More Than Friends

by Tabetha Thompson

  Come back to me so that I can hold you tight

  I listen to the sweet words, and the desire to watch him sing to me is so strong it becomes a living, breathing thing. It completely consumes me. I want to get up and run to him. To let him wrap me in his strong arms and whisper sweet words of love and devotion in my ear. My body starts tingling and something from deep within me stirs. My finger jumps without my body telling it to.

  The music suddenly stops. “Oh shit! Chloe! Baby, can you hear me? Baby, it’s Skye. Wake up for me! Come on, baby. Move your fingers again!” Skye sounds like he’s about to jump out of his skin. His words come out in one breath of air. The sentences jumble together as if they were one long word.

  The excitement in his voice encourages me to push harder. The rapid beeping I heard before is now filling the room with its loud alarm.

  “Keep trying, Chloe! Don’t give up, baby. Come back to me. I’m going to get the nurse.” I can hear him shouting “SALLY! She moved! Get in here quick! SHE MOVED! I think she’s waking up!” I feel the bed shift and warm lips are on mine. Calloused fingers rake through my hair, slide over my cheek. When his fingers drift to the bottom of my chin, he repeats the gesture. “Wake up, Chloe. Come on, baby!” he chants, still rubbing my face.

  I feel that tingling feeling again, only this time, it’s stronger, pulling me toward something unknown. It’s still lacking something, though. I try to relax and allow things to take their natural course. I know that I need to fight to wake up, but I just can’t.

  I can still feel Skye’s loving caresses, and hear his encouraging words. I revel in the comfort and love he’s providing. I just don’t have the strength to continue, though.

  “Skye I’m going to need you to step out for a moment,” the voice I now recognize as Sally says.

  “I’m not leaving her,” Skye argues.

  “I need to check her vitals. Skye, please step into the hall. Call Sara. If she is waking up, she will be the only person we will be able to release information to, so she needs to be here,” she states with a no nonsense tone of voice.

  The bed shifts and a moment later, the door clicks. “Chloe?” her kind voice calls to me.” I try to answer her but it’s too much. Sally addresses me again, “Chloe, sweetie. It’s okay if you’re tired. You’ll know when it’s time to wake up. Don’t force it and wear yourself out. Rest, dear, you need your strength. We will see you soon.” She pats my hand again. I know she’s right; I’m emotionally exhausted, and with Skye gone, I don’t feel like I have the strength to fight. Right now, I draw my strength from him, and with him gone, so is the strength I need to fight.

  The shrill beeping noise slows, and is becoming further and further away. Soon, I am floating again. Soon, nothing but silence surrounds me.

  “Holy shit! She moved! It was only her fingers twitching, then her eyelids started fluttering, but SHIT, Sara! She fucking moved. Her heart monitor was going fucking crazy! She’s trying to wake up!” I scream into the phone while pacing the waiting room.

  While on the phone with Sara, I placed her on speaker and closed out the screen. I sent a mass text message to those that matter, since everyone left after their visits earlier, telling them what’s going on.

  “I’m on my way back now! Keep me updated. I have to call Tom!” Sara doesn’t even wait for me to acknowledge what she said before she hangs up.

  Doctor Jacobs exits the elevator just as I put my phone away. I rush up to greet him. Once I approach him, he extends his hand. I reach out and shake it.

  “I heard the news!” he says. “I need to get back there and check on her. I’ll be right back out to speak with Sara. Is she here?” he asks.

  “No, but she’s on the way. Thank you so much for well, everything!” I say, excited and breathless. My heart’s thudding against my chest like I just ran a race.

  “It’s my pleasure! I’ll be out in a few minutes.” Damn it. I want and need to be back there with them. I can’t sit out here and do nothing. I once again begin to pace the worn, beige carpet.

  Sara comes flying out of the elevator after what feels like an eternity, but isn’t probably more like a few minutes later. “What’s going on? You hear anything else? Is the doctor here yet?”

