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Lunch was ready, piping hot and freshly made, with tender, love and care sprinked in abundance.

My little episode of nearly getting in touch with my spiritual side still had me reeling, as such, Ash’s long-yearned homemade meals didn’t hit me as hard as it should have. Which honestly, was the sourest note you could start the midday on.

Sera joined in on partaking in lunch, sitting closely and quietly beside Ash, and ever-so occasionally throwing glances at me that knew all too well that my exhaustion had nothing to do with being sleepy.

So, I spoke dead people just now, huh? I seem to remember from a darker, somberer time Ria telling me that was an ability of a Speaker that needed years and years of practice to accomplish, and yet there I was just this morning… effectively rushing toward the finish line without even knowing how to run.

That hissing, it felt like swelling my head threatening to implode from within. If Sera hadn’t jumped in… I don’t even wanna know what the hell would have happened if it went on.

Fortunately, English still seems to be my mother tongue, so that’s good. Just forget it, learn from it, and never fucking do it again.

With an afternoon suddenly free of brewing coffees and blending milkshakes, I figured it was high time I go ahead and pay Tyler a visit.

Turns out, when not in use, Mom’s cloak actually made for pretty good extra cover against the winter weather… or at least until I get around to finally splurging some decent winter attire to wear other than the same old three jackets I’d use interchangeably.

.....

Granted, it does come with the caveat of speeding down the lane looking like a particular brooding caped crusader, but honestly I’d take looking silly and edgy any day of the week so long that I was also warm and comfy.

Besides, I wear it right, then it just sorta looks like a big, baggy coat two sizes too big. Nothing conspicuous about that, surely.

From Amanda, I learned precisely where Tyler had been admitted, and I walked up alone to the hospital entrance to the mellow jingles of festive music echoing sleepily and hollow throughout the reception.

Ash had grudgingly declined the offer to follow along with me, citing herself as still having much to do around the house and that if she were to ‘accept every chance to neglect her duties’, that it would simply be a grievous affront to her sworn pledge as my ever-diligent knight. Making up for lost time seems to be the number one thing on the agenda for her, and nothing, not even I, can deter her purpose otherwise.

So there I went, walking unaccompanied, following the directions of a solitaire-engrossed receptionist up the elevator to the fifth floor ward.

She rose a brow when I told her the name of the patient I was there to visit, it was the suspicious I-don’t-think-really-think-so kinda look which gave me the impression that I perhaps wasn’t the first one to try and get a glimpse of the mini-celebrity in the middle of recovery. After a quick pop-quiz and a brief referral from someone higher however, I was finally given the laminated badge of all-clear.

I could hear the distant roar of laughter the closer I drew to the room at the end of the corridor. Loud enough, certainly disruptive enough to sound roughly like a crowd of at least five. I got nearer, and there I saw the sliding door part open, and in a blended stream of farewells, out emerged a group I vaguely recognized as Tyler’s entourage.

Mmm, names were my kryptonite, umm, Milly, Ditch, Ben, Kave, I think? Whatever the case, we passed each other heading in opposite directions. I caught their eyes, they caught mine, and in a brief exchange of greetings and fistbumps, I asked how their ringleader was faring. One of them, Dilly, I think, just shrugged and told me to see for myself.

“What happened anyway?” I asked.

He just shrugged. From what I could tell, none of them seem to be breaking into any cold sweats or leaking any warm tears. A promising sign, if nothing else.

I reached Tyler’s room, and it was of no major shock to me that the man could afford the luxury of his own private en-suite chamber, complete with a calming, complete view of the entire cityscape and enough room and commodities to very well rival a five-star stay.

As soon as I walked in, I was already anticipating to be welcomed in with cheers and hurrah, and indeed, confined to a bed and through puffed cheeks, that’s exactly what I got.

“Eyy! Big Man! Knew you’d come for me eventually!” Tyler blared, smiling, or attempting to anyway, working his way through swollen lips. His one good eye beaming at me in cheer. “It’s only noon though, shit, am I really that important to ya? I’m flattered. Nice coat by the way, damn. What brand?”

