Love Me When I'm Unlovable

Chapter 17: LeAnna

Please ignore that this is being posted at 4:28 AM... I can't go back to sleep for some reason

"What's up, Liora?" I ask, accepting my friend's call.

"Hey!" Liora chirps brightly. "Do you know why Rita wasn't there this morning?"

"Oh, my gosh, church," I realize. "I totally forgot."

"Yeah," Liora says. "So why wasn't Rita there?"

"Hey, I wasn't either," I protest.

"Oh, sorry," Liora says. "So why weren't Rita- you guys there?"

"Rita broke her arm," I explain, not bothering with the other gruesome details of the previous night. "She had surgery this morning."

"What?" Liora demands. "What happened? What hospital? Is she okay?"

I brush aside the second question. "We're at the hospital on Third Street. She's doing okay. She's still pretty out of it."

"Can I come see her- you guys?" Liora asks.

"You don't have to pretend you're coming to see me," I say jokingly.

"Okay, but I can come see you?" Liora asks. I can already hear her keys jingling.

"Yeah, sure," I say. "That's probably fine. Rita's still kind of out of it though."

"That's fine," Liora says. "See you in a bit!"

"Yeah," I say, hanging up. "See you." I shove my phone back into my pocket and look back up at Mom.

She won't stop pacing. She's been pacing across the floor of Rita's hospital room for the past ten minutes.

Rita's still pretty deep under anesthesia. Her right arm has a plaster cast and a sling propped up by a pillow on her lap and an IV in her left arm.

"Ugh," Rita moans, shifting a little. Her eyes peel open and she brushes a dark brown strand out of her eyes. She blinks a few times and glances at me.

"Hey," I say. "Liora wants to see you. How are you feeling?"

Rita groans. "I'm okay. Liora's coming?"

I nod. "Are you up for that?"

"Sure," Rita says. She blinks her eyes a few times. "I think I'll be okay."

"You sure?" I ask. "You said Liora was a lot."

Rita shrugged one shoulder. "She is a lot. But she's not so bad."

I laugh. "Well, that's a change of heart."

"I mean, you're not so bad either," Rita offers, smirking.

"Glad to know I'm not so bad," I scoff. "It's refreshing." I smile so she doesn't think I'm being rude.

Rita offers a small smile. She shifts a little and brushes her dark hair behind her ear. "Can we get out of here yet?"

"Not yet," I say. "The doctor's got to come back in and check on you. We were waiting for you to wake up."

Rita shifts a little and winces. "That's bull. I'm fine."

I smirk. "Glad to see you're back to your normal self. But your arm's pretty badly broken, from what Mom's saying. And your caseworker needs to-"

"Screw my caseworker," Rita snarls. "I'm fine."

"Whoa there," I say softly. "Chill. You could still damage something if you get all riled up."

"Damage something my-"