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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 7:52 pm
There wasn't much to do in the hospital but lay back and watch the TV in the upper corner of the room.
Apparently, somehow, Yvette Weaver had managed to get herself into quite the predicament over the past year. She had been victim of an organ trafficking ring and assumed dead for nearly a year. She woke up in a hospital bed with one of those thin paper gowns covering her body, and with two faces nearly on top of her own. Two very tear-filled eyes, belonging to her Mommy and Daddy, greeted her the moment she regained consciousness. Her mother was a little slip of a lady with delicate features, and her father was a rather intimidating hulking figure. Echoes of "We thought you were dead!" had been practically sobbed into her shoulder. Her father nearly crushed her with how strong his hug was. They had been so overwhelming, that Yvette couldn't really remember much beyond their sobbing. She had still been a bit sleepy when she woke up that first time. All she could catch was Daddy saying something along the lines of "I'll never let anything happen ever again to my baby girl!" He had always been the overly protective father. With such a strong reassurance in mind, she had managed to slip back to sleep in no time.
Now, Yvette was awake, and pretty bored. The television in the corner was showing some sort of game show dealing with suitcases and money. It wasn't really her cup of tea. It also didn't help that she was still in one of those hospital gowns, for as she was growing more and more aware of her surroundings, she was also growing more and more self-conscious of her current lack of clothing. At least the nurse had managed to assist her in sitting upright. It was growing a bit uncomfortable to remain laying on your back. So as she attempted to watch the show with some sort of interest, she held an arm across her chest, only for the sake of pressing that thin paper gown against her body more.
I wish something would happen she wished silently as the TV audience cheered for the next contestant on the show. This really wasn't her sort of show.
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 11:25 pm
If anything, Topher was amazed that everything still hurt. There was a dull ache that seemed to go all throughout his body with each step. He was still going home though. His Mom had come for him and they'd let him go with a nice dose of prescription pain meds to pick up for his recovery. Sometimes, he had to praise modern medicine for that.
He wasn't quite sure who was all there but at least the zodiacs were still together. They lived through it and they were alright for the most part. Whatever had happened was behind them all, well, at least for now they were safe and back home. There would be a new school and friends and everything and he was looking forward to it. That was something to be thankful for and so was the small box that held the cookies his mother had smuggled in. As he trotted along down the second ward, Topher hoped that he'd left enough. She would probably appreciate it after the horrible hospital food they'd been given. He'd lived through so much to almost be killed by the taste of a simple ham sandwich. It was an almost comical thought if you hadn't been there.
Finally, he reached where he thought she was. Well, it was the only room he hadn't checked or gotten thrown out of by a parent. The blue-haired boy gave a gentle knock to the wall beside the door, not knowing whether or not he would accidentally open it with a hard knock. "Yvette? Are you in there? I've got stuff for you!"
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 11:34 pm
There were steps in the hallway.
There were always steps in the hallway. It was a rather busy hospital, after all, so of course there would be lots of people passing the doorway. The girl attempted to drown out the steps by concentrating really hard to listen to the television, but that task was giving her more of a headache than anything.
It was only as her name had been somewhat announced that the girl's purple eyes pulled themselves away from the television. Always eager for company, the girl called out in her loudest of voices (which others would consider a normal talking voice), "Come in!" Her arm pressed up against her chest an almost instinctive fashion, anticipating the company would not want to be looking down her gown. She put on a pleasant smile on her tiny lips as she waited to see who it was.
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 7:31 pm
Topher recognized Yvette's quiet voice almost immediately. She was definitely in there. Thankfully. He'd started to believe that she had been discharged before he got to say goodbye.
He slowly pushed open the door, peeking through until he was sure it was her. His entire face lit up when he saw she was okay. "Yvette! I'm so glad I found you!" The boy bounded to her bedside with a wide, dumb smile on his face, hands clutching the small box to make sure none of the cookies toppled to the floor in his excitement. "You doing okay? I mean, you're still in the hospital but I guess you're okay right?" His gaze quickly darted to the box before he held it out towards her. "My Mom made me cookies!" Nodding his head as he shook the box a bit. "They're chocolate chip! I ate a lot of them but there's about 5 or 6 left if you want them. Hospital food kinda sucks and I'm getting discharged so I don't really need them anymore..."