I wasn’t sure if he was just smiling through the pain, but he looked much worse than he actually seemed to be. I don’t know if I’d be as lively if a full quarter of me was covered in welts and bruises, obscured only crudely in layers of bandages. There was a sofa next to his bed, which I promptly plop myself onto, smelling the hazy smell of antiseptic wafting from his dressings.

“You look like shit,” I said, and he feebly chuckled in wholehearted agreement.

“I feel like shit, no kidding,” Tyler said, wincing as he shifted himself further upright. “Is it just you here?” He peered over my shoulder at the door as if expecting it to slide open once more. “Like, you rode solo, sure you got no one hiding back there waiting in surprise?”

“Just me.”

A face distorted as his, turns out, wasn’t much for being expressive, but if it could, I’m almost certain I’d see it form into the shape of disappointment. I’m no detective, but I might have an idea or two as to who he was hoping to see.

“Amanda hasn’t visited?” I said, frowning.

“Nah, not yet. But I’m sure she’s getting there, just gotta work through everything else in her to-do list first. Your girl’s a pretty popular girl in case you haven’t noticed.”

“Tried calling you by the way, you didn’t pick up.”

“No surprise there. Phone’s bust to shit,” Tyler said, nudging his nicked chin over on his right where a shattered slab of glass lay useless and dead on a small table. “It’s cool though. Billy and the gang are off right now to sort all that pain-in-the-ass shit out for me while I focus on not dying here in the meantime.”

“Well, if you can joke like that, safe to assume you’ll yet to live a long healthy life,” I said, breathing a little easier. “How bad is it anyway?”

“Ah, that’s the fuckin’ million dollar question, isn’t it?” He said in a sly snigger before wincing in pain. “Got one website saying I got shot last night, Mitch showed me one saying I crashed my car going eighty on a fifty. Got a journalist trying to find my ass wondering if I got mugged…”

“So which is it, then?” I inquired. “If you ask me, my money’s on something very stupid and foolish.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“I don’t know. Love?” I said. “No one takes a hurting like yours unless there’s a very good reason for it. I’d know. Unless it really is on total accident though, unless you really did just crash your car in a ditch somewhere. But I like to think I know you better than that.”

“Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time I did something absolutely retarded,” He said. “Don’t know if you’ve heard before, but one time right, I actually tried throwing hands with this pro sumo guy and I pretty much just—”

“So was it for something retarded?” I interjected again. “Or was it for something stupid?”

A crude, cryptic smile stared back at me in silence, and Tyler slowly drifted his gaze out toward the winter cityscape.

“You didn’t happen to bump into Amelia any time today, did ya?”

“Goddamn, Amelia. Ahh, I knew it, I called it, goddamn it…” I shut my eyes, smothering into the darkness all the grisly vivid images of what that snarky harbinger of darkness might have done to Tyler last night. “Too far. Okay, she’s gone too far now…”

When I first sic’d Tyler onto Amelia, I did solely out of payback, a petty way to get even with that belligerent piece of soliloquy. But as soon as I knew this might not be a one time fling for Tyler after all, in my blind naivety, I thought perhaps they could work, that maybe all Amelia needed was a little humanity influencing her to get that piece of humility she so desperately needed.

Now, however? After this? I was very aware Amelia had found the whole affair quite tiring, and annoying, but even I never thought of her to push things as far as she had. This, hospitalizing Tyler… was she trying to make a point?

Once I get my hands on her, I—

“It’s not her fault,” Tyler suddenly said, turning back to me this time absence of a smile. “Like, for real. Everything that happened? All me. Point the finger here, alright?”

I scoffed, and perhaps I was a bit too heavy on the cynicism because both his puffy brows furrowed down hard.

“Big Man, I’m really not making any excuses here, you hear me?” He said earnestly, his expression losing all of its mirth. “I get it. The girl can be… trouble. But that really ain’t the case here. I stepped outta line, didn’t listen—bam—paid the price, that’s it.”

“Then help me understand. What happened to you exactly? ” I asked.

Tyler fell quiet again. And more than his wounds, more than his bruises, it seemed the topic was evoking more discomfort to him than anything else. But this vow of silence he was taking was just mounting my suspicions even more.

“Tyler, look … I really don’t know about this,” I said, concerned. “It’s your choice at the end of the day, but is it really worth this? If you keep hanging around her, if you keep wanting to… seriously, is she really that good of a reason?”

