After visiting Mr. Darrow, Yvette had to stop at the bathroom to wash off her face. She hadn't meant to cry, but it wasn't helping that that boy had been so mean to her. It was one thing to tease her about her flowers, but it was another thing to insinuate that she had ulterior motives to visiting the librarian. After wiping away her tears and making certain her skin was no longer puffy beneath her eyes, she once again went back into the hallway. The girl clutched onto the flowers she had gathered, fingers crinkling the foil holding the blossoms together. They aren't that ugly she mused to herself as she glanced to the flowers.
Apparently her timing was excellent, because it was when she looked to those wildflowers that she accidentally bumped into somebody. She let out a squeak, and then immediately began to apologize in one big long word. "IamsosorryIdidn'tmeantobumpintoyou!"
If it had been any other day, running head long into Mr. Lucas Whitaker would have been a death sentence by any means. Today was special case. The slate grey eyes that greeted her were sunken and underlined by dark, heavy circles from lack of sleep. It seemed to take the man a moment to recognize the girl standing in front of him as he ran his hand through brown hair that seemed to be growing greyer by the second.
"You're Yvette right?..." Lucas was normally quick to recognize Topher's friends just because of his line of work but all the stress of the incident was weighing heavy on his mind. Articles about pandemics were easy to write but living through one was hell. Still, it troubled him to see a crying girl no matter what the circumstances. She could have just tripped in the hall for all her knew and he would have still questioned it. Of course, that was highly unlikely considering the mass plague that had his the city. "Someone you know in the hospital I take it?" The man rubbed an eye with his palm before pointing to the flowers in her hand. With everything going on, it was probably the most ridiculous thing he could have asked.
The girl glanced up, her deep purple eyes absolutely apologetic and miserable. The voice was familiar, but something sounded off with the tone. It was only when she saw the face in front of her that she knew who it was. From the very few number of times she had encountered her friend's "Dad," she had gathered he was a very clean-cut sort of man. Yet now, he looked to be in pretty bad shape. People didn't get dark circles under your eyes from being happy.
"U-um... yeah..." It was a bit awkward, since how were you supposed to greet someone like this? "Oh hi, how's the weather Lucas?" It was totally not appropriate at the moment. When questioned about her reason for being at the hospital, she simply offered a steady nod of the head. Yes, one of her friends was here in the hospital, but she wasn't about to blurt all of that. Even now, with Lucas being in such a lackluster condition, there was still something about him that intimidated her. It was obvious that Lucas was here for somebody, but she didn't know who. He was just standing there by himself. No Eva. No Topher...
"I-is T-topher alright?" Yvette was really trying to not give puppy eyes, but at the thought of yet another friend being in the hospital seemed to break any attempt at restraining those ruthless weapons of hers. Once more, her fingers tightened around the foil in her hands.
"This is more widespread than I thought then..." Even though he happened to work for the city, he had no idea what was going on. Being an environment consultant really meant 'the guy you talk to when you want to cut down that tree in your yard.' He'd only heard about it because he'd been at the phone at the time. Lucas wasn't sure what he would've done if he'd found out any other way. His wife had been caught in the middle of it all. His Eva. One of the only government officials who had actually lost someone in what he assumed was some sort of biological attack. Whether it was terrorists or plants that had gotten tired of their human counterparts, he wasn't sure.
At the mention of Topher, Lucas seemed to retreat back even more into his unshaven, broken shell. How could he tell her that her best friend had been much been ripped apart by what had happened. She obviously didn't know if she had to ask. Even the nurses who had attended to his wife knew that the boy had been crushed. He rubbed his upper arm out of nervousness and uncertainty. It obviously wasn’t an easy subject. Grey eyes dulled as they glanced somewhere off her right shoulder as if he didn't want to look her straight in the eyes. Yvette would definitely learn in time that no eye contact was the one way to tell that there was something dangerously wrong with Lucas. His fingers dug into his arm as he cleared his throat. "Eva's in a coma..."
Her puppy eyes trailed along with his eyes, noticing the usually serious man couldn't even look her in the eye. She held her breath, and she felt as if her heart had skipped at least a half dozen beats. It felt like at least half a year had gone by before she got an answer from Lucas, and when she heard the response, her heart might as well have stopped beating altogether.
"...n-no...n-not Eva..." In a childish fashion, some of Yvette's fingers strayed from her flowers and latched onto the edge of the man's shirt. She knew how her friend was. Topher wasn't like most boys who tried to tough things out. No, her friend was the one who actually talked about feelings. If he was ever sad or upset, he let you know. He always wanted to talk about it.
Apparently the girl hadn't run out of tears earlier, for the edges of her eyes began to start dripping salty water again. She wanted to ask so many things, yet her voice somehow seemed to shut itself off against her will. It just felt like the muscles in her throat had tightened to the point of no longer functioning as they should. The one thing she wanted to ask the most, she couldn't say aloud. Instead, with her eyes, she silently asked the question: Can I go see Eva?
