I woke up on Sunday with a start. Today was the day of Mrs Woods' surgery.
I got ready quickly and had breakfast with Kate, Angie, Beth and a few other girls. Since they all knew Archer had an emergency back home, and they also knew I was aware, they kept on asking me.
"Vivian, is Archer's mum okay now? Or is she... you know...not?" Alia Ahmed asked me tentatively.
I sighed. I was tired of answering their constant questions. "She will be okay, I'm sure of it. Now I have to go, it's getting late."
I bid goodbye to my three closest friends and set off for St Mary's.
°
I spotted Archer and his dad on the third floor lobby. They were talking to a doctor, who seemed to be explaining something in great detail.
I decided not to disturb and waited a few feet away until the doctor had left. Then I walked up to them.
"Hey," I greeted Archer who was standing closer to me. He turned around and gave me a tired smile. "Hi."
Mr Woods also smiled at me. "Thanks for coming, Viv."
"When's the surgery happening?"
"In around an hour, max. They're getting everything ready. It's going to be a complicated surgery."
I gulped, and nodded. Here comes the anxiety.
"Your parents have visited twice over the past few days," Mr Woods said.
I nodded. "I know, they're very worried. Today they can't come, unfortunately, but they've blown up my phone with texts, asking me to give them updates."
He smiled. "I know I've said this umpteen times before, but I can't thank you all enough for standing beside us during this time."
"Mr Woods, you'd do the same thing for us."
He smiled. "You're right. Okay, now I need to go to the reception once for some formalities. You two stay here."
Archer and I sat in silence on the shiny steel chairs. We waited.
Archer was the first to break the silence. He asked me quietly, "What do you think will happen today?"
I looked at him. "Your mum will fight, that's what'll happen. And she'll win this fight. She'll come out of it looking as good as before, and she'll scold you for worrying so much."
He cracked a smile. "You sure know how to cheer people up."
I grinned. "One of my many specialities."
His eyes suddenly widened. "You'd said those exact words to me when I'd said you were a huge chatterbox, remember, when we first became friends?"
No, I didn't remember. "Um, no. Had I said that?"
"Yeah! And then I'd snorted and told you it wasn't a speciality, and you'd punched my arm and called me a good-for-nothing brat. I remember thinking, yeah, this girl is crazy."
I laughed. "Really? I'd called you a good-for-nothing brat just because you said that?"
He started laughing too. "Yeah, you've called me many names over the past year and a half."
I smiled at him. "Guilty as charged."
We fell into a comfortable silence as we recalled those times, when we'd been so carefree, happy, and so in love. It felt strangely good thinking about it. It made me feel as if I was still in that happy place, without complications, without mistakes, and without misunderstandings.
After around forty minutes, suddenly many doctors and nurses came bustling out of the ICU. Mr Woods also emerged at that moment.
"It's time," one of the doctors, who I presumed was the head, said. "Ms Woods will be taken to the OT now, and we'll begin. The surgery will take approximately three hours. We'll request you to wait here, and please be calm. This is a risky operation, but there's no need to panic. We have experienced surgeons on board, and we'll do our best, sir."
Mr Woods nodded mechanically, his face already pale. Archer had gone absolutely still.
Two minutes later, the nurses wheeled Mrs Woods on a stretcher, towards the OT. This was the first time I was seeing her post the accident. Archer and his dad had seen her through the ICU door, and had been allowed to visit her once or twice, even though she'd been unresponsive. But I hadn't seen her until now.
Her eyes were closed, her face was extremely pale, devoid of any colour. But there wasn't really any visible damage on her face, except a few bruises and cuts.
The real damage had been to her internal organs, which was much worse.
As she was wheeled away to the OT, Archer reached out to touch her hand for a fleeting moment, before it was pulled out of his reach. He slumped down on the chair.
My heart broke seeing him this way.
We sat and waited. Waited and waited and waited.
It was agonising. Archer was painfully silent, while Mr Woods tried to pretend he was calm and talked to me once in a while about random things like how school was going. I too went along with it, to try and make them think about other things, as much as I could.
But it wasn't working on Archer.
After two hours, Mr Woods got up. "It's past lunch time, and you two haven't eaten anything. I'll go get some food from the canteen downstairs."
He turned and left for the elevator.
I whipped around to face Archer, who had his back to me and was deathly silent.
"Archer?" I whispered, putting my hand on his shoulder.
At my touch, he jumped, and turned around. His eyes were glistening with unshed tears.
"What if mum doesn't--doesn't come back? What will I do then, Vi? She's our whole world! She's...she's my mum! What will I do?"
I wrapped my arms around him. "Shh," I whispered. "Don't say that. The best doctors are in there, have some faith in them. It'll be alright, trust me."
The truth was, I couldn't trust myself at this point, but I needed to be strong in front of him. For him.
I broke out of the hug and held his face in my hands. In that moment, he looked so terrified, a tear spilling from his eye, nose red, hair messed up. He looked like he needed me.
I don't know why I did it. I don't know why I even thought of doing it. But I did, and something in me, some electric impulse, made me lean forward.
I kissed his cheek gently, lips pressing against the tear. He froze.
As soon as his body tensed, I realised what a colossal mistake it was. Oh god, what did I do? I just went and ruined whatever friendship we'd been building up!
I withdrew instantly, my cheeks burning, mouth already forming an apology. "I'm--I'm so sorry, Archer, I didn't mean to--"
But whatever else I'd been planning to say flew out of the window, as Archer suddenly closed the little space between us, and pressed his lips against mine.
Now it was my turn to freeze. What was happening? Why was he kissing me? And more importantly, why wasn't I pulling back?!
His lips were chapped, but warm. It was an all too familiar feeling, the one growing in the pit of my stomach.
He pulled apart after a moment, just as instantly as he'd kissed me. It'd been brief, but it felt like a lifetime.
His eyes were wide. "Shit, shit, shit... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't know what the hell I was thinking..."
He looked about ready to kick himself in frustration. I stopped him mid-ramble.
"It's... it's okay, Arch. Don't worry about it. I--I shouldn't have done that in the first place."
My voice came out rushed and my cheeks were red as a tomato, and I noticed Archer's were no different. I looked away, my heart thrashing against my chest.
What just happened? Did I imagine the whole thing?
But it felt too real to be imagined. The taste of his lips still lingered on mine. It was too familiar to forget.
I didn't want this feeling in my stomach. I didn't want my heart to beat so wildly. It was unwanted, unwelcome.
Then why did I suddenly want to go back to that moment again?
a/n: well well well, who saw that coming? ;)
i couldn't find a gif so i had to insert the whole video. open this video above and go to 0:44 seconds to see what lorenzo zurzolo (on the right) says. that is exactly what i have to say about this chapter.
drop comments on your reaction too!