Someone Out There Loves You (Adopted by Frank Iero)

4

ALEXA

"Come on, 8am, wake up and make your bed. Then head to hygiene."

I rolled over in my bed and groaned. The worst part about being in the hospital for over 3 months now was the constant routine. Day in, day out, it was so predictable. If they were aiming for mind-numbing, they succeeded.

I rubbed my head, partly to wake up but partly to try determine whether yesterday was real or not.

Frank Iero came to visit me, ME, out of all people on the god damn planet. That was easily the best day of my life. I replayed the memory over and over, smiling to myself.

Sitting on the couch in the art and music room, guitar in my lap, Frank was trying to teach me some new songs.

"And then this finger," he pointed to my ring finger, "on the 4th string on the 10th fret."

I was trying to follow his instructions but my hand was getting muddled up.

"Frank," I dragged out the vowel, "this is too hard, can you just show me?" I looked at him desperately.

"It's just an octave line!"

I shot him my best pleading face, resulting in him laughing and caving in.

"Ugh, if I must. Hand it over." He reached over and gently took the guitar from me. "Okay, watch carefully. I'll do it slow."

It took a moment to build up my willpower but I managed to get up and make my bed. It was made pathetically but I deemed it decent enough for it to not be an issue with the nurses. That seemed to be a running theme of how I was as an inpatient; poor efforts on my behalf but just enough that its passable. I crossed my small, plain bedroom to the dresser, my bare feet freezing on the vinyl floor. I quickly grabbed a fresh set of scrubs and socks and hurried to hygiene.

After showering, brushing my hair and teeth and changing into fresh scrubs I was already exhausted. Maybe that was because I would give anything to sleep in for longer than 8am. I slumped into the plastic chair in the dining area next to Andy.

"Morning, sunshine," he grinned, messing my hair up by rubbing my head obnoxiously.

"Andy," I whined, dragging out the y, attempting to fix the mess he had just created but giving up quickly. I never knew how he could be so lively in the morning, I needed multiple cups of coffee and a few hours to get going, but he was always ready to go. It made me tired just looking at him. Normally it would have annoyed me, but after yesterday not even Andy's 8:30am perkiness could ruin my mood. Just thinking about it gave my brain a rush of serotonin.

I kicked my legs as I sat on the chair and looked down at my socks. As much as I missed my band tees and skinny jeans, living in scrubs was kind of comfy. The blue colour wasn't actually too bad and the light blue grippy socks they gave us were probably the most comfortable socks I had ever worn. You'd think they would be scratchy when you first look at them but I guess that's why they say appearances aren't everything. At least it's that way when it comes to hospital socks.

"Let's get food," he decided, standing up quickly with a bounce in his step. I slowly stood up and trudged after him, heading straight for the watery coffee machine. It was lousy, but caffeine was caffeine and it's not like I had much choice.