Daniel (3)

I must have stood in the doorway too long because I heard a small cough. A signal to indicate that Drake wasn't the only person in the room. My eyes moved from his to his mother's.

Catching her eyes, I didn't linger further in the doorway and walked inside the hospital room. As I came closer, I bowed slightly to Mrs. Lu and told her I was here to visit Drake.

"You're the boy who sa- tried to visit him before, right?"

Ah, so she knew I was the one who found his body. Since she cut herself off it seems like Drake isn't entirely aware of why he's lying in this bed right now.

"Yes, ma'am."

"It's nice to see Drake has such good friends" and I could hear the slight wavering of her voice as she said those words. Her eyes looked teary all of a sudden and before she could break down in front of us she said that she would leave Drake and I to catch up.

Her steps out of the hospital room were hurried as she tried to stop her breakdown.

Makes sense. Breaking down in front of a boy so clearly broken already and a stranger probably wasn't the way she saw this day going.

Once I heard the door click behind me, I took the chair she had vacated and finally looked into those bright eyes again. He hadn't said a word yet.

"You look like shit" because he did.

"Thanks" he said. He wasn't impressed.

"Sorry."

"You're not." Huh. I wasn't expecting him to call me out on that. He wouldn't have before.

"I'm not" and I could't help but feel amused at the Drake in front of me.

Then I took hold of my senses and got down to why I was here in the first place. I took out the notes I'd received and went over what he had missed at school.

"Aren't you curious about what happened to me?" he asked after I had finished giving him a broad overview of the topics we had covered.

"Of course I am." But, clearly he isn't in a state to sate that curiosity of mine. So I didn't bother voicing the unanswered questions that have festered since I found him all those months ago. The ones I refused to acknowledge the existence of.

His brows furrowed at that answer.

"How bad do I look?"

"Very."

"I meant, how hurt do I look?"

"Very."

This stilled him again. Shouldn't be be able to feel the pain? He's covered in bruises, wearing a cast on his arm, and a face you can barely see because it's so wrapped up in bandages.

"I was told I fell out of my treehouse" he said after a long pause.

While it is possible to sustain severe injuries from a fall like that, which he did, it's highly doubtful that was the case. The mess in the garden that day being one of the reasons.

"Huh."

I had nothing to add. Nothing more to say. We sat in silence, when I noticed that it was almost 19h. I started packing up my bag. As I stood up getting ready to leave his one question halted my movements.

"Will you visit again?"

My first instinct was to say when I have time, sure. While simultaneously planning to not see him again until he came to school.

Then I looked into his eyes and saw they held absolutely no expectations. An emptiness when he looked at me. As though our brief time together hadn't impacted him at all.

Of course, being acquaintance-adjacent as we were that was how it should be.

Except seeing that so blatant at display in his eyes pissed me off. At least before he had the decency to pretend. Now it felt like he had given up everything he used to be. Or decided I wasn't worth even that.

Looking back over the past months, having visited him every other day almost, I wonder what life now would have looked like if I hadn't said what I did. Made that spur of the moment decision.

I looked him in the eyes and told him "of course". With absolute conviction.

My answer seemed to bring some light back to those vacant eyes.

"Ok."

"Ok."

I walked towards the door and before leaving turned around to wish him well and that I would visit again.

As I walked out of the hospital I saw Mrs. Lu sitting on one of the benches outside. I was about to keep walking when she halted me in my steps by running up to me.

"Thank you." Her eyes glistened with tears again. "If you hadn't come when you did, Drake would have died."

Hearing those words somehow makes the situation seem more real. That that day that still haunted me at nights sometimes was real and not something I had conjured up.

"What happened to him?" I asked her, burning with curiosity. I must have buried it deep inside, not expecting to receive an opportunity to ask the questions I wanted answers to.

Her eyes glaze over and get a hardened edge to them. "We're not sure. The police investigated the scene, but received very few clues as to what exactly transpired that day."

"A fall from a treehouse is unlikely to have caused that damage."

"Drake must have told you. Yes, I told him that's what happened."

"Was lying really the only option?" Something was off here.

"He... Drake was very disoriented when he gained consciousness. Frankly at that point not only had the doctors given up on him, but so had the police. His case was classified as a cold case." Her voice shook as she said the words, the grief shining through. I gave her a handkerchief because she couldn't stop the flow of her tears anymore.

When she calmed down a bit she continued, "that day... the day he showed signs of waking up, they- they were going to take him off life support. He'd been declared untreatable. I couldn't let go but I was told that the constant pain he was in was only keeping him here suffering. I... I was... I was going to say goodbye to him and then then-" she stopped and I took her by the shoulders back to the bench she came from. I got her to sit down and waited until she was calm enough to continue talking.

