Stuck With You

by Carla Burgess

  ‘I meant to hit Kev,’ Zach kept repeating. ‘I meant to hit Kev.’

  ‘And that makes it better, does it?’ Steve shouted.

  ‘You fucking wanker!’ Kev snarled at Zach.

  ‘Will you just stop?’ I hissed. The blood was seeping through my fingers, running down his face and neck into my jeans. There was so much of it, it scared me. I couldn’t make it stop. ‘Someone get some napkins or something.’

  Steve shoved some napkins into my hands and I tried to stem the flow, but it just kept coming. How deep was the cut?

  ‘Where’s the ambulance?’ I screamed, looking round in panic. ‘Get an ambulance now.’

  ‘It’s on its way!’ The bar staff looked on, frozen with fear. Zach’s face was as white as a sheet, eyes huge with terror.

  ‘What do I do? What do I do?’ I said, cradling Daniel in my arms.

  Those minutes before the ambulance arrived seemed to last hours, but eventually I heard the words ‘The ambulance is here’ and blue flashing lights lit up the room. The door was thrown open and two paramedics appeared. I stood back as they took care of Daniel. He was still out cold. They laid him out on the floor and stemmed the flow of blood from his head with a large swab. They wanted to know what he’d been hit with, and Steve pointed to the mic stand on the floor. The paramedic rolled his eyes, and shook his head. He had the air of someone who’d seen it all before.

  ‘Is he going to be all right?’

  ‘He will, but we’ll take him in to check for concussion. He’s going to need stitches too.’

  I watched in horrified silence as they placed Daniel on a stretcher. The smell of blood was thick in my nostrils, and I realised I was covered in it. It was smeared all over my hands and chest, and I could feel it wet and sticky in my top. I wiped my hands on the napkin in my hand, only to find it was also wet with blood. I felt sick. How could this night have taken such a turn for the worse?

  The paramedics started to carry the stretcher to the ambulance.

  ‘Can I come?’

  ‘Yes, there’s room for one. Are you his girlfriend?’

  I nodded and grabbed my bag from the floor. Steve touched me gently on the arm, his face creased with worry. ‘We’ll be along after,’ he said.

  The ambulance was parked just outside the front steps. I waited while they lifted Daniel inside and then climbed into the back to sit next to him. A large patch of gauze covered one eye and half of his face. I couldn’t take my eyes off a red spot on the gauze, which was growing larger and larger. Daniel’s skin was chalky white. I clutched his limp hand in mine and silently willed him to wake up.

  We reached the hospital within minutes. The doors were flung open and Daniel was taken out on the stretcher and into the brightly lit corridors of the hospital. I followed behind, answering any questions that the nurses fired at me. They wheeled him into an empty cubicle and I watched fearfully as they shone lights in his eyes and talked rapidly among themselves. They were talking about X-rays and all I could think about was fractured skulls and brain damage. What if he was never the same again? What if he never woke up? What if I had lost him already?

  I couldn’t lose him now. I’d only just found him again.

  A nurse ushered me out and told me to wait in the corridor. I sat on a black plastic seat and put my head in my hands. It felt wrong to be sitting here. I should be doing something. Should I try to contact his mum? I didn’t have her number or anything. Thanks to my years of stalking, I knew Daniel’s full name, address and date of birth off by heart so I could pass on this information. I hoped his bandmates would turn up soon; one of them was sure to be able to contact his mum.

  It was ages before Daniel came back from X-ray. Unable to stand the sight of my bloodstained hands any longer, I’d gone to the toilet and tried to clean myself up. The water turned red and I felt traumatised as I watched it disappear down the plughole. I washed my face, removing most of my make-up in the process, and tried to rinse out the ends of my hair, which were also sticky with congealed blood. There was nothing I could do about my jeans, but I took off my top, which felt uncomfortably damp, and did up my jacket instead.

  I went back out into the corridor just as Daniel was being wheeled back into the room. He was awake now and looking around, bewildered. They’d changed the dressing on his face and it was now pure white and unblemished by blood.

  ‘There’s no fracture,’ the nurse said with a smile. ‘We’re keeping him overnight though. We’ve stitched him up but he’s going to have a scar, I’m afraid.’

