Kyle

                I didn’t wake up so much as got woken up by the voices around me. I cracked my eyes open and immediately the brightness in the room made me wince. This seemed to catch the attention of everyone in the room because they all fell silent and I heard them shuffle close to my bed.

“Kyle?” I heard Danny say in a gentle tone.

“Danny…” I croaked and noticed that my throat hurt a lot along with many other parts of my body. I hadn’t noticed it before but little by little the pain was becoming excruciatingly strong.

“Holy shit, he’s up! Call the nurse you good-for-nothing piece of…”

                But I was unconscious before Danny could finish his sentence.

                When I woke up again, much to my happiness, the room was quieter than it had been last time and my body hurt a lot less. I opened my eyes a little and the brightness in the room didn’t feel as blinding as it had before. I was looking up into the ceiling, a white ceiling, and right then I had a feeling I knew where I was. I turned my head slowly and saw a nurse standing beside me fussing around the IV that was connected to my arm. When she saw me looking at her, she smiled and caressed my forehead pushing my hair back.

“Welcome back, Mr. Harwood. I am sorry about the situation that was going on in your room when you woke up. I have taken care of it and your visitors now have to wait outside your room and can’t enter unless you grant your permission. How are you feeling?” She asked, her expression going from smiling to a frown and back to smiling again.

                Women… I am never going to understand their mood swings.

“Like shit…” I croaked without thinking.

                My throat still hurt, so I cleared it in an attempt to make my voice better.

“I mean, like I’ve been run over by a truck.” I said and it sounded better than before.

“Well I didn’t expect you to feel better after only a week or so after you came in.” She said laughing at my change of phrasing. “But at least you got here in time, a little longer and the damage would’ve been worse.” She added in a grave tone.

                My eye widened. A week? I had been unconscious for a whole week?!

“Ma’am, could you tell me how bad is it?” I asked though I dreaded the answer.

“Well as it is, you’ve got three broken ribs, a lot of internal damage, bruises all over your body, and you will probably have a sore bottom for a while, my boy.” She said in the same grave tone.

“Yeah I can feel the last one already…” I said wincing at the pain I could feel in my poor not-virgin-anymore asshole.

“I am sorry this happened to you. The world government thinks that just because they say homosexuals are supposed to be accepted in society these things don’t happen anymore but they’re blind idiots who see only what they want to see.” She whispered in a bitter tone. She seemed to realize what she was saying and pulled herself together again. “I am sorry about that, I have too many bad memories and sometimes I forget my place.”

“Don’t worry about it, ma’am. I’d offer you my ears to listen but I’m pretty sure my ears aren’t the only one’s listening to our conversation.” I whispered back.

“Probably true, but let’s not continue with that train of thought. Are you hungry? Your lunch is right here.” She said placing a tray with stuff that looked as yucky as puke in it.

“Yes, I’m hungry, and this looks delicious, ma’am.” I said trying to sound as sincere as I could.

“Call me Liz, sweetie, or Nurse Liz. And you don’t have to pretend it’s delicious, I’m not the cook.” She said laughing.

“Oh, great because this looks horrible to be sincere.” I said not hiding my disgust.

“Well it’s food for sick people and you’re sick, so you have to eat it.” She said chuckling.

                I didn’t say anything and just ate my food, which was pretty tasteless. The doctor came in while I was eating and told me the same thing Liz had already told me. She said that I would be staying in the hospital for a while and that according to my progress we’d see how long I had to stay in the hospital. After that she just left telling me she’d come to check on me again tomorrow. When I finished eating, Liz put the tray aside to check my bandages and, much to my dismay, my ‘bottom’ as she called it. When the checking as over, I was red as a tomato and Liz was laughing her ass off.

“Ok, do you want me to call in your visitors?” She said still laughing.

“Who are my visitors?” I asked forgetting my embarrassment and focusing on the dread I felt when I thought about my parents.

“Your parents were here but they left a little while ago to go pick up some clothes, I think. Your only visitors right now are your friends. Do you want me to send them in?”

“Yes, please.” I said relaxing a little because I didn’t have to see my parents.

“Ok dear, I’ll send them in.” She said turning and going out of the room to the hallway.

                A few seconds later I heard her saying something about not behaving and kicking them out again. I chuckled remembering the ruckus when I woke up and winced a little because it made my chest ache.

“Kyle…?” I heard Danny ask with a hesitant voice.

                I turned and saw him standing by the door, looking nervous. Behind him were Nate and Paul, standing a few feet apart from each other. There also was this girl I had never seen before. Her hair was dyed in all the colors of the rainbow and she had quite a few piercings, and she was just as petite as Nate. I guessed they must have been related because she looked a little like Nate. Nate, had his tail out and he was moving it from side to side slowly, keeping his eyes on Paul. I couldn’t help but wonder again just what had happened between those two.

