It Beats For You

Family

“Hey,” He said slowly after a couple of minutes.

Everybody stayed still for a moment, taking in that he was awake now.

One doctor cleared his throat awkwardly. “We’ll…um…we’ll give you all a few minutes.”

They left the room, muttering about how unhealthy it was to have so many people in there at once.

“What’s everybody doing here?” He asked with a lopsided smile.

You could feel the tension leave the room.

“You’re awake!” Rain said happily. She and Dante hugged him and he hugged back enthusiastically.

“Yeah! So…the treatment worked, then?”

“According to the doctors…if you hadn’t woken up…it would have been the sign that the medicine failed.” Dante explained quietly.

Gerard Way broke the silence after that. “It’s great to see you awake again, kid!” He grinned at Raven, who returned the gesture, a faint blush creeping up his neck.

Mikey Way even spoke. “How are you doin’? We were all kinda sitting around, hoping you’d wake up soon. I mean, we knew you would, but we just…Anyway, it’s awesome to see you’re awake! Oh, and Alicia says hi.” He stumbled over his words a little, a similar blush creeping up on him as well.

Frank Iero’s eyes went wide like a cartoon characters. “Holy shit! Mikeyway talks! Raven, do you know what that means?”

Ray laughed at Iero’s antics.

Raven grinned, blushing a bit more.

“It means, Mikey’s vocal chords aren’t a complete failure!” Frank joked.

Mikey muttered for Frank to shut the fuck up, but of course, Frank just laughed.

“How are you feelin’ dude?” Sammi asked him.

“Like I got run over by a fucking semi. But I’ll get through it.” He laughed along with all of us.

Jinxx piped up. “Beetle misses you, man.”

“I miss Beetle.” Raven replied, smiling a bit. “Can I see him after they let me outta this hell hole?”

“Totally dude! He’ll be stoked!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. I mean, how’s a snake supposed to be stoked about something? Other than food? But maybe I’m wrong.

“We gotta celebrate sometime, bro.” Ashley tossed out there. A few others nodded their agreement.

Rain shot him a look.

“Hey, it’d be clean. No drugs, no sex, a fuckload of RnR and maybe a little alcohol. Not much. I don’t wanna be arrested for aiding in getting a minor wasted.” Ashley quickly saved himself after seeing a second look Rain gave him. “Not that he’d get wasted. Just a little buzzed.”

She seemed semi-satisfied with his explanation and went back to fussing over Raven’s hair and blankets and other little things that normally wouldn’t cause Rain to fuss over.

Everybody gave him at least one hug, and a few came around for more than one.

Raven looked pretty happy that people cared about him for once.

Matt and Craig ruffled his hair and made jokes with him, while Dante, Frank, Ray, and Nick went over guitar methods with him. He talked with Jinxx and Sammi about Beetle and Lydia; Brooklyn demanded to know the next time they’d hang out, to which Raven giggled and said they’d talk about it later when he wasn’t sitting half naked in a hospital bed; Zac and Ashley talked with him about how they’d celebrate that he’s awake now; Mikey Way made him call Alicia and assure her that he’s fine; Jake called to talk to him, and I don’t know what he said, but the kid was having a giggle fit by the end of that conversation, and Jake seemed pretty pleased with himself; Gerard giggled and made jokes with him; Sammi, at one point, asked if he’d do a couple of photo shoots with her, and one where he and Trisha are the subjects, and he agreed, looking pretty stoked for it. All of the Hollywood Waste participants that were there asked him if he’d like to participate in one huge HW video, which made him even happier.

I just talked with him about what I’d missed while I was gone, how he was doing, and then asking if he’d like to go shopping again sometime.

“I’d love to, but I’m gonna have to get a schedule book or something to keep track of all this stuff I’m doing…” He laughed.

“Well, hey, when they let you out, I’ll have a schedule book or a pocket calendar for you.”

“Yeah, and I’m taking you to enroll to finish the 8th grade.” Rain told him.

“Oh. Alright.”

“You need your education, Raven.” She told him sternly.

“I said alright, Rain. Jeez,” He said dragging out the syllables. “Besides…let me have my fun for now. I just kicked HIV. For good. Permanently. Miracle! And who knows…maybe there’ll be cute guys wherever you’re enrolling me.”

We all laughed.

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Things are getting a bit happier! :D