Chapter 11
I slowly blink my eyes open to find myself laying down, looking up to a white ceiling. Seconds later, I feel the shooting pain in my stomach. I wince at the pain but slowly adjust. I hear an obnoxious beeping noise and look to my right to see that it was the machine that measures my heart rate. I slowly shift my head to the left to find my dad asleep on the chair next to me.
“Dad…” My voice is more hoarse and scratchy than anticipated.
Instantly my father’s eyes open and he thrusts himself next to me. I notice the dark bags under his bloodshot eyes as he stares down at me.
“Camryn.” He croaks. “How are you feeling?” The worried expression on his face upsets me.
“It hurts.” I manage to try a soft smile but fail miserably.
“I should go get the nurses.” He says slightly frantically as he heads towards the door, right as he is about to walk out, he turns to me with watery eyes, “I’m so glad you’re okay.” He says softly, and with that he leaves.
I shift my head back up to the ceiling and blink a few times. I ponder the events of last night and find myself beginning to get scared again. I shake the feeling out of my head as my dad returns to my room with a nurse.
The woman smiles the entire time that I talk to her. For a person who sees a lot of injured people she looks very happy. She asked me about how I was feeling, and told me what happened after I had passed out, then gave me a cup of water and a few pills that I am guessing are to numb the pain. She soon leaves and I am left with just my dad again.
“Camryn, sweetheart?” He says after a few seconds of silence. I look at the man. “What happened last night?” He asks shakily.
I then explain all the events from last night. I told him how I fell asleep on the couch and woke up late and all of that. Once I was finished explaining, a few tears began to fall from my father’s cheeks. This startled me because I had never seen this man cry before.
I reach my arms out and pull my dad in to hug me. “I was so worried.” He sniffed. He then pulled himself together and went back to being a rock.
I ask my dad for my phone in which he retrieves and then tells me that he is going to go home to freshen up and he’ll be back later.
Once he is gone I look through my phone. I have a few texts from friends asking to hang out and 2 texts from Kade along with two missed calls. I don’t bother to read the texts, I just call him back.
He answers on the second ring. “Hey Cam!” He says cheerfully. “You home?”
“No.” I say blankly.
“Where are you?” His voice is far less cheerful.
“I’m… uh… I’m at the hospital.” I don’t know what he is going to do but I hope he comes here, it would be a nice sense on comfort to have after last night’s events.
“What?” He almost whispers.
“Yeah, some stuff happened last night–″
“I’m on my way.” He cuts me off and hangs up.
About five minutes later Kade bursts through the door of my hospital room. He looks me up and down and wraps his arms around me a little too roughly.
“Ouch.” I say softly, instantly causing him to release his grip.
“Camryn, what the hell happened? Are you okay?” He talks so quickly.
“I’m fine… now.” I say calmly. “I was just in the store late last night and a man stabbed me.” I indicate to my aching stomach.
“Well, fuck.” He falls back into the chair behind him, staring at me.
“You all right?” I giggle slightly at how horrified he looks, but the giggling causes more pain in my wound so I soon quit.
“No!” He says harsher than I expected him to. “You could have died, do you realize how close you were to dying? You were stabbed.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” I joke. “Chill out, Kade, I’m fine now.”
Kade stiffens and he clenches his perfect jaw. “You’re so lucky you’re okay. If you would have died I don’t know what I would have done.” He drops his head down in between his elbows that are being supported by his knees.
“Well I’m not dead.” I half smile. All this talk about me dying is really making me upset.
A nurse struts in through the heavy door, smiling from ear to ear. The clip board she is carrying in her hands is soon handed to me. “You’re going to need to fill these forms out,” she says all too cheerfully, “and the doctors want to keep you here for another day just to make sure your body responds properly to the procedure.”
She then notices Kade sitting in the chair next to me and gives a surprised look. She looks him up and down, admiring his good looks and leaves the room, still smiling.
“What are the forms for?” Kade asks me softly.
“Not sure…” I frown slightly, staring down at the pages scattered with many small words. “I don’t want to stay in here and be bored for another day though.”
“Dude, it’s cool, I’ll stay with you.” He grins, looking far too excited. “But first I’m going to go get us some stuff to do and some food because this hospital’s food is nasty. I’ll be back in a bit.” And with that he gave me a kiss on the head and walked out of the room.
I have missed this. It’s the first time we have been back to our normal friendship in, what feels like, forever. I have to admit how guilty I feel for forgiving him, but I can’t help it. It’s not only the feelings I have for him, it’s our history, Kade and I have been friends for four and a half years. He is my best friend.
My thoughts are interrupted by my dad walking into the room. He is smiling and sits back in the chair next to me. I hand him the forms that I am in charge of filling out, but I want him to instead. I look at the time, its 8 in the morning.
“I’ve only been unconscious for 2 hours?” I ask him.
“Oh no, you’ve been out for about 26 hours. You spent all day unconscious yesterday.”
“Oh.” Is all I can think to say. “Kade came by.” I add just to change the subject.
My dad smiles widely. He and Kade have this awkward father-son relationship that makes me uncomfortable, but as long as they get along it’s alright.
“Did he?” My dad questions, “I haven’t seen him in a while!” He looks excited. This is weird.
“Yeah he’s going to spend this day entertaining me.” I say blankly.
“Well good cause I gotta get to work.” He smiles sympathetically.
“But it’s Sunday.” I state.
He rolls his eyes in annoyance with his boss, “We’re moving offices so we have to go in today to begin packing.”
He gives me a soft pat on the head and leaves the room. I am, yet again, left alone. I stare at the television that I had just found the remote to and switched it on.
Another 30 minutes rolls by and still no sign of Kade. I begin to think that maybe he had forgotten about me or found something better to do. It’s been an hour since he had left. I can’t help but feel disappointed as I think.
Maybe his drifting away again…
