Runner-Up - 6. Chapter 6

At five thirty in the morning, Kyle could only feel that his night had been too short as he got up. He at least, was able to see the silver lining, which was his last day of work. He also reminded himself that, being a Sunday, it would be a slow day, for better or worse.

It was indeed a slow day at work and unfortunately, it had an effect on Kyle that got him extremely bored at times. He quickly got angry at himself for not having thought to bring anything else to do at work.

When the time came for his second break came, Kyle didn’t waste any moment. As soon as he was outside in the clear, he called his boyfriend.

“Morning Ryan!” he said as soon as it stopped ringing.

“Hey! How’s work going?”

Kyle immediately recognized the half asleep voice.

“Did I wake you up?”

“Nah, I was already awake. I’m just still lying in bed.”

Ryan lied, he had been finally sleeping a little after having only slept on and off all night long.

“Ah okay, good. Be happy that I didn’t call you two hours ago as I had wanted.” Kyle teased him.

“Things are that bad at work today?”

“Are you kidding me? I’m sooo bored, you wouldn’t believe me. I don’t remember having received any call for special order or late department change.”

“Well, that’s bad, I guess.”

“So, you gonna do anything special until I get back?”

“I don’t know. I kinda feel strange. I’ll probably just stay home, relax and play games.”

“Hon, what do you mean, you feel strange? What’s wrong?”

Kyle was getting a little worried.

“I dunno, I’m most likely coming up with something and I didn’t sleep that well last night.”

“Aww, then yes, stay in bed and rest some more. I’ll let you go, I need to get back inside anyhow.”

“I’ll see you later!”

“Yeah, you will!”

With that said, Kyle hung up the line and went back inside.

At the end of his shift, Kyle didn’t waste any time to get the hell out of the hospital and on the road. All the way home, he really hoped that his boyfriend was feeling better than when he woke up. He wanted to be able to really enjoy some quality time with him before he needed to leave for work.

As Kyle arrived home, he immediately found Ryan in the living room playing video games. He didn’t let Ryan put his game on pause, and went directly for a big hug.

“Hello to you too!”

Ryan had time to finally put his game on pause when Kyle let him go.

“Did you get bored?”

“Maybe!”

“Oh, how many times?”

Kyle had a habit of taking care of business when he had nothing to do or when he was bored. When Ryan discovered that, it became their special way of asking the question.

Ryan was afraid to give the real answer to that question.

“Twice!”

“Already!”

Kyle was somewhat disappointed, as he knew that his chances had dropped considerably.

“What can I say, I was alone and horny.”

“It’s alright. I guess it means that you’re feeling better now.”

“I guess, still feel strange, but I’ll be alright.”

“Good then, you want to keep playing or do you want us to do something?”

“I thought we could maybe go to the mall.”

Ryan tried to make his best boyish, I-want-something look. It didn’t take long for Kyle to read into it.

“What game did you see and want to get now?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Oh, please! I know you.”

“Kingdom Heart is now available.”

Kyle knew that it would make his boyfriend happy if they were to go and get that stupid game. However, he was loathing the fact that if they did, it would probably mean that he'd lose his lover for the next few days, or until he'd finish the game a first time.

Kyle couldn't help it but to cave in.

"Alright, but you better be extra good to me."

Ryan didn't have to be told twice, as soon as he received the go ahead, he saved his game and quickly prepared himself to go out. He wanted to make sure that he wouldn't give time for Ryan to change his mind.

As they were about to walk out, Kyle thought that as much as he wanted to make Ryan happy, he really wanted to do something with him. He therefore thought about one condition.

"You know, yes we can go and get that game, but I do have one condition."

"What is it?"

Ryan seriously hoped that it would be a simple one. It would be too bitchy if he couldn't get the game after they were all ready and about to go out and get it. Sure, he knew that nothing was stopping him to simply go and get it by himself the following day, but it wouldn't be the same thing.

"I want us to take our time and walk to the mall. I want to hang out with you."

Ryan let a sigh of relief.

"Of course we can!"

He went and kiss Kyle before opening the door for him.

Kyle led the way, taking the longest route to the mall. That way, he gained a little more time talking about work, listening to Ryan bitch about work and how it will be boring with their mandatory meeting later.

Due to the detour that Kyle had them take, they arrived at the mall by the entrance that was at the complete opposite to where the game store was. It allowed them to linger around some more before reaching the store.

To Kyle's surprise, Ryan even suggested to stop for a coffee. Since he didn't really feel like having one, he declined the offer. They finally walked into the store where Ryan took some time to browse the other titles available before getting his game and paying for it.

They took the direct way home on their way back as they both knew that it was getting somewhat late and time would run out.

"You're not thinking about opening it right now, are you?"

They had just arrived at the condo and Kyle noticed his boyfriend reaching for the game.

"But!"

"Sweetie, you'll need to leave in an hour or so. You don't have time. You'll put in the game, the system will need to make an update, and then you'll probably have to install the game too. By the time it will be ready to play you'll need to leave."

It might have been exaggerated a little, but Ryan knew that his boyfriend was right.

