HIM – STANDING STILL IN TIME

Sprinting down the sidewalk, Aya and Tyson ran frantically, red in face. They paid little heed to the stares of the people, intent on running at full throttle. After a few minutes, a face of relief suddenly sprung on both as they rushed into the hospital, quickly finding the information desk and, after inquiring, bolting away. As they reached the waiting room, they immediately recognized familiar faces sitting around.

“Ty, Aya.” Tyson’s dad got up and gently smiled at the two, while they tried to recover their breath. “Why are you panting? Were you running?”

“Y-yeah, there was t-this, and, uh, car, it, car stopped, traffic---” Tyson stuttered out in-between the breaths.

“Oh my god, it’s third grade all over again! Speak like a normal person!” Tyson’s mom exclaimed.

“…” Tyson glared at her while she smirked.

“Come on, sit you two,” chuckling lightly, Tyson’s dad helped him and Aya sit down, quickly bringing each a bottle of water. “You didn’t have to run, you know? You could have been late.”

“… s-she, she fucking insisted,” Tyson said. “Lunatic.”

“F-fuck you,” Aya mumbled out. “How could… wait… aaaaaah, how could you miss baby’s birth you absolute lowly scum of a human person, she is your goddamn sister you slow-driving imbecile, if you didn’t insist on taking a ‘shortcut’ I wouldn’t be sounding like a chipmunk at three times the speed right about now, fuck you!” Aya listed out in a single breath, causing silence to emerge as everyone started at her for a moment. “How’s everyone doing?” she asked after recovering, smiling.

“Great!”

“Absolutely fantastic!”

“We’re great, yeah!”

“Awesome!”

“Great!” Aya exclaimed after them. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

“Aah sweetie, let me help you to the bathroom,” Tyson’s mom got up and helped Aya, who was barely catching her breath. “Poor girl, Ty should have carried you here.”

“Oi, do I look like the Thing to you?!!”

“Well, you are a bit green in the face,” his oldest brother, Bret, said, smirking. “So, more along the lines of a Hulk.”

“I very much doubt it, seeing as I’m beyond pissed off at the moment, and I don’t see my muscles bulging!” Tyson exclaimed.

“Hit the gym then.” his other brother, Liam, followed up. “No wonder you’re out of breath. Do you even know what a gym is?”

“… I hope you die.”

“Where are Emma and Jared? Didn’t they come with you guys?” Tyson’s dad asked, breaking the all-too-familiar cycle.

“… they’re being smart.” Tyson said.

“So they didn’t decide to run here like morons?” Liam said, smirking.

“Yeah, exactly.” Tyson said. I envy Jared, that bastard… Emma’s been spoiling him like crazy ever since he proposed to her. “Happy? Are you? Are you happy your lil’ bro is dying here, you fuck?!”

“… oh no, Ty’s cranky,” his dad said, smiling. “We best leave before he kills us all!”

“… bastards!” Tyson exclaimed softly as the rest dispersed in laughter, most-likely moving closer to the room Selena was in. A few moments later, Aya joined him, his mom nowhere to be found. She had recovered some color in her cheeks and appeared much healthier than a few minutes ago.

“You look like crap,” Aya said. “Go hit the joint and throw up.”

“You threw up?” Tyson asked.

“Yeah…”

“You ok?”

“Yeah…”

“Wow, I didn’t know I was dating Jim Carey. My bad.” Tyson said.

“The movie’s called Yes Man, not Yeah Man… god, even your references suck when you’re cranky.” Aya said.

“Didn’t you say that my references always suck?”

“Nah, they’re usually great,” Aya said. “Sometimes you even make my day with them.”

“… whoa, what’s with the sudden truth bomb?” Wait, mom didn’t chug her full of drugs, did she?!

“… did we leave the TV on?” Aya suddenly asked.

“Yup.”

“… electricity bill is already high as it is,” Aya said. “Looks like we’ll have to start eating only spaghetti from now on.”

“Well, who’s the one insisting on twenty fucking lamps always being on?! What are you? Bella?!”

“… I don’t know it it’s adorable or terrifying that you know enough about Twilight to reference it properly.” Aya said, smiling lightly.

“… oh, right, Dean offered me internship,” Tyson said, stretching out lightly. “If I decide to pursue the Master’s and PhD. I’d be teaching first years or something.”

“Really? He offered you but not me? Tsk, he must be gay.” Aya said.

“… you’re a terrible, terrible human being, do you know that?” Tyson said.

“Of course I do, since not a day passes by without you pointing it out.” Aya said, smiling. “Will you take it?”

“Probably,” Tyson said. “Although he said internship, he also told me they’d pay me minimum wage or something like that. Besides, I had already planned on getting at least Master’s. And we do need the extra money.”

“… but what if all the first years’ fall in love with your irresistible charms?” Aya said, tilting her head slightly. “You won’t switch me out for a freshman, will you, Professor Tyson. God that sounds hot.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll endanger all my future prospects just to get into the pants of a girl who barely knows who she is. Sounds fantastic. And, of course, I’d trade the hottest living shit on earth for a second-rate Swift-wannabe.”

