A flash of light flew over his face, causing his eyelids to flutter. A low groan escaped his lips. His head banged, his body ached and he had this gnawing feeling to throw up. He reached for his stomach with his hands but then realized that what felt like a thin thread was fixed to his very wrist.
Where was he?
"Damien."
He tried to turn his head towards the sound of his name but stopped after he heard a little crank. His neck was t supposed to make that kind of noise. And why did he feel as though a thousand needles were being pierced into his brain?
"Damien, wake the fuck up," the voice came again.
"Ugh," Damien groaned softly as he clenched his teeth, forcing his heavy eyelids open. The moment he did so, a bright light poured into his eyes and he quickly shut them back.
"Why is this guy taking so long to fucking wake up?"
"Gerald?" Damien muttered under his breath as he realized he recognized the voice. Why was Gerald here? And where really was he?
With fluttering eyelids, Damien managed to open his eyes, the constant change between darkness and light allowing his iris to adjust to the bright fluorescent bulb above him.
Fluorescent bulb? He didn't have such bulb at home.
Damien turned to his left side slowly, groaning as his bone screamed at him. A small frown formed on his face as he saw Gerald sitting beside him, his forehead creased with a deep frown and beads of sweat running down his forehead. It wasn't until he saw the EKG matching behind him that he finally realized where he was.
The hospital? What the hell was he doing at the hospital?
"Finally awake, huh?" Gerald muttered under his breath as he ran a hand over his wet forehead, wiping the sweat with his palm. "What the fuck were you thinking going up against Richard?"
"Richard?" Damien grumbled as he shook his head slowly. "Who the hell is--"
And then it all came back to him-his girlfriend with a strange, good looking, richly dressed guy, John firing him from work, his going to confront Diana, her denial and rejection, Richard on top of him, raining down blows on his face.
And that was it. He must have gone unconscious after that.
"Where's... where's Diana?" Damien muttered under his breath as he tried sitting up, the metal bed he was on creaking under his shifting weight. "I need... I need to talk to her."
"Lay back down, Mister," Gerald said as he quickly stopped Damien, pushing him back onto the bed. "You're all broken and bruised up. You didn't even ask how you got there. You just gained consciousness and the next thing you think to do is to go meet the fucking girl who rejected you."
"Rejected?" Damien asked with a small frown. "No, she didn't reject me. We just... we just had a misunderstanding."
Just as Gerald was about retorting his statement, the curtain shielding them from the busy aisle of the hospital ward suddenly shifted open. Both turned their eyes to the sound to see a female nurse-blonde haired, green eyed and elegantly shaped-walk toward his bed, a small clipboard and pen in her hands.
"Mr. Damien Damon?" the nurse said as she began scribbling something down in her clipboard.
"Yeah... that's... that's me," Damien replied, his voice barely above a whisper. His head banged and his vision was a little bit blurry, but he could still see that the lady before him was beautiful. And beautiful women always left him speechless.
"Okay, then," she said with a small nod as she dropped the pen on the clipboard and lifted her eyes up to meet his. "How are you feeling today..." She paused, her eyes traveling down. A small frown formed on her face as she met Damien's eyes again. "I would ask that you please have some decency, Mr. Damien, and close your legs," she whispered, her tone completely professional. "I don't think we all want to see what's between it."
"W-What?" Damien stuttered as he looked down at his legs. He was in a hospital gown with nothing underneath it. How did he know? He could feel the cold air from the air-conditioning across the room hitting his open legs. "Fuck," he cussed under his breath as he quickly closed his legs, his face reddening. "I'm... I'm sorry."
"No problem, Mr. Damien," the nurse replied before returning her attention back to the clipboard. "So, I asked how you were feeling today. Are the pains still much?"
"Um... y-yeah," Damien mumbled, his eyes scanning the ward he was in.
The entire place was packed with sick people on different beds across and beside him and doctors and nurses walking back and forth the place. The closed curtain had probably blocked out most of the sound. That must have been why he didn't hear anything.
Suddenly, his eyes met with a bearded, fat man who laid on a bed across his. He wanted to take his eyes away but the way the man looked at him just made his skin crawl. It wasn't until the man smiled and winked that he realized why he was looking at him that way.
He had seen his open legs.
"... and you were brought here by--"
"The fuck?" Damien cussed loudly, interrupting the still talking nurse. Gerald smacked him on the head and the nurse frowned at him.
Shit! He had thought too loudly... again.
"Sorry, sorry," he quickly apologized as he adjusted himself on the bed. "I was... I didn't... Just continue."
"Right," the nurse muttered with an arched brow as she walked towards me. "From the wincing sounds you make whenever you move your limbs, I can tell you're still feeling a great deal of pain." She picked up a syringe and a small bottle from the tray on the trolley beside Damien's bed. "A little toradol should help reduce the pains."
Damien nodded slowly as he watched her inject the syringe into the vial cap, pulling the liquid within. Seeing it was already filled up, she turned to the IV bag beside Damien and shot the drug into it. He watched as the yellow liquid slowly mixed with the clear liquid in the bag before laying his head down on the pillow.
"When can I be discharged?" Damien asked, turning to the nurse. "I need to go see... someone. It's important."
"You will be discharged immediately you're fit to," the nurse answered with a polite smile as she walked away from Damien's bed. "But for now," she glanced at him over her shoulder, "why don't you have some sleep?"
The nurse pulled the curtain, shielding Damien and Gerald from the rest of the ward again. Sighing loudly, Damien closed his eyes as his thoughts traveled back to the scene in front of the café.
Why did Diana do this to him? He thought they were finally getting better. Why did she leave him for... that guy?
Suddenly, his thoughts were cut short as Gerald called his name. Opening his eyes, he turned to him, grunting in response to his call.
"Six hundred bucks, that's how much the bill costs," Gerald muttered as he leaned back on his chair, crossing his hands over his chest. "And you're fucking paying."
Shit.