Mr. Brightside - 3. Chapter 3

Mr. Brightside

Chapter 3

Jason was trembling by the time he finished parking at the hospital. Not only still consumed with worry about Shane, he was now freaking out about his phone call with Denise. It was one thing to contemplate breaking up with her in the abstract, but even Jason, with his lifelong habit of denial, knew that the reality would be very, very unpleasant. Even the repercussions from this one phone call…..Oh my god, he thought, she was almost certainly on the phone with her mother right now telling what had happened, that he had cursed at her….or even worse, calling his own mother, with whom Denise was very close. Shit, shit, SHIT, he thought struggling to breathe as he sat in the parked car: What had he done?

On the verge of panic, Jason managed to calm down enough to breathe deeply. As the panic receded, he reached for the phone, ready to call Denise back, to try to mitigate the damage, but before he could turn it on, he remembered why he was here. What was important now. And the thing that was most important right now was finding out about Shane, his friend, who, as far as Jason knew, was still lying unconscious in ICU. Denise could wait, he decided, until after he made sure Shane was going to be okay.

Without too much trouble, Jason managed to find his way to the ICU waiting room. Finding the button to call for assistance, he rang it, and the orderly who answered and received Jason's inquiry about Shane was soon leading a tall, thin nurse in her late twenties with thick, curly strawberry blond hair to him.

“I’m Laurie,” she said. “May I help you?”

“I’m here to find out about Shane O’Neal. He was brought in this morning. How he is? Is he awake? Is he alright?”

“Oh….you must be Jason. Linda let know you would be coming by,” she said. “Look, I’m sorry but since you’re not a relative, I can’t really discuss his condition.” She help up a hand cutting him off as he started to protest. “I can tell you that his condition is stable and since you were able to identify him, the police managed to track down his I.C.E.”

“I’m sorry….I.C.E?”

“His in case of emergency contact. And in this case, the contact actually has power of attorney to make medical decisions. He’s here now with Shane’s doctors. If you want to wait, I’ll be glad to tell him that you’re here. It’s completely up to him, but if he wants, he can tell you more.” She glanced at Jason’s disappointed look. “I’m sorry, it’s all I can do, but I will tell him you’re here if you want.”

“Yes, please.” Jason shot her a quizzical look. “Who is this guy? His boyfriend or something?”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t tell you that even if I knew. In fact, I’ve already told you more than I should, but Linda told me how worried you were about your friend.”

“Thanks, I’ll wait to see if I can talk to this guy.”

“Okay, sweetie,” she said, giving his shoulder a reassuring pat. “I’ll let him know you’re out here.”

Once she was gone, Jason settled in to wait. The large room was pretty empty, but there were a few clusters of people, some talking in low voices, some hunkered down for the duration with blankets, pillows, and electronic devices. He reached for his own phone, ready to go online to pass the time, only to remember that he had left in the car. Sighing, he made himself as comfortable in the upright chair as possible, closed his eyes, and gave into the inevitable rush of memories. He had spent most of the past few years deliberately avoiding thinking about his times with Shane, but now he couldn’t block the memories out.

Jason remembered walking into yet another new school, another new home room and seeing Shane for the first time, the sun streaming on Shane’s honey blond hair, making it shine like gold. The blond boy’s nose was buried in a book, but seeming to sense Jason’s gaze on him, Shane looked up and and Jason experienced the power of those enormous blue-green eyes for the first time.

Jason remembered the summer of freedom between their sophomore and junior years of high school. It had been shadowed by the car accident the spring before that had claimed the lives of Shane’s mother and grandmother, but still that summer seemed almost golden in Jason’s memory. Both had summer jobs, but plenty of time for doing nothing….for long aimless car rides around the countryside, for fishing trips that were mainly an excuse to drink (away from the prying eyes of adults) the beer Shane’s older cousin bought for them on his infrequent trips home, for nights spent just hanging out, looking at the stars, and talking about their glorious futures...

And Jason remembered the night in the spring of their freshman year in college when he realized that what he felt for Shane was more than friendship. He was dwelling on that memory when he felt a presence looming over him. He opened his eyes to see a tall man standing in front of him.

“Mr. Reid,” said a deep commanding voice tinged with an accent that Jason couldn’t identify. “I am Viktor Pamchenko. “I was told you wished to speak to me about Shane.”

Viktor Pamchenko looked to be somewhere in his 40s, with ebony hair touched with silver at his temples. He had a handsome, finely chiseled face, but it was his eyes that were his most distinct feature. Piercing and pale blue, their iciness was made even more noticeable in contrast with his deeply tanned skin. But it wasn’t their color, unique and striking as that shade of blue was that made them so striking. It was their intensity. They bore into Jason like a search beam as if they were examining not just his thoughts, but the depths of his very soul. A bit shaken, both by being pulled so abruptly from his memories and by this strange man himself, Jason sat there silently for a bit before he pulled himself together enough to speak.