  “Whoa, slow down,” I interrupt her. “Yes, the doctor is with her. No, I haven’t heard anything else since we talked.” I point a finger at my chest and continue. “Not the person they give information to remember. He said he’d be out in a little while to talk to you.” I tried not to let my emotions show in my voice. I wanted to remain calm, because I knew if I was worked up, Sara would feed off of my restless emotions and would become worked up, too.

  Sara is a naturally hyper and aggressive person as it is, so I try to remain calm so she will do the same. The day after Chloe was admitted, I was so stress and agitated. I was rude and snapped at everyone that spoke to me.

  I would refuse to leave Chloe’s room, which resulted in a nasty confrontation with security. Sara was there for it all and she was right behind me. She did everything from defend my actions to confront me for being a jerk. The girl was a damn tiger and wasn’t afraid to bring out the claws.

  “So, she woke up? What were you doing?” Her questions interrupt my thoughts.

  “She didn’t fully wake up, but the meds are starting to wear off. I was singing a song I’ve been working on, and when I looked up from my guitar, I saw the fingers on her left hand twitch a couple of times. I got up, went to her side, and begged her to wake up. Her eyelids started fluttering, like maybe she was dreaming, but they never opened. The heart monitor was going ape shit crazy. I called for Sally, and she came in and ran me off,” I explain.

  “I’m so glad you were with her when she started waking up! I would’ve hated myself if she woke up and was alone.” Sara’s voice brakes. I reach out and wrap my arms around her neck to hugged her.

  “Yeah, me, too. I thought I was imagining it!” I say as I hold her.

  “Let’s walk to the nurses’ station around the corner and see if we can find anything out!” Sara states with a shaken voice as she pulls from the embrace and walks off, not waiting for me. I grab my stuff and we head to the nurses’ station. No one is seated at the large desk.

  “Look, there’s the doctor.” She points to the ICU area. Through the windows of the heavy double doors, I see Doctor Jacobs and Sally looking at a chart and talking animatedly. Sally sees us first and smiles, which gets the doctor’s attention. He hands Sally the chart and heads our way.

  Sara is so giddy and doing her bouncing thing again and shit, I don’t blame her. I’m over the moon. The doctor takes in our excited expressions and with a smile, says, “Well, Chloe’s vitals are great. She hasn’t shown any more movement. She may very well be trying to wake up, but I want you to be aware that muscle spasms are one of the side effects of the Propofol, so let’s just take this one step at a time.”

  Sara and I just nod. The doctor says his goodbyes and retreats the way he came. I look at Sara and say, “She was waking up. I know she was. I don’t give a shit what he says about muscle spasms.”

  “Skye, he was just trying to make us aware that the meds cause that kind of reaction. He doesn’t want us to get our hopes up. I wouldn’t worry about it. You know what you saw. I believe you.” She smiles.

  “Thanks. Look, I’m going to run home and get a quick shower. I don’t want Chloe to wake up and mistake me for a homeless person or something.”

  “Yeah, I’ll stay here. Go home, shower, and take a nap or something. The bags under your eyes are going to scare the shit out of her,” she jokes.

  “Damn, tell me how you really feel!” I say, laughing off her smart-ass comment. With Sara, you have to have rhino-thick skin and give it right back to her. We hug goodbye and I run to the elevator.

  The shrill sound of my ringtone wakes me up. Sitting up, I quickly take in my surrounding. SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! I must have passed out. When I got back to my apartment building last night, I went by Ch
loe’s to make sure everything was okay. The only thing that was different was a single rose taped to her front door. I put the rose in the trash; it would die before she got home anyway.

  After checking her apartment, I went to mine. I fixed something to eat, and talked briefly to the guys who were all playing Xbox. I quickly showered. While I was getting dressed, Sara called to tell me they were taking Chloe to get some sort of scan done and she would be gone for a few hours, so I decided I would use the time to catch up on some sleep like she’d suggested earlier.

  Two hours turned into ten, and now, here it is, seven o’clock in the morning, an hour away from visiting hours. Physically, I feel great after catching up on some much-needed sleep, but emotionally, I feel like shit. What if Chloe had needed me? What if she’d woken up?

  My phone starts ringing again. I immediately grab it, answering on the first ring. “Hello?”