When she grabbed onto his shirt, Yvette probably expected him to roll his eyes and place his hands on his hips until she got the message but Lucas did something this time that probably would have made the world turn on it's head. A hand gently placed itself on her head; thumb stroking over the soft purple locks. She could probably see the man's chest skip a few breaths as he tried to calm himself down. Was Lucas actually close to crying? Was he actually seeking some sort of comfort? For a man who always seemed so deadpan and nonchalant, it was like a revelation. "Eva was there when it happened. I got the call a few days ago." Lucas quickly took his hand from her head as if he realized what he'd been doing before continuing. "He's been here ever since. It actually might be good if you came to see him. Might actually get him to move..."
The trip to the hospital room was agonizingly quiet. Mostly because Lucas was trying his best not to show any sort of weakness. It was like he was afraid to open his mouth out of fear of breaking down in front of her. When they got to the door, the small paper label reading 'Evangeline Coral' must have looked more like an epitaph to them both. It certainly felt like one to Lucas. He hesitantly pushed the door open, revealing one of the most painful things that could have possibly happened to Topher.
Eva was stretched out on a hospital bed, her long blue hair in long, stringy, messy bundles the nurses had rigged up in a hasty effort to prevent it from being cut. Wires and small electrode patches ran from her almost dead looking skin to monitors which gave a chorus of low beeps and tones. They were the only sounds in the room aside from the occasional footsteps from outside or a cheery nurse coming to check up on them or offer them food. Topher never took it. In fact, he hadn't eaten anything beyond chicken broth since she had been admitted and he looked like it.
The blue hair boy was curled up in a chair next to her, head resting on his arms by her side, a photograph resting under his right hand. Topher looked like someone who had lost everything like someone who had hit rock bottom and kept on going. The blue haired boy, whose hair actually looked like a combination of wet dog and struck by lightening chic, barely made a move when the door opened. Only his nearly black eyes shifted up to look at the two most important people in his life besides the woman in the bed. He didn't talk. He didn't smile. He didn't blink. All he did was stare.
A small sniffling sound managed to escape the girl's nose, but she seemed to almost not notice the man's gentle gestures. If this was under normal circumstances, she would have blushed intensely, probably jumped back slightly, and then after all was said and done, apologized profusely for someone doing something wrong. She probably would have apologized for moving in the first place. With a saddened nod of the head, the girl followed along with the man, still childishly holding onto the edge of his shirt, as if she didn't want to get lost in the large spooky hospital. She slipped into the room quietly as ever, but stopped shortly after entering.
It felt like someone intensified the gravity, for the moment she saw Eva and Topher, her body seemed to refuse to move. Yvette seemed to freeze in place, and for a moment, she just looked at her friend, the silence easily overwhelming the room. The only thing that seemed to break the silence was the slight push that Lucas gave her. Her foot stepped forward to catch herself from the unexpected nudge, and she somehow managed to let out a typical Yvette squeak. She paused for a moment, but then, seeming to realize that there was nothing wrong with her feet, continued to step forward until she was standing right there next to her blue-haired friend. Awkwardly, her hand reached out to touch his left hand, as if she was almost frightened to do such a simple action.
"I... I'm sorry..." Even in that slightly crackly voice that had somehow managed to shrink even quieter than usual, she was still typical Yvette, apologizing to start everything off. Her fingers squeezed slightly against his hand.
Again, Topher's eyes only followed her as she came to his side until he finally had to turn his head to keep his gaze centered. A strand of hair stuck to his lips as he flicked out his tongue across them. There was an uneasy gasp of breath as his mouth opened. It was obvious that he hadn't done anything even close to talking since he'd been there. A harsh swallow later and the shallow breaths began to come back to normal. His brow cocked as he stared up at Yvette, the only hint of emotion was a flicker of sadness behind the midnight blue of his eyes. Fingers gently twitched under her and a fierce crack sounded through the small room as he cracked the knuckles on his right.
"Yvette?..." He coughed a bit after speaking; trying to clear whatever was blocking his vocal cords and forcing his voice to be less of a whine. Of course, it was obvious that she was there. She was touching him after all. Still, he could touch his mother and she was most certainly not there...at least, not in mind. In her was darkness; a darkness that he couldn't understand or see. All Topher knew was that she'd lost that little spark of life that followed her everywhere. Even though he was looking at her the flesh, Eva was gone and she might be gone forever.
Just like dad...
His fingers dragged along the photograph under his hand as tears that he didn't know he had let started to well in his eyes. How could she leave them? Dad wasn't important at the moment. He was fine. He'd left them already. Yvette barely registered to Topher anymore as he thought about this unearthly betrayal. Beyond the point of being able to hold any semblance of stability back, tears already started streaming down his cheeks. The, thankfully copied, photograph crinkled under his hand as his head dropped back on his forearms, shoulders trembling under the force of his sobs.
