Page 31 of Dream Girl

Amelia snatches my face into her hands. The tears in her eyes fall to her chin as she presses her fingers on my skin. The pressure is grounding to the fleeting black dots in the corner of my eyes, and she does her best to not sob.

“Your brothers loved you, I love you, and don’t you ever say that again.” She sniffs, pulling me to her and pressing her lips to my cheek. “They died for you because they loved you and don’t you dare belittle their last effort to save their brother.”

“I don’t know anything about them, but I do know that you love them, and I can only imagine how much they loved you to choose between endangering your life and keeping you helpless. They wanted you to live, and they didn’t hesitate to put their lives on the line to make sure that you were safe.”

I throw my arms around her, reaching deep for her love and solace as the fracturing burden continues to crumble under me. A sob chokes out of my lungs, splintering the silence with the frantic beats of my heart through the machine.

Amelia reaches into the gown and takes it off, and silence comes back to us.

“I love you,” she whispers, rubbing her hand down my side and avoiding the stitches. “I love you so much.”

“I’m not leaving, not now and not ever. I’ll always be with you, always and forever.”

I want to be better for her. I want to heal for my brothers and live on the life for which they sacrificed theirs.

“Thank you, and I love you.”

To Amelia and to my brothers.

Chapter Nine

Amelia

If there were therapy dogs in this hospital, Eddie would fit in without question. No one would raise an eyebrow at a human surrounded by dogs because he is practically one himself.

“When you were sleep, Mel and I watched so many TV dramas.” Eddie sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

I nod with him, remembering the time where I was too stressed about Milo’s unconsciousness that Eddie had to force my eyes on something else. Milo wasn’t going anywhere if I didn’t watch him all night long, but I was irrational back then and thought that he was going to stop breathing if I blinked for too long.

“You should’ve seen us trying to memorize every medical procedure—oh god, it wasn’t even a medical drama anymore. It was just people working in the hospital, having scandalous affairs, and well, drama.”

I blush at the thoughts of people in the hospital right now doing that, but those scenes are only in movies, and it shouldn’t be happening in real life. I peer at Eddie with his yellow scarf around his neck, interlacing his fingers behind his head and grinning widely at Milo who in return simply nods to show that he’s listening.

Milo’s changing. The Milo from before would have ignored Eddie and kicked him out of the room, but Eddie is becoming a part of Milo’s life, and it’s a good influence on him.

“Then Nurse Talia falls in love with the firefighter turned paramedic! I mean, seriously, I get that he’s got this nasty twitch on his eye, but Talia doesn’t have to fall for that flamboyant dude!”

I giggle behind my hand. “Talia loves him because he winked at her.”

Eddie shudders, dropping his arms and rubbing them while shivering. “Every time he does that, I get the chills.”

“I do too,” I admit with a sheepish smile. “He looks at the camera and winks, and that just breaks so many rules of filming, but it still made it into the episode.”

A zipping sound catches my ears, and I turn to Milo as he finishes packing his things into his gym bag. The bag that Eddie had let him borrow because Eddie let him use some of his clean clothes while stuffing my clothes in there.

Technically, it’s Eddie’s little sister’s clothes. They still fit me, so I have to give thanks to her when I meet her, and we will soon since ever since Eddie met us, he had been talking about us to his family. He said that they demand to meet us because we are the first ones to be friends with him as no one wants to be near Eddie’s hyperactive personality.

Eddie says that people in his years of schooling thought of him as tiring. If they think he’s arduous, then they’ll see how exhausted everyone would be when he becomes friends with an equally jittery girl and a man so complex that it puts the Pandora box to shame.

“Before that episode, I didn’t know that a paramedic can diagnose a person with Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria just by looking at the blood oozing out of the cut.”

“TV logic,” I say, shrugging my shoulders and laughing at the constipated expression on Eddie’s face. “And, it was more of a pipe sticking out of her gut, but technicalities for you Eddie.”

“I’m a paramedic in training; I need to focus on details. I’m surprised I even know how to pronounce that blood disease.”

I shake my head while he ponders in his thoughts, spinning to Milo as he slips his jacket over his broad shoulders. The doctor has discharged us and given him directions on the anti-inflammatory medication along with the pain killers, but I know Milo wouldn’t take them. He’s stubborn when it comes to his body, and it’s going to take more than a doctor and some nurses to pin him down to administer drugs.

I would rather him take the antibiotics as a precautionary act, but he wouldn’t listen because apparently, his body is capable of fighting off a little inflammation.

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