I Love You To Death

Chapter Twelve

IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THIS IS FOR YOU. THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU. ESPECIALLY THE LOT OF YOU WHO PROVIDE ME WITH SUPPORT I DO NOT DESERVE, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. <3 <3

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Vivienne

 "Dan?"

His eyes are unsure, unable to remain open until he rubs them open. I can see the confusion diluted in the brown pool of his eyes but that's probably because of the sight before him. I think I'd be confused too if I woke up in a hospital room with sun beaming from the windows, his parents – his father is seated in a chair in the corner with a laptop on his lap, rather uninterested if you ask me and his mom on the adjacent side of the bed holding his hand in a motherly fashion—and me, his non-girlfriend but there's-something-going-on-between-us "friend".

"Good morning, drama queen. Way to keep us worried." I joke.

"What happened?"

"Honey, you ordered a dish at Babbo that had grinded peanuts and it triggered an anaphylactic shock, the amount you consumed only made it worse. By the time the paramedics arrived you had already lost consciousness." Dan's mom– whom I came to find out is called Elizabeth after we played a friendly round of who-the-heck-are-you and why-are-you-with-my-son(-in-that-dress)— turned out be a really beautiful, candid and intimidating woman.

"So let me get this straight, I ate peanuts, choked, passed out, got rushed here to the hospital and as if that wasn't enough, I stayed overnight? Keeping you, Vivienne, here and dragging my parents into it too?" Dan said in exasperation.

His mother and I nod at the same time, the only difference is that I'm grinning.

"Shit." He ran a hand through his hair.

"But it's fine, you know all that matters is that you—" Dan breaks me off mid-sentence.

"Wait what's today?" he scrambles in his hospital bed. "YOU MISSED ITALY! What time is it? Maybe you can still make it!"

"Haha, yeah about that...we kind of missed the flight." I grimace as I stare at my feet.

"What? Why the hell didn't you go? You were supposed to fuc—"

"Watch your vocabulary, Daniel." His mother interrupted him before he released the expletive.

"Vivienne can you please tell me why the hell you didn't go?" he's sitting up in his hospital bed, a handful of covers fisted in his hand, glaring at me as if he's going to devour me with his eyes. I don't even know why he's so angry at me, it's not my fault.

"I wasn't going to just leave you here. At least not until your parents got here."

"Well they came, why didn't you just go?" he raised his voice at me and I flinched back in shock.

"You watch your voice, Daniel. You will speak to her with more respect since she stayed here when she could have left you." Daniel's father shot up from his seat with bloodshot eyes and yelled back at him. I didn't want this to happen.

"It's okay, Mr. Taylor. He's probably still tired, don't worry about it. I'm just going to go home. My parents have been worried." I grab my bag from the seat next to me and walk out of the room.

***

The second I set foot home my parents hound me with questions and I have no choice but to tell them the truth, since I missed the field trip and all. At first they were furious with me for lying to them, but then after I explained why I had to stay at the hospital their anger eased into a light intolerance, as long as I did something honorable they were okay with my lie, which is kind of twisted but I see the reason. My mom followed me up to my room and literally made me tell her more about Dan, which was fine by me since there was technically nothing to tell. He's one of the few school mates who manage to make me feel comfortable, is what I said but with her Mom-antennae of intuition she knew it meant more than I lead on.