It was then that he remembered the pain going through his body and it was starting to slow his movements. He really needed some morphine after this was all over. "Do you know when you'll be able to go home?" His eyes darted to a chair in the corner and he motioned towards it almost like asking permission to sit.
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 8:07 pm
The moment she saw Topher, her tiny smile grew until it was large as her small mouth could manage. She hadn't really seen too many people she knew, but then again, she had been out of it for a long while. The girl had maybe been up for an hour at most this time, and the time before was a fleeting moment of consciousness. Welcoming this change in pace, Yvette politely listened before adding her own voice to the conversation. This was typical Topher for you, talking up a storm about anything and everything.
"Th-thank you, Topher!" Her free hand gently brushed against the fingers holding the box. She nodded her head at him when he went to take a seat. It would be silly to expect him to stand there the whole time.
Once he had settled in, she got the chance to give her own quiet report about her stay in the hospital. "I haven't been up that long. I think I woke up earlier, but it seems so blurry right now. Th-there was lots of crying, and I think they said that they thought I had been dead...?" She leaned forward slightly, her dark hair masking her eyes slightly, hiding the gentle layer of water beginning to gather there. Her lips continued to hold that smile, though it had returned back to that smaller version she had initially before seeing her friend.
"I really don't know when I'll be leaving though..." Her voice hushed for a moment before she went back slightly to a previous topic. "D-do you know what Mommy and Daddy meant by 'they thought I was dead'... what happened?" She attempted to look at the blue-haired boy, she really wanted to, but her head suddenly felt a bit too heavy for her to support on her own and remained looking towards her now mildly trembling hand.
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 8:43 pm
Topher plopped into the chair with all the grace of an old man. At least he didn't have to be on his feet. That would have been a chore in his state. Actually, chore would have been an understatement. It had taken him quite a while to get to the second ward and his legs were really killing him now that he thought about it.
"It's no problem! Like I said, it's not a big deal!" He placed his hands on his knees, using them to lean a bit closer to her without having to move the chair. It would be good to talk to her again after being confined to bed for so long. Of course, the first thing out of her mouth was something he wasn;t expecting.
Dead?...
That's what she wanted to talk about? Didn't she remember what happened? They'd been gone for the better part of the year and she remembered nothing? He knew it wasn't an organ smuggling ring. You couldn't lie to him if he knew the facts but what would he tell her? He always told the truth but...it wasn't a matter of life and death this time. Somewhere in between weighing the pros and cons, he realized that he kept the silence going for much longer than he intended.
"Didn't they tell you?..." He took a deep breath before continuing. "It was some sort of...organ trafficking thing. I'm surprised no one told you..."
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 9:09 pm
"I haven't been up very long," she pointed out once more. Her free arm dangled over the edge of the bed, seeming nearly limp at the moment. She looked over to the boy in the chair and finally took note of his own condition. Certainly, he was walking around, but not he now seemed winded, as if he had just run a marathon. Despite this observation, she concentrated on each word Topher said, as if some sort of hidden treasure was to be found within his message. At least he wasn't as quiet as the television had been. She couldn't get a headache with how clear his words had been.
His words did pack a punch however. Her eyes shot open wide, shock seeming to overwhelm her still groggy mind. It really was a lot to comprehend after everything that had happened.
Wait, everything that had happened?
As the girl sat there, she began to try to remember what had happened. She remembered a school. She remembered meeting many friends there (including the boy sitting across the way from her right now). Yet, they were vague memories at best. The arm she had been using the cradle her chest abandoned its post and soon went to propping up her head. In a tiny wavering whisper of a voice, she attempted to place logic into the situation. "I... I guess they... they didn't mention it b-because th-they are s-so busy here."
Unable to hold her head up, she flopped back into the bed and sighed out "Wow! No wonder Mommy and Daddy looked s-so sad!" She took in a few deep breathes, trying to calm herself, but there was a hollow sort of ache as Yvette pulled the air into her lungs. After those few attempts, she gave up and just glanced over to Topher.
"I. I'm glad you are d-doing well, Topher. Um." She paused for a moment, glancing up to the ceiling as if it would have the words she wanted to say written there. "C-can you tell your Mom 'thank you' for me? For the cookies?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 10:25 pm
Well, that did make sense. She'd been asleep. Obviously they weren't going to say anything right when she woke up. Topher rolled his shoulders until he was satisfied by the soft cracking noise. Much better. He would have to remember that there was an apparent knot in his back now thanks to whatever had happened the day before.
