We just have to be thankful that we’re not in some ward with a hundred other people. Though, it could also have something to do with the fact that it’s an overcrowded hospital with not enough rooms. I have no idea how we swung a private room though, but if I had to guess, I’d say the boys had something to do with that too.
We haven’t seen Rivers since dad kicked him out, meaning Tully hasn’t seen him at all since she woke up and I know that’s hurting her. Her family has come and is always nearby, people from school keep knocking on the door as though they have some right to be here, the side of the room is filled with balloons and flowers, and we’re both fucking sick of it.
I mean, if visitors want to bring something, then they should be bringing McDonalds or something to really get our blood pumping, not these stupid reminders of the hell we went through. Tully is sore and broken, she doesn’t need all these people in here watching her heal. Hell, I’m lucky that I get to be so close. I think Noah worked that out pretty early on as after the tenth time a person came knocking, he told them to fuck off and leave her alone. The nurses quickly got the gist and stopped giving out the room number.
Having Tully in the same room means that I get an up close, detailed explanation of her injuries. Not that she wouldn’t have told me anyway, but it’s nice hearing it firsthand from the doctors and be able to hear their take on her recovery. During the crash, her right arm was crushed and her head was hit, causing a slight fracture to her skull. Three ribs broke and a piece of rib punctured a lung while she also suffered internal bleeding.
The doctors are saying she’s lucky to be alive and I have to say, I agree with them. I only suffered a nasty headache which is nearly gone now and am a little cut up. I don’t know why they’re keeping me here this long, but it could possibly have something to do with the fact that it’s good for Tully, to help her heal. Not that it’s going to happen overnight, but I’ve been keeping her spirits up and making sure there’s a smile on her face.
I know, I know, I’d want me around too.
Noah’s phone lights up with a text and not a moment later, he walks out the door, leaving Tully and I alone for the first time in ages. I look over to her as she scoffs. Her voice comes out croaky and rough but she’s too proud to pull back. “After the hell I’ve been through, he better not be leaving to go do a job.”
I can’t help but look to the door, following where he’s just excited. “Nah, he wouldn’t,” I say, a little unsure, eyes narrowing. “Surely, he wouldn’t.”
“This is Noah we’re talking about,” she grumbles.
I hear her bed sheets ruffling and whip my head back around to her. “What do you think you’re doing?” I shriek as she tries to reach for the cup of water sitting by her bed. “You’re going to tear your stitches.”
“I’m fine,” she grumbles.
I shake my head and roll out of bed, before stepping across to her, hoping I don’t rip out my drip again. I mean, that shit wasn’t fun. I grab Tully’s water and hold the little straw up to her. “You could have just asked,” I tell her.
She takes the sip of water and I see it in her eyes, she hates this. She doesn’t like feeling weak and broken, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to show it in front of her tough as nails brother. “How’re you feeling?” I question, knowing now’s probably the only time I’ll get a straight answer out of her.
“I feel like a truck ran over me and then backed up just to make sure the job was done.”
“That bad?” I murmur, holding up the water again so she can take another sip. “You know, it’s perfectly acceptable to ask for stronger pain meds.”
She scrunches up her face and I step over to hit the button on my bed which calls in the nurse. “What are you doing?” she grumbles, hardly able to put up much of a fight.
“I’m getting you sorted out seeing as though you won’t do it yourself,” I tell her, straightening up her sheets to make her a little more comfortable, the same way her mom had been doing before she left. “Besides, the strong stuff is good. It’s like taking a mini vacation.”
She rolls her eyes as the nurse comes strolling in. Her eyes flick to me, assuming I’m the one who needs her before looking across at Tully. The nurse doesn’t curse me out on the fact that I’m not in bed and I thank her for it. Besides, I’d have a thing or two to say about it if she wanted to try.
“What do you need dear?” she asks as she checks over Tully’s chart.
I speak up for her. “She needs stronger pain meds but she’s too tough to admit it and ask for it.”