  “She moved again! The nurses let me sneak in last night and while I was visiting, she moved!” Very quickly and just as passively Sara says, “Oh, and she said your name. But the important thing is she’s trying to talk and move! Get your sweet ass down here, NOW!” Sara screams into the phone. My heart soars.

  “On my way now. Be there as soon as I can!” I hang up without another word. I’ll apologize later for being rude, but I have to get to Chloe.

  I burst through the elevator doors twenty long minutes later. Sara’s sitting in a chair with her tablet in hand, so engrossed in whatever she is looking at that she doesn’t hear me come up.

  “Hey, anything new?” I ask.

  “OH SHIT! You asshole! You scared the crap out of me,” she says as she places her hand on her chest to still her heart.

  “That was the point! So, what’s the word?” I ask.

  “Bird,” she replies seriously.

  What the hell is she talking about? I raise my eyebrow and say, “Huh?”

  “Bird is the word? Please tell me you’ve watched Family Guy.” She looks at me with raised brows, waiting for me to catch on and it finally hits me. That’s Peter Griffin’s favorite song.

  “You’re fucking stupid! You know that?” I say, laughing at her.

  “How nice of you to notice. What time is it?” she asks seriously, and I can’t pass up the opportunity to give her a dose of her own medicine.

  “It’s half past a monkey’s ass, a quarter to his balls.” I playfully smirk and she rolls her eyes. “Let’s go see if we can sneak back.” I reach out my hand and help her out of the chair.

  “Sure thing, boss!” She mock salutes as she stands.

  Before I can respond, her mood sobers. “You’re good for her; you know that, right?” She gives me a soft smile. “Even if she doesn’t see it yet. Just don’t push too hard. She’s like a damn goat. If you take her by the horns and try to push her, she’s just going to rear up and push back until she tramples you.”

  “Ahhh, so now I know what you do for a living. You’re either a farmer or a goat wrestler,” I kid.

  “Damn, you got me! I run a farm through the week and wrestle for fun on the weekends.” She chuckles and gives me a playful slap on the shoulder.

  Pretending to be wounded, I grab my right shoulder where she slapped me and say, “Shut the hell up and let’s go find someone to give us some information.”

  We make our way to the outside of the ICU unit and Sally comes out, smiling from ear to ear.

  “Sleeping Beauty is moving and mumbling someone’s name again. I think you should hurry up and get inside.” I almost blush at her teasing tone.

  “Both of us?” I ask.

  “Yes, boy! Now get in there! She could wake up at any minute.” I’m so happy. I hug Sally and give her a big kiss on her cheek.

  She playfully swats me away. “Heathen!” she calls out and I wink at her.

  I walk into Chloe’s room, beyond grateful to see that the only machines hooked to her are a heart monitor and her IV. Sara sits at the end of the bed and pulls out her tablet.

  She glances up at me and says, “I usually read to Chloe when I visit her. What do you do?”

  I just shrug and say, “Play music for her.”

  “Well, go ahead and play for her. I can read to her in a little bit.”

  “All right.” I pull my guitar out of the case and start playing the introduction to “I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz. I sing the words to the song, meaning every bit of it. I will never give up on her. The next song I play is by Keith Urban, and it’s called “Come Back to Me.” When it’s over, I look up at Sara see she has tears in her eyes. Feeling the heaviness in the room, I decide to lighten it by playing Brett Eldredge’s “Don’t Ya.” I love playing this song. It’s fun and upbeat and always leaves me in a good mood.

  Before I finish the song, I see movement out of the corner of my eye. I stop singing and turn to investigate. Chloe is staring back at me and my heart stops. God I’ve missed those eyes.

  Sara jumps up and gasps in shock and I reach over and hit the call button to summon Sally. It only takes a minute for her to come rushing in the room and shooing us out the door. We no sooner exit the ICU when Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” signals Brady’s call. I thought I had shut the volume off, but apparently not. I answer with a quick, “Hey.”

  “Hey, man, I’m standing in the waiting room with Detective Sanders. He wants to speak to you and Sara. Y’all comin’ out?” he asks.

