When Best Friends Kiss

The Recovery - Part 1

"Liam! Alex!" The bedroom door smacked against the wall as Lily burst in. "Tía Rosa!"

Liam sat up from beside me, throwing the sheets over my face. "Lily, oh my god, knock!"

I sat up drowsily. As the sheet fell off my chest, Liam stretched out his arm to cover my naked upper half, apparently not minding his own.

I slapped his arm away. "The hell? I'm not some woman."

"Still―"

"I know what sex is." Lily rolled her eyes. "You don't have to hide. Anyway, Tía Rosa woke up!"

Immediately, I picked up my phone to check for messages.

"Didn't you just come from school?" Liam asked, staring at her backpack still on. "And what about volleyball practice?"

"No messages," I told Liam.

"¡Ay!" Lily pinched her thumb and forefinger together and shook it at us with each syllable as she said sharply, "¡Tía Rosa se despertó!"

My phone was already to my ear as I called my mother.

"Hello?"

"Mom, Lily said Tía woke up. You said you'd tell me—"

"Rosa? I was just in there. Nothing's changed."

I glanced at Lily in the doorway who was bouncing on her toes. "We gotta go to the hospital! Hurry and get dressed!"

"What are you talking about?" my mom asked. "You said Lily said it? Wasn't Lily at school until now?" My mother started muttering about how she was worried for Lily as Liam tried to send her out of the room so we could get dressed.

"Why don't you just go see, Mom?"

My mother paused. "...I'll go. Just to calm Lily. And you can tell her your tía is still asleep."

Liam had finally gotten Lily out of the room and the door closed. He tossed me my trunks as he grabbed his jeans.

"We're going to come to the hospital."

Mom sighed heavily.

"Lily might need to see for herself." The truth, though, was that I was hoping Lily was somehow right.

"Okay," my mom finally agreed. "I have to go now. No phones allowed back there."

"Okay, Mom. I'll text you when we get there."

Ten minutes after hanging up, the three of us were getting into the car.

"Seatbelt, Liam," Lily told her older brother from the backseat.

"Oh, sorry..." As he buckled himself in, he glanced at me with a raised eyebrow, eye-gesturing to the ten-year-old. I shrugged.

Driving towards the hospital, my heart fluttered with a strange nervousness. What would I do if Tía really hadn't woken up? Would the disappointment crush me? Or was I less hopeful than I thought? And surely, if Lily was right, Mom would have texted or called me by now.

After we parked, Lily rushed to the hospital doors, book bag bouncing. Liam chased after her. "Lily! You never took off your bookbag! He grabbed hold of its top strap to stop her in her tracks. "Take it off. You can't bring that in here."

They fought for a moment before Liam finally got it off her. "I'll go put it back in the car."

Lily pouted and stomped her foot. "I don't want to wait—"

"It should be fine, Liam. I'm sure kids bring backpacks in all the time with stuff to keep them busy in the waiting room."

Liam sighed then slung it over his shoulder. "Fine."