IF I FALL - #Wattys2016

MY MESS | TOM

I woke up with a massive headache. It took me a few minutes to get situated and recall what happened the night before. I took my phone to check at the time. Phone was dead . I gathered all my strength to get up and plug it to the charger. As soon as it turned on, a whole bunch of notification arrived all at the same time.

Among a few texts from people I knew, I noticed one from Mike.

'We need to talk bro'

Yeah... I already knew that. I was browsing through the over texts received looking for one from Lya. But there was none. As I thought, she was probably mad at me. Damn it.

I took a quick shower and quickly got dressed before immediately heading to her place. I knocked once... No answer. I knocked twice. Still no answer. Where the fuck was she?

It was 11 am and maybe she was still asleep. But whatever... I really needed to talk to her.

I tried to call her phone but I landed straight on voicemail.

"Lya" I called through the door. But nobody answered. Where the fuck was she?

Anxiety gradually grew in me. What if something happened to her?

My phone vibrated. I received a text from Sarah.

'Thank you for staying last night. I will be discharged tomorrow. Can you please come today?'

I just left. What else could I do? As much as I wanted to speak to Lya, I had no idea where she was. Maybe she was still asleep... Maybe she was just out somewhere... The only thing I knew was that I had no way to reach her.

Sarah was reading a magazine when I entered the room. As soon as she saw me, she put the magazine down and shyly smiled with an embarrassed look on her face.

'I love you Tom'

I shook my head off to chase this memory. Now was not the time to think about it.

"Hey there" I said while stepping inside and sitting on the chair next to her bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Like crap" she said while softly passing her fingers on the left of her forehead. That's when I noticed the massive bruise there.

"Damn... Does it hurt?" I asked leaning forward to see it from up close.

"A little... Don't touch it"

I didn't notice it the night before. Actually, I didn't notice all the scratches on her face and arms. I slowly took her face in my hands and inspected all the cuts she had.

"It's not that bad"

She looked at me and I suddenly realized how close my face was to hers. I instantly backed up to my original position on the chair.

"I hope so..."

"Where's your mom?"

"She had a meeting with a client. She'll be back later"

"Ok"

I looked at her face, blushing. She was obviously embarrassed and I was not comfortable myself