  I nodded and sat down on the chair next to the bed. The nurse noted something down on his chart and went out, twitching the curtains together as she did so. Daniel turned his head towards me. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘What do you have to be sorry for?’ I said, taking his hand. ‘You’re the one who ended up in hospital.’

  ‘Sorry for having dickhead friends who ruined your night out.’

  I smiled and tucked my hair behind my ear. ‘Well, obviously, I’m a bit disappointed we’re not having rampant sex right now, but there we go.’

  ‘Really?

  ‘Yeah, according to my calculations I should be on my third orgasm by now.’

  He laughed silently. ‘Blimey. I have a lot to live up to, don’t I?’

  ‘Yep. I bought new underwear and everything.’

  He gave me a lopsided grin. ‘You can still show me.’

  ‘Now? In here?’ I looked around at the white and blue curtains surrounding us.

  ‘Yeah, go on. I dare you.’

  ‘I don’t think so. It’d be bad for your blood pressure.’ I didn’t mention that the bra was now covered in blood. Smiling, I rested my elbows on the side of the mattress. ‘You really scared me, you know. I thought I’d lost you. Don’t ever do that to me again.’

  He swallowed, and I watched his Adam’s apple bob in his throat. ‘I don’t even know what hit me.’

  ‘Zach hit you. With the base of the mic stand.’

  ‘Great.’ He shut his eyes.

  ‘If it’s any consolation, he meant to hit Kev, not you.’

  ‘It’s not.’ He moved his head from side to side and winced.

  ‘Have they given you anything for the pain?’

  ‘I think so. I feel a bit groggy.’

  ‘Hmm…’ I watched him for a moment. ‘You know, my stalking years came in very handy tonight. I was able to tell them your full name, address and date of birth off the top of my head. You wouldn’t get that service from any other woman you’d only been seeing for two weeks, would you?’

  ‘Lucky me,’ he said, softly.

  ‘It could be one of those life hacks: always take your stalker wherever you go.’

  ‘I intend to from now on.’ He smiled and squeezed my fingers.

  ‘I haven’t phoned your mum though. Do you think I should phone her now? Let her know where you are?’

  ‘No, she’ll be asleep. I’ll phone her in the morning.’ His eyes started to roll and I watched as he drifted off to sleep. I kissed him gently on the nose and rested my chin on my fist to watch him. It occurred to me that Steve, Kev and Zach might be in the waiting room, wondering what was going on. Slipping my hand out of Daniel’s, I went down the hall to see if they were there.

  The waiting room was full of people in various degrees of pain and discomfort. I didn’t like staring around, but thankfully Steve spotted me and waved.

  ‘Hi! Is he all right?’ he said, when I got close enough to speak to him.

  I nodded. ‘He’s just come back from being X-rayed. His skull’s not fractured so he’s going to be all right. He’s had some stitches though and he’ll probably have a scar.’

  ‘Shit.’ Kev bowed his head and looked at the floor. I glanced around for Zach.

  ‘Is Zach not here?’

  ‘No. He’s being interviewed at the police station.’

  ‘He isn’t!’ I stared at them in disbelief.

&n
bsp; ‘What did you expect? He’s off his rocker.’ Kev’s lip curled in disgust and he went back to staring at the floor again.

  ‘The police arrived just after you left in the ambulance.’ Steve glanced at Kev. ‘I doubt Daniel will press charges though. I suppose he could still be charged with public affray or something like that.’

  I winced. I knew Zach was wrong, but I didn’t like to think of him in a police cell. He was too young. Too fragile.

  ‘But he didn’t mean—’ I started.

  ‘He could have killed him,’ Kev snapped. ‘Or me, for that matter.’

  ‘You’re still covered in blood,’ Steve said, by way of changing the subject. He was staring at my jeans.

  ‘Can you see it?’ I looked down at my legs and Steve and Kev both nodded.

  ‘I feel sick,’ Kev said. He sat back and looked towards the exit, hands on his knees.

  ‘Why don’t you pop in and see Daniel and then you can go home? I think he’s asleep but it might help you to see him.’

  I led them through to the room where Daniel was and held back the curtain. Steve and Kev looked inside but Daniel was fast asleep. Steve dragged a hand through his corn-coloured hair and exhaled. He looked exhausted.

