Chapter Thirty-Six: "Who?"
I DON'T HAVE A VERY GOOD recall of the past day.
Some things I remember, but others aren't so easy. The last clear memory I have is Landon carrying me downstairs waiting for an ambulance.
Everything from there on is hazy or I don't remember at all. Just like I don't exactly know what happened or where I am.
I feel something warm and soft beside me, and their hands placed over one of my own. It sends tingles down my fingertips and arm, and I know that only one of two people give me the tingles, and given the circumstances, it's definitely not Atticus so that leaves me one more boy.
I slowly pry my eyes open, seeing a mop of brown hair, and wince at the bright light that's in my face. "Oh my God, turn that off, it hurts." I groan out.
The blue-eyed boy immediately reacts and his head shoots up, looking at me. His eyes show concern, but more of his emotion is happiness and relief.
What the hell happened?
"Hey," he coos. "You're awake."
I nod. "What happened? Where am I?"
He gives me a sad smile. "You're in the ICU, Blue. You had appendicitis."
I knit my brows together. "Okay, that's not so bad. So why do you have a scared look on your face? I'm okay, you don't need to worry."
It makes my chest hurt at the thought I scared him; if it was even me. I don't like seeing people hurt, and especially when it's someone I can trust. . . and care about.
"Blue. . ." He whispers, and I fight to roll my eyes. I hate that damn nickname but love it at the same time. "Your appendix ruptured."
"What?" I question. My appendix burst? Is that why I felt all that pain? All the vomiting and cramps was all because my appendix couldn't keep itself closed until I decided to try getting a professional diagnosis?
That she-devil organ, I tell you.
"On Wednesday, you know how we all were suspecting it was something bad?" I nod. "It was your appendix. At that point it had already burst and that's why you were in a great deal of pain."
The door to my room opens, and I turn my head to see a doctor. She's tall, has brown hair in a ponytail and bold hazel eyes. Again with people in this town with hazel eyes! "Brooklyn! It's a good thing you're awake." She says.
"Can you dim the lights or something? They're nauseating." I ask, and she nods, turning the dial beside the door, the light getting darker and darker until it's enough where I'm not squinting.
"How are you feeling?" She asks.
"I don't know," I say honestly. "Better than I did when I came here."
She smiles. "That's good. I take it that your friend explained what happened?"
"Yeah." I answer. "Am I okay?"
"You're okay." She replies, and Landon's hand that was placed over mine squeezes it. "It was a tough surgery, the toxins had spread to nearby organs but we were able to eliminate them. You'll have some pain in your side from the surgery but we'll give you a prescription for pain killers."
Great, more pills.
I nod anyway, and the doctor smiles. "We're going to keep you here a few days for observation of infection, okay? So just let me know if you feel off."
"Will do." I smile. She walks out of the room, and I look at Landon expectedly. I frown. "Please stop giving me that look. You heard her, I'm fine."
"You could have died."
"But I didn't." I grin. "Hey, um, can I get some notes off you? From class."
He gives me a confused look but then it's like he remembers. "Yeah, of course."
"Can you also help me with Chemistry?" I question.
"Sure." He chuckles. "Anything else?"
"Um, nope." I shrug.
Landon sighs, engrossed in his own thoughts, and then suddenly his hand isn't wrapped around mine anymore. "Blue, your dad called."
My what? "Who?"
"Your father." He repeats. "Since the paperwork isn't legalized yet for my mom being your guardian, your parents needed to be called since it was a big surgery apparently."
I gulp. "What did he want?"
"He called a couple times and wanted to talk to you. Once was when you were in surgery and the other was when you were asleep. I didn't know what to tell him."
"I'll talk to him." I whisper nervously.
I really miss my parents. Even my mom. I miss how she'd get frustrated for me not waking up early enough or how my dad would be downstairs playing video games with my best friend until I woke up. I miss it all, and I miss him a lot.
And after having a scare like this. . . I just want my mommy and daddy. I want their comfort.
"He said he'd call when he landed." He explains. "Something about calling when he reaches London."
I nod silently. "If I fall asleep, and he calls, will you wake me up?"
He smiles warmly. "If that's what you want."
"It is."
"Then your wish is my command." He jokes, and I let out a weak laugh.
"Thank you." I say, grabbing his hand again. "For taking care of me and staying."
