Um, okay. Thanks," I say, caught completely off guard with that because I wasn't planning on having any visitors today- or at all, really. Mandy nods and then turns and leaves the little bank of phones and disappears around the corner.

"What was that?" Niles wonders.

"I guess I have to go. I apparently have visitors," I tell him, assuming that the only group of people that is going to come visit me has to be my family but I don't see why they wouldn't have told me that they were coming the last time that we'd spoken just two days ago. "Good luck with your game though, Niles."

"Thanks," He says. "I'll probably need it."

"No you don't," I assure him. "You're like, the best player in the whole world. Like, you're the Michael Jordon of hockey. In fact, I'm so sure that you don't need my luck that I'm taking it back. I'm not wishing you luck anymore because I know that you're awesome by yourself so you won't need it."