“I appreciate your concern, Big Man,” He slowly said. “But really, this whole thing? One-time thing. I’m confident it won’t happen again.”

“That’s not really something you can guarantee.”

“Sure I can,” He smiled, sighed. “‘Sides… after this? You really think she’s gonna want to hang around me again?”

“Well… if you insist, if you ask…”

“Ain’t gonna insist again,” He said, drifting his gaze back out to the gray overcast in the skies. “If she’s gonna see me, I want to see me on her own. No requests, no obligations. I want her to want to. But by the look of things,” then, just as slowly, somberly, he looked back at the sliding door, still closed shut. “Doesn’t seem like that’s gonna be the case here.”

I didn’t have anything else to say. I couldn’t think of anything else anyhow. So for some time, I just simply sat there as company, letting my focus wander in a blur of fuzzy Christmas carols echoing in the halls.

“Know what especially sucks, though?” Tyler spoke again after a while, his voice regaining some of his spry. “Guess where ya boy is gonna be spending his Merry Christmas? There goes all my party plans, I guess. It really do be like that sometimes.”

I snapped out of my stupor, glancing back at him. “How about Den and the others? They’ll keep you company, won’t they?”

“Yeah, over my dead fucking body, they are. We’ve been planning our Christmas Bash for months. Ain’t gonna let it all go to waste just cause I fucked it up. Ain’t no way, they know I won’t have it. They’ll have the time of their fuckin’ life whether they like it or not.”

“Alright, then…” I shrugged. “I’ll come visit you then, huh? Stop by for a bit and—”

“Hell no you won’t,” He snapped, suddenly glaring. “Big Man, you are not stepping a foot in this fucking place. You are going to go out with your girl, you’re gonna treat her for dinner, you’re gonna treat like the queen she is, whoever it is, and you’re not gonna think about me at all, you hear me? I’m good here.”

Such a big heart, such a considerate soul. Seriously, I don’t think Amelia knows exactly what she’s missing here.

I probably spent a good hour just chatting with him about random things. Tyler seemed intent on keeping the topic of Amelia as far from my reach as possible, and yet while it was nice to have the usual, chirpy Tyler back as company… I really wish there was a way to just get him to really talk.

After a while, I noticed Tyler was yawning more often by the minute, his one good eye turning blurry and unfocused ever so occasionally. He mentioned he was on a steady supplement on pills, I’m guessing that was the cause.

Finally, after his biggest yawn yet, I took that as my cue to let him rest in peace. I got up, said my goodbyes, but just as I swung the door partway open, Tyler called out to me again.

“Do me a favor, would you, big man? He said, sinking his head into the fluff of his pillow. “If you ever see Amelia sometime, can you tell her I’m sorry?”

“Sorry?” I paused. “Sorry for what?”

“For ruining our date,” He said through another drawling yawn. “And tell her, would you, if she still wanna… if she wants to… I wanna make it up to her if I could.”

I whirled back toward him, but Tyler had already slipped far away into the merry world of dreams. And I’m just standing there like—wow. Even after all that’s happened, he still seriously wants to go dancing with the devil? A

And people call me suicidal…

Throughout the entirety of the whirring elevator ride back to the ground floor, I contemplated on whether I should pass on his message. Sooner or later, I’m bound to run into Amelia eventually, and when that time comes, I definitely have a few well-chosen words to say to her myself.

The lift chimed, the silver doors began to part, still mulling and weighing between decisions—that was when I saw it, or rather—saw her. Across the way, lurking in the darkest corner of the hall like a sullen, surly silhouette contrasting starkly with the festive air of the hospital walls.

For a second, she saw me notice her, staring at her, and silently, she glided towards the exit, whipping around the corner and away from sight, the slightest flutter of black trailing right after her.

Every action, every movement—intentional. Beckoning, demanding me to follow. But that’s just like her, isn’t it? To have everyone else approach rather than her. Like a pampered little princess to be waited on hand and foot.

Seriously, sometimes I do wonder just what it is Tyler sees in her...

Well, at any rate, it seems like sooner was ended up being a whole lot sooner than I thought.