"I was holding onto his hands when I felt his fingers twitch. He hadn't shown any signs at all for months and the hope that went through me... When I - When I looked at him, his eyes were open and staring right at me." Her voice stuttered as she so clearly relived that day.

"He quickly lost consciousness and I screamed at him to come back, to not leave me. A nurse came and I told them about what had happened. At first they didn't believe me. I started questioning my own sanity. Whether my grief had made me see things but then I remembered those eyes and I just couldn't let it be. One of the doctors... He checked him over and while he was doing that Drake.. He opened his eyes again."

I don't think I've ever heard relief in someone's voice before.

Well. There's a first time for everything.

"The days after that passed in a blur. Sometimes he would wake up and be so very confused. In the beginning I could tell..." and her voice broke.

I let her cry because she clearly needed someone there- someone to listen.

"I could tell he didn't recognise me. His moments of lucidity were few and far between at first, but they became more frequent at a certain point. He was... a miracle. There was a flurry of doctors surrounding him at odd hours trying to figure out how it was possible. Clearly, in their expert medical opinion he should have been dead" and her eyes flashed for the first time with something other than grief... Anger.

"The f***ers were wrong and I had listened to them when they initially suggested giving up on him... If I hadn't been there when he finally started showing signs of coming back.. I wouldn't have even known" and the genuine fury, grief, fear and hint of murder in her voice was interesting. She seemed like such a meek woman at first, broken by the world, yet I could see now where Drake got that potential for ruthlessness from.

Note to self: don't piss off Mrs. Lu.

She took a steadying breath and reigned her emotions in. "It became clear as he became increasingly coherent that he had gaps in his memories. The doctors said it was likely that due to both the mental and physical trauma Drake went through, he may never regain all his memories. That he is lucky to have retained as much as he did. That we needed to be careful and not touch subjects that could make him relive anything that might cause him stress, because his mind might not be strong enough to handle it" she finally said looking at me.

"That's why I didn't tell him about that day truthfully. I will, when he's a bit stronger. And he is... he is getting stronger each and every day. It's all thanks to you" and her eyes shone as she looked at me. With gratitude and love and relief.

I've never had anyone look at me like that before.

I didn't deserve it.

She took my hands in hers and told me "thank you. If it hadn't been for you, Drake wouldn't have been here now. We owe you a debt we could never repay but please know that whatever you need in the future, I'll do my best to provide should you ever have need for it" and I could feel the sincerity in her voice.

I don't know what they could ever do for me but it doesn't hurt to have a favour to cash in whenever you want.

I left her sitting on the bench once she had composed herself again, and promised I would visit Drake again.

When I left, I left with a sense of relief. Relief I couldn't quite identify the cause of, but it must have something or other to do with one Drake Lu. He does have the tendency to make me feel things when I found myself initially incapable of doing anything of the sort.

The next month passed almost in the blink of an eye. My visits to the hospital increased to such a degree that the hospital staff started to recognise me.

At first our conversations were stilted. I would give him his homework, we would make some smalltalk and I would leave as quickly as I came. I didn't understand why I came as often as I did. There was no need to visit him that much.

At a certain point we delved into school politics and gossip. My tendency to observe meant I was pretty aware of what was going on at school at any given time. The shifting alliances and friendships made and just as easily broken were a fascinating microcosm of the world outside. Drake didn't care much initially but he slowly got to know the cast that made up our school and as he got to know them he became increasingly invested. Clearly he was doing some online stalking of his own as well when I wasn't there because at times he would say something even I hadn't noticed yet.

He must have searched for me online as well and not really found anything. I wonder if he will ask me why that is. I wonder what I would say. The truth or some well crafted lie.

Well, we can cross that bridge when we reach it.

What our conversations also showed me was that the Drake in front of me was no longer the same Drake I was acquaintance-adjacent with before. Maybe it's because of the ordeal he went through as he recovered from his injuries, but he seemed more mature somehow. He's definitely become more perceptive, but also open simultaneously.

Sometimes I can't tell who is manipulating who.

One day:

"We're friends" he said.

"Whatever gave you that idea" I inquire, curious to hear what he had to say.

"Because I care about you and I know you care as well, at least a little."

"That's-" preposterous I begin to say but then I get lost in his eyes.

Such conviction.

Perhaps that's all you really need. For one of the parties to say you're friends, to make it so.

I let the silence linger more, curious to see if it would make him uncomfortable enough to retract his words.

He didn't, and if nothing else I can respect that.

"Indeed we are" I finally tell him.

Guess I have a friend after all.