The nurse gives Tully a stern look before raising a questioning brow. “You’re only making it harder for yourself if you fight the process the whole way along.”
“Fine,” Tully murmurs. “I feel like shit. My legs are cramping. I want to take a shower. My head hurts, and my body aches, and if someone doesn’t take this catheter out of me soon, I’m going to scream.”
The nurse takes a slow breath. “I see,” she says. “Well, unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do about the catheter, that needs to stay until you can get yourself up and walking around. The shower…again, up and walking around. Everything else, I can handle.”
With that, she excuses herself and returns a few minutes later with a little tray filled to the brim with the good stuff. “Oooh, can I have some of that?” I smirk, sitting on the edge of my bed and looking at the party mix before me. It’s like a guessing game; what will happen if I take the blue one?
The nurse shakes her head and ‘tsk’s’ me. “I don’t even know why you’re still here,” she says. “You’re clearly fine.”
I shrug my shoulders. “I guess they’re keeping me around for the entertainment.”
“That seems about right,” she chuckles before getting Tully sorted.
She makes her way out of the room just as Noah barges back in. I look down at Tully and wink, letting her know she just got away with murder. She got her pain meds and admitted feeling like shit all without anyone knowing.
Noah strides in and standing in the middle of the room looking awkward for a brief moment. I’m about to ask what crawled up his ass when a figure walks through the door behind him.
Rivers.
His eyes fly straight to Tully and he looks completely shattered.
Complete silence.
There’s no other way to describe it…apart from awkward as fuck.
Noah’s eyes finally come to mine and if finally realizing what’s right in front of him, he completely loses his shit. “Why the fuck are you out of bed?” he roars, pulling my attention away from the devastation on Rivers’ face.
“Oh, shut up,” I scold with a roll of my eyes. “I was helping your sister get a drink of water to avoid her getting out of bed.”
Noah’s eyes flick right back to Tully’s. “Excuse me?” he sputters but she doesn’t respond. It’s as though she’s locked in some kind of trance with Rivers. The two of them haven’t even blinked since he walked in.
There are a million things that need to be said here, but I have to admit, what comes out of her mouth, is the one thing I wasn’t expecting. “How’s your girlfriend?”
Rivers’ eyes widen like saucers. “Fuck,” he grunts in horror. “I forgot about her.”
A grin rips across Tully’s face. “You know, that almost makes all of this worth it.”
He shakes his head as Noah and I watch on in confusion. How could they possibly be discussing this right now? Rivers pulls his phone out of his pocket and goes to text her when thinking better of it. "Fuck it,” he says, tossing the phone onto the end of my bed. “I’ll talk to her later.”
With that, he walks over to the side of Tully’s bed and takes her hand in his before leaning forward and pressing the softest kiss I’ve ever seen to her lips. “You’ve got to know how sorry I am,” he murmurs.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she tells him, tears brimming in her eyes as she raises a hand to his cheek. “You couldn’t have known that car was going to run a red light.
This isn’t on you.”
Noah walks over to me and takes my hand before grabbing the stand for my drip. “Come on,” he tells me, slipping an arm around me despite the fact that I don’t need it. “Let’s give them a moment.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Noah takes me out and pulls me down on his lap in a chair just outside my room. He nuzzles his face into my neck. “Fuck, I want to take you home.”
“Seriously?” I laugh, trying to be quiet as to not disturb the other patients. “I was just in a car crash and your thinking about getting nasty?”
I feel his grin against my skin. “I meant get you out of the hospital, you dork. I don’t like seeing you here.” Oh. “Who’s the one with the dirty mind now?”
“Whatever,” I grumble, rolling my eyes. “I’m hoping they’ll discharge me soon, but I want to stay with Tully.”
“I know,” he murmurs. “I think she likes having you with her and it probably helps that you’re one of the only people who put up with her bullshit.”
