Chapter 4

" Good-" Bruce glanced at his watch, "Morning!" he says, oddly cheerful. He turns his whole body to face Adrian, "Adrian Black."

They nod heads towards one another like a foreign language or code. Adrian slowly reaches for my hand and squeezes it but doesn't let go.

Bruce cranes his neck to Ida's direction, "Ida Meybohm." His tone turns sharp but friendly. Ida looks down and bothers a loose strand of hair, blushing slightly. "Ahhh, my favorite girl!" Bruce walks over to my bed, smiling gleefully.

He makes hand gestures to my boyfriend and best friend to move out of his way; they listen but stay close. He plants a big, overly exaggerated kiss on my forehead and gives me a small, light hug.

"Are you okay, baby girl?" I cringe hard, but it's mistaken as an act of pain. "Oh, are you still not feeling well?" He turns to Ida and Adrian, place his temple on top of my head, "Why don't you two leave and get some air, I'm sure you've been here for a while." Adrian begins to protest, but Ida carefully steers him out the door. She gave me sadden eyes before they were both out of my sight.

I lift my hand to reach out to them, but my arm is unresponsive. Bruce lifts his head sharply and detaches himself from me. He rushes to brush off his suit with his hands, "I thought I'd never have to pull one of those again, ugh, makes me sick." Just like that folks, this guy has no interest in me. Talk about bipolar.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, matching my glare with his.

He walks over to Adrian's chair, turns it the correct way, and sits down. Bruce leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and intertwined his fingers. "Look, pal," The word pal sends a shiver to my spine, "I'm only here because you mom wanted to see you but, and I quote…" He sits upright and crosses his legs. After doing a small hair flip, he says, "I'm so sorry Bruce, I just can't miss work today, Ugh, today out of all days. Please, please, make sure Alivi, is breathing, conscious, and remembers her name." He uses his hand as tick marks for each objective.

While returning to his old position, I say, "My mother does love me. Why don't you go to work or something, you don't care about me."

My Step-father gets up from his seat and starts to laugh, and I look at him apprehensively. " I'm not saying that she doesn't love you, no-no-no. That's when you're wrong, I love your mother," He looks off into space, " Unfortunately, I automatically just have to give a shit about you. But…" He edges closer to me, stopping to inspect my monitor, "I did what your mother asked so now I'm here for what I want," Sharply he turns his head to me and gets in my face, causing me to gasp, "Where were you last night before your mom and I got home?"

Startled, "I-I was in an accid-"

He presses two fingers to my lips to shush me, "Ah ah ah, not what I asked. Genevieve had put up some fight but finally told me you weren't home when I did my little check-in call." That little daughter of a bitch, I hope she did try. Through gritted teeth, he repeats, "Last time princess, where were y-"

A different nurse from before came in with a tray of new equipment to experiment on me. "Hello, Hola, Hello!" the nurse greeted us in a little tune. She takes out a clipboard and goes down the list, "Alivi Ernest is here, right?"

I smile, awfully wide at the nurse while stealing a glance at Bruce. His brows furrowed as he rushes over to the nurse, trying to peek what's on the clipboard. She snatches it away from his view and walks up to the foot of the bed, "Hello Ms. Ernest," the nurse gives me a warm smile that makes me do the same, "I'm just gonna do a check up on you before the doctor comes to inspect your injuries, okay?" her voice is so soft and gentle as she smiled with her eyes. I glance over to in the direction of the door, where I last saw Bruce, to find him gone.

I stayed at the hospital for a while, waiting for whatever needs to be done to me. The nurse that was hereafter Bruce threatened me is with me a few times in the day. We got to each other a lot, well she already knows most of the things about me because of my files, but that defeats the purpose. Her name is Shelby, and she's seven years older than me. Shelby told me that she had recently become a nurse here, but she knows all the procedures, so I wouldn't have to worry about a thing.

