Given Time

♡49♡

A steady rhythmic beep infiltrates my ears, which gets more annoying by the second. Wanting it to stop, I open my eyes to turn it off and meet a room that is so brightly lit that I have to squint my eyes to keep the brightness at bay.

I slowly rotate my head right to find the noise that woke me, and notice an ECG monitor is sitting next to me, beeping away as wavy lines flow across the screen. There are cables coming out of the machine that run down to where I'm lying and go beneath my nightgown. From this, I quickly work out that I'm in a hospital room. I try to remember how I got here, and that's when I notice the throbbing in my head. I lift my hand to the area, trying to get it to stop and feel the rough texture of bandages beneath my fingers. Did I hit my head?

I can feel something beneath my nose as well, and I pull the piece of tubing away. The soft sound of air escapes from the device, and I realize that it was helping me breathe while I was asleep. Very gingerly, I test my limbs and stretch, but my right arm throbs as I pull on an IV line that is attached to the inside of my arm. Gross!

I squeeze my eyes shut and take a few deep breaths, feeling the pain in my chest as I do this. When the nausea and pain pass, I open my eyes again and take in the rest of the room.

As I turn my head left, I find my mom asleep in a chair with her head resting by my leg that is in a cast. A feeling of gratefulness runs through me by having her here with me, and I delicately run my hand through the waves in her hair.

Her head tilts to the side as she stirs from her sleep. When her brown eyes meet mine, her head lifts off the bed, and she looks at me in complete shock.

"Hi, Mom." My voice comes out low and raspy.

Man, I'm thirsty.

My mom starts from my voice and stands above me, smoothing my matted hair away from my forehead. "Oh, sweetie. You're finally awake! How are you feeling?"

"Sore," I croak.

She looks at me with a sad expression and scans my body. "I guess that's to be expected, darling. You were hit by a car."

She sniffles and smooths her hand over my forehead again. "The driver said he tried to brake before hitting you, but it was too late. Do you remember any of it?"

It takes a few seconds for the fog to clear in my head, and then a series of unpleasant memories come to the front of my mind. Tanner and Zara knowing about the affair, Tanner cheating on me with Chloe, and then stumbling into the road, seeing the car hurtling towards me. I groan and cover my face with my free hand.

My mom immediately panics and shrieks my name, asking if I'm in any more pain. I weakly shake my head and let her know that I'm okay. She breathes a sigh of relief and reaches for the buzzer beside my bed. "I'll call for a nurse. They'll want to know that you're awake."

I remove my arm from my head and look around the room again. "Where's Dad?"

"He went to get some drinks. He should be back soon."

In thirty seconds, a nurse bustles into the room. She looks to be in her late fifties and has her graying hair tied up in a bun. "I see the patient is awake," she says with a pleased expression on her face. She strides over to my bed and briefly checks the monitor before turning to me. "My name is Olive. Do you know where you are, dear?" I like her immediately.

I nod my head. "Yes. Hospital."

"Good," she murmurs.

"Can I have something to drink? I'm so thirsty."

"Of course." She pours me a cup of water and tells me to take small sips while she holds the cup to my lips.

For five minutes, she asks me a series of questions while she checks my vitals. Halfway through her checks, my dad walks into the room with two Styrofoam cups in each hand. Tears fill his eyes when he sees that I'm awake and quickly places the drinks down and makes his way to the free side of my bed. He kisses my cheek, his own tears landing on my face as he tells me I scared the living hell out of him these past few days. I scrunch my face and look at the nurse. "How long have I been out?"