Warning for strong language and content.

​Ceiling

Author - ​Narmada Thayapran
Jay stood staring at her brother's broken body, a myriad of tubes and braces and bandages holding him together.
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"Akka-"

"God fucking dammit, Naresh!" she cried out, his voice breaking her from her horrified trance, "I told you this was going to happen, I told you and you didn't listen to me!"

"It wasn't my fault-"

"I know, dumbass, I'm the one that told you motorcycle accidents are usually caused by the other driver! But no, you just had to look cool right? Because that's more important than your life-"
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"Please stop yelling at me."
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"I-I'm not...I'm not yelling," she sat down on the rickety chair to the right of his hospital bed, "I just- dammit," she buried her face in her hands, her voice catching in her throat as she wept.

"It's not as bad as it looks," he said quietly after a few moments, his neck brace preventing him from looking at her, "I mean, they said my hands will make a full recovery. I can still work my job-"
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"That's what you're worried about right now?!"
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"I-it's not that I just, I just mean..." he trailed off, struggling to put his thoughts into words, "you don't have to worry about taking care of me-"

"God fucking dammit," she got up again, unable to look at him.

"How did your book signing go?" he asked meekly, wanting to change the subject.

She scoffed, "It went great. Fantastic. Until I had to cut it short because I was only just informed my brother decided to shatter his spine-"
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"God, can you please just-"

His nurse knocked on the open door, "Um, sorry, I have to change his IV..."

"O-oh," Jay stammered, trying to wipe her puffy red cheeks, "I-I'll just-"
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"You can stay, it'll just be a moment," the nurse said, already making her way to the pole the bag hung from.

"Is it okay to raise his bed a bit?" Jay asked the nurse, "assuming it wouldn't mess with his back or anything?"
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"Yeah I think it should be okay." The nurse finished replacing his IV bag before turning to the controls for his bed.
After the nurse adjusted his bed, she smiled sympathetically at Naresh before leaving with the empty IV bag. He still couldn't turn his head of course, but he could look outside the window, and at the TV across the room.

"You didn't have to do that," he said once the nurse left, finally able to look at his sister for the first time since she got here.
​
"Please, you're telling me you aren't bored out of your mind just staring at the ceiling? Breaking your back doesn't cure ADHD as far as I'm aware."

He let out a small chuckle, "I dunno Jay, you had no issue describing in excessive detail what the ceilings looked like in your book-"
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"Oh, shut up," she said, unable to hold in her laughter.

Narmada Thayapran is studying game development so she can make her own games in the future.
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