Adopted

Chapter 52

Mom rolled the tray table over and helped me sit up more. She took the cover off the food. It was soup and macaroni and cheese.

"Where's Dad?" I asked.

"He went home to take a nap. He's going to come back a little later. He's barely slept since I called him when you were brought here."

"Oh," I said.

"Do you want me to call him to come back now?" Mom asked.

"No. If he needs sleep he should get some sleep," I said.

Mom handed me the spoon and pushed the soup closer to me I'm right handed and pretty useless with my left. I picked up a spoonful and spilled it on the tray.

"Dammit," I said.

"No worries. Try again,". Mon said, putting a towel over me.

I took another spoonful and my hand sort of spasmed or something and the soup got flipped onto Mom.

"Oops,  sorry," I started laughing. Mom had a noodle in her hair.

"Okay, maybe we'll skip the soup. But I will say, it's nice to hear you laugh."

"What's all the racket in here?" A voice said coming into my room.

"Hey, Pete!" I said.

"Hey, kiddo. By the way, while you were out, we decided I'm Uncle Pete."

"Oh, did you?"  I asked.

"Yep. Anyway, I brought some visitors. You already know Patrick," Patrick came over and gave me a hug.

"How're you feeling, kiddo?" He asked.

I shrugged.

"Okay," I said.

"Well, you're looking better," he smiled. Then looked at Mom.

"Hey, Sarah. Um.." he pointed at his head. Pete started laughing.

"What?" Mom asked. I looked over and laughed too.

"You, uh, you..." Patrick was laughing.

"You have a noodle in your hair," Pete snorted.

"Well thank you very much, Jessica," she said, pretending to be mad. 

"How did that happen?" Pete asked.

"I tried eating with my left hand. But I'm a righty. And I sort of flipped a spoonful of soup on Mom."

Pete snorted and tried not to laugh too hard.

"I can hear you, Peter Wentz!" Mom said from my bathroom. He broke down. 

"Okay, your other visitors, huh?  This is Andy, our drummer, you didn't get to meet him this summer.  And Joe, our guitarist. You also didn't meet him this summer.

They came into the room and said hi, and handed me some gifts.

"You didn't have to get me anything," I frowned.

"We wanted to," Andy said.  I opened both gift bags. They were books. The squiggles were starting to look familiar, but I couldn't be sure what they were. Mom came in and saw me staring at the covers.

"Wow. Thanks, guys!  Jess is going to love these when she's better able to focus on things. The pain meds are making it hard right now for her to concentrate."

The four of them sat around my room talking with Mom and me.

Dad came in a little while later looking refreshed.

"How's my girl?" 

"Okay. I gave Mom a shower," I said, trying to pick up a spoonful of macaroni.

"You? How?" He looked at Sarah.

"She's a little uncoordinated on the left side and flipped a spoonful of chicken noodle soup onto me."

"I'm telling you, Sarah, that noodle suited you. You should consider making noodle hair bows," Pete said.

"Now young lady, you know better than to throw food at people," Dad smiled. I shrugged.

"It wasn't that good anyway. That was my food review."

Everyone laughed. 

I managed a few bites of macaroni without dropping any or flinging it across the room. But the fourth spoonful got flicked at Mom again.

"Sorry, Mom..." I cringed.

"Okay, that's it. I am getting out of the line of fire and going home to take a shower and wash this shirt. Brendon, help your daughter finish her lunch. Daughter, I love you. Eat up and try not to throw any more food, okay?  It's better in your stomach than in my face and hair."

She kissed my cheek, gave dad a kiss, and hugged the guys.

"Alright kiddo. Let's get some of this in you, and not all over your room, okay?  You're a little old for macaroni paintings."

Dad helped me get the spoon to my mouth without flicking it everywhere.

Finally, I'd had enough. He put a straw in the apple juice on my tray and brought it over to my lips. I took a few sips.

Uncle Pete and the guys left a little while later and I lay back to rest.

There was a knock on the door. I didn't open my eyes to see who it was.

"Hey there!" Dad said. "Jess. Look who's here!"

I opened my eyes and Paige, Astrid and Joshua were standing in my doorway.

"You're awake!" Paige said.

"Yep. I'm awake." I said.

"Seriously Urie, you look like shit," Astrid said, coming over and hopping onto my bed.

"Watch her chest tube, kid," Dad said.

"Dad, this is Astrid," I said. "Astrid, that's my dad."

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," Dad said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Dude. I'm fucking pissed at you,"  Astrid said, punching me lightly in the shoulder.  I winced. I still had bruises.

"Ooh. Sorry," she said.

"Why are you pissed at me?" I asked, worried.

"Dude, you totally should have told us you're the kid in our class with AIDS. What did you think we were gonna do. Stop being your friend?"

"Honestly? Yeah," I said, looking down. Joshua came over to my other side.

"Why would we stop being your friend because you're sick?"

"I don't know. People are scared of AIDS. And when I was little and living at the Orphanage, prospective parents would walk away when they found out I have AIDS." I said.

"Well, they're assholes. Good thing your new parents aren't assholes."

"Thanks," Dad said. "I think."

Paige came over.

"You're not mad at me, are you?" She asked.

"Why would I be?"

"Because I led you to those boys who beat you up."

"Did you know they were going to do that?"

"No. I just thought they wanted to meet you."

"Then why would I be mad?"

Paige smiled.

"Great. So none of us are mad at each other anymore. When are you getting out of here?" Astrid asked.

"Oh, it's probably going to be a little while, yet," Dad said. "She still has a chest tube, but that'll probably come out soon. And she needs another surgery, which will also probably be soon."

"That sucks," Astrid said.