Stumbling (H.S. / A.U.)

Chapter 61

Friday, October 13th

Riley's POV

I'm still groggy most of the time, but yesterday I managed to be awake for most of the day. I napped a bunch here and there, but they were all small naps and overall I spent more time away than asleep.

It was kinda' fun to get posted up in a hospital with your best friend I now have learned. Niall and I have spent our time alternating watching Below Deck, 90 Day Fiancé, and Love is Blind. Niall is such a slut for reality television just like me. He pretends he doesn't like it, but then after about ten minutes of the show he is all: "Wait, did Ben just tell Natalie he didn't talk to the other blonde? I totally saw him do it and he was bad mouthing her. I cannot wait for that to come up later at the tip out. I bet the Bousan is going to out him because he walked in on it and I know he likes Natalie too."

My silly boy, you are a reality junkie but won't admit it.

When I first woke up and noticed Niall in my room I was confused where the other guys were, because Niall was chatting up some random man feeding him croissants and scrambled eggs, I was sure the drugs were still working overtime in my system. Turns out, it's Curtis, a man Harry had convinced to take care of us.

I had about a million texts from Harry and Autumn alone. I only read some and Harry's was him explaining Curtis and Anne, our new bodyguards to me. How Harry convinced a 66 year old retired man and his 59 year old nurse wife to want to spend their time cooking and hanging out in a hospital with me is so confusing, but here we are.

Today was going to be a big day that wasn't filled with reality television sadly. I finally talked to my parents and Autumn, today they will all be visiting at different points. Autumn said she would be here in the afternoon and bring snacks. My parents, both of them, said they will be in after my dad gets home from work. 

"Peek-a-boo," Autumn quietly says while opening the hospital door. Her arms were full with a stuffed animal, card, flowers, boxes of food, and iced coffees. "Hey boo, how are you doing? I brought some gifts to... oh god. You look.... Uhm... it's not that bad!" Autumn tried to recover but her face said it all.

"I feel worse than I look, if you can imagine." I tell her honestly and her face scrunches up.

She starts putting the gifts and food around the room on tables or chairs that were present. "Hi Nially." She said it like one would call the Lochness, Nessie, but Niall became Nially. He grimaced at the nickname but laughed and told her hello back.

She tells us what food she has brought before stuffing the small cow stuffed animal next to me in my bed and handing me an iced coffee to my good hand. "Fuck, that accident really did a number on you bitch. Meanwhile Niall over here posting up with a little bandaid on his belly just to skip classes." Niall joins Autumn in a laugh.

Harry was the one who initially contacted my mom and Autumn for me. Telling them about the car accident that Niall and I were in. Ah yes, remember my newfound hobby of surfing that Autumn knew about since I 'went surfing in Daytona'.... Well this time I came to Gulf Breeze and brought Niall with me. It was such a tragedy when Niall called Harry from the hospital to tell him that he and I got into a pretty bad car accident.

Niall told me, once you have enough money the sky is the limit. So after the seed was planted it went pretty easy to send the pictures of Niall's crashed up car to the local news station to plant a fake story about it. Liam paid off the doctors because what bullet hole? You mean the spot in my arm where a car part went through of course.

The most wild part was when my own parents told them one of the nurses called them for 'information to put into my file for my insurance claim'. Anne. Because yeah right there is a claim, as if the boys didn't just pay off the whole hospital at this point.