“Yes. How is he?” Jason wanted to ask exactly who Viktor Pamchenko was, to demand to know the nature of the older man’s relationship with Shane, but Pamchenko intimidated him. In fact, Jason admitted to himself, something about the man, maybe those wolf-like eyes, scared him.

Pamchenko continued to appraise Jason for a minute more before speaking. Apparently satisfied with his scan, the older man spoke. “He is stable. He has suffered some broken bones and some internal damage, but those are….if not quite superficial, at least not cause for undue concern. The real issue is that he has suffered severe head trauma.”

Jason blanched. He struggled to say something, but he couldn’t. Jason could barely manage to breathe as the bottom dropped out of his world, and the hope he hadn’t even realized that he had been harboring that Shane’s injuries wouldn’t turn about to be too serious died.

Noticing Jason’s distress, Pamchenko continued speaking without waiting for a response. “There is swelling in the brain. The doctors did emergency surgery to relieve it, but it wasn’t as successful as they had hoped, so they’ve decided to put him in a medically induced coma. In a few days, if the swelling goes down, Shane will be brought around and can be evaluated for brain damage.”

“Brain damage? What kind?....oh my god,” Jason stammered.

“At this point, it’s impossible to tell. In the best case scenario, there might be none, or minimal damage; however,......” the raven haired man trailed off. “Luckily, he received almost immediate treatment. But in the case of a head injury…..the outcome is impossible to predict until the patient resumes consciousness.”

“Can I see him. Please, let him see him.”

Again, those search beams passed over Jason, evaluating. “I’ll arrange it,” Pamchenko finally agreed, and his tall, elegant form walked back to the door to the I.C.U. In a moment, he was back, with the redheaded nurse beside him.

“Nurse Nix will take you back,” Pamchenko said, “but the visit will have to be brief. I’ll wait for you here, Mr. Reid. We need to talk.”

Jason followed the nurse through the door, and even distracted by his thoughts of Shane, Jason was struck by the contrast between the dim, hushed waiting room, and the bright white bustle of the I.C.U. Glass fronted rooms were arranged around a large central workspace filled with nurses, doctors and equipment. Laurie stopped in front of one of the patient rooms.

“He’s in here,” she said. “I’ll let you have some privacy.” She held the door open, gestured for Jason to step inside, then silently closed it behind him.

To Jason, it felt almost like he was having an out of body experience as he stood in that antiseptic space staring at the fragile body on the hospital bed. In his 24 years, he had only visited a hospital a few times, and the patients had been recovering from routine ailments, nothing too serious. Nothing like this, with banks of monitors and yards of tubes. Shane was almost invisible under all the bandages, casts, and ventilator.

Shane wasn’t wearing a gown; he appeared to be naked under the sheet that was pulled to his chest, and Jason was horrified by the bruises blooming on the exposed skin. He stood in the doorway for a moment, so sick to the pit of his soul that everything in him screamed at him to run, to get away from this horror, and Jason actually turned and put in hand on the door in anticipation of fleeing, but he stopped.

No. Jason had abandoned Shane before, but not again. Never again. He stood with his hand on the door, breathed deeply to calm himself, and willed himself to turn back around. This time, as he gazed at the battered body on the bed, he forced himself to look past the bruises and bandages, and he found Shane beneath them.

“Hey, buddy,” Jason said softly, crossing the room to stand beside Shane’s right side. “You’ll be alright. I promise.” He looked down and saw the beautiful phoenix climbing Shane’s shoulder. Jason put his hand on it, pleasantly surprised at the warmth of the skin underneath his hand. Warm skin meant Shane was still alive, was still fighting.

“You’ll be alright,” Jason repeated. “And I’ll be here for you. I’ll be here for you as long as you want.” As he stood there by his friend, movement caught his eye. Jason looked up for a moment to see the redheaded nurse watching him intently. As his eyes moved toward her, she vanished, but she returned a few moments later, opening the door and motioning for Jason to exit.

“Goodbye, Shane,” he said. “I’ll be back.”

Jason followed Laurie back through the I.C.U., murmuring a goodbye to her as she held open the door to the waiting area. He saw that Pamchenko was still there, and reluctantly walked over to the older man.

“Come with me,” Pamchenko said, standing. “I wish to talk to you privately.” He turned and walked toward the exit without waiting to see if Jason was following. Jason really wanted to tell this guy to go fuck himself, but his concern for Shane who somehow was tied to this man and his own curiosity compelled Jason to follow Viktor Pamchenko out of the waiting room, down the miles of corridor, and into the pearl gray limo that sat waiting.