Page 92 of Roleplay at Randy's
Should I wait for Elias and Miya to get home? Call and ask what I should do? I don’t want to freak either of them out and ruin their night if it’s nothing … but I’m also not willing to risk anything happening to Cal.
Elias’ phone rings, but it ultimately goes to voicemail.With a shaky breath, I feign as much confidence as I can muster.
“Hey. We had a little bit of an accident. Everything is fine, I think, but I’m taking Cal to the hospital to be safe. I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”
And I hope and pray that Cal will be alright.
22
ELIAS
I’mno stranger to hanging out at the Children’s Hospital waiting room; Cal has a chronic constipation problem where he has to have the occasional suppository to clear him out, so these trips are pretty routine.
This one, however, is not. By the time Miya and I got to the hospital, Matty was a nervous wreck, rubbing Calum’s back as he puked on the bathroom floor.
“What happened?” I crouch down next to Cal while Miya rounds up some paper towels, and it’s immediate how Cal turns and tucks himself into my arms. “Hey. buddy.”
“Um.” Matty looks sicker than Cal does, wringing and twisting his fingers together. “Long story short, I thought Cal may have swallowed my hearing aid battery, so I brought him in. The internet said feeding him honey would help keep any adverse reactions down, so I … force fed him a little too much of it. I think it upset his stomach. After the x-ray, he just started puking and wouldn’t stop.”
Matty finally looks up at me, and his eyes are brimming with tears, bottom lip quivering. “Good news. No battery. I’llhave to scour the house for it when we get—” He cuts off with a sniffle and a shaky laugh.
With one arm wrapped around Cal, soothing down his back, I offer the other to Matty. He lifts his hand like he’s going to take it, but then his expression ripples, and he drops it back to his side. Trying not to let the hurt show, because I’m sure he’s beating himself up enough as is, I put on a smile and press a kiss to Cal’s hair.
“Everyone’s alright, and that’s what matters.”
After a few minutes, we get everything cleaned up, flag down a janitor, and are asked to wait a little longer so a doctor can examine Cal.
Surprise, surprise, he’s backed up again.
Cal isn’t usually tired this early in the night, but the hospital trip plus the vomiting must have tuckered him out, because he’s sprawled across one of the waiting room benches snoring away with his head in Matty’s lap.
The poor kid spent the last half an hour switching between Matty and me before we decided to just sit next to each other so he could fit himself between us.
“I was so scared,” Matty says, the first words I’ve heard from him since the bathroom. “When I couldn’t find the battery, I panicked. I never thought about him being able to get them. I keep my hearing aids as far away as possible …”
His voice cracks, and he clears his throat, though it sounds an awful lot like he’s going to cry again. He’s got his head bent forward, hair hiding his expression, and I gently run my fingers through it to tuck it back.
“This has to be really stressful for you.” I stroke my thumb over the shell of his ear, and he shudders, shooting me a look I can’t quite decipher. “Do I need to pick you up new batteries?”
He shakes his head, knocking the hair loose, and when Igo to touch him again, he takes my hand and puts it back in my lap.
“I’ll have to get a replacement. It got busted.”
“Shit. Matty, I’m so sorry. We’ll get you a new one ASAP.”
Matty lets out a heavy breath, and the sound that accompanies it is small and sad. “I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.”
But I am worried. Because he isn’t acting like himself. I rest my hand on his thigh, and his shoulders tense, and then he’s burying his face in his hands leaving me all kinds of confused.
“Are you okay?”
“No.” The word comes out strangled. “Because Calum almost wasn’t. And he screamed and fought me the whole way here, so I felt extra shitty dragging him down, but I needed him to be okay. There are so many noises. It’s too loud, but I can’t make half of anything out because there’sso much.Splitting my attention between Cal and the doctors meant everything they said was muffled or took me way too long to put together.”
Tears escape through his hands down his cheeks, and he throws his head back to scrub at them with his palms.
“I’m overwhelmed, and I appreciate you wanting to comfort me, but I’m feeling really shitty, and you touching me is just … it’s too much right now.”
“I’m sorry.”