"Of course, Blue." He shakes his head. "I wouldn't leave even if I had to."
"You know, you're not as bad as people make you out to be." I admit. "I thought you'd be scary or something, but you're the total opposite."
He chuckles. "There's a reason why rumours are called rumours." I laugh with him.
Suddenly my phone starts to ring, and Landon reaches over to grab it. "Who is it?" I ask as he accidentally sneaks a peek. It doesn't bother me, I have the exact same tendency.
"Carly?"
I sigh. It's not her I hold a grudge against, it's Atticus. "Here, I'll take it."
"Want some privacy?" He asks.
"No, you can stay. We'll only be a minute, I'm quite tired." I explain, and he nods silently, handing my phone over. "Aren't I not allowed to use these things in hospitals anyway?"
He laughs. "It's not recommended but people do it nonetheless. They're not very strict on it around here."
"Oh." I say and pick up the phone. "Hold on a second, Carly. Hey, can you grab me a water please?"
"Of course." Landon replies, and walks to the sink across the room.
"Okay, I'm back." I say into it.
"Where have you been?" She asks softly. "I haven't seen you since lunch last week. . ."
I take a sip of the water, and hand it back to Landon. "I'm sick."
"Like a cold?"
"Um, a little more than that." I explain.
"You have a bug?" She presses, and I sigh. She won't stop pressing until she knows the truth.
"Um, no. I thought I did, but I didn't."
"So what is it?"
"My organs trying to kill me from the inside out." I grumble out, and Landon laughs loudly in the background making me giggle.
"Who was that?"
"Nobody."
"Brooklyn," she whines. "I know you're mad at my cousin but it doesn't mean you need to avoid us."
"I'm not avoiding you, Carly. I really am sick. I won't even be at school until next week."
"Don't shut us out, please?" She begs. "My friends really like you and Atticus got in huge shit from all of us once you left. Where did you go after?"
I smile very microscopically at the thought that they stood up for me. They don't know me, but they still stood up for me. I admit that he went way over the top given that I was standing up for Carly and he didn't. Was it jealousy that I did that when he couldn't because of popularity? He loved his cousin but loved his reputation more?
I tell her the truth. "I had a panic attack in the equipment room and somehow ended up in the nurses office."
Landon taps my arm, catching my attention. "It was Liam," he whispers. "He followed you outside and found you."
"Brooklyn?" Carly says.
"What was that?" I mutter. "Sorry, I'm a little out of it. It's been hell these past couple weeks."
"I asked when you were coming back."
"Depends on the doctor." I say hurriedly.
"What?" She asks, her voice raising. "What doctor?"
"Okay, fine," I sigh in defeat. "It isn't a bug. I'm in the hospital."
"Hospital?!" She yells, and I flinch, holding my phone away from my ear so she doesn't burst my eardrums. "What the fuck are you doing at the hospital?!"
"I just got out of surgery." I say. "Needed my appendix out. It burst."
"It burst?! Brooklyn, you could die from that!" She lectures. "How long was it ruptured?"
"Since Wednesday night." I tell her. "What day is it?"
"Friday." She replies.
"Oh. Well, whatever."
"It's not whatever, Brooklyn. Appendicitis is serious."
"Okay, I know that, alright? God, it's worse enough I'm already getting the 'it's my fault' rant from Landon."
"Landon?" She asks in shock. "Landon as in Landon McGibbon, or another Landon?"
My cheeks heat up. "Nothing, nobody. Hey, my doctor is here so I need to go. Bye!"
I hang up without even waiting for a response. I look at Landon apologetically.
"You should sit with me." He says with a warm smile.
"What?" I question, furrowing my eyebrows.
"At lunch when you go back to school. You should sit with me." He repeats nonchalantly.
"I thought we've already discussed this. I'm too low on the spectrum to be sitting with youâ"
"Atticus is at the same level I am, Blue. Why are you resistant?" He interrupts.
Because I don't want to be betrayed again. "Because friends aren't important to me. School's coming first and I'm not adding people to that list anytime soon."
"Personally, I think you'll like these guys better than your other ones. They're not as insistent on figuring you out. They'll have patience for it and even one of the guys can speak a little Spanish so you're not alone." He explains, and it does sound tempting. I don't want anyone who will question who I am all the time. I don't want them to always be asking questions and I most definitely don't want them figuring me out.