I scoff and relax into his body as he falls silent, clearly with his mind taking him places it shouldn’t be. “What?” I whisper into the quiet hallway.
He lets out a sigh and before he’s spoken a word, my heart is already breaking. “I shouldn’t have done that job. Rivers was right. It wasn’t urgent. I could have waited until after school and taken you two home first, but I didn’t want to wait and I hated the thought of you looking at me that way you always do when I say I have to go.”
“Noah,” I sigh. “This isn’t your fault.”
“I know,” he tells me. “But my actions are what put all three of you in that car. If it wasn’t for me, Rivers probably would have fucked around with Alyssa all afternoon and you two would have been with me. The whole thing could have been avoided.”
“Stop,” I murmur, pressing my lips to his. “This isn’t on you. There are a million different possibilities in play here. Rivers could have taken the back streets. Alyssa could have walked home. Hell, Tully and I could have walked. This. Is. Not. On. You. Got it?”
“Just because you say it with your sharp little attitude, doesn’t make it true,” he tells me.
“You’re impossible,” I smile.
“And you’re going to give me a heart attack one day. I swear, I never want to get a call like that ever again. It will be a cold day in hell when something like that happens again.”
“Shit, I don’t know about a cold day in hell, but it was definitely cold in that car with Alyssa there. I mean, fuck. Tully nearly pulled out her hair.”
We sit and talk for a while and before I know it, the murmurs from the opposite side of the wall seem to have slowed down. Noah helps me to my feet and we head back in the room to find Rivers laying down in Tully’s bed, holding her close while being as gentle as he can, giving her exactly what she needs to feel at ease.
Noah practically forces me back into my bed before sitting at the end of it, talking to Rivers about the state of his car and from what I gather, his insurance will cover it, but it will be more like a payout rather than getting another one. I guess he’ll be back to searching for his dream car. It’s a shame. He didn’t even get to drive it for a whole week.
A knock sounds at the door and the boys’ eyes fall towards it as the door handle turns. I don’t bother, we’ve been bombarded by doctors and nurses since we first ended up in this hell hole. I’m sure it’s just another one coming to check up on us.
The door begins to creep open and the second I see Rocko step over the threshold with a cheap as fuck looking bouquet of flowers in his hands and an awkward expression on his face, all hell breaks loose.
It all happens so quickly. One minute, Rivers is holding Tully as though she the most precious thing this world has ever created, the next, Rocko has him up against the wall, threatening to beat the shit out of him for hurting his girl and then having the balls to climb in bed with her.
He doesn’t fight back or even replies and when Noah goes to take a move, Rivers shakes his head. Not a moment later, he storms out the door while everybody watches on in silence.
Chapter 19
I sit in my bed, playing a game of ‘Go Fish’ with Aria, scowling as she continues to cheat, though the kicker is, she doesn’t even realize she’s doing it, nor does she understand what I’m trying to explain every time she does it. She must think I’m a real sore loser.
It’s day three of being home from the hospital, and so far, it’s driving me insane. I feel perfectly fine to go to school and be part of the world again, but Dad and Noah are both insisting that I finish the week off at home.
It’s so freaking annoying.
If they were in my position, they’d be out of bed in a heartbeat, yet I feel like I have two broody, asshole, guard dogs keeping me locked in my ivory tower. It completely sucks.
Don’t get me wrong, they have a little merit to their asshole ways. I ended up with a nasty headache after spending the day cleaning the house out of pure boredom, my body is still covered head to toe in cuts and bruises, and apparently, there are a few too many rumors going around school claiming they know the truth about the crash. Some people are even saying that the crash was staged and that I actually just went apeshit on Tully in a pure rage because I’m a bitch like that.
Noah quickly set them straight, but it doesn’t stop the chatter.
Tully is not impressed to still be laying helpless in the hospital bed. If I’m going insane here, then she must be going certifiably crazy over there. There’s nothing Tully hates more than complying with someone else. Well, I guess this is kind of different as her own health and safety are in question and she’s really in too much pain to do anything about it, but I swear, every time a nurse comes in and tells her to take her pills, she scowls up at them as though they are there to personally victimize her.