It was hard to keep up with a lie when you were bad at telling them. By the end of their conversation, he'd probably have to make up how he was hurt and he had no idea what he would say. This wasn't going to go well at all. "Well, my parents were pretty broken up too. They're just happy you're back and alive..." That sounded like a decent answer even if his voice was trembling a bit. It was the only truth he could draw out of an otherwise completely false experience.
"I'm doing alright. Still hurt a bit but I've got some heavy duty pain meds in my future! I'm glad to see you're doing well too." He chuckled a bit, happy to be off the Barren Pines subject. "And I'll tell my Mom for you. She'll be happy to know that you actually took them. I don't think she would have let me in the car if you didn't take the entire box! I hope they make you feel a bit better. My Mom's baking always makes me feel better!"
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 11:01 pm
Her eyes fell back down from the ceiling and managed to lazily find their way back to Topher. Without thinking it through, she managed to point out "Oh, no wonder you look like you are exhausted!" Three seconds later, her cheeks grew a bit rosy. Perhaps that had been a rude thing to say. It seemed her reaction time was still slightly off, but at least one thing was evident: Yvette was still that quiet shy girl from before.
In classic Yvette fashion, she immediately offered an apology of "Oh, I-i'm sorry!" Meekly, she looked to the ground before looking back up to her friend.
"Um."
She was trying to change the subject slightly, and desperately, she went for one of the first things she could think of. "Y-your mom s-sounds like a nice person!" She glanced to the box he had brought with him, still frantically searching for a decent subject change, then asked "C-can I try one right now?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 11:36 pm
Yeah. That was why he looked so exhausted. Being in pain was pretty exhausting. Pretty damn exhausting at that. Howver, he was able to smile at her comment. "I'm alright. I promise" He said quickly, using a finger to cross his heart like he used to do as a child.
"And my Mom is really nice! She bakes all kinds of stuff around the holidays and gives them out to people! They normally end up being our Christmas presents to other people. At least they're homemade and not store bought stuff. They make decent presents that way." It was so like Topher to ramble on about seemingly nothing. He was the master of subject changes and wore the title proudly. "And please do try one. They aren't warm anymore but I'm sure they're just as good now as they were before!"
The boy bounced a little in his chair, eager to see what she would think of his mothers latest batch. Maybe she would enjoy them as a nice Christmas present when she finally got out of the hospital.
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 11:59 pm
By the time the talking stopped, her cheeks had cooled. The girl looked slightly frail as she lay on the lifted hospital bed, but she managed to hoist herself back up into a partial sitting position. Like a child who had been waiting to get permission to snatch a cookie from the cookie jar, her fingers quickly pulled the box of cookies closer to her body. Yvette had always had a sweet tooth, especially for baked goods, so she could not resist trying at least one cookie right now. Her fingers held onto the edges of the box lid, lifting it up slowly. Part-way through attempting to remove the top, the box got stuck, so she had to partially jostle the package in her hand to help get rid of the top. She put the cardboard lid to the side, nice and neatly next to the bottom part of the box.
She glanced back to the boy, then back into the box. "Topher, did you want to share one?" Shyly, she dipped her head back to facing the container. Her right hand slipped in and plucked out a cookie which was amazingly round, like a perfect circle. Normally only the cookies from the stores were that perfectly round! Holding onto the opposite end of the cookie with her other hand, she snapped the treat into two pieces. She looked back to Topher and held out half of the cookie, while beginning to nibble on the other piece almost like a chipmunk would. She couldn't really reach him, but she could at least try to meet him halfway.
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Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:31 pm
Topher took the moment she used to adjust herself to pull lean back in the chair to rest his arms and back. At least there was a nice soft bed waiting for him at home. Though it didn't distract him from watching her slowly open the box. He really hoped none had broken in his haste. That was the one thing about cookies. They liked to break the moment you weren't watching them. It was like the chemical make-up of cookies just mad them snap in half like thin rice cakes. They were never broken before they were put in the box. As trivial as that sounded, he just wanted to make sure they were as perfect as possible for them.