  “Yeah, just walked out. Be there in a sec.” I hang up the phone. Sara and I round the corner to see the detective and Brady deep in conversation right outside the waiting room. As we approach I look through the small window on the door that leads into the small room and spot Tom, Harley, and Kasey waiting patiently.

  When we approach the two whispering men in the corner, Sara says, “hey, what’s going on?” by way of greeting.

  Detective Sanders’ head turns and meets my eyes. His dark brown eyes are tired and concerned. “I’ve got some news on Todd Anderson that I wanted to deliver in person.”

  My spine stiffens. “And what would that be?”

  “His blue Dodge has been seen around town, specifically driving past Chloe’s apartment building. The witness couldn’t get a positive ID on the drivers face, but the license plates match. I’ve got some guys out looking for the vehicle. Do you have any ideas as to where he may be hiding?” He looks between Sara, Brady, and myself for an answer.

  I don’t know what causes the reaction, but my attention turns to Tom. His gaze reaches mine, but then quickly turns to the floor. I feel like I’m missing something; this feeling in my gut that won’t go away, telling me not to trust him. I’ve got every intention of finding out what’s going on with him. I just need to figure out how.

  “No, I don’t, but you may want to talk with Tom. He used to be a friend of his, so he may know something.” Sara looks at me and barely moves her head in silent agreement, the motion meant for only me to see.

  “I don’t, either. I haven’t spoken to that asshole since he and Chloe split up,” Sara adds.

  “I’m going to ask you two to have a seat while I speak with Tom,” the detective states.

  “Sure thing,” I say to the detective. Then shout, “Tom!” He stands and approaches me with a nervous look on his face.

  “Yeah?” he questions.

  “Detective Sanders would like to speak with ya for a sec.” I leave it at that.

  “S-Sure,” he stutters.

  Sara and I exchange a knowing look as we walk behind Brady toward Kasey and Harley. “What the fuck was all that about?” Harley asks first when we approach him.

  “They think Todd’s back in town, and wanted to know if we knew where he may be hiding out. Do me a favor - if you see a blue Dodge pickup around the apartment, call me immediately.” They all nod.

  I begin to pace the waiting room. With each lap I make on the invisible track, I inch closer to the two men quietly talking in the corner. I’m left disappointed, the only thing I can hear is a series of mumbled, “no si
rs,” and “yes sirs.”

  Sara sneaks up to my side and whispers in my ear, “I can’t hear shit. You catch anything?”

  I startle a bit before answering. “Jesus, woman; you can’t go sneaking around like that. You scared the shit out of me.”

  “Quit whining and answer the damn question.”

  “No, I can’t hear shit,” I admit.

  Sara huffs, walks away, and sits next to Harley. He looks at her and they share a smile. Harley holds her gaze longer than necessary. My curiosity is piqued at their unusual exchange. I have a feeling something is going on between them.

  “Skye?” the detective calls as he approaches.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “I’m heading out. If you come across some new information please let me know,” he states rather than asks.

  “Sure thing, Detective,” I agree.

  We shake hands. As the detective leaves the waiting room, he pulls his phone out of his pocket, then dials someone as he retreats toward the elevators.

  Tom approaches me as soon as the detective gets on the cart.

  “I'm gonna head out.” He still won’t look me in the eye, small beads of sweat gather on his brow. Although his hands are stuffed in his pockets, I can still see the small tremble in them.

  The sound of him sniffing is driving me mad. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed or not, but I would know that sniff anywhere. It’s a sound that is unfortunately, very familiar from my childhood. Tom’s doing coke, I’m sure of it. I haven’t actually caught him in the act, so I don’t think now would be a good time to call him on it, so I grit my teeth and keep my mouth shut for the time being.

  I hope I’m the only one that notices it. Sara and Chloe have too much going on to add their friend’s drug habit into the mix. Tom turns to walk off. Before he gets more than a few steps into his retreat, I call out to him. “Tom!”

  He turns around, but his eyes never meet mine. “Man, call me if you need anything. I mean anything at all.” That gets his attention and he looks me straight in the face, giving me a questioning look.