" Hey, pumpkin!" I smile at Shelby as she enters the room with today's lunch. " You know I only accept that name if you say it, other than that I feel childish." Shelby laughs as she rolls the lunch tray beside me as she begins my check-up. "Follow my pen with your eyes, please." Sighing, I do what is instructed of me. I've been asking Shebly when I will ever be sent back home, but she has beating around the bush about the answer. " Anything new that you are feeling?" she asks. "My boredom rose 25 degrees." I joke. She laughs softly as she writes something down. "But I feel tired all the time and headaches are killing me." Shelby checks underneath my bandage and my monitor. She tells me that it could just be the side effects of the medicine that's been injected into my body. A little weight leaves my shoulder as I reassured that I'm okay.

"You have a visitor today," my heart felt as though it suddenly skipped a beat. "No, it's not that lovely angel named Adrian. The other nurses said he has to spend at least a few days away from you because you need rest." I know Adrian is pissed, he's on an Alivi restraining order. " But your mother is here; she's currently checking in. I passed her on my way to bring your lunch. Isn't that cute? She finally came." Shelby finishes writing on her clipboard. I sigh dramatically, "Yeah, she finally came! Hooray!" My nurse looks up at me shaking her head, " Don't be like that, Ms. Everest. She made time for you with her busy schedule."

" Well, look at it this way. I survived a whole fucking car crash, a concussion, and I ended up not having amnesia." Shelby marks something down on my calendar, " Well, that is a good thing, and you should be proud-" " But my mother didn't even come for like I don't know how long." Calm down, your heart rate is to fast" "Her lousy husband fucking came, but she couldn't! It doesn't add up-" Rapid beep noises seem to get louder and louder. "You shouldn't talk about your father like that. But I need you to take a deep-" I can feel heat rising to my cheeks, and my vision starts becoming hazy.

"HE'S NOT MY FATHER! HE WILL NEVER TAKE THAT SPOT IN MY LIFE!" The tears trickle down my face as I gasp for air. " A father loves their child and is there for the child. The child isn't alone crying in their room every night because of the father. The child doesn't have to sneak out to find a loving household because of the father. The father doesn't leave the child. The child is safe with the father. The father that is coming back for me is my father…" I know I'm crying hysterically, and I want to cover my face, but my arms are limp. My lungs burn and tighten as my head feels like it's spinning. " He's...not..my father...Shelby?…" My words seem to slur while I can't keep my head up. "Everest? Ms. Everest! Someone get me a doctor!"

My eyelids feel heavy as I see a familiar face on my side. They look like me just older in the front. Pretty hazel eyes look at mine as I let m tiredness get the best of me. " Alivi? Baby, mommy is here. Stay with me…" The beeping sounds cover the voices near me as I close my eyes.

My eyes flutter before opening, sunlight from the blinds were shining directly in my eyes. I struggle to turn on my side, away from the window, so I use my hand to block the sun. Then my arm went cold; the curtain was drawn shielding me from the sun rays. I prop myself on my elbows to realize I'm home, in my room, in my bed. A tall blonde streaked haired lady is watching me; her slightly full lips form a smile, and her brown eyes sparkle from recent tears or new ones. It's the same brown eyes from the hospital. The lady walks away from the window, sill and sits on the foot of my bed. She looks at me as if she needs to ask a question and is deciding whether or not to ask. In the corner of my eye, I see a gray lump on top of my dresser. At a rate, I turn my head not to increase any type of pain, to see Adrian's clothes folded. They just sit there, and I can tell no one has washed them because of the visible bloodstains, my bloodstains'. I shut my eyes and face the opposite direction, pre-tears burning my eyes. I couldn't bear to re-cap that horrific event. Just not now. Not yet.

