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The last time Ellis had been stuck in a hospital room was when he was ten. He tried pulling off a stunt with Keith on his bike and ended up breaking his arm. Thankfully he didn’t have to stay long; just long enough to get his arm in a cast and then he was back at home waiting for his mother to cook dinner. From then onwards Keith kept him out of harm’s way, the only times he ever stepped in a hospital again was when his best mate managed to sustain an injury that required medical attention and even then he didn’t stay too long.
Fast forward 14 years and he was back in a hospital room, laying in the cot, staring at the stark white ceiling and absentmindedly picking at the bandages that covered his forearm. A few days before, Ellis had been working on a car that had broken down near the autoshop, the radiator had been playing up and sprayed fluid everywhere. While the hick had managed to dodge most of it, it sprayed his arm with boiling liquid, turning the skin red and swollen. The memory of what happened after that was non-existent, he had blacked out not long after the coolant from the radiator splashed on his arm. According to Keith, when he visited Ellis in hospital a couple of days later, he had actually blacked out after falling backwards and hitting his head. Thinking back to the incident left a bad taste in his mouth. Unpleasant memories resurfaced and a shuddered breath escaped him as he remebered one time during the infection he’d actually gotten seriously injured.
Before his mind could ponder on the memory any more, the familiar message tone from his phone snapped him back to reality; the bell chime almost deafening in the quiet hospital room. When the screen powered on, a familiar number was displayed on the screen; it was a message from Nick.
"Shit, fergot to reply to him earlier…" He muttered the curse under his breath as he opened the message up to read.
[Why won’t you talk to me]
Ellis’ heart fell as he read the message. He had meant to reply, especially since they had been having some… complications with whatever they had going, but the accident had rendered him unable to do so for a good few days (plus Keith had only remembered to bring his phone to him the day before while he was asleep). He stared at the screen for a moment longer before typing his own reply as best as he could with one hand.
[been in hospital for the past few days. had an accident at work.]
He hit send and sat there, waiting for a reply he knew was going to come, which it did not even a few minutes later.
[Christ, kid, why did you let me know earlier?!]
Ellis averted his eyes from the screen for a second, imagining Nick actually standing there saying it him in person.
[i left my phone in the office when i had the accident. keith only remembered to bring it to the hospital with him today]
He hadn’t really thought to take his phone with him, the car was only a few metres away from the garage, so he left it behind the counter at the shop while he went and checked the car. He really hadn’t expected to get sprayed with boiling hot coolant and blacking out. The phone chimed again.
[For fuck’s sake, what the fuck did you do to yourself?]
Was Nick actually worried? ‘Nah, couldn’t be’ was all that went through the hick’s mind. The conman was probably annoyed more than anything. Ellis and Keith; the idiots who always got into some kind of trouble.
[was workin on a radiator in one of the cars and it sprayed fluid everywhere allova sudden and it went all up my arm. doc says i have second degree burns on my arm and i had a concussion when i came in]
Ellis hit the send button yet again. What else could he say? It wasn’t like he could just spill what was on his mind to the conman, especially not over text messages. He wanted to so badly talk about how the moment the coolant came into contact with his skin it made memories from the Infection resurface, of how a Spitter caught them by surprise and the corrosive green goo came into contact with his skin, the burning sensation as it ate away at it… The memory had caused him to panic, making him stumble backwards and hitting his head on the bitumen beneath him as he tumbled over.
His phone chimed again from another message.
[You’re a fucking idiot, I can not believe that you’ve kept yourself alive for this long.]
Before Ellis could even start typing in his next reply his phone chimed a second and third time.
[If I find out Keith had something to do with this I will fucking murder him I’m serious.]
[Fuck Ellis, you could have blinded yourself, you fucking backwoods abortion.]
A quiet chuckle left the hick’s lips. Maybe Nick was a bit worried, going off of the messages that were shining on his phone screen. It was funny how every time he had an accident nowadays the conman seemed to think Keith was somehow involved. It wasn’t far from the truth either but Ellis couldn’t help but defend his best mate.
[nick, relax! keith didnt do anything! he was the one who drove me to the hospital.]
Ellis sighed, steadying his slightly shaking hand he typed in one last text message.
[look man, i’m ok now aint i? yeah i’m in hospital but i’m ok]
With that he the phone down on the bedside table and attempted to lie back down in the cot. It was hard to get comfortable with the thin mattress and his injured arm still throbbing dully underneath the bandages at the slightest bit of pressure, but he managed.