Rejected At First Sight

Chapter Fifteen

I slowly cracked my eyes open. A bright, white light greeted my eyes and I quickly closed them. An annoying beeping noise sounded to my right. It sounded like my alarm clock. I moved my right hand to press the snooze button, but felt a tug from the back of my hand. I put my hand back where it was.

I took a deep breath, and found that there was something covering my noise and mouth. My breathing started coming more erratically and the beeping noise increased in tempo.

"Oh sweetie, please calm down! Your okay, your okay." I heard a female voice from my left. I tried opening my eyes again, but again found a bright light searing into my eyes. I closed my eyes harder.

"Oh I'm sorry sweetie. Here, let me dim the lights." The same female voice said. Despite what she said, I kept my eyes closed.

My breathing was slowing down, but I could still feel the thing that was covering my nose and mouth. I tried again to move my hand to take the thing off my face, but another tug from the back of my hand made me, again, put down my hand.

My mouth moved as I tried to ask the lady to take the thing off my face. No sound came out of my mouth. My brain scrambled to try and remember how to form coherent sentences.

"Off." The demand scratched its way out of my throat. I don't know if she heard it through the thing on my face.

"What honey? You want me to take the mask off?" The nurse asked. I felt two hands clasp the thing on my face. There was a click and the thing came off. My eyes opened slowly.

"There you go honey. I see you're awake now, so I'll go notify your parents." The short, blonde haired nurse said. She has kind, blue eyes, but they're filled with pity. Why would they be filled with pity?

The nurse turned around, walked to the door, opened it and left. I groaned as a slight pounding started in my head. The smell of cleanliness reached my noise, and my brain finally caught on that I wasn't at home.

A white room greeted me. White walls, white floor, white ceiling, who thought of all the white? The beeping again sounded from my right. When I looked over, I saw a heart monitor and a bag full of white liquid. My eyes followed a skinny tube attached to the bottom of the bag, which led to me. The end of the tube was attached to an IV that was in my hand.

I'm in a hospital.

Confusion clouded my brain. I don't remember getting here. I don't remember what happened to make me have to come to a hospital. I don't remember anything.

The door opened, and my parents rushed in. A small sigh left my mouth at the sight of them. However, my brow furrowed in confusion as I saw the tears in their eyes.

"Oh sweetie!" My mother cried out as she practically ran to me. She enveloped me into a hug, which was soon suffocating me. I didn't mind, it felt nice.

As soon as my mom let go of me, my dad's arms replaced hers. "We were so scared." He said as he hugged me.

"What happened?" My muffled question came from my dad's shoulders. He let go of me and gave me a confused look. He looked at me a moment longer, and then sighed and looked towards my mother. They made eye contact briefly, and then both looked towards me.

"You were unconscious," my dad started, "when we found you in the morning. I thought you were just tired and forgot to set your alarm. When I walked over to your bed and started to shake you, you didn't respond. I tried shaking a little harder and calling your name, but you still didn't respond."

He stopped there, but I knew there was more to the story. He again looked towards my mom, and she gave him a small nod.

He continued, "I turned you over so you were on your back, and that's when your shirt rode up on your stomach. There were bruises." And that's when it all came rushing back to me.

The bruises. The fire. The pain. Seeing black dots, then nothing. Cracking my eyes open and seeing blue and red flashes of light. Then just now, the bright light which had been dimmed.

"Why didn't you tell us?" My mom's voice reached my ears.

"Tell you about what?" My hollow voice asked.

My mom gave a strangled laugh, "Well, I don't know, the bruises? The doctor said that they had been there for a couple weeks, at least!"

I didn't faze from my mothers almost hysterical accusation about the bruises. I didn't say anything.

"Evangeline! What happened? How did you get those?" She almost shouted.

"Yes, how did you get those bruises?" A female voice asked. I looked toward the door as, whom I presumed to be my doctor, walked in. Her brown hair matched her brown eyes, which were full of curiosity.

"When you got here," she continued while walking towards me, "you were unconscious. Your parents didn't know why, so I was hoping that you would know why?" She stopped by my IV bag and heart monitor. Her name tag said Dr. Jenny Riff

All the attention was on me. My parents, the doctor, and the nurse who slipped in behind the doctor. Everyone was expecting me to answer the question. But the problem was, I couldn't tell them. How would I explain it to them?

Sensing my quietness, Dr. Riff continued. "We quickly got you on an IV once you were in here. We didn't know the source of your unconsciousness, and we needed to know why to see how we could help you." I think I knew where this was going.

"We had to take off your clothes to see if there was any physical damage. That can be very dangerous, you know. However, we got the answer when we took off your shirt." She stopped there. I refused to make eye contact with anyone, so I settled on looking at the IV in my hand.

The question was on everyone's face: where did the bruises come from? My mom, dad, Dr. Riff, and even the nurse had the same look of concern and confusion on their face. After quickly glancing at everyone, I stared at the IV again. I could feel their eyes burning into me.

