The Teacher Across the Hall

Chapter Twelve

I looked around the room frantically, feeling an anxiety attack coming on. All I heard was a lot of yelling, but everyone's voices were mashed into one symphony of anger that I had no idea whose voices they were. 

Why was everything in my life falling apart right in front of me? It was either my life was going very well and I was happy or everything just completely shattered and I had to find a way to pick up all of the pieces. 

My hand found its way to the IV machine, which I was currently hooked up to, and released my arm so that I could get out of bed. As soon as I sat up, I felt my vision get blurry and my brain  swell inside of my head. Somehow, I managed to stand up and stumble all the way across the room to the door. My legs were wobbling, my hands were trembling, and my head felt like it was going to explode, but I had to see what the hell was going on outside. Mom and I had heard arguing when we were talking, but we both didn't think it could be coming from our family. 

Like always, we hoped for the best and got the worst. 

I looked down at my hospital attire and scoffed before staggering out into the hallway. It took a minute or two and a few moments to take a break, yelling still audible from the waiting area, but I finally reached my family. 

My family . . . and Michael? What the fuck?

My family, and Michael . . . pinned up against the wall by Ross.

For the first time in my life, I was really hoping that the LSD was still affecting my brain. I knew that it wasn't the case, but it was the only thing I could tell myself so that I wouldn't pass out. 

Gabby was the first one who saw me, then Sadie saw Gabby looking over at me so she looked over, then David did, and eventually all eyes were on me. The nurse was even there trying to break up the fight, but when she saw me her face turned pale. 

"Miss Wilson! Please, get back in your bed!" She rushed over to me and grabbed my arm, but I continued to look over at Ross and Michael, thinking about how fucked this situation was. Ross saw me staring and eventually let Michael go, then Michael saw me and he looked away. I could feel my heart break when I saw that Ross looked completely destroyed and defeated; as far as he knew, I had cheated on him last night with the man that was standing right next to him. I never had the chance to talk to him about it, because of all of this shit. "Come with me, okay? You need rest." 

As she lead me away, my eyes never left Ross, who I felt that I had let down in more ways than one. When my eyes met Michael's, I felt my blood boil. 

"Go home, Michael." 

He looked hurt by my remark to him, which is exactly what I wanted. 

As the nurse helped me back into my bed and began to hook me back up to my IV, I felt absolutely crushed. My world felt like it was ending, and all I could think about was my small family; my boyfriend and our daughter. Life was far too painful for me to handle. The only thing that I wanted was to go to sleep and dream this pain away for a couple of hours. 

When my head collapsed onto the hard pillow, the last thing that I saw was the nurse looking down at my arm, injecting a substance into it with an abnormally large needle. 

~

Although sleeping for nine hours was nice, I woke up in a dark room that was dimly lit by an old TV. I thought that I was alone, but when I turned my head I found that I was very much mistaken. Ross was sat in a chair next to my bed, holding my hand, (the one that wasn't hooked up to the IV machine) and watching some old sitcom on the small television. When he saw that I was looking over at him, his eyes instantly lit up. 

"Hey, babe." He forced a smile. "How are you feeling?" 

I didn't hesitate to answer. "Like absolute fucking shit." 

He chuckled. "Yeah, I bet." 

When I looked down at our connected hands, I couldn't help but to feel the guilt begin to build up again. The pain was beginning to come back, and the worst part was that I couldn't sleep it away again. This time, I had to deal with it like a normal human being. 

"What time is it?" I asked. 

"About three in the morning." He informed me as he checked his iPhone. 

"Oh God," I groaned, thinking about how I was going to have to take another day off of work. "Where's Gabby? Is she okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah, she's alright. She's at your Mom's." 

As his eyes stared intently at the TV screen, I felt my heart sink. "Listen Ross, about me and Michael,"

"-No." He interrupted. "Let's not talk about that right now, Mary. We'll get to all that shit later." His eyes were now interlocked with mine. "I'm just glad you're okay and alive. That's all that matters right now." He leaned over and kissed my forehead. "I love you." 

As we sat together in the dark hospital room, thoughts were trying desperately to break free from my mind. There were so many things that I wanted to say to him: how sorry I was, how much I loved him, and how much he and our daughter have filled the empty void in my heart. For some reason, his words stuck with me. All of our problems were temporary and we could deal with that shit later. What was permanent was our love for each other.

And right now more than anything, that's what we needed to focus on.