"You've been really good, I might let you play it when you get back, as long as you don't stay up all night. Beside, you're off tomorrow, you'll have all day." Kyle continued.

"Okay then."

They ended up watching some TV, cuddling until Ryan finally had to leave.

After Ryan left, Kyle wondered for a while what to do. He had already done all of his readings and work assignments for Monday the previous day and didn't feel like doing more school work. His thought therefore went, despite the early time, to look for something to eat.

At first, he didn't see anything interesting as he opened the fridge. On the second look, he noticed that he had some spaghetti sauce remaining. Not wanting to look further, he settled on making pasta.

Having decided on watching a movie, he went back in the living room, as the pasta was cooking, to look for which one. He ended up deciding on a romantic comedy, The Last Holiday.

A few minutes later, he was back with his plate, installed himself comfortably in front of the TV with the light dimmed and started the movie.

After the movie ended, Kyle became extremely bored, having nothing specific to do and not even knowing what he felt like doing. He knew that he still had at least a good hour until his boyfriend would be back.

Knowing that he wouldn't get an answer immediately, he still decided on bugging Ryan a little by sending him a text.

'The meeting isn't too boring?'

Surprisingly, he received an answer in less than five minutes later.

'Help me! I hate those stupid role playing simulations!'

'Don't worry, you should be done soon. That means you'll be here before you'll know it!'

Ryan didn't answer right away. In the meantime, Kyle continued losing time on Facebook and chatting.

Later on, Kyle finally received the text he had wanted to get for a long while now.

'Yay! I'm done, just need to get my bag checked and I'll be free!’

Kyle could now expect his boyfriend to be back in a little more than half an hour, given the metro schedule on a Sunday night. He decided to go in the living room, flip the TV on the news and wait.

Kyle didn’t notice the time pass by when his cell rang. Strangely, he saw on his call display that it came from the hospital. Wondering who could possibly still be there at that time and call him, he answered.

“Hello?”

***

Kyle drove to the hospital on autopilot. As he pulled in the parking lot, he almost wondered how he got there.

He walked in by the main entrance, taking out his access card to be sure he wouldn’t be bothered by the security guards. He navigated through the empty maze to reach the emergency.

He went directly to the nurse station. He was about to ask for information when he saw Jennifer coming up to him barely containing her tears.

“Kyle! I’m so sorry!”

Kyle tried as much as possible to stay in control of his emotion.

“Jen, what happened?”

“He was just ahead of me when we crossed the street when the car ran the red light. He had no chance to step out, it was horrible.”

Kyle felt sick to his stomach.

“Where is he?”

“They rushed him to the O.R., he’s still there.”

She brought him back to the empty seat next to where she was. After a while, he realized that he was waiting in the emergency room, with a girl, who was simply Ryan’s friend from work.

“You know, you don’t have to wait with me.”

“It’s alright, I don’t mind, unless you prefer for me to go?”

As Kyle wasn’t answering, Jennifer stayed and gave him a long friendly hug.

“It will be alright.”

After what seemed to be an eternity, one of the nurse came and pulled a chair next to them.

“You’re Ryan’s family?”

Kyle managed to sit up straight for a moment.

“I’m his boyfriend.”

The nurse wondered a moment.

“Ryan just came out of the operating room. He’s back in.”

Kyle was about to get up to his feet, intending to get to his boyfriend’s side, but the nurse stopped him.

“We do allow visitors in the back, but only one at the time.” She finished her sentence looking at Jennifer.

Kyle barely had the voice, but managed to answer.

“Yes, thank you.”

The nurse got up to leave the two of them alone for a moment. Kyle looked at Jennifer.

“Get back home, I’ll be alright.”

Jennifer somewhat reluctantly agreed and got her things to leave as Kyle followed the nurse to the back.

“Do you want us to contact his parents?”

“They’re away, it can wait for now.” Kyle answered.

“Alright, Ryan suffers from multiples internal injuries and broken bones from the accident.”

“Will he be alright?”

Kyle asked the question he really wanted to know from the moment the nurse came to talk to him but was too scared to ask.

“I won’t lie to you, it’s still too early to tell, we still need to monitor closely his vital signs and look for possible internal bleeding.”

Hearing the answer didn’t really help him to feel better.

Ryan had his hospital bed in a secluded area, next to it, there was a chair where Kyle went and sat still fighting some tears that came up as he saw his boyfriend lying in bed.

Kyle didn’t know what to say, or even if there was any point for him to try and talk to Ryan. Still he moved the chair closer so that he could whisper to him.

“Ryan, please don’t leave me, stay strong, you can get through this.”

Kyle stayed there without moving, holding his lover’s hand. The nurse and the attending doctor regularly came to check up on Ryan.

It was still very early in morning when Ryan started to have trouble breathing. Moments later his blood pressure dropped significantly prompting his monitor to start beeping.

The nurses rapidly came to Ryan’s bed with the on guard doctor on her tail. It didn’t take more than a few seconds for them to know that it was definitively serious. They immediately rolled him away.