"Alivi, darling, it's okay," I feel arms wrap around my body but gentle as if I'm too fragile to be touched. I bury my head in my mother's sweater, soaking it with the past's tears. She runs her fingers through my hair, avoiding the bandage wrapped around my head, continually whispering that 'Everything will get better.' But will it? I don't even know what type of condition I'm in. In my life, people have always told me that things would get better. When I fell off my bike at seven years old and broke my wrist, it'll get better. Dad's disappearance and grew up not being able to attend 'father figure activities,' it'll get better. Adjusting to the new environment of a replacement dad, it'll get better. They never did get better, they were supposed to, but the only thing that happened was that it all got different—no father figure, different. I had to learn how to write with my right hand until my wrist finally healed, different. I wasn't even able to at least get a say in my mother's marriage, different.

"Mom?" I mumble into her shoulder,

"Hm?"

I remove my head, tenderly, to look up at her, "I'm gonna take another nap if that's okay?" I lie.

She nods and smiles at me. My mother gets up from the bed and helps me lower my head back on my pillow. She fixes the quilt she made for me back in first-grade and tucks me in. After planting a kiss on my cheek and sharing our 'I love you's", she finally closes the door. There are muffled talking from the outside of my room. Not that that's the problem, I could fall asleep to the inaudible voices. It's just the problem is that my mind is racing and won't seem to take a break or cross the finish line. The head hurts as I try to recap what happened from the hospital until now.

"BEEP BEEP BEEP," a familiar sound fills my ears. On my right, lays my phone eager to get my attention on my nightstand. Straining and struggling, the phone is finally in my reach. I look at the Caller ID to see "Fr-Ida-y" pop up on my screen.

"Hey," I answered.

"Hi Alivi, how are you holding up?" A slight bit of joy is in her voice that already answers my question about how she��s holding up.

" I'm hurting mostly in my head. But I'm happy you called because I haven't talked to anyone and I have no idea how long I've been at home or the hospital for. "

"Oh...you are welcome, but I came to talk to you about something." My phone vibrates in my hand, and I realize someone else is calling. "Ida, hold on,"-glancing at the screen, my name for Adrian pops up- "I need to take this."

"'But-" She starts.

"It's Adrian; I promise I'll call you back, okay?"

Before I could wait for her response, she hung up, and I answered Adrian's call. "Hi Adri, is something wrong, you usually don't call?"

"Oh, no. Nothing is wrong, I just…" He pauses, and I hear movement in the background. Papers. "I just wanted to hear your voice. It's been a lot of days, and I miss you..."

How many days? I remove the phone from my ear and look at the time: Wednesday, October 15th. I don't remember the date when I was with Adrian or later that night of the accident. When did I arrive home?

Returning the phone to my ear, I smile to myself, knowing I'm blushing behind the phone. "You could have come to my house," I tease. "And brung me some Chick-fil-A as well…"

Adrian laughs on the other side of the line, probably his first laugh for the past few days. "I would've, but then I'll have to tame that dragon and the witch that secretly still listens to boy band songs."

This time I laugh, missing the times we had like this. We used to continually mock and tease each other. It only takes one small thing to change someone's day. Paper rustles again, and there's a groan in the background. "Adrian?"

"Hmm?" His response sounds muffled, and papers are still being moved.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Oh, Chance is here. We decided to work on our break work together, but we're both confused about Biology...ugh..." I hear a sudden bang from the phone. There's more rustling, but it isn't paper anymore.

Someone else speaks on the phone, "Hey Alivi, Chance here." I giggle to myself, "Hey, Chance, what happened to Adrian?" Chance chuckles at my question, "Oh, so he gave up on life and just put his head down on his desk. I didn't want him to leave you hanging, so I took over...if that's okay?" Sweet Chance.

"It's perfectly fine. Well, I wish you luck in your struggling tasks. I'm gonna go now."

He starts to groan, "Don't leave me!" Chance whines, "It's been a while since we had a decent conversation."

I roll my eyes and smile. " You have my digits, call me when you finish up Biology. I've been in bed for the longest, and I should really get up." I explained.

We agree that we'll speak once again, and Adrian gives me a small goodbye before Chance hangs up the phone. I set my phone back on the low bedside table and follow my word. I need to get up.