  ‘We’ll go home then. Why don’t you get some rest yourself? You may as well while he’s asleep.’

  I shook my head. ‘I want to stay. At least until his mum or dad get here. That reminds me, do you have their number? Could you give them a ring and let them know?’

  Kev nodded. ‘I’ll do it first thing.’

  Chapter Seventeen

  I sat by Daniel’s bed until morning. He slept soundly, and I watched his chest rise and fall. The nurses who were on when we arrived went home and a new shift started. My eyelids started to close just after seven, and I jerked awake as a woman in a black coat bustled in and placed her handbag on Daniel’s bed. ‘Oh my God!’ she said, holding her arms out wide as she stared at the bandage on his face. ‘Oh my God!’

  I winced. ‘I think the bandage might make it look worse than it actually is,’ I said to her. I recognised her as Daniel’s mum from college parents’ evenings. She hadn’t changed much. She still had the same neat blonde bobbed hair and the same green eyes as Daniel.

  ‘Is his eye all right? Please tell me he hasn’t lost an eye?’

  ‘No, I think the cut’s just above his eyebrow.’ I was suddenly doubting myself. What if he had lost his eye and they just hadn’t told me. ‘They X-rayed him and his skull isn’t fractured so—’

  ‘Fractured?’

  ‘It isn’t fractured.’

  ‘But there was a chance it could have been? That’s awful.’

  ‘I think it was a precaution,’ I said, trying to reassure her. ‘Here, come and sit down.’ I got up from the seat and patted it and she came and sat down, staring at her son with huge eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry, who are you?’ she asked. I saw her eyes flicker over me, and I suddenly remembered that I had only a bra beneath my jacket. I felt like a stripper.

  ‘Elena.’ I felt a stab of disappointment. So, he hadn’t told his mum about me? I suppose it didn’t matter. He said he’d told his dad, I had met his uncle.

  ‘Elena.’ She repeated the name as though looking for a meaning in it.

  ‘I’m just a friend,’ I said. I took one last look at Daniel and bent to retrieve my bag from beneath the chair. ‘I’ll leave you to it then.’

  ‘Have you been here with him all night?’

  ‘Yes, I came in the ambulance with him.’

  ‘Ambulance? Oh my God! So what happened? Were you there?’

  I nodded. ‘Didn’t Kev tell you what happened?’

  ‘Huh! That boy!’ She rolled her eyes and shook her head. ‘He just said Daniel had been hit with a mic stand and was in hospital.’

  ‘Yes, that’s pretty much it.’

  ‘Well, how did it happen?’

  ‘Oh!’ I passed a hand over my face. I didn’t really want to be the one to tell her. ‘Zach went to hit Kev and got Daniel instead.’

  ‘I knew it would involve Kev, somehow. It usually does.’ She pressed her lips together and rocked backwards and forwards. ‘I’m Philippa, by the way. Daniel’s mum. His dad will be here in a minute. I left him parking the car. What a way to meet anyway. I must look a sight. I came out without having a shower or anything.’

  ‘Were you at a presentation evening last night?’

  ‘Yes, it was a golf club thing. I felt bad for missing Daniel’s gig. Did Richie go?’

  ‘Yes. And the girls.’

  ‘What about his wife?’

  ‘I think so, although I didn’t meet her. Daniel told me to stay away because they’d had a row.’

  ‘She’s a right misery, that one. I don’t know what’s got into her just recently. Richie can’t put a foot right.’

  ‘Is Richie your brother?’

  She nodded. ‘My little brother, yes. Ah, here’s George now.’ I turned as a man stuck his head through the curtains. ‘This is Elena, Daniel’s girlfriend.’

  George nodded, his eyes wide with horror at the sight of Daniel in the bed. ‘Hello, Elena. Daniel told me about you the other night.’

  ‘Did he? He never told me.’ Philippa glowered at Daniel, who was just beginning to stir.

  ‘Well, you’ve hardly seen him this week.’ George walked over to the bed and took Daniel’s hand in his as his eyelids flickered. ‘Hello, son. How are you doing?’

  ‘He got hit by a mic stand, how do you think he’s doing?’ Philippa hissed. George rolled his eyes at her and she turned to me and shook her head.

  ‘Men are idiots!’

