Helplessly in Love: A Taylor Lautner Love Story

Chapter Thirty-Three - Rude Awakening

When I woke up again, I was in a lot of pain. More than I'd ever experienced in my entire life.

My head hurt something terrible, I felt like it actually would explode if I thought too hard. It pounded a steady beat, searing me with pain in every pulse.

Whenever I took some kind of breath, my chest and stomach would hurt violently. It made me not want to breath at all. So I took the smallest breaths possible to keep from making my chest rise too much.

My right arm felt completely fine. I could bend and flex my fingers, so that was good. However, my left arm was immobile; I couldn't move it. I opened my eyes open slowly to look down at it, but as soon as I opened my eyes I immediately wished I hadn't.

The light was too much to handle, sending the pain in my head to overdrive. I winced and squeezed my eyes shut again against the too-bright light coming through the window, though the curtains were drawn shut.

"Rachel?" I heard a voice whisper. Against the will of my aching body, I snapped my eyes open and craned my neck to see where the voice came from.

"Mom?" I tried to say, but my voice was dry and crackly. I sounded awful.

"Honey! You're awake!" she exclaimed, near tears. I could tell she was trying to keep her voice down, she probably knew about my aching head.

"Yeah, I am?" I croaked, confused. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Two days," she answered without hesitation. She smiled a bit when she saw my incredulous expression. I was asleep for two whole days?!"Do you remember anything that happened?" she asked, tilting her head to the side and touching my right, uninjured hand.

"No," I said, not really trying to think about it right now. "Why am I in so much pain?" I asked her.

"You were in a car accident," she whispered to me, squeezing a little harder onto my hand. I remember that part, but not much after that.

"What happened to me?" I asked her, trying to touch my forehead, but not getting up enough strength to do so.

"Well, honey, you've got a concussion to your head. The doctor said that was from impact. You've got a couple broken ribs, but no splinters, so that's good. You cracked a bone in your left wrist. It's about an inch long but it's not that deep. Anyway, you're gonna have to wear that cast for four weeks."

"Wow," I croaked out.

"I'm just glad you're okay!" she told me, clutching on to my hand. "It could've been a lot worse."

I didn't really know how to respond to that, so I gave her the most sympathetic look I could manage. She cried softly a little more before I decided to ask her more questions. But before I could get one out, she had one herself.

"Are you hungry, baby?" she asked before I could blink. Now that she mentioned it, I actually was starving. And unbearably thirsty. I'm pretty sure the inside of my throat had formed a drought.

I tried nodding, but that didn't work out so I answered her, "Yes."

"I'll go get your nurse," she said. She gave my hand one last squeeze before darting out of the room. While she was gone, I looked around my hospital room. The TV mounted on the wall was on some news station, I didn't have to strength to lift my head and look at it, though.

There was a round table in the corner of the room holding balloons, bears, and gifts, all wishing me to get well soon. My heart warmed at the sight of this and I sighed, ignoring the terrible pain from my broken ribs and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, my mom, dad, Kendra, and Derek came in the room followed by a petite nurse in bright pink scrubs.