Breathing Pal Novels & Stories

TWO YEARS LATER. She heavily inhaled a refreshing amount of air and slowly drew them out. Her palm reached for her chest once again to feel her heat beat, hoping the breathing exercise had calmed her down; however, it did not work at all. It seemed to have worsened her palpitations. Her heart was still drumming wildly beneath her ribcage, and it felt like each time she took in air, it only aggravated her condition further. There was no time to waste so she decided to try a different approach to treating her momentary anxiety.

I can’t breathe. “Katie, Katie girl. I’m here. Mom is here too. Breath.” Dad’s calm voice said. I didn’t even hear him come in. He placed his hand on my stomach. “Feel my hand. Breath there. Feel your stomach go up and down. Into your nose, out of your mouth.” Dad said. I felt his big warm hand on my stomach and tried to focus only on that. “Breath Kate. In, “ dad said as he breathed with me, “and out. That’s it, Kate. You’re okay. Breath.”

Rena In, out. In, out. I focus on my breathing. Six counts in through my nose. Six counts out through my mouth. Again and again. "Keep it steady," I whisper to myself, my voice barely audible in the darkness. "Just keep breathing." When I concentrate on counting my breaths, the pounding of my heart slows down. The tight feeling in my chest loosens a little. For a few precious moments, I can almost forget where I am. Then another contraction grips me, and fear floods back like a tidal wave.

I have both fists buried in his pillow and my face pressed into it and I am breathing the way they taught us in our first year clinical skills module except none of those instructors had this specific situation in mind. “Breathe,” Joshua says behind me. Low and controlled but the control is costing him something, I can hear it. “I am breathing.” “You’re holding it.” I exhale. Long and slow. He pushes deeper and I make a sound into the pillow that I feel in my entire skeleton.

Halfway there, the first contraction hits. It starts low in my back, like someone pressed a hot iron against my spine, then climbs, wraps around my middle in a slow, tightening band. The pressure builds steadily, squeezing everything inward, making it hard to breathe. My knees buckle a little. I grip his arm hard enough to leave marks. “Breathe,” he says instantly. Voice steady even though his face is pale. “In through your nose. Out through your mouth. With me.” He breathes with me. Slow. Counted.

Darryl threw his hands in the air. “Hold it. Hold it. What are you doing?” he chuckled while shaking his head. When she looked at him with bewilderment he continued, “Do me a favor and just stand still for a minute. Just stand still and take a deep breath. Use your gut to breathe in. Fill your lungs all the way. Like this.” He took a slow, deep breath, while he demonstrated to Pam the proper way to breath. “You need to use the gut. You are using the chest. Look again.” With a look of patient determination, he demonstrated the proper method of breathing one more time. “Now you try it.”

I am behaving like a fucking child in front of a girl, and the way she is looking at me is making my heart beat faster. “Deep breaths, come on, inhale in six, come on, one, two, three, four, five, six”, she says while I inhale. “Hold it in in four, one, two, three, four”, and now exhale in five. “One, two, three, four, five”, she says, we repeat it a couple more times, and my breathing goes back to normal, but the sickening feeling in my stomach doesn't go anywhere. Hate this fucking place.

" I tried to tell him that was exactly was I doing but my tongue failed me. "Bianca! Look at me, look at me!" He commanded and I opened my eyes wide to meet his grey ones. "On my count, I want you to inhale as hard as possible. Are you ready? One, two, three." I inhaled sharply just as Liam had asked and only released my breath on his signal. We did a few more breathing exercises. It didn't totally help my situation. I calmed down for a minute but afterwards, the breathing problems and the restlessness resurfaced.

Slowly, deliberately, I inhaled and exhaled, hoping he would mimic me. At first, there was no response. His gaze remained distant, and his chest rose and fell erratically. But I didn’t stop. “You’re doing great,” I encouraged, offering a small, reassuring smile. “Just keep trying.” Gradually, almost imperceptibly at first, his breathing began to shift. The quick, shallow gasps slowed, becoming more measured as he started to match my rhythm. I continued to guide him, keeping my tone soft and consistent. “In through your nose,” I repeated gently, drawing in a long breath. “Out through your mouth.”

His breathing was shallow. "Sure you can. Look at me. You can do it, just take a deep breath and let it go slowly. In and out", I spoke calmly. "I. Can't." he gasped the words. I parted his knees, putting my own legs between them, getting closer to him. "We're doing this at the same time, okay? You and me together." I took his hand and placed it right above my belly button, my hand on top of his. "Feel the air getting inside, expanding my belly. Breath with me." Taking a long breath, I exhaled slowly and did it several more times until he began to follow suit, his gaze fixed on our connected hands.