Charlie’s POV

I did try to go to sleep somewhat on time instead of spending the whole night with Charlotte, because I would have things to do the next morning. And it wasn’t just the lack of sleep that was getting to me, I was sure that my condition and the treatment did nothing to help with the growing sense of fatigue that was building up nearly every single day.

Charlotte was nervous, and I couldn’t blame her, because I was too, but hopefully things would go according to plan and no one would be hurt by the end of this.

By the time I woke up, both my parents were already busy with whatever they were doing for dinner tonight. My dad seemed to have realized that the dinner was likely the bigger deal and had decided to help Mom out.

Suzy arrived sometime around three in the afternoon.

“Hey- how’s the new job going?” I asked her.

“It’s going good,” she said. “Are they-”

“Yup, already here.”

“Got it.”

Suzy and I helped the best way that we could think to.

The last thing to be ready was the tree. It was set up near the staircase, and was still missing some decorations.

“Hold on,” I said. “I’ll get the star.”

I ran up the stairs, and started to lean over to place it on top of the tree. Now, maybe it was because I was still tired, or just not paying attention, but I ended up leaning over too much, and before I knew what was going on I fell. It felt like it was nearly instantaneous, as one moment I was reaching for the tree, and the next, I was suddenly lying on the floor, with excruciating pain on the right side of my chest.

It wasn’t like I fell a good distance, hardly more than my height, and I think in normal circumstances I might’ve just grabbed a painkiller and walked it off, but I was in a crapload of pain and I was not exactly in the prime of my health. I lifted up my shirt just as Suzy and the others ran to see what the noise was and saw a bruise begin to form.

“I fell,” I said. “Sorry, I wasn’t payin-ouch, attention, but I think I need to go to the ER,” I told them.

And that is how we ended up spending Christmas Eve in the ER.

They got x-rays of my chest, which showed that I didn’t have a fracture. They even went ahead and got a CT- it looked like I had internal bleeding near my chest wall, and because my platelets were low from the chemo I ended up getting two transfusions to bring them up, but they reassured us that I didn’t have anything life-threatening and most likely I’d be good to go once the transfusion was done.

Once they realized that I wasn’t going to die in the next hour or so, I got an earful from my family.

“How could you be so careless?”

“Why didn’t you ask for help?”

“You could’ve just lied down and let us do our jobs! Why’d you feel like you need to do something?”

“You should’ve at least waited for someone to see you doing it!”

“If one of us was there we could’ve caught you!”

“Why didn’t you at least tell you where you were?’

“None of us were even nearby!”

“You could’ve broken your skull or snapped your spine!”

“You need to be more careful if you’re going to be living alone!”

“You scared us so much that I nearly had a heart attack!”

“Who even needs a star on top of the tree!”

“You could’ve put the star on while the tree was still lying on the ground! Think!”

“You’re lucky you didn’t puncture a lung!”

“You’re already getting weak as it is!”

“Stop adding fuel to the fire!”

“You really need to relax more!”

“And get a good night’s sleep, is that why tumbled off there?”

“Stop taking these risks!”

I was assaulted with words like these until finally the hospital security had to come by and say that we were making too much noise. Then, my family, realizing that they couldn’t really blame me any more for what had happened, decided to do the next best thing - blame my father.

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“Why did you even bring the tree in the first place?” Mom asked. “And why not help him out when he was setting it up?”

“I would have if he had asked, I brought the tree just to lighten the mood!”

“And we’re in the ER right now on Christmas Eve - is the mood light? Maybe if-”

“Mom, relax, this is my mistake, not Dad’s,” I said. “And look, I know I did something dumb - but it’s not like I haven’t fallen before. It’s just the fact that my platelets are low - I probably should’ve been a bit more careful, that’s all.”

With that, the situation was somewhat diffused and my family decided to relax a little while one of the transfusions ran.

I then realized something… yes, I was forgetting something! Something extremely important!

“Hey- do you know where my phone is?” I asked them.

“You must’ve left it on the table back home,” Suzy said. “I didn’t see it on you.”

That was right, I had left it on the table and of course hadn’t taken it with me when I was brought here. “Can I borrow yours?” I asked Suzy.

“Sure, why do you need it?” she asked.

“Just, I told Charlotte that we would be home tonight,” I told her. “But we aren’t. I think she might have even showed up and we weren’t there…”

“Oh, right,” Suzy said. “Yeah, let her know.”

I took her phone and then remembered that Charlotte’s phone had no SIM card in it and I wouldn’t be able to make the call without- no wait! Hadn’t Charlotte tried to call Suzy? Right, the week that she had visited Suzy was…

“Uh, what are you scrolling through on my phone?” Suzy asked when I hadn’t made a call for about a minute.