“Hey there, pal.” I said smiling.

                He smiled back at me, seemingly gaining a bit more confidence and approached my bed, the other three trailing behind him. I noticed that Nate was limping and wondered if he was alright.

“You look like shit man.” He said looking me over.

“Well… yeah, I do. I feel a lot like it too.” I admitted, sighing. Then a question popped into my head and I looked at Danny. “What happened?”

                I saw Danny turn red from rage and Nate had to pull him away to calm him down. The girl just kind of backed away and kept looking from me and Paul to Danny and Nate.

“If you don’t mind me butting into the conversation, I can tell you what happened better than Daniel can.” Paul said looking hesitant.

“Sure, I don’t mind. It doesn’t look like Danny can explain either way.” I said shrugging and then wincing from the movement.

“Well, from what I understood, Liam and his buddies were…” Paul started to say but I cut him off.

“I do not need to be reminded of what they were doing and going to do to me.” I said grimacing at the memories and sitting up a bit. “How is it that I’m here? I remember noticing that they weren’t hitting me anymore before I lost consciousness.”

“Yeah, I pulled them off of you. I got there just in time to prevent them doing some serious damage to you, as it is you have three broken ribs, internal damage, will probably be black and blue for a while, and well… you know the other thing.” He said looking away suddenly. I think he was trying to keep me from seeing the fear and pain the memories evoked in him but I’d already seen it.

“But, what were you doing there? How did you find me?”

“Well, I had been talking to the coach, and when I finished, I was walking through the halls and I suddenly heard a scream followed by loud voices. I followed the sound and arrived when they were beating the shit out of you. And well, I returned the favor. But don’t worry, I didn’t leave them for dead, when the ambulance arrived, I told them there were a couple of guys hurt down in one of the abandoned classrooms. I just didn’t tell them which one.” He said and I saw the mischief in his eyes.

“You beat him up good?” I heard Danny ask Paul as he seemed calmer and turned back coming toward us, the girl trailing behind them.

“I sure as hell did! He’ll be in the hospital for a long time.” Paul said a little smug.

“Well that’s great! Now you’ll be suspended for beating the crap out of them, you idiot.” I said matter-of-factly.

“Nope, I won’t.” He said with a cocky grin.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Coach arrived when I was going out with you in my arms. He took one look at you and then looked at Liam and the others and I saw him tense. He turned to me and patted my shoulder telling me, ‘I’ll be sure to tell the principal about this, boy. I won’t let them punish you for putting these bigoted assholes where they belong.’”

“Well, I guess that’s that.” I said relaxing into the bed. “By the way, what was all that yelling about when I woke up earlier?”

                They all actually lowered their heads and looked really ashamed. The girl remained standing a little away from the group, looking at us.

“Well?” I asked returning my attention to the guys. “You gonna tell me or do I have to ask the nurse?”

                They all yelled ‘NO!’ in unison before turning to look at the door as if expecting Satan, himself, to come through that door.

“I-I may have accused Paul of putting you in this state before hearing the whole story.” Danny said sheepishly.

“I may have yelled at Daniel when he started accusing me.” Paul added, just as ashamed.

“And I may have lost my patience and yelled at both of them to shut their traps.” Nate added, with the same embarrassment of the other two.

“Well, will you look at this? You three should be embarrassed! Your little hissy fit woke me up! And I bet not just me but the other patients around here too.” I said looking at the three of them.

                They all lowered their heads again looking as ashamed as the boy who got caught with his hands in the cookie jar. I decided to play a little prank on them, just to have a little fun.

“Oh look it’s the nurse.” I said looking toward the door, which was open and, of course, with no signs of the nurse anywhere, but they didn’t know that.

                They all turned their necks so fast that I heard them all crack, and all three of the guys winced. I burst out laughing but almost immediately I gasped before screaming in pain. They all came forward surrounding my bed, asking me stupid stuff like what had happened and was I alright, and what was wrong. Thank God I had the call button in my hand and pressed it hard. I gritted my teeth as pain started to spread through my chest. Seconds later Liz came rushing into the room and ushered them all into the hall before coming to my side fussing again with the IV. Seconds later the pain was subsiding and my eyelids felt heavy.

“I just gave you something to make the pain go away. It’ll most probably make you sleepy, which is just as well because you need to rest. Sleep now, dear, I’ll tell your friends that they can see you tomorrow when you wake up.” I heard her say, but her voice seemed almost far away as I drifted off into sleep again.