Citrus | ONC 2024 ✔️

12: Life Better

I was in a midsummer dream. Even if the season wasn't summer, the warmth spreading over my face and cascading down my spine felt like the heat of the sun warming my back.

My face warmed by the second, Morgan groggily grinning up at me. He sipped a paper cup filled with water. "You know those times where you stub your toe on some random thing on the floor? Well, I'm the toe right now."

Of course that had to be the first words out of Mango's mouth.

Mathew chuckled, treading closer to Morgan. "That's an interesting way to put it."

"Well, we need to make it more common." Morgan shrugged. "It makes life better."

Every moment I looked at Morgan, the more my insides heated. My stomach buzzed and my chest lightened in a way I wasn't aware could happen before. The simple knowledge of the things' existence sent my mind into the same tumbling and turning state. Maybe he was injured beyond reverse, but he was alive, awake.

"Go back to sleep, Mango." Mathew gently pressed Morgan back into his mountain of pillows. "Just another twelve hours and we can leave."

"Fantastic." Morgan itched at his arm where an adhesive had been, most wires no longer there, only one.

Placing his hand over Morgan's, Mathew shook his head. "Itching will make it worse."

Morgan frowned, dropping his head fully back with a dramatic sigh.

The past hour had been filled with the sunrise. Though I couldn't see the sun from the tiny hospital room, I could feel the light gradually floating into the sky, ready to beam down upon the Earth for another day of tragedy and luck.

Mathew cleared his throat. "I can go get..."

The crisp chime of my phone grabbed any sort of drowsy attention in the room. Swiftly, I found my bag resting against my foot, my whole leg nothing short of numb now. In the same numb stream, I slid my finger over the blink bar, the object buzzy and ringing hysterically in my palm. Pressing the phone to my ear felt like another heavy weight, unbalanced with only one hand available.

"I've got a rental car and am ten minutes away," Dad rasped into the speaker. The continuous roar of an engine reverberated through the speaker.

Dumbly, I blinked. "Are you speeding?"

"I am."

"It's five in the morning..."

He hummed in response, the raucous noise shrinking.

Mathew tapped my arm. "Can I speak with Cole for a minute? Just watch Morgan. I'll come back with him when he gets here."

Shrugging, I nodded. Watching the guy walking out of the room with my phone.

"Well, you're lively," Morgan grumbled, opening one eyelid. "Don't look at me like that, it's annoying."

"Like what?" I pressed my hand to my face. Shaking my head, I narrowed my eyes with no response from Morgan in the seconds that passed. "You need to rest."

Morgan pressed his lips together, sitting up. He stared at me. If he could have crossed his arms over his chest, he would have, but the apparatus around him prevented that kind of disgraceful movement. "You're smiling, OJ."

"I've smiled before?" I dragged myself to his bedside, lowering my body into a blue cushioned chair from the corner of the room. "Like everyday, at least."

"We both know you don't want to be here." Instead of flicking or punching my arm like usual, he rolled his eyes. "And I don't mean with your mouth." He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "It looks crazy on you."