  I laughed. ‘Do you want me to get you a coffee from the machine or anything?’ I asked.

  ‘Could you? I’d love one. Here…’ Philippa started to rummage in her bag for her purse.

  ‘I’ve got change for the machine, don’t worry,’ I said, slipping out between the curtains. ‘How do you want it?’

  ‘White, no sugar. Thanks, love.’

  The machine was just round the corner, so I was back within a few minutes. Even so, the scene had changed drastically, with Daniel fully awake and a nurse at the end of the bed, chatting to his parents. I slipped in and passed the coffee to his mum and dad.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Daniel asked in disbelief. I hesitated, my heart crashing in my chest. Had something happened while he was sleeping? Did he not remember me? Or did he just not want me here?

  ‘She’s been here all night,’ the nurse said cheerfully.

  ‘Why didn’t you go home?’ He reached a hand out to me and I took it.

  ‘I wanted to stay with you.’

  ‘Nice way to find out you had a girlfriend, I must say.’ Philippa sniffed, sipping her coffee.

  ‘I haven’t seen you all week,’ he protested. ‘Besides, she’s my fiancée now. We got engaged last night.’

  He tipped my hand towards his mum to show her the green plastic ring on my finger. She tutted and rolled her eyes.

  ‘What are you doing giving her rubbish like that? You’ll scare her away.’

  ‘The only thing that’s likely to scare her is you!’ he laughed, letting go of my hand so he could push himself up in bed.

  Philippa tutted and looked at me. ‘If you do end up engaged, you make sure you get a better ring than that out of him,’ she said. ‘You’re worth more than that.’

  ‘I think she knows that, Mum,’ Daniel said, sarcastically. The breakfast trolley arrived and he looked at it with interest.

  ‘Well, I’m going to go home then,’ I said, performing an awkward little wave to everyone. ‘Clean up a bit.’

  ‘Oh, good grief! Is that blood all over you?’ Philippa stared at my jeans in horror.

  ‘Erm, yeah.’ I sidled towards the curtains and looked at the nurse. ‘Will he be discharged today, do you think?’

  ‘I should think so. Though we’ll have to wait
for the doctor to give the final say-so.’

  ‘Okay, well, phone me when you get out, otherwise I’ll come back later. Nice to meet you both. Bye.’

  I felt a bit tearful as I made my way out through the main entrance to the hospital. I felt tired and weak and it had only just occurred to me that I was going to have to get home somehow. Checking the time, I realised it was almost eight o’clock and my dad would be up by now. I’d already texted to tell them what had happened, so Dad was more than happy to pick me up when I phoned him. He arrived within ten minutes and I climbed gratefully into the car.

  ‘Is that blood all down your legs?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Yuck!’ He recoiled in disgust and I closed my eyes. ‘Blimey, never a dull moment with you, is there? Is Daniel all right, then?’

  ‘I think so. He’s had stitches but the nurse said he should be discharged later.’ I yawned widely. ‘I can’t wait to have a shower and go to sleep.’

  ‘Eh, something you need to tell us?’ he said, looking at the green ring on my hand. I laughed and stretched out my fingers to look at it.

  ‘Yes, the wedding’s in June.’

  ‘Oh good, I love a good wedding.’

  He parked on the drive and I walked tiredly upstairs and into the bathroom. My hair smelt of hospitals and Daniel’s blood and I washed it twice with scented shampoo before going to bed and falling into a deep sleep.

  ***

  I was dreaming. I could hear Daniel’s voice, low and soft, and feel his warm hand on my bare foot. My eyes flickered open to see golden afternoon sunlight flooding into my bedroom and a hazy shape at the end of my bed. I blinked and lifted my head.

  ‘Daniel?’

  ‘Ah, you’re awake.’

  I sat up quickly. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘Mostly trying to see up your bathrobe.’ He laughed and moved up the bed to sit next to me. ‘Only joking. They let me out so I thought I’d come and see you. Are you okay? It’s past one o’clock. You must have been pretty tired.’

  ‘Yeah, I was knackered.’ I pulled the tie on my bathrobe tighter and redid the knot. The big dressing on his head had been removed and a smaller one put in its place so he could see out of his eye. Although his eye did look quite swollen and bruised. ‘How’s the head?’