Yvette should have known better. She wasn't a very strong person. She was the one who had just cried because some boy had insulted her in another one of the rooms. The dark-haired girl cried when she was happy and cried when she was sad. What should have made this whole situation different? She attempted to say "I'm sorry Topher" but her voice decided to shrink away again, evaporating at her lips into a scratchy wheezing sound. Her eyes wanted to remain on his, but the expression was something she had never wanted to see in her lifetime. Yvette was the one who was supposed to cry, not her best friends.
She attempted to distract herself by looking over Eva's sleeping body. It was odd and unsettling for the small girl, and her fingers clutched onto her friend's mildly twitching ones. She had never seen this woman look so peaceful, and if it wasn't for all the different gadgets connected to her, the shy girl would have merely assumed the woman was asleep. Yet, as she continued to gaze upon the woman, she could feel her legs giving out under her. This is not where Eva should be. Yvette could come up with at least 20 different places where the woman belonged that weren't in this hospital. Thinking of all of the different places didn't help any. It wasn't going to wake Eva up.
Wake up... please...
With that thought in mind, the girl literally crumbled to the ground, knees completely buckling, causing her to land on the ground with a firm THUD against the tile. No, Yvette wasn't strong, she was just a weak little girl and a crybaby who was doing exactly what she was good at. She remained on the ground next to her friend's chair, crying as if the woman in the bed was her own Mommy or Daddy.
Lucas watched the scene like it was some sort of movie. Of course, it had to be the most depressing movie he'd seen in his life. His wife was out cold and the boy he'd taken care of for nearly 14 years was overtaken with grief to the point where he started to worry about Topher's sanity. This girl had absolutely nothing to do with this and yet she'd been sucked into this vortex of loss the family had created around themselves. This shouldn't be happening. He should have been curled up with Eva in his chair in the study trying to read an article while she went on about her day. Like Yvette, he was well aware that a hospital didn't suit his little blue haired angel.
His heavy footsteps sounded like thunder on the clean linoleum floor. It was a pathetic scene if anything. The man slowly rounded the bed, tired eyes focused on the woman in the bed. It had been so long since he'd seen her so quiet. Even in her sleep she was never silent as the dead. Now, he didn't even know if the sound of her breath was organic. It could have been caused by anything the machines in the room. Nothing here was hers expect for the empty shell of her body. Lucas placed a hand on Topher's back, fingers digging into the fabric.
It was like there was nothing left to do but cry and Lucas was trying his best to defy that energy. He kneeled down next to Yvette, his hand grasping her shoulder like he needed the support himself. "It'll be okay." Every word sounded as if it was forcing it's way through a knot of air in his throat. It was odd to see Lucas emote in any sort of way beyond confusion or disdain and even that was rare in itself if it was beyond a raised eyebrow. "Eva will wake up and our lives will go back to normal. Everything will be okay. It will be. It has to be..." The emotion pouring out of Lucas' weak encouragements was so out of character that it wouldn’t be hard to suspect that someone who actually cared had replaced him. It was definitely the first time Yvette would ever be introduced to the side of him Eva had fallen for in the first place.
If the girl had been standing, she would have easily buckled under the man's weight. Even from her spot on the floor, Yvette still couldn't hold up the weight, wincing under his hand. She attempted to rub away her tears, but found her efforts weren't really helping all that much. All it was doing was making her eyes redder. Though the dark-haired girl couldn't turn off the waterworks, she could still listen.
There was probably a part of her that was completely in shock that this man in front of her was the man who had intimidated her so much on Valentine's day. It was almost like looking at a different person as she looked into his dark eyes. Sure, he still had the same gray eyes that Lucas had, and the same brunette hair with gray working its way through the roots, but the expression on this man's face was much softer than what she was adjusted to. Her fingers shyly managed to find this strange man's fingers which were upon her shoulder and gently touched. No, she wasn't close enough to this man to comfort him by stroking a thumb over the back of his hand, but she could at least let him know she was listening.
Yvette opened her mouth and attempted to speak, but instead a tiny cough escaped from the depths of her throat. She was still too damp to speak right anyways. Since her voice couldn't tell him, her fingers curled against his. Mommy says everyone will wake up... Even at the age of 18, as a young adult, this girl still believed in everything her Mommy said. No matter what her peers said, no matter what that boy in Mr. Darrow's room said, no matter what the world said, Yvette still sincerely believed whatever her Mommy said.
Eventually, the girl weakly attempted to get up to her feet, and with a little assistance from Topher's "Dad," she was on her feet, but just barely. She looked her friend over again, finding that his condition really hadn't improved any. Then again, her own condition had gotten worse, so it would make sense that he wasn't doing any better.
I probably am not helping any she mentally whimpered. This time, with her tear-blurred vision, she managed to catch sight of something she hadn't seen before. The blue-haired boy had something in his hand. Cautiously, her fingers reached to touch his shoulder. Her voice still hadn't recovered, so she pointed to his occupied hand.
(Still a WIP)
