Starlight

“Name?”

“Rian Dawson.”

Everything is too clean, too white and to be fair, the smell of hospital is not so pleasant. How can all those people work here? The smell fills every cell of body and is stuck in your nose too many hours after you’re already left this place. It’s just unbearable.

“Room 314. It’s on the third floor.”

Of course that room three hundred would be on the third floor.

“Thank you,” Jack smiles at the lady and leaves her in search of an elevator.

When the doors of elevator opens on the third floor there’s doors with number 300 right in front of him. To his right follows number 301, so that’s where he should go. Sickly white walls and light doors all the way down this hall and at the end of it a window. Ever wondered why most of the hospitals prefer white color? Well, that’s exactly what Jack was wondering right now. They should’ve used some happy colors, some yellow would be good enough, but this white color makes everything look so impersonal. Children hospitals use some happier colors and that’s understandable, but do they really think that adults wouldn’t appreciate some more colors here?

Room 314. Should he knock or just walk in? It’s just Rian, but maybe he’s sleeping, maybe he’s not alone.It would be better to knock so he knocked. Lightly and maybe too quiet, but at least he did it. He opened the doors and some part of him was right before. Rian wasn’t alone.

“Just give us one more minute,” this someone said and turned his attention back to Rian.
He definitely was a bit shorter than Jack, but it was more than visible that he took care of his body, maybe more than necessary. Hair kind of short, kind of not, usual brown color. Nothing special, but Rian looked surprisingly relaxed and opened while talking to him.

“Okay, I’ll come back later,” he said and turned around to leave the room. He smiled to Jack and Jack smiled back, but he was more interested in the name tag – Z. Merrick and under that with smaller letters trainee.

As the doors closed behind him Rian’s smile fell and he looked at Jack.

“How the fuck did you ended here and who the fuck was he?” Jack whisper yelled at Rian.

“Apparently your weird pen friend became even weirder yesterday, because that…that wasn’t normal! How could he now something like that? No one warned us about anything! How could he know that, but our meteorologists or someone else who works with these things didn’t know anything! It’sjust…this dude is creepy!” he replied with the same tone, “And that was Zack, he’s kind of my doctor or something.”

“He’s not even a real doctor! You didn’t see his tag? It said trainee!”

“Well, to become a real doctor you need to practice so that’s what he’s doing.”

“And you trust him? He probably doesn’t know half of the shits he should know!”

“What the fuck is wrong with you? You’re the one who always likes everyone.”

“Exactly! And I don’t like him, because you started to like him way too fast.”

“And how is that possible,” Rian reached over to his white [again that color] bedside table and took an apple that was put there.

“I don’t know! You don’t start to trust and talk like that with people you just met!”

“Talk like what?””

“Like you talk with me! You don’t do that!”

“You’re jealous, aren’t you?”

“No!”

“Yes, you are,” Rian said teasingly, “I know you long enough to know when you’re jealous, but don’t worry, no one can replace you. You’re just too…irreplaceable…”

“Is that even a real word?”

“What? Irreplaceable? If it wasn’t then it is now.”

“Mhm…” Jack finally sat down on the Rian’s bed, “soo…what is wrong with you and what happened?”

“Broken leg and some bruises. Nothing more, but they want to keep me here for two more days to make sure there’s really nothing more wrong with me.”

“Right. And what happened?”

“I was on my way home when…everything stopped… I guess you can say it like that, because that’s how it was. Everything just stopped and so did my car in the middle of street and then there were this wind and some tree fell and it happened to fall on my car! And now my car is ruined!”

“And you worry about your car?””

“I liked that thing!”

“Right.”

“What about Alex?”

“What about him?”

“Well, he wrote you that you two will meet after all this.”

“He also wrote that it might take time, that it won’t happen right after that. He might not know where to find me and…”

“How can he not know where to find you if he spent almost every day walking around in your apartment! He practically lived there and now he don’t know where to find you? This dude definitely have schizophrenia or something like that.”

“Will you stop that! Every time we talk about him you come to conclusion that he’s mentally ill!”

“That’s the only explanation I can come up with. Normal people don’t write notes like he does. And about what happened? There’s definitely something wrong with him.”

“Whatever. Call me when you really need something,” Jack stands up to leave the room.

“I actually wanted to know if I could get a ride home when they let me leave?”

“If you change your attitude then yes,” Jack waved him without turning around and left the room, the third room, an elevator and hospital itself. That place is sickening with its white walls, smelly corridors and overly ignorant or positive and friendly employs.

It was surprisingly warm and sunny day after night like this one. You could expect it to be cloudy, maybe rainy but no, Mother Nature beats everyone in this game. It’s warm and sunny and there’s no clouds in the skies. Normally Jack wouldn’t be a fan of day like this one, but after last night he decides that he could spend at least one day like this outside of his apartment. Especially when winter is coming closer and soon there will be no warm and sunny days.

He drives to the closest park. It’s not big and it’s not too crowded. Some couples are walking by the pond in the middle of park, some dog owners have taken their pets out, some people are just sitting by the pond on the benches or grass. He will probably be the one to sit on the bench. He might call Matt and ask him to come here. They haven’t met in a while, they’ve talked on the phone but not met each other. Matt hasn’t even been to his new apartment and Jack has been living there for almost two months now.

He spots some man selling hot dogs and why not to buy one. He didn’t get normal breakfast this morning because the call from the hospital. Okay, hot dog might not be the best food, but it’s good enough to eat at the park. He pays the man, spots one empty bench, closest to him and pulls his phone out of his pocket to call Matt. Watching under his feet as some girl walks by with tiny dog, he presses call button and lifts his head up to properly see where he’s going.

His heart nearly stops as he sees the most beautiful human being ever, sitting on the bench right next to the empty one. How didn’t he see him before? His light brown hair follows every little breeze, successfully hiding his eyes as he watches down at his own hands. It feels like time stops around him. Everyone who walks by throws a little glance at him. He’s not interested in anything around him, but it looks like everyone somehow sees that there’s something special about him and somehow Jack feels like he knows him even though he’s sure he had never seen him in his life.

Forgetting about Matt he puts his phone back into his pocket and walks to the stranger. He might be stupid and make him look like a total idiot, but something tells him that he won’t, that he’s right.

“Alex?”

Notes

I don't really like this one, but I like the next one and I already have half of it written, but I don't know how soon I'll post it...I like to make you suffer ;D