"Maybe." I give in. "I'll think about sitting with you but I'm not promising friendship. I'm serious. I'm not putting my personality on my sleeve only to be betrayed. Friends are unimportant to me and frankly, I despise them."
"Now that's a lie." He deadpans.
"Okay, fine, so the last part is but who cares? This has happened too many times with me and God forbid I allow it to happen again."
"It won't," he assures me. "Any discomfort on your end and I promise you don't need to sit with us again."
"Yeah, because that's so much better." I grumble.
"Be optimistic about this, Blue." He says. "You won't be targeted by sitting with us. Especially given who me and my brothers are, you may not even get spared a glance."
"And that's supposed to be good?" I question. "Landon, I've had betrayal of friends happen to me so many timesâ"
"How many times?" He intervenes.
I sigh. "More than one hand, I can tell you that."
"That's not approximate." He points out.
"Okay, so many it's happened aboutâ"
I'm cut off by my phone ringing. "After this, I'm ignoring everyone and taking a very long nap."
I reach down tiredly and grab it, reading the Caller ID.
Papað´ð¼ð
Landon peeks over my shoulder, and smiles. "Answer it." He whispers.
I nod, and my fingers start shaking at how nervous I am. I haven't spoken to my dad in over two months. What if he doesn't want to talk to me? What if he doesn't want to see me again?
Don't be so ridiculous, Brooklyn. Obviously your dad wants to talk to you otherwise he wouldn't be calling you.
I press 'answer.'
"Papa?" I whisper uneasily into the phone.
"Brooklyn?" He speaks. By his tone of voice, I can picture the relieved look on his face.
"It's me, Papa." I confirm into the phone, a smile making its way onto my face. Even though I haven't spoken to him, I miss him deeply and I don't realize how badly until I heard his voice saying my name.
"Oh my baby," he says, his voice cracking. I hear some sniffles on the other line. "Are you okay? Landon told me what happened. Brooklyn, honey, I was so scared. I'm so sorry I haven't spoken to you in months or answered your callsâ"
"Papa, are you crying?" I ask. "I'm okay, please don't cry."
"I'm sorry, kiddo, please forgive me. I didn't mean to ignore you! I misplaced my phone and needed to wait until I got back home to get the new one. I wasn't ignoring you, baby."
"It's okay, Papa. I forgive you."
"What happened, Sweetheart? Are you okay, are you better? I was meaning to call you as soon as I got my new phone but you weren't answering. Then I got a call from Ella saying you've been extremely sick for over a week and that she was thinking on taking you in if you weren't better. I was going to come back and take time off work to see you.
"When Ella said not to and that it was probably the flu, I agreed. Then I get another call saying you're in the hospital and just had a major surgery! Why didn't you go sooner? You know that if you vomit more than twenty-four hours then you need to get it checked."
"I know, and I'm sorry. But I had a major migraine and bad stomach pains. I just thought it was my period and stress, since I had a hectic week before that and just thought it was a trigger. I thought nothing of it."
"How are you now, darling?" He asks softly.
"I'm okay now. My stomach still hurts a bit but the doctor said that since it was ruptured, then it's expected."
"I'm coming to see you, Brooklyn." He states, and my heartbeat picks up.
He's coming to see me? My dad is coming to see me?!
"When?!" I nearly scream, but it comes off really gross sounding because of how hoarse it is.
"I should be there tonight." He explains, and I sense the excitement and happiness in his voice.
"And Mama? Is she coming?"
"I'm afraid not, honey. She's piled up with work." He says sadly, and I frown.
"Of course she is." I frown. "I understand, Papa. I'll see you tonight."
"I love you, Brooklyn."
"I love you, too, daddy."
I hang the phone up and cradle it in my chest, a big smile on my face. Landon notices and smiles as well, rubbing his thumb on my thigh.
"Good phone call?" He asks.
My dad is coming to see me. After two or so months, and I'm finally getting to see my dad! He wasn't ignoring me, he lost his phone and needed to wait to get a new one. I knew he wouldn't be like mom! I mean, I really wish she could be the one coming as well, but as long as it's one of my parents then I don't care.
My dad loves me and he's coming to see me! Tonight!
"Good phone call." I say, a little squeal in my voice.