he could. Noah was injured, so Alex had to be the strong one and not have a panic attack by his boyfriend’s hospital bed.
“The last thing I remember is arguing with my mom,” Noah replied. His eyelids were drooping, and it looked like he was about to fall asleep again, but before he could, the door of the room opened, and in came a doctor, followed by Noah’s mother.
“Oh good, you’re up,” the doctor said in a voice so cheerful that it made Alex wince. “I’m just going to check you over once more, and then we can talk about releasing you.”
“Great,” Noah said just as Helen said, “I think it would be better if my son stayed for another day under observation.”
“I’m fine!” Noah said and threw a sharp look at his mother.
“You were hit by a motorcycle. You’re far from fine.”
Noah winced as the doctor started prodding his collarbone with the tips of her fingers. She’d pulled the hospital gown aside, revealing a nasty road rash that covered a large part of Noah’s shoulder and looked bright red and painful.
“You can’t even move an inch without recoiling in pain.” Helen paced in front of Noah’s bed and kept an eye on Noah’s doctor, who worked quickly and efficiently, clearly trying to cause as little pain as possible. She didn’t seem that bothered by the way Helen kept hovering over her shoulder, checking her work.
“To be fair, since we opted for the conservative method and didn’t use plate fixation, it’ll take a couple of weeks for the pain to start receding. In addition, clavicle fractures just hurt a lot, and there’s not much we can do about that.” The doctor sent Noah a cheerful smile. “It’s one of those things where you just have to tough it out, I’m afraid.”
“As long as I can go home and do it there.”
The doctor finished checking Noah’s collarbone. “How’s the head?”
“Fuzzy,” Noah said. “Hurts.”
“Do you remember anything of the accident?”
Noah shook his head but was forced to stop almost immediately since the move was clearly too painful to handle. “The last thing I remember was paying the bill in the restaurant,” he said in a tight voice.
The doctor nodded. “It’s to be expected with a concussion. There might be gaps in your memory, fatigue, difficulties to focus. Some people have trouble with their balance, headaches—it’s hard to tell which symptoms you’ll experience, since it’s very individual, but those are the main ones.”
The doctor continued looking Noah over, and Alex listened carefully to the instructions she gave about handling a concussion.
“Right,” she said after she was done. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it: making a full recovery takes months, and it’ll hurt for quite some time, but I don’t see a reason to keep you here. Familiar environment usually helps more than hospital walls.” She picked up a folder she’d placed on the bedside table earlier and took out a sheaf of papers. “These are your care instructions,” she said and held them out. Alex was up like a shot and grabbed the papers from her before Helen could react.
Noah’s mother looked at him, blinking like she was confused about what had just happened.
She looked between Noah and Alex. And then she turned toward Noah. Her voice trembled as she said, “It might be better if you stayed with me. At least for a few days. It would be better for you to be around somebody who’s familiar with your condition.”
Before Alex could reply, Noah spoke up. “I’m going home with Alex.”
Helen licked her chapped lips that, by the looks of it, she’d chewed on until they bled. “Noah, please,” she said so softly that it was hard to hear her over the sounds of Noah’s doctor moving around the room. “I… you… you need to think this through.”
“I’m going home,” Noah repeated. “With Alex.”
“You have a concussion,” Helen said
“Exactly. A concussion, not brain damage,” Noah said tiredly, closing his eyes. “I’m a grown man, and if I say I’m going home with my boyfriend, then there’s not much you can do about it.”
Helen must have seen something in Noah’s eyes because, after staring at her son for a long moment, she finally nodded and looked down at her feet.
“Right,” the doctor said, and for all her cheerful attitude, even she was starting to look like the general misery in the air was getting to her. “The instructions cover all the basics, but you cannot read them yourself because of the concussion. You’ll