My Friend Katie

Hello, denizens of Literotica. I have been a long-time reader of the site and finally decided that I would try my hand at contributing. I haven't done any creative writing since middle or high school (a while ago) and I've never tried to write something like this so I would appreciate tips that may help me improve. The story turned out a little lengthier than I planned on, but I didn't want to rush through any points.

As a point of clarification, I used italics in the story to denote when the narrator is thinking to himself where normal font would indicate something being described by the narrator to you, the reader. And then, obviously, quotation marks are for words spoken by the characters.

It should be pretty easy to pick up on, but I wanted to write it out just to be safe.

I'm also trying to figure out how the formatting works for uploading, so sorry if it looks fucked up at all.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story!

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Ow! My head!

Where am I?

A hospital?

Why?

What happened?

Why are the lights so fucking bright?

I immediately regret trying to move my arms to block the light. My right arm sends a shooting pain straight into my brain to decline my attempt to move it. The gasp this caused sent another pain to my head, this one from my chest. Once the pain subsides, I slowly try to move my left arm, wary of another shooting pain. While it feels a little sore, the ache is easily manageable, so I use this arm to block the lights shining in my eyes.

What happened to my arm? Is it in a cast?

What happened to my chest?

No matter how hard I focus, I can't remember why I'm here.

I hear the door open and see a small figure walk in. My eyes finish adjusting, and I realize I recognize the figure.

Katie

Katie is my best and oldest friend so I guess it makes sense she would be here with me even if I don't know why I am here. When my parents died while I was young, her family took me in. When hers died a few years ago in an accident, we realized that we were the only family either of us has left and vowed to stick together and support each other through life. So far, we've managed to keep it by attending the same university, though in different areas of study, but we aren't sure what the future will hold after graduation.

Katie stands at about 5'5", has brunette hair, and rides that perfect line of thin while still having curves. While her face isn't considered conventionally attractive by the common populace, she is still beautiful to me; though her true beauty lies on the inside where she holds the sweetest heart and a penchant for making me laugh. Goofing off with her always made my day better and her presence helped put me at ease even here. I've had a crush on her for years but I'm not about to tell her that and ruin the one close relationship I have left.

At the moment, though, she is just staring at me with a sort of deer-in-the-headlights look. After a few seconds, I try to snap her out of it.

"Katie?"

No sooner has her name left my mouth than she claps her hand over her mouth and a look of huge relief washes over her.

"I need to tell the doctor!" She squeaks and rushes back out of the door.

Well, that was odd.

What the hell happened?

I don't get much time to question my surroundings any further because Katie returns with, I can only assume, the doctor in tow followed shortly by a few nurses. The nurses start taking readings from the various pieces of medical equipment I am hooked up to and the doctor waves a light into and away from my eyes periodically while speaking to me.

"Alex, I'm Dr. Rothman. Do you know why you're here?"

"Not really, Doc. The last thing I remember is studying for my final exams, which I doubt would cause anything to do this." I answer and gesture at my right arm and leg, which I notice is hanging in a sling from s metal stand hanging over my bed.

What could even cause this? I have a splitting headache, what I'm assuming is a broken arm and leg on the same side of my body, and pains in my chest. What, did I jump off a bridge?

Wouldn't be the first time studying for finals made me want to jump from a bridge.

I'm interrupted from my internal joke when a panic-inducing question arises. "How long have I been here? Did I miss the exams?" this last part I direct at Katie; I doubt Dr. Rothman would know when finals are.

"No, Alex," Katie says while giving a half smile. "You didn't miss finals."

"Phew," I feel a small amount of relief at her words. I didn't miss the finals, but that means that they are still hanging over my head. I chuckle a little and say, "You think they'll give me an extension or something for circumstances outside of my control?"

Katie gets a weird look on her face and kind of stutters for a second. At this, Dr. Rothman interrupts. "Alex, we need to talk about what happened."