Thank god! The one she pulled out hadn't broken! He gave a small sigh as she help up the perfectly round cookie. His mother had done it again he supposed. "Well, I'm glad they didn't break like before. My Mom's baking has withstood the test of the box," he said brightly, leaning forward a bit as she broke it in half. Honestly, he'd eaten so many that he didn't think he could stomach anymore. And yet, Yvette would have probably taken some offense if he didn't take it.
"Sure! I'd love half." The boy met her half way, taking the cookie into his hand before taking a small bite that was pleasantly more chocolate chip than cookie.
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Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:45 pm
Her cheeks seemed a bit rosier than usual as he took up the cookie. Her hand withdrew once it was no longer burdened with the treat and gently settled upon her lap. She continued to nibble on the piece of cookie slowly with tiny bites. Nobody could accuse the girl of being a fast eater, or a heavy eater. Even with her favorite foods, like shortcake with whipped cream, Yvette still pecked at it like a bird. It took her nearly 5 minutes to match her bite's crater to the same size as Topher's from his first bite.
"Mommy does not do well with baking. She always has to buy any sort of pastries or treats. It must be nice to have a Mommy that can make the treats herself." Mrs. Weaver could cook meals, and she was very creative with what she made. However, she had no talent for sweet food. And considering the dark-haired girl's sweet tooth, she could not help but mourn this fact of life. It wasn't like they could afford to get too many sweets for her anyways. Perhaps it was the rarity of sweets in her diet that made her crave it more often, but regardless, Yvette liked her sweets.
Her cheeks were still a bit flushed as she turned and smiled to him. "This is very good! Thank you for sharing, Topher!" She continued to nibble the cookie quietly, eyes seeming drawn towards the company she was keeping.
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Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 1:53 am
The bites became smaller and smaller as the pit in his stomach churned. He honestly couldn't eat any more. Whether or not it was from the boxful he'd just consumed or the medication keeping him from crossing the line over to curling up in a fetal position, Topher didn't know. Soon enough, he was starring at the crumbling cookie in his hands like it was the most disgusting thing he'd ever put in his mouth. The small piece of chocolate chip cookie was neglected in his head as he watched her continue nibbling away.
"Eh. It has it's perks but it's a curse too." He shrugged, cautiously disposing of the rest of the cookie in the nearby garbage can. "She can make a great chocolate cake but actual food can be...less than savory sometimes unless it comes out of a box or a can. Macaroni and cheese is pretty much the only thing she can make," he said brightly, chuckling a bit. "I'd rather have a Mom who could cook normal food all the time than one who could only cook sweet things. But I love her and she's the only one I have so I've learned to love whatever she does"
Topher found himself leaning farther forward in the chair to calm his stomach. "Don't mention it. She said you're welcome to come over for more...when you're feeling better of course. We want you and everyone to get better!'
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Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 11:11 am
A look of complete surprise managed to find its way to the girl's features, before she blinked a few times to wash the expression away. "Oh? That sounds like the opposite of my Mommy. She can't bake, but she can cook regular food perfectly fine." Personally, Yvette preferred sweets to regular food, but she couldn't help but wonder now if that would have been different if Topher's mother had been her Mommy instead.
For a moment, she mused aloud "Maybe we can combine our Mommies and make one really awesome chef?... Hmmm... but then we'd also have a miserable cook too... or maybe it would just end up being two average cooks?" It probably sounded very silly, so she ended up giggling a bit at herself and attempted to dismiss such thoughts with a "Oh, nevermind! It was a silly idea!" In an attempt to stop spurting out random ideas, she once more returned to nibbling on her cookie. If she had something in her mouth, she couldn't spout out such nonsense. Her cheeks steadily returned to that rosy color once more as she attempted to keep quiet.
It was strange how Topher was sitting, and in all honesty, he didn't look very comfortable. He had always been an open book about how he felt and rarely tried to hide his emotions. If there was one thing that Yvette was grateful for, it was remembering all of her friends. Unable to keep silent for too long, the girl offered gently in her tiny voice "Topher, are you feeling okay? You don't look very good..." Her tiny lips frowned as her concern for his well being grew. Maybe she had kept him too long with this visit? Oh, how the theories in her mind of how this was all her fault were beginning to stampede through her thoughts. A part of her wanted to ask about his invitation to his house, but her concern prevented her from speaking any further as she watched the boy with her deeply concerned (and expressive) purple-hued eyes.
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