Chapter 12

He placed his hand on the door knob and gently twisted it,letting himself into the room.

She sat there,her arms hugging her legs.

Her hair was a mess,her

eyes were puffy and red and her huge eyeballs were staring back at him.

She must have been awake the whole night and most definitely crying.

He didn't know what to do.

What happened to this woman?

She seemed to have given up on herself.

No,it seemed the world gave up on her.

What happened to you,Macy? He was afraid to think out loud.

He didn't know how to talk to her. He needed to be careful with her. He needed to be careful in dealing with her. He was afraid to completely wreck her.

'You had a rough night,I suppose'. He began.

She said nothing and just stared back at him.

He sat down on the bed,reached over and touched her forehead. The skin there was hot and the place throbbed.

'Are you OK?' He asked. 'You seem to have a headache'.

She shook her head, reached up and quickly pushed his hand away from her face.

'I'm fine'. She said in that 'put off' manner he hated.

'You're not. In fact,you look nothing close to fine. What are you doing? Why are you so bent on punishing yourself? You went to bed on an empty stomach. Your head is throbbing and your....'

'Enough!' She screamed.

'Enough,OK?... I'm fine. Out of sorts, yes. But I'm good'.

'Macy'. He took her hands and she struggled to shrug him off but he tightened his grip.

'I don't know what is going on with you. Whatever it is,I have no clue. But,I'm begging you to please allow me to take care of you. Whatever it is that happened to you,you can talk to me about it. You have a baby inside of you who you need to consider more than anything. You need to be strong for it. Think about all the bad things that could happen to you and your baby if you do silly things like going to bed on an empty stomach and refusing to take the drugs that were prescribed for you'.

'What happened to me?' She laughed bitterly. 'It's dirty and ugly. No,you don't want to hear about it. So just get out and keep off'.

She again snatched her hand from him,turned around and lay back down and he knew she wasn't prepared to say anything else.

'What a stubborn woman'. He sighed.

***

Daniel placed the tray of cappuccino and doughnuts on the bedside stool,reached out and touched her forehead. Thankfully,her temperature had dropped back to normal.

He hoped she'd eat these when she wakes so she'd be able to keep breathing.

After adjusting the duvet and properly tucking her in,he tiptoed out of the room.

Getting back into his room,he picked up his bouncy buddy,a little ball he'd been gifted when he was a young boy,from where he'd angrily flung it last night.

The ball was given to him when he'd passed a music audition in his class,where they were made to imitate cowboys tending to their horses and singing cowboy songs.

He'd kept and cherished it ever since.

'I'm sorry for being a pain in the ass last night'.

If the ball was human,it would definitely have a cast placed on either of his hands and legs plus tiny little bruises in all the visible parts of his body.

He bounced his bouncy buddy a few times and carefully placed it atop his bedside stool.

'This is to make up for the terroristic treatment you received last night'.

His phone beeped and he picked it up.

It signalled a message. Unlocking his phone,he realized he had several other messages. One from Diamond, the other two from Bryan and the latest one from his mum.

The one from Diamond read...

''You won't believe how much my ratings have gone up since you showed your golden face on my screen. The pretty girls of Mexico who missed the program are still sulking. A good number of them still run to my channel every now and then,hoping for a recap. For that,I owe you a pleasure trip. And....you'll have to bring a woman along. I'm tired of your single status. Hell,the whole of America is tired''.

The message ended with a sick faced emoji.

He chuckled and scrolled over to the next messages from Bryan.

The first was a simple...

''Tired of taking calls now?''

The other was the scariest thing Bryan had ever been able to come up with his whole life.

''I'll paste your pictures on all the empty bill boards in LA and conduct a search party if you don't call me back in the next 20 minutes. Dammit man,pick your damn phone''.

He chuckled. 'Asshole'.

A smile crept up his face when he scrolled up to his mum's.

She obviously couldn't resist sending him another one of her recipes...

''Tomato soup and grilled chicken and cheese...''

Resisting the urge to go through the whole message, he clicked the 'back' arrow on the screen and reluctantly dropped his phone on the bed.

'Better safe than sorry'.

He wasn't going to read them now. His mum had made him try every one of her recipes. The funny thing is,if he as much as go through the whole message, he will find himself in kitchen this weekend trying to play out every part of the script.

His mum had practically turned him into a chef. He was going to have a quiet weekend this time around.

Picking up his towel,he went into the bathroom.

After showering,he dressed up in a pale yellow Tee and a pair of brown denims,ran a comb through his hair and glanced at his room clock.

Four more minutes before his pictures goes viral in America with a 'missing person' caption.

'Bloody asshole'.

He picked up his car keys,crept up to Macy's room and found her still sleeping. He said a silent prayer for her and quietly left the house.