Katie's response, or lack thereof, is forgotten. I need to listen to the doctor for this part. "Alright, fill me in."

I guess the nurses all took this as a cue to leave because they quickly finished up and left, closing the door behind them.

"Alex," At the sound of his voice, I turn to the Doctor again. "You were involved in an accident."

What the hell kind of accident would do this kind of damage but only affect half of my body?

I glance at Katie and see the mood showing on her face has dropped dramatically.

Must have been a bad one.

"I'm not privy to all of the details," Rothman continued, glancing quickly at Katie, who now looked on the verge of tears. "but I'll tell you what I do know. 4 weeks ago, you -- while not in a car -- were hit by a drunk driver. Judging from your injuries, the impact was primarily on your right side, but you were recovered from the riverbank a short-ways down a hill from where the car was."

"How... what..." I can't figure out what I want to ask.

Really? It's been four weeks? How did I not miss finals? Did they preemptively extend my deadline or something?

The doctor holds up his hand. "Please, Alex, let me finish. There is a lot I need to say but I will be happy to answer your questions once I've given you the rundown."

I shut my mouth and let the doctor continue.

"You might have guessed this part, but your right arm and leg are broken. You also have a few broken ribs on the right side and a fractured one on the left. You had some nasty bruises on your left shoulder and thigh as well, but those faded a few weeks ago. All things considered, these injuries were not as bad as we would have expected from someone who was hit by a car." Dr. Rothman gave a short smile before continuing on. "You've been making good time recovering while you've been here and will probably only need to be in casts for another few weeks, maybe a month. However, there were some complications with your head. During the impact, your head took a serious amount of force, which broke off a few pieces of a previously unnoticed tumor in your brain that lodged in your cerebral cortex -- your memory center. We were able to operate and successfully remove the tumor and its loose fragments, but there was a small amount of damage that had already been caused and will take some time to heal." I guess he saw the scared look I gave him, because he quickly followed this by saying, "We expect that your brain will make a full recovery, but we aren't certain on the timeline."

Dr. Rothman glances at Katie again before continuing. "For the time being, until your brain heals, your memory will likely be on the low end of average. You'll still be able to remember things, but it may take some coaxing to remember. You also have lost memories of a period of time. I'm not sure on exactly how long..." He stops and turns to Katie. "When were finals?"

Katie quickly responds, "First week of May." She looks like she is only barely keeping her composure. I hate that I've caused her such anguish.

Rothman turns back to me. "You've lost approximately 2 months of memories: the month you've been here and a month before the accident. We are nearing the end of June now. If all proceeds as we expect, you will most likely recover these memories over time, but only time will tell."

A beeping sound comes from Dr. Rothman's pocket and he pulls out a small device and glances at it. A worried look crosses his face as he says, "Alex, I'm really sorry but I need to go now. Katie knows enough to answer any lingering questions you may have about your injuries and she is far better equipped to answer questions beyond that than I am anyway."

I am still trying to process this -- that was a lot more information than I was expecting at once -- but I manage to nod and say, "Thanks, doc," as Dr. Rothman quickly leaves the room and closes the door behind him.

After a few seconds, I turn back to Katie. "Katie, I-" she interrupts me by bursting into tears and falling to the left of my bedside, grasping onto my good arm. Stunned, I can do nothing but listen to her sobs and use my thumb to gently stroke the hand that is holding tightly onto mine.

I wish I could comfort her better. I hate seeing Katie cry.

This must have been so hard for her.

Katie's parents were also in an accident as the result of an impaired driver. However, while they had been in a car at the time, they were not nearly so lucky as I am -- neither survived the high-speed accident. It's not a huge stretch to imagine the kinds of parallels her mind has been drawing while I've been here.

"Shh, shh. It's okay Katie, I'll be fine," I try to reassure her. My words seem to have the opposite effect as her cries seem to get worse. I opt to just stroke her hand with my thumb and let her empty it all out.