It’s actually getting quite entertaining…that is until I was forced to go home and spend my days locked inside.
With Noah in school and Rivers…well, actually, I don’t really know where the hell he is. No one’s really seen him much since the day Rocko came into the hospital. He apparently stopped in at the hospital to see Tully when no one else was around, checking that she’s healing alright, but apart from that…nothing. Noah says he’s not at school and he’s not been at their house, so with no one really knowing too much about his personal life, we have no fucking idea where he’s been. My guess is that the guilt is eating him up, but he needs to work out how to let go of it because shit like that will do more harm than good.
So yeah, with Noah in school and Rivers wherever the hell he is, I’ve basically been stranded here. Dad and Noah have flat out refused to allow me behind the wheel of a car so I’ve been forced to stay home, unable to actually go and physically check on Tully. Noah ensures me she’s doing fine, but it’s not the same when I can’t see her for myself.
We’ve been texting each other nonstop. There’s only so much Netflix I can watch to keep myself entertained. Tully is mostly alright because she’s got her Kindle, but I haven’t quite fallen in love with reading in the same, ridiculously obsessive way she has. I’ve read two books since the crash but not the impressive six that Tully has torn through. I swear, she probably sees all this as some kind of chance to make a dent in her ‘To Be Read’ pile.
Aria sees the card I pick up and instantly takes it out of my hands, adding it to the group of at least nine cards in her hand. “I win,” she yells.
“Really, now?” I grumble, looking over the cards she puts down on the bed before her.
She doesn’t have one single match.
“Uh huh,” she grins.
“Damn it, that’s four times in a row. How are you so good at this?”
She beams up at me as though I just handed her Christmas day on a silver platter, though, now that I think about it, she’s probably never celebrated Christmas in a true merry way before. We’ll have to remember to put a little extra effort this year.
We
’ve started giving up on the whole big Christmas thing since I’ve gotten older, neither of us needs that extra effort, but now with Aria, we can bring back my childhood. Though this time, we won’t have a mom sitting around, ignoring us the whole time. It’ll be great.
Shit, Dad’s going lose his mind when I suggest decorating the house. I can’t exactly picture him willingly climbing up on the roof to hang a ten foot Santa Claus and his sleigh, but I’ll twist Noah’s finger until he agrees to do it instead. I might even add some lights and a nativity scene that has music playing.
Damn, this is going to be an expensive Christmas.
“Hey,” dad’s rumbly voice says from my bedroom doorway. We both look up to see him leaning against my open door frame, looking in on us as though we’re the sole reason for his being. “Time to get ready for school, Squirt.”
“Nooooo,” Aria whines, drawing it out. “That’s not fair. Henley doesn’t have to go to school. Can’t I stay at home too?”
“Henley was in an accident,” Dad fires back.
I poke my tongue out at my sister, teasing her before deciding to give dad a little help. “Don’t think I’m staying home on purpose. It’s boring spending all day in bed. Trust me, you’ll hate it, and besides, I thought you loved going to school?”
“I do,” she tells me with big puppy dog eyes.
“Then what’s the problem?” dad questions.
“I want to stay with Henley,” she pouts. “If she’s not allowed to go to her school, can she come to school with me? I promise, my teacher will be nice.”
She turns those big puppy dog eyes on dad and for a moment I actually worry that I’m about to be sent to Kindergarten to get a refresher course of my ‘ABC’s’. “Geez,” I tell her. “I wish I had those big blue eyes like you do, I would have gotten away with murder as a kid.”
“You did get away with murder,” he murmurs before letting out a sigh and rounding up Aria. “Come on, kid. Go get ready. You can play with Henley after school.” He tells her. “I might even let her pick you up.”
Untameable: Haven Falls (Book 3) Page 18