After Everything (A Starkid Fan Fiction)

Chapter 25-Love isn't a Fabrication

~"I don't like you, Park," she said, sounding for a second like she actually meant it. "I..." - her voice nearly disappeared - "think I live for you."
He closed his eyes and pressed his head back into his pillow.
"I don't think I even breathe when we're not together," she whispered. "Which means, when I see you on Monday morning, it's been like sixty hours since I've taken a breath. That's probably why I'm so crabby, and why I snap at you. All I do when we're apart is think about you, and all I do when we're together is panic. Because every second feels so important. And because I'm so out of control, I can't help myself. I'm not even mine anymore, I'm yours, and what if you decide that you don't want me? How could you want me like I want you?"
He was quiet. He wanted everything she'd just said to be the last thing he heard. He wanted to fall asleep with 'I want you' in his ears." -Eleanor & Park~

Chapter 25

I hear birds chirping and the sound of telephone's and footsteps. I hear the creak from a bed and the stiffness in my body. I can smell hot dogs and cookies. What just happened? Did I die, am I dead now and when I open my eyes I'll see what is supposed to be heaven? I swear if I see someone, especially my father telling me 'Jeff it's not your time' like in Harry Potter, I'll actually scream.

But I don't.

When I open my eyes, I see a ceiling. I feel pain in my head, but it's not the same pain I felt last time I was awake. I look around, still stiff and unable to move my head. Balloons are hung up all around me, little goodies stacked on a dresser and the familiar scent of lavender in the air.

Ignoring all the pain, I sit up as fast as possible and look around me. I'm in a hospital room. I'm not dead. And my brain doesn't feel like anything is pressing against it. I'm not in a coma. I didn't die. I'm alive. How in the world...how the fuck did this happen? I was dying, I was in a coma. I heard Rachael, she said my heart stopped. So what am I doing here, alive and okay?

I start feeling the presence of my breathing. I'm not on a ventilator anymore, and then a thought occurs me.

I hear a noise to my right and look over. Sitting curled up in a ball in a hospital chair, is Rachael. She's here. She's asleep, finally. I don't know if she was even sleeping while I was in the coma for all that time. Then another thought comes to me, how long have I been in here, how long was I out after my heart stopped?

My phone is nowhere in sight and there isn't a clock on the wall or any indication of a lapse in time. I touch my face, feeling the presence of a beard, then roll my eyes. Okay well that's one way to judge how long I've been out.

I stretch out my body, trying to move my legs, which feel stiff, like I've been lying on a concrete floor for a slumber party. I go to run my hand through my hair, only to remember that I don't have hair anymore. That's going to take some getting used to again, I say to myself as I re-adjust the beanie that has been on my head. Then I take several deep breathes, just because I can now. I pull the cannula out of my nose, though I know that isn't smart. I don't care. I'm alive. I'm fucking alive.

I look back over at Rachael now and I smile even wider. I want to wake her up and squeeze her hand and kiss her over and over again. I'm alive, my tumor is gone and I'm in love with Rachael Soglin. To me, that's all that matters. There's nothing holding me back from being happy, there's nothing holding me back from being me. There's nothing I can't do.

"Rachael," I call out, my voice extremely hoarse from the lack of talking I've done. "Rachael, wake up."

She stirs, but doesn't open her eyes. She says very quietly, "Five more minutes, okay baby?"

My entire body fills with warmth hearing her voice again. I don't know the last time I heard it, but it sounds like the most amazing thing in the world to me.