At some point he must have fallen asleep, for when he awoke the room was pitch black. His head pounded, and he rolled onto his side to assume the fetal position. It wasn’t numbness that coursed through his veins, but something more akin to white noise that periodically got reception from a station; disorientation tinged with vague familiarity. A medically induced coma would have been a much kinder way to endure this, instead of being forced to process the grief head on.
The door opened and light flooded in from the hallway, but he remained still. Footsteps crossed the room, and something was placed next to his head on the nightstand.
“You awake?” Jodie whispered.
“Yeah,” croaked Mitch. She moved to the other side of the mattress and lifted the cover of the duvet, then slid underneath it. They lay in a companionable silence for a while, until she asked, “Do you need a hug?”
“No, I’m alright,” he answered. “I um…” he trailed off and held up Cendre, wiggling it back and forth to make the arms flop about. “I got him back.”
“Oh shit! I want a snuggle buddy!” Leaping out of bed, she turned the lamp on then grabbed the pink Care Bear from off of the dresser; it was a gift that Mitch had given to her well over a decade ago during a rather trying episode in her life, and he had included a note with it that said ‘Look, she’s a girl and she’s gay, just like you!’. To that day, Jodie still claimed it was the nicest thing that anyone had ever done for her.
While she retrieved the bear, Mitch stared vacantly ahead, until something red in his peripheral vision caught his eye.
“Why’d you put this here?” Mitch reached out and picked up the apple on the nightstand.
“Huh? Oh, Avi said that he didn’t want you to forget about that.” She returned to the bed and turned the lamp off. “I told him to not get his hopes up.”
“Well maybe I’ll eat it then,” Mitch indignantly retorted.
“Good! I wish you would!” Jodie snapped back.
“Fine!” The apple was brought to his mouth, and he sunk his teeth into it. The smell was nauseating, his esophagus fought to choke it down, and his stomach was on the verge of rejecting it, but he’d managed a successful bite.
“Did you just eat out of spite? Is that all it took?” marveled Jodie.
“Barely,” Mitch deflated. “I regret to report that food’s still very unappetizing.”
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“Aw, hun,” she tutted. “It’s not gonna be like this forever. It’ll get easier.”
Setting the apple back on the nightstand, Mitch couldn’t help but be bitterly disappointed that he couldn’t handle another bite. “I really hope so,” he sighed in defeat.
----------------------------------------
The next few days would be uneventful to most people, but Mitch was relieved by the first taste of normalcy since the injury. He was able to work on his own laptop instead of constantly borrowing Jodie’s, he dressed in his own wardrobe instead of the few emergency garments that he’d picked up from Target, and the first follow up appointment for his rotator cuff went well. It still hurt when the doctor moved it, but apparently he was exactly where he needed to be for healing. A text was sent to Avi saying that he’d been cleared to start PT, and Avi responded with a coffee cup emoji. “Dork,” Mitch muttered under his breath, but couldn’t hold back the smile that crept onto his face.
“What’s got you all goofy?” asked Jodie once Mitch was buckled up and they’d departed from the patient discharge area.
“Nothing,” his head shot up, and he felt like a deer that’d had lights flashed at it. “Hey, could we stop by Starbucks before we go home?”
No questions were asked, but he’d been the recipient of a gnarly side-eye when he deviated from his usual order; however, he grabbed a caramel Frappucino for Jodie, and whatever possible comments she would have mustered appeared to be placated by this tribute. It wasn’t until he’d been dropped off at the house and he saw the blue Honda Fit in the driveway that it dawned on him that he didn’t even check to see if Avi would even be there. Or if he’d actually be available to start that day. But the coffee could be considered future payment, and certainly it wouldn’t go to waste. This wasn’t something worth stressing over, he decided.
Avi was nowhere to be found downstairs, which again, did not merit fretting about. Mitch shoved aside various clutter that was strewn about the kitchen table and placed the coffee on the newly cleared spot, then picked it back up when he worried that the condensation would form a ring on the wooden surface.
Agitated and wanting to be rid of the drink, he wandered upstairs and until he was outside of Avi’s door. His knuckles rapped against the solid wood, and again, he raked himself over the coals for acting without any forethought. This probably could have been handled with a text, he didn’t have to deliver it personally.
“Hello?” Avi’s voice called out.
“Uh. It’s. It’s Mitch.” Mitch squirmed as he recognized that he was so far out of his element. “I have uh-” his tongue was heavy, which was bizarre. It was as though he was back at square one, and there wasn’t any reason for that. “The goods?” was what he settled on, then began to panic when there wasn’t an immediate reaction.
“Oh!” Avi laughed, and a wave of relief washed over Mitch. “Give me a second, OK?”
“Sure,” Mitch nodded, trying to keep from fidgeting as he waited. He wasn’t trying to snoop on purpose, but he was certain that he could hear Avi talking, concluding with a soft ‘OK, love you. Talk to you later.’. The door swung open, and Mitch recoiled as far away from it as possible.
Avi appeared from the other side and gasped, happily exclaiming, “My co-pay!”
“If you’re busy, we don’t- we don’t gotta do this right now.” Mitch handed it over, trying to calm down. A sip was taken, and Avi flashed a grin.
“No, I’m good to go if you are. Wanna go hang out in the living room?”
“Yes.” Mitch gave several hard nods.
“Cool.” Avi smiled and shut the door, then gestured for Mitch to lead the way.