After a few minutes, Katie's crying turns to quiet sobbing before stopping altogether. She slowly releases the hand holding my arm, but I don't let go of her other hand. I don't want her to go just yet. Thankfully, Katie seems to understand and stays where she is, but she can now look me in the eyes. In those beautiful green eyes, I can see pain, the depths of which I hope to never befall her again.

This is going to be rough, but I have to know.

"Katie, I know this will probably hurt, but I need to know what happened. The doctor kind of rushed through everything and didn't really tell me much about the accident itself." I say quietly, bracing myself for another deluge of tears.

Katie gives a slow, solemn nod and clears her throat. "Sure, yeah. Umm... On June 23rd, we decided to go sit by our favorite river for a little while."

I know the river she is talking about -- it's one of our favorite places to just sit and talk. The section we of the river we sit at is a small segment of rapids, so we can talk about anything and no one will be able to hear us over the water unless they are standing right beside us. There isn't an official parking lot or anything for this section so we'll normally just park on the side of the road and walk down the hill to get there.

Katie looks away as she continues. "We talked for a while and decided to leave when it was getting late. We were getting back into the car -- you on the driver side and me on the passenger's -- when I heard a loud screech. I looked in the direction it came from and there was a car speeding around the turn right behind us. The tires were squealing so I guess it was trying to stop, but it was clearly not going to be able to stop in time and was heading straight for us. I was on the other side of the car and away from the road but you-" I see tears begin to form again in Katie's eyes before she quickly blinks them away, still refusing to make eye contact with me. "You were in the direct path of the car. The car hit you before it hit your car and you landed -- hard -- on the hood of the bastard drunk's car before the impact with your car and the railing behind it forced it to stop. The sudden stop threw you over the railing and you rolled back down to the riverbank where we were just sitting."

Katie finally looks me in the eyes again. More tears had formed but she let them fall this time. "I still remember the sound of the impact like it just happened, but the sound you made when you hit the ground and rolled down the hill will haunt me until the day I die.

She needs another few moments to recompose herself and I continues petting her hand with my thumb until she is ready to go on.

"When we got to the hospital, here, they assured me that, while you looked bad at the time, you would be okay in their care. Over the next few days, they ran all of the usual tests and scans and such to figure out how extensive the damage was. They told me they had found a tumor -- unrelated to the accident -- and needed to remove it as soon as possible. They assured me the additional risk resulting from the accident would be minimal but every day the tumor remained it would get harder to remove, so I let them go ahead. After the surgery, they said that something had gone wrong. They told me that it was nothing major, no long-term damage, they just needed to keep you in an induced coma for a few days so your brain could heal before you tried to use it again. When they woke you a week and a half later..." Katie's voice hitched. This part must have been as rough as the accident itself. "When they woke you, you couldn't remember anything. Alex, I-" Katie's sobs return, but she keeps going anyway; she keeps talking between sobs. "I was afraid you would never remember who you were -- who I am. I thought I'd lost you even though you were sitting right in front of me." Katie needs another few moments to let out her emotions.

I can't blame her. I have no idea what I would do if something like this happened to Katie.

Just imagining that thought and what Katie must be feeling right now is enough to bring tears into my own eyes.

The pain she must have felt...

After a brief time of us crying together, Katie calms down enough to continue. "When the doctor found out you couldn't remember anything, they ran more tests and scanned your head again. That's when they found out that the tumor had left some pieces in your head that were keeping your brain from working properly. They told me and said that they needed to operate again as soon as possible because the fragments could move around and be difficult to track if they left your brain. This time, when you got out of surgery, they told me that the operation on your brain had gone well, but one of the fragments had moved down towards your heart during the operation, so they had to put you under again to remove that one before it reached your heart and caused problems there. They said that you should wake up later that afternoon, but you didn't. They ran some more tests and scans looking for any indications of anything wrong, but they couldn't find anything. Eventually, they said that trying to wake you up forcefully could make things worse and that all we could do was wait. It's been 3 days since then, Alex. For 3 days I've been wondering if you would wake up again."

I give Katie a small smile and look into her teary eyes with my own. "I'm sorry, I got here as fast as I could."

Thankfully, Katie seems to lighten up a little at seeing my dumb sense of humor is intact. She chuckles softly and wipes her eyes with her free hand.

I hate seeing Katie cry. I've probably learned all I need to about the accident for the time being, it's time to move on to a different subject.

"So I apparently don't remember finals week. How did that go?" I asked, hoping finals would be a suitable alternative discussion topic for Katie.

Katie put her head in her hands and shook it slowly. "Ugh, don't even get me started."

Despite her initial statement, Katie did, in fact, get started.

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It has been one week since I woke up. The doctor ran some final tests and, upon seeing their results, said that there is no longer a point to keeping me in the hospital as I could heal just as well at home. The problem with that, though, is that my right side is still in casts so I can't move around very well, not well enough to live alone; the doctor said he would discharge me on the condition that I have a caretaker. Thankfully, Katie was present for this conversation and immediately agreed to be my caretaker. When Dr. Rothman clarified that this would be a serious undertaking and that this would not be easy, Katie reiterated herself in agreeance. Then, she lowered her voice to a whisper -- I doubt I was supposed to hear this part -- and said "I need to do this." I haven't yet pieced together what she means by this, but Dr. Rothman just gave her a quick nod and went into the explanation of everything that I would need help with. Thankfully, I'm left handed so basic actions like eating and drinking are manageable, but I would need help moving around, getting dressed and, most awkwardly of all, bathing. Katie listened intently and nodded as he spoke, affirming that she knows what she needs to do and how to do it.

That conversation took place this morning. It is now late afternoon and Katie is trying to help me get into her house. I've been here many, many times. Sometimes for game nights, sometimes to bring Katie's drunk ass back from a party, sometimes because I needed a friend, sometimes because Katie needed a friend. I've been here enough times that Katie let me lay claim to the other bedroom for whenever I need to spend the night on the condition that I pay for the furnishing; thankfully, she is able to afford rent herself so she doesn't have a roommate who may have argued this point.

The building was clearly not made with wheelchairs in mind, so it is kind of a hassle to get me in the front door. I try to help where I can by pulling myself using my good arm and the door frame or leaning to one side or the other, which hurts quite a bit but I'm not about to tell Katie that, but most of the work is still falling on Katie to get me inside. It takes a while, but I eventually find myself in the living room, still in my wheelchair, with Katie laying on the couch breathing heavily.

"You. Are. A lot. Heavier. Than. You. Look." Katie says between breaths.

I can't help it; I can't let an opportunity for a joke to pass by. I mock being indignant. "I'll have you know that I've been on a diet for over a month now."

Katie gives me a light-hearted chuckle in response. I see her grab the TV remote and she puts on a movie while we rest. Before long, I can hear her breathing deepen. I look over and see her eyes closed and her chest rising and falling slowly.

I'll never get over how adorable she is when she sleeps. And she volunteered to take care of me even knowing how tiring it will be. I don't know what I'd do without her.

I want to take a nap, too, but the wheelchair I'm in is not well suited to that. I get as comfortable as I can and settle for quietly watching the movie.

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The movie is almost over when Katie finally stirs.

"How's it going, sleepyhead?" I ask.

Katie groans in response. I realize then that this is probably the closest Katie has had to a bed in the past month; it's not like the recliners in hospital rooms are all that comfortable.

"What time is it?" she grumbles.

I glance at the clock on the wall by the TV. "About 7:30."

Katie's eyes pop open quickly. "Oh, shit! You're probably hungry. I've got-"

"Actually," I interrupt her before she can start her list of options. "I'm not really all that hungry, just tired. Any chance you could help me move to the bed? I haven't been able to sleep in the chair."