1 01. I Refuse To Be Sad.

The streets bustled with activity as night fell and teemed with pedestrians and noisy vehicles. Workers hurried home, children struggled to finish their chores, and elderly individuals went about their grocery shopping, each person with their own purpose.

Amid this bustling scene, Zach Dickson, a young man in his mid twenties walked out of a convenience store with a bag of groceries in his hand.

However, on his way home, Zach was run over by a runaway drunk driver; and he ended up in the hospital.

It had been three months since Zach was admitted to the hospital, and although he miraculously survived the accident, he became paralyzed from the waist down and spent each day in despair.

However, after staying at the hospital for a month with nothing but negative thoughts swirling around his mind every single day, Zach decided that it was time he changed his way of thinking.

His negative thoughts had plagued him like a disease, filling him with nothing but anguish and resentment towards everyone around him.

It had made him feel alone in a hospital filled with patients, nurses and doctors. However, everything changed after he decided to change his way of thinking.

And the credit for his change went to the novels he had been reading recently.

Reading novels with happy endings gave his life a sense of meaning. Be it single romance, harem or no romance at all, these novels impacted his mindset in more ways than one.

It made him cherish the little things he never bothered to appreciate when he could still walk.

Also, he no longer harboured the thought of ending his life in his hospital room, thanks to his novels once again.

*Knock Knock*

The sound of someone knocking on his door brought him out of his thoughts.

"Come in," Zach said and a beautiful nurse with wavy, silver-coloured hair and teal-blue eyes walked into his room with a cheerful smile on her face.

"Good morning Zach, how are you feeling today?"

"Not good. I had a bad dream last night about dolphins. How about hugging me to make me forget all about it?" Zach asked, feigning an innocent smile and spreading his arms wide.

The nurse chuckled cutely at his words. "I can see that you're a lot more jovial than usual today."

Zach shrugged with a smile on his face. "Well, I guess it is because I have refused to be sad ever again."

The nurse nodded her head in understanding and said. "I see. So it's not related to you scaring the hell out of Doctor Paul last night?"

"Hehe.... I scared him pretty good, didn't I?" He scratched his cheek lightly as he avoided making eye contact with the nurse.

The nurse strode towards him and ruffled his hair with a smile on her face. "Yes, you did."

She dropped her hand from his hair and Zach asked. "How did you find out?"

"Everyone's talking about what you did."

"Really? Everyone? Even nurse Sasha too?" He asked excitedly, but the nurse suddenly pinched his nose in petty annoyance and asked with a cute pout on her face.

"How can you call another nurse's name while I'm here?"

"Ouch," Zach said as he rubbed his nose gently before replying. "If you had told me your name, I'm certain I would have been calling yours excitedly instead of hers."

"Hmm, is that so?," She said, assuming a thinking pose while stroking her chin. "I'll think about it."

"I guess that's a start. So, what is everyone saying about Doctor Paul?"

"They said he never left his office throughout the night and was even holding a flashlight when he left the hospital this morning."

"I guess I went a little too far with my prank last night," Zach said as he recalled the petrified look on Doctor Paul's face right before he ran out of his room.

"Just what did you do to him to make him so freaked out?" The nurse asked with a curious look on her face. She then took a seat and dragged it close to Zach's bed to sit beside it.

It wasn't the first time she was doing this, so Zach was used to it.

"You wanna know?" He asked and she replied by nodding her head like a cute little girl.

"You really wanna know?" He asked again with a mischievous smile on his face.

"Really."

"You really really want to…."

"Zach," The nurse pouted in playful annoyance. Her patience was running out. She loved these little moments with him, but right now, she just couldn't.

"Oops, sorry. Bad habit."

"It started like this," Zach said as he began to explain what occurred last night, beginning with when Doctor Paul walked into his room thinking that he was asleep. He was just about to check up on Zach as usual, when he noticed that Zach's eyes were wide open and unblinking while he remained completely silent; causing Dr Paul to assume that Zach had stopped breathing.

He then tried to determine whether or not Zach was breathing, but the moment he stepped closer to him, the lights went off and someone closed the door behind him.

Then, just like in horror movies, Zach pointed a flashlight towards his face and made his eyes cross-eyed while saying a bunch of terrifying words to him.

"What happened next?" The nurse asked, trying her best not to burst into laughter.

"He screamed and ran out of my room yelling 'Mummy!'"

The nurse laughed to the point that tears gathered at the edges of her eyes. "You are mean. You should know by now that he is afraid of the dark."

"Well, tell him next time not to insult OMG."

"OMG?" The nurse asked with a puzzled look on her face.

"Old man George."

The nurse's lips formed an 'O' when she realised who he was talking about.

"Still, you need to apologize to him when he comes back."

"Yeah, I will.....maybe."

The nurse shook her head at Zach's words before changing the topic.

"So, what's the name of the book you're reading now?" She asked, anticipating his response.

Zach didn't know why, but the nurse always enjoyed it when he read a novel and narrated it to her in a way that made her laugh.

"There are two novels and they were just recently completed. The first novel is titled 'My Evil Stepson System.'"

"Wow, sounds exciting."

___

A/N: This " " represents words being uttered.

This ' ' represents Zach's thoughts.