“Relax, I’m not going through anything else, I just… I don’t remember her number by heart, but she called you once…” I said. I then found an unknown number that had called her around that time, and I dialed it. There was ringing until someone picked up and a familiar voice answered. “Hello?”

“Charlotte, it’s me, I’m calling though my sister’s phone,” I said.

“What happened? I thought we were going to show up, but you never messaged me. I got worried and went downstairs and didn’t see anyone. I didn’t even understand what was happening,” she said, sounding quite worried. This was probably one of the exact situations she had so often fretted about - that something would happen to me and she would have no way of knowing.

“Yeah, I fell,” I said.

“You fell? How?”

“Well, it’s nothing serious, but I was trying to decorate something and lost my footing. I’m in the ER now because I need a few transfusions, but if everything’s good I’ll be home tomorrow. Is that alright?”

“...alright then,” she said, her voice sounding soft and distant. Once again, I was left wondering what her real feelings on the matter were. But there was a limited amount of things I could talk about with Suzy in the room. I disconnected and handed the phone back to her. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” she said.

The transfusions were done by early morning and my counts had gone back to normal, though this still meant that my family had spent the entire night in the ER. We all went back home, and once we were there everyone collapsed and went to sleep.

Well, everyone except for me. I had already had enough sleep as it was, but the thing was that it was daylight now. There was nothing I could do for Charlotte but go upstairs and tell her how things were.

“Sorry Charlotte, I’m good and I’m back, but we kind of ruined our plans to tell them, I’m sorry… but they’re all still here,” I said.

I had little to do but continue reading the book that Charlotte had found, and I managed to finish it before Suzy woke up, and said that she had to be on her way.

“Yeah, sorry, I would stay longer but I just can't be here overnight,” she said. “I have to get back to work the day after tomorrow, and I need to get going this evening.”

“You sure? Can’t stay another day?”

“No, sorry about that,” she said. “Hey- do you think I should just leave now? I mean, before Mom and Dad wake up? They are really going to give me a hard time for leaving like this.”

“Sorry about the whole thing in the hospital last night,” I told her. “I mean, I know I completely ruined our Christmas.”

“No, you didn’t, you just fell,” she said. “And sorry that I exploded on you like that back in the ER.”

“No, I get it,” I said. “But stay at least for Mom’s dinner, she worked hard on it - and it should still be sort of fresh for now. She won’t forgive you for missing that.”

“Alright,” she relented. “Is Charlotte coming tonight?”

“She uh, might,” I said. I honestly didn’t think it was the right time to bring up another bombshell given how tightly wound everyone else was - I didn’t know how much stress my family could handle.

“Alright, fine then, I’ll stay for a while,” she said.

“Yeah, plus, we can meet up later,” I said. “And there’s always next year.”

She nodded, and pursed her lips, but didn’t say what we were both thinking. The off chance that I wouldn’t be around at that time. “Don’t worry,” I reassured her. “I’ll get through this.”

My parents woke up sometime after noon, and it was clear that they were also kind of befuddled by the change in their sleep cycles.

We did have ‘Christmas Dinner’ sometime in the afternoon, and the food was great as expected.

“Sorry for causing us to miss the celebration yesterday,” I said. “I know you guys didn’t want to spend that night in a hospital.”

“You don’t have to apologize, Son, and I’m sorry about going off on you - we really shouldn’t have done that.”

“No, I get it,” I said. It was their bottled-up worry that had released itself in that moment.

“How is your bruise now?”

“Uh, still there,” I said. “Doesn’t hurt that much anymore, but it feels… off, like I have something on my chest that’s weighing me down.”

“Yeah, just… be careful next time. They’re not making you do stuff at work that’s dangerous, are they?”

“No, they have me working the desk.”

“Good, good.”

My sister did leave after the meal, and as expected, my parents were giving her sort of a hard time about it, but she had to leave nonetheless.

We waved her off, and my parents stayed the night before leaving the next morning. Charlotte didn’t reveal herself, and I was okay with that. It was fine to tell just Suzy, or Suzy and my parents, but telling just my parents was asking for trouble in my opinion.

“Take care,” my mother said while she hugged me, being careful not to put too much pressure on my chest. “And be careful- no more risks like that again.”

“Yes, I know,” I said.

“And about your grandfather,” my father said, as if he had suddenly remembered it. “He should be able to come around in a few weeks - though he’ll probably call you or drop a text.”

“Great, I look forward to it,” I said. “And hey- let’s do this again sometime. You know, without the going to the hospital part.”

That got a bit of a chuckle, and I watched them drive away as I went back inside and went to sleep.

Gosh, while having them visit was a nice change, it was also exhausting. Not to mention we hadn’t done what we had set out to do… though I only had my own carelessness to blame for that.