Waiting For You

Chapter Thirty-six

"You can't break up with a soulmate".

~C. S.

Hunter

Everything was throbbing. Through the pain and the haziness, I could make out Alex's voice. I knew that song. That song was in our playlist. Mustering all the energy I could I sang back to him the next two lines and opened my eyes to see his teary brown eyes.

"Hunter..." he muttered, shock visible in his features.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice hoarse and my throat protesting as I tried to speak the first time. Alex moved mechanically as he clicked the button that alerted the nurse. I was in the hospital?

"Please tell me I'm not dreaming," Alex whined and a sob escaped his lips.

"Hey... Alex, hey, you're not dreaming," I said and grimaced at the jab of pain. An elderly woman walked inside, clad in a dark red uniform, with a name tag on her chest. Her expression froze when she saw me.

"You woke up..." she mustered and came closer to check on my vitals while clicking on her pager.

"Alex, what happened?" I asked again, swallowing down some spit in order to clear my throat. The nurse offered me a cup of water and without hesitation, I gulped it all.

"Matt attacked you... you've been in a coma for the past four days," Alex explained and took ahold of my hand. "I need to call your Dad," he said and placed a kiss on my cheek before pulling out his phone.

"Four days..." I muttered to myself, as Alex pulled away to speak with my Dad. The elderly woman smiled down at me.

"You're so lucky to have a soulmate like him. He has been staying over as much as he can, talking to you through your bond. Your poor father practically had to drag him out of here so he could sleep a little bit every night," she told me.

"What happened to me?" I asked her, knowing that she wasn't a doctor but deciding it was worth a shot. 

"One of your classmates attacked you. And from the hits, a blood vessel ruptured in your brain and you fell in a coma for four days. We performed a burr hole and everything seems to have cleared up," a man said, as he walked inside, wearing a doctor's uniform. "I'm Dr. Sterling, your attending doctor. So Hunter, how are you feeling?"

"Like a homophobe decided to use me as a punching bag," I said, closing my eyes for a second.

"Yes, the police will be arriving soon. They have been berating me about getting your statement so I had to contact them as soon as you woke up," Dr. Sterling said, with a smile.

"Your Dad's on his way," Alex told me as he came back and sat down by the chair next to me.

"I'll leave you two alone for a moment," the doctor said and stepped out of the room. My eyes fell on Alex.

"How have you been doing?" I asked him, reaching out to caress his cheek. He leaned into my touch and sighed.

"I thought I was going to lose you," he muttered back, his voice breaking as he uttered those last words. "I thought I was going to lose you and I couldn't live like that".

"You're not going to lose me..." I assured him. "But I was talking about you coming out..."

Alex closed his eyes and he pulled back, reaching out to clasp my hand in his. Then he shook his head as if he was trying to forget something.

"I did a coming out video. It went better than I thought it would. And, while Dad and Chris have been MIA, Mom is trying to patch up our relationship".