Noah sits in a chair in the corner, I sit in a chair right next to Cole's bed. He's still asleep. Well, still under anesthesia. I haven't been able to fall asleep yet, my mind is still racing. I lay my head against Cole's hand. I can feel the blood running through his veins in his arm under my ear.
I focus on the ticking clock sound coming from above the doorway. 1...100...300...500... And so on and so on. I think it's about 3AM. I called Cara earlier to tell Mom and Dad about what happened and that I was going to stay here. They said okay and I have been here in this chair ever since.
My eyelids are starting to feel heavy. I feel movement under my head. Slowly, I move my head away from Cole's hand. I watch his eyelids flutter open, he moves just a little. "Cole......Cole, it's me. Meredith".
"Mere..." Cole tries, but he is too weak.
"Don't talk Cole, but I'm here. Your parents went home, they should be back soon. Noah is in the corner sleeping". Cole nods his head very slowly. I hear Noah rustle behind me. I can feel more tears swell up in my eyes.
Cole's heart beats faster as he comes out of anesthesia. His eyes open more. He keeps trying to talk but it fails. He can talk, it's just hard, he is super tired and still partly under the anesthesia. I tell him what happens because he can't remember anything after his last face off at the rink. I told him everything I saw, how exactly it had happened.
As I tell Cole about his accident, tears swell in my eyes as I go. "It's okay", Cole says in a scratchy voice. He lifts his hand slowly to my face. He wipes the tears from my cheeks. I give him a small smile, trying to stop crying.
"Cole", I hear Mrs. Anderson call from the doorway on the other side of Cole's bed. She rushes to him, putting her hand on his cheek. "How do you feel, Sweetheart? Are you in pain?"
"Mom. I'm fine". Cole says quietly.
I hear Noah stand behind me and carry his chair over next to me. "Hey buddy, how you doing?"
Cole looks over to Noah with a small smile. "I don't know.... But I still look better than you". We all laugh.
A nurse walks into the room with bags of fluids in her hands. "Oh, Mr. Anderson. How are you feeling?" The nurse asks as cheerfully as she can.
"No pain, just a little uncomfortable", Cole says, still trying to get all of his voice back.
"Well, that should expected. If you do experience pain, just hit that little button. Me or another nurse will come in and give you some medicine. Hit that button if you need anything. Anything at all", The nurse points to a little remote with 1 orange button on it on the bedside table. Cole nods.
Cole tells his parents to go home and get some rest. He only wants Noah and I to stay because we aren't asking him every 5 minutes if his head hurts or not. After 5 or 10 minutes of arguing, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson finally leave.
"I'm going to go get a coffee. Mere, you want anything?" Noah asks me.
"Could you get me a tea with sugar and lemon, please", Noah nods and heads off down the hallway.
"Tell me what happened, as long as you don't cry. I can't stand watching you cry. You might make me cry, and I know you would not want to see that. I look terrible. My cry is very ugly", Cole says. It makes me laugh, just a little.
I take a deep breath. "Okay, so you remember the face off and you went towards the goal?" Cole nods. "The two defenders seemed to take a liking to you. You and Brandon were traveling down to the goal. The defenders pinned you between each other, when you fell, the first thing that hit the ice was your head. I think you were already unconscious at that point. The ref blew the whistle and all of us were out next to you. Coach and one of the assistant coaches flipped you onto your back. I yanked the helmet off your head. We tried to wake you, but it was bad. We rushed you to the hospital. You were on the bed thingy", nice term right. "And your heart monitor went flat for a moment. They rushed you to surgery. And here we are".
"Do you remember the numbers of the defenders?"
I think for a moment. "I know one was seventeen, and I think the other was either thirteen or thirty one".
"Seventeen and thirty one. Sam and Ryan. Devon's best friends. They are the only other people that know his secret. No wonder they wanted a head trauma for me, they think if they hit some one hard enough, they will forget some long term memory. They do this all the time, to a whole bunch of people. Officials just don't see anything wrong".
"I might regret asking this, but what is the secret? I mean the only person I would tell is Cara, and that's only if he has stuffed animals, we made a bet on it". Cole laughs a little.
"Do you remember when I said that he didn't have a girlfriend for a reason? Well think about it for a second". He says slyly.
No girlfriend..... No girlfriend. "Is he....". Cole just nods. He knows what I want to say.
"There is only six, now seven people that know it. Noah, Me, our parents, Sam and Ryan, then you. He felt like his coach was going to kick him off the team, so he kept it to himself. He just tells people he is too good for some girl. But that's not true". Cole keeps nodding for a second. "My brother, the hockey playing bully, is gay. No one we know is against it if they knew. He just refuses to tell the rest of the family. He's denying himself".
Noah comes back in with a coffee in one hand and my tea in the other. "Thank you". I say smiling up at him, he sits back in his chair next to me. "How you feeling, Sweetheart?" Noah mocks Mrs. Anderson.
"Shouldn't we be asleep or something, I mean what time is it? Mere, have you slept at all?"
I look up to the clock. "It's three-fifteen. No, I haven't. I haven't been able to. My mind has been racing about you all night. Noah fell asleep earlier, so he's had about two hours of sleep".
"Noah, go home. Go take a shower, I can smell you from here. Just make sure your parents know you were out here. The last time crap like this happened, you were grounded from hockey for two weeks last year". Cole says, Noah nods.
"Okay fine". Noah gets up, kissing me on the top of my head. "Keep him up as long as you can Princess. I will be back soon". Noah and Cole fist pump and Noah walks out.
"Meredith, this may be extremely weird and cheesy and cliché, but I do remember one thing while I was unconscious". He looks right at me. "While I was asleep, my mind went through all of these major milestones that come up later in life, and I don't know why either. But I was going to college, getting married, having a child. And my wife was you. So through all of that I realized one thing. I love you".
Do I love him? I think I do. No, I know I do.
"I love you too".
Edited: 3/7/22
YOU ARE READING
Just Another Goal (Counting on Hockey #1)
Romance*Book one of the Counting on Hockey series* To Meredith, watching hockey was torture. But her sister was a hockey player. She wanted nothing to do with hockey, even thinking about it made her angry. But she had her reasons. Starting 10th grade at a...