Dr. Riff continued, "We found the bruises," she stated the obvious, "and we immediately tried to find where they're coming from. We looked for physical violence, but there was none except for the bruises. Then we took an x-Ray to see if the damage was internal."

She stopped again. I had a feeling that whenever she stopped, the news just got worse and worse and worse. I wonder how bad it can actually get?

"There was also some internal bruising." Not too bad, I don't think.

"Not enough to be seriously harmful, but enough to ask why." Dr. Riff stopped again. She was starting to get on my nerves. I wanted to tell her to just spit it out. I opened my mouth to voice my thoughts, but the door to the room opened and my thoughts took a different route.

"Josh?"

Josh looked frantic. His hair was all messed up and he almost had a crazed look in his eye. He then looked at me, and seeing that I was okay, he sighed. He looked relieved.

"Evie, you're okay." Josh's voice was filled with relief.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" My mom asked. Shit, but what was he doing here?

"I heard she was in the hospital and I came right away." Josh explained to my mom. His voice took on a respective quality.

Mom still looked confused, "But who are you, and how do you know Evie?"

A stubborn look crossed his face, "My name is Josh, and I'm Evie's friend from school."

A knowing look crossed my mom's face as she turned back to face me. She raised her eyebrows in question. 'Date Josh?' She mouthed.

I nodded my head quickly, hoping that no one caught on to our little conversation.

"Josh, what are you doing here?" Dr. Riff asked. My head snapped to the doctor. How did she know Josh?

"Oh, hi Dr. Riff. I am here because I heard about what happened to Evie and I needed to make sure that she was okay." Josh sounded very professional when he answered. However, his answer did nothing to my question about how they knew each other.

"Of course." Dr. Riff mumbled. My confusion grew when she answered.

However, she continued, "Why don't we give Josh and Evie a moment alone." My mouth fell open. Give us a moment?

Dr. Riff started walking towards the door. She reached my parents, who also had their mouths open in shock, and started ushering them to the door.

"No, I'm not leaving my daughter in here with him. I don't even know who he is! I want answers!" My mom almost shouted as the doctor continued to try and usher them out the door.

"I promise you answers. I need to tell you outside of this room, though." Dr. Riff said quietly, as if she was telling my parents a secret.

Both my mom and dad looked like they wanted to argue. However, the doctor must have said something, or mouthed something, to them that I couldn't hear. My parents looked to me and sighed. They followed the doctor out of the room, leaving myself and Josh in the room.

I waited for him to start talking. I, sure as hell, wouldn't talk first.

Josh walked to my bed and sat on the edge of it. Concern poured from the expression on his face and body language.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

I snorted at his dumb question, "Well, thanks for asking. I am feeling utterly fantastic considering I woke up in a hospital." Sarcasm dripped from my tone.

Josh gave a half hearted laugh, "Evie, please take this seriously."

"I am taking this seriously! I woke up in a fricking hospital, Josh! And I don't know how I fricking got here!" I shouted at him, my anger spurting.

Josh grimaced, and looked away from me. I stared him down as he looked at the wall. He bit his lip and looked like he wanted to say something.

"Spit it out, Josh." I commanded. Whatever he needed to say, he needed to say soon.

"Evie, I can't just come out and say it. It's not my place to say." He looked like he was in between a rock and a hard place.

"If it's not your place to tell me, than who's is it?" I asked, hoping my irritability shown out in my voice.

Josh grimaced again. His eyes met mine for a split second, and then looked away. Suddenly, he stood up and started pacing.

"Josh, who can tell me?" The command was in my voice. I wanted to know who could tell me, and I wanted to know what they could tell me.

"I can't tell you, I'm sorry Evie." He looked genuinely sorry, but his sorry ass excuse pushed me over the edge.

"If you can't tell me, than why the hell did you start talking?!" I shouted at him. I hoped my anger was evident, and I hoped he knew that all of it was directed at him. He knew.

Josh stopped pacing, and froze. He cocked his head and waited a minute.

"No!" He shouted, looking at the wall.

"No what? What did I do?" I shouted, exasperated. Who the hell was he talking to? I'm the only one in the room.

Josh's attention suddenly landed on me. His eyes looked into mine as if he was peering into my soul. He suddenly looked excited. I cocked my eyebrow in confusion.

"What the hell do you-" I was interrupted by Josh.

"It's going to be better Evie," he rushed to the side of my bed and clasped my hand, "it's going to be so much better. I promise."

A/N: Happy Holidays!!! So, I hope you guys enjoy. Warning: some of you will hate me for where this goes. But please, wait a couple of chapters I promise you. So hold on for a bit, the book's going to take a 180, but I am not even close to ending. Please don't be too mad. Anyway, also, don't expect another update until after Christmas. Doctor Who fans know what's coming up, and I'm probably going to be a wreck afterward. Thanks everyone for reading!!! Happy Holidays!!!