“… I should probably start looking for better job, too,” Aya said, sighing lightly. “God, I miss the days when my greatest worry was what to wear to school so I won’t be made fun of by my crush.”

“Wasn’t that like just over half a year ago?” Tyson asked.

“Oh, I never had a crush on you.”

“Eh?”

“Yeah, with you it was like this weird, nonsensical emotional roll-out. It started with irritation,” Aya said. “Turned into curiosity, which then sparked the interest, and then immediately jumped to liking for some reason, and then it was a straight track to love.”

“… how’s that weird and nonsensical?” Tyson asked, arching his brow. “Sounds like a pretty chronological development to me.”

“… and here I am, trying to spice up our love story, only to be shut down by a skeptic immediately. Sob…”

“… what do you mean spice up?” Tyson said. “Don’t you remember where we had sex two nights ago?”

“… I do.”

“And you still think our relationship needs spicing up?” Tyson asked.

“You always say that whenever we have sex at a weird place,” Aya said. “Yet, we always find a way to top it.”

“No, you find a way, you freak. ‘Oh, Ty! You know what would be a great idea?!’”, Tyson said, mimicking Aya’s voice. “’To go to amusement park, Ferris Wheel, and have a quickie there! Oh, Ty, I thought of a way to spice things up! Why don’t we go to police station to report a theft, then sneak out into the bathroom and do it there?’ - I swear, your vaginal needs will be the end of me…”

“… right, of course, it’s all me,” Aya said, smiling lightly. “It was definitely not you who suggested we do it in a theater full of people.”

“It was just once!!”

“And it was definitely not you who thought it’d be a fantastic idea to do it in an alley on our way here, which is why we had to make up the story about why we were out of breath.”

“… point taken.” Tyson said, sighing lightly. “Goddamn, is that woman birthing a fucking cosmic horror spawn? What’s taking so long?!”

“… we’ve already established that you don’t know jack shit about giving birth. Why are you still commenting on it?” Aya asked.

“I just wanted to change the topic.”

“There are better ways to do it.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Tyson said. “Whenever you want to change the topic, you just flash me.”

“It works, doesn’t it?”

“But when I do it, you go ‘eww, gross, put it away, what the fuck are you taking out for you sicko’. God I hate you…”

“Ha ha ha,” Aya burst into laughter, forcing it back as she remembered she’s in a hospital. “That expression you showed me is literally my favorite memory. I love every bit of it.”

“… funny. I feel exactly the opposite way about the whole thing.”

“Ugh, who cares. I feel this, I feel that, are you a fourteen year old girl dealing with a broken heart, bleeding vagina and lack of anti-depressants? Grow up.”

“I grew up like half an hour ago. Give me some time to recover, you damn succubus.”

“… pfft… come on, let’s go join others,” Aya said as she held back from laughing. “I have a feeling I won’t be able to hold back from bursting for much longer.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Tyson said, smirking lightly. “When did you ever hold back from bursting out? Half the time it’s like ‘why am I even bothering? I can literally not move and she’ll still find a way to orgasm’.”

“Eh? Shouldn’t you be happy? You can brag at your guy-gatherings.” Aya said.

“… what guy-gatherings?! When the fuck did I ever go to these mythical guy-gatherings?!”

“… don’t you feel shame exclaiming something so depressing so boldly?” Aya asked. Of course I do!!

“No, you’re more than enough for me.”

“You thought ‘Of course I do’, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did.” Tyson said.

“But, as you said, I am more than enough for you if you need more than half an hour for a second round…”

“… that’s it. No sex for a week.” Tyson said.

“… wow, that actually stung.”

“Isn’t it weird that our relationship is basically the opposite of what every rom-com taught me?” Tyson said. “I always thought I’d be the victim of sex control, not the other way around.”

“Is either one of us a victim, though?” Aya asked as the duo saw the rest standing at the end of the hall. “I feel like we get along pretty well, sex-wise I mean.”

“And outside of sex we don’t?”

“… when did you stop counting the number of times we fought?” Aya asked.

“Like a week after we started dating. Right, point taken.” Tyson paused for a moment as he saw Sam sitting on a chair, with his parents hugging him tightly. “Something’s wrong.”

“Yeah.” Aya said, her expression growing serious as the two sped up toward Tyson’s dad.

“What happened? Is Selena okay?!” Tyson immediately asked.

“Y-yeah… she’s, uh, fine,” he said, stuttering lightly. “All things considered, at least.”

“Eh?”

“It’s the baby.”

“What’s wrong with the baby?” Aya asked.

“… it was, uh, a stillborn.” Tyson’s dad said, his tone heavy, eyes growing watery. “Apparently, uh… the cord wrapped around her neck and, uh, suffocated her…” No… no, wait… no, what the fuck… no!!

“… what the…” Tyson mumbled as he felt lightheaded, grasping at the wall to stabilize himself. Aya remained silent, her lips slightly agape as she switched glancing between the now crying Sam and the operating room in front of them, unable to utter a word.