Midnight Memories (1D)

Chapter 14

"RUN!" I yell at Zayn, handing him my plate of fries, using the loud crash outside as a distraction.

No one, and I mean no one, can take my French Fries.

"Dr. O!" I yell for her.

She comes rushing back into the room. "What?" She asks me.

"I really need to go home, like today, preferably. Cause, you know, if I don't I will quite literally die." I tell her.

"I'm sorry, Briella, but as you know you still have 2-3 days here at least. Your incision still hasn't healed properly, and we can't send you home with rick of infection, or reopening the incision itself." She tells me.

Great. I could be here even longer.

"But, I can do my best to make sure your entertained." She tells me.

"Fine." I agree reluctantly. "But I get unlimited fries!" I negotiate.

"Fine." Dr. O agrees.

"Zayn! You can come back!" I call to him, seeing him hovering by the door.

He comes back into the room, and some of the girl interns stare at Zayn. Ugh. Now I know why there's a security guard at the door.

"I'll take that." I say, taking back my plate of fries.

"Alright who wants to entertain Miss Grey today?" Dr. O asks the interns. I'm pretty sure all the girls have crushes on Zayn. It better not be one of them. Of course all the girls raise their hands.

"How about uh, Doyle. You're on the case." Dr. O says. She assigned the angry-looking guy doctor all the way in the back. But he wasn't raising his hand so that's all I care about. "Doyle'll be back later to check your stats again. He will do his best to be entertaining while he's here."

"Okay." I say, with a mouth-full of fries.

They all leave, finally. I hate doctors. So much. Dr. O isn't that bad though. I just don't like guy doctors. It'll be a challenge later. My eyes start watering. Damn. I thought I was past this stage.

"Hey, you okay?" Zayn asks, noticing.

"Yeah, it's just, I-, I haven't been in, um, a, uh, a hospital since, um, my parents..." I trail off, not able to finish the sentence.

"Since your parents died." Zayn finishes for me.

"Yeah." I say quietly. "When, um, the intern comes back, I'm gonna need you to get him out of the room as quickly as possible. I, uh, I can't handle guy doctors."

"Okay, I will." Zayn says, kissing my forehead.

I pull him in for a hug, and we just sit there for a minute. Holding each other. He pulls back, with a pained expression on his face.

"Zayn? Are you okay?" I ask, getting concerned. Did something happen?

"There's something, that um, that we've been keeping from you." He says. "About Joe."

My heart sinks to my stomach. "What about Joe?" I ask slowly.

"Well, I'll tell you, but I need you to promise me that you will stay calm, and listen to me as I tell you, okay?"

"Okay." I agree.

I sit there in silence, as Zayn retells the story of when the found me covered in glass in my bedroom. As he tells me that Joe never told anyone he was coming to Ireland. That as I was bleeding to death in my own room Joe was too tired to get out of bed. That as I was basically dying in the hospital he flew back to the US. That Joe left me to die, and then had the nerve to call my best friend and ask her to look for something he left in her house.

I can't believe this. The tears come back. This time I don't think they'll stop for a while.

Zayn helps me sit up a little, and lays down next to me. I shift my weight and cry into his chest. He holds me there for a while, rubbing my back. The intern came once I think. I probably scared him off.

Or Zayn told him to go away.

After a while I stop crying. But we still lay there. And after a while I fall asleep.

*****

Zayn's POV:

I feel so bad. I know I shouldn't have told her, but I had to. She just sat there for days, bored out of her mind. Every time she asked about him we ignored her or shot her down.

She deserved to know.

Ryan came back from school late that afternoon. She almost woke Briella up, but I gave her the universal "shhh" sign and she caught it in time. She got Bri her phone from the house and set it down on the table at the end of the bed. She went over and sat in my chair.

"What happened?" She whispers.

"I'll tell you later." I whisper back.

The guys come back about a half hour later. They brought some more extra salty chips for Briella and leave them on the table next to her phone.

"Is she okay?" Harry asks.

"What happened?" Louis asks.

"Is she hurt?" Liam asks.

"No, she's fine." I whisper.

"Then wha-" Niall starts, but cuts himself off. "You told her, didn't you?"

I lower my head. Silently giving them the answer.

"Told her about what?" Louis asks Harry.

"Joe." He tells him.

Niall walks over and sits in the chair on the opposite side of the bed.

"Are you serious??" Ryan whisper yells at me, getting up out of the chair. "Why would you do that?!"

"She deserved to know." I defend myself.

"But we discusse-"

"I think that Zayn did the right thing." Niall cuts off his sister.

"Seriously?" Ryan asks him.

"If it means anything I probably would have done the same thing Zayn did." Harry says, defending me.

"Well this is just great." Ryan throws up her arms in defeat. "Mom and Dad are getting home this weekend, I'm gonna go home and clean the house. You lost certainly aren't gonna do it. Or maybe you will, we haven't exactly been doing what we say lately."

She storms out of the room, grabbing her satchel and taking it with her. She won't be back for a while.

The intern doctor comes back finally, and the guys take seats in the chairs we stole from the cafeteria the day before. We also found some spare blankets and jackets back at Niall's house to throw over them so no one would know.

"I know, I shouldn't have told her, but-" I start.

"Yes, you should have told her. You did the right thing." Liam tells me.

"Ryan is just mad because she hates when Bri is upset and isn't able to be there for her." Niall tells me, moving out of the way for the doctor.

"I know, but to be fair, we did talk about it and then I did the exact opposite of what we agreed on." I defend Ryan. I don't know why.

"Gosh, it's hot in here." Liam says, pulling on the collar of his t-shirt. "Or is that just me?"

"It's not just you." Harry says, taking off his coat.

"I'm kind of hot too, actually." Louis says, moving to open a window.

He opens it and a cool breeze enters the room.

"Don't leave it open for too long." The doctor tells us. "I'm gonna have to take some blood. I don't know if you wanna wake her, or-"

"Just do it now, hopefully she'll sleep through it." Niall tells him.

"Alright." He says.

He grabs Bri's arm, and inserts the needle. I run my fingers through her hair, and pray to god she doesn't wake up. A minute later he's done, and Briella's still sound asleep.