STALEMATE [MAFIA] [MXM] ✓

7: THINK ABOUT IT

Salem passes out once again on the way, and before he knows it he's waking up in a hospital bed. His left side doesn't hurt as much as it did, which he notices immediately after his return to consciousness. Salem deems this as a win, and can only hope everything else is going just as well.

Salem glances around the room, and finds his father standing beside him. The man is talking lowly with the nurse, and Salem can't make out a thing they're saying. He continues looking around the room, and finds Zona fast asleep in one of the hospital chairs, the one right beside him. She's holding his hand, grip loose because she's unconscious. He's surprised to see her, and that surprise only doubles when he finds Cam and Milo curled up together on the floor, passed out as well.

Salem grins, finding their compromising position comical. No doubt they'll freak out when they wake up and realize they'd been practically cuddling.

"Salem." Salem hears his father say, tone low. Yeah, he's not happy. Salem turns to look at the guy and finds a familiar disapproving look.

"Uh. Dad." Salem replies awkwardly. He looks at his left arm to find it covered in bandages. He can't see his leg, but he's pretty sure his knee took the most damage in terms of that. Still, he feels fine. It's nice not being on the verge of unconsciousness.

"I would like an explanation. Now."

Salem winces at his father's harshness. He doesn't know why the guy wants him to explain anything, to be honest, because he's probably already seen the video. Jack likes to do that, ask Salem questions that he already knows the answer to when he's mad. Still, Salem decides to humor him.

"I got ran over by a truck." Salem replies, unsure how else to phrase it. He's pretty sure his father has already seen the video. Jack looks slightly annoyed at his wording, but just sighs. He takes a seat next to the bed.

"Promise me that you aren't giving in to peer pressure. I don't like thinking your friends are a bad influence." Jack says, and raises his eyebrows at Salem in expectation. Salem contemplates this, wondering if Cam and Milo are in fact bad influences. He does get up to bullshit with them, and gets injured in cases like this, but he knows that the two actually care about him. Milo more so than Cam, just because Cam cares more about his social media popularity than anything.

They aren't bad for him, though. Especially Zona, she's a constant voice of reason in anything he does. She doesn't lie to him when he has bad ideas—honestly, she doesn't lie to him at all.

"They aren't." Salem replies, "they're just stupid."

Jack tries not to smile, and it's hardly noticeable, but he clearly finds Salem amusing. "Well, your arm got sliced up pretty bad. You're going to have to treat it every day and switch out your bandages after showers. Your knee is scraped too, but it should be fine."

Salem nods, regretting pretty much the entirety of yesterday. After a few minutes, his friends wake up. All five of them decide to get food, and Saturday is pretty much filled entirely with recovery. By Monday, he feels fine enough to go to school. The entire day he hears comments about how amazing the video was, as well as people checking to make sure he's okay.

Two weeks go by of just regular, routine life. Then comes Sunday, the day of his father's promotion ceremony. Salem thankfully doesn't have to give a speech, but he is forced to stand up on the stage in the background. The whole thing is televised, and he finds himself not enjoying the thought of anyone being able to see him. Of everyone knowing his father is the chief.

There are a lot of people there, Salem notices when he arrives. A few of them he recognizes, but most he doesn't—primarily civilians and other political officials. He has no clue who they are. The entire thing takes a couple hours, and before Salem knows it he's sitting at a table with food in front of him, feeling bored out of his mind. There have been a few people that tried to socialize with him, but he wasn't in the mood. His arm is still healing and he's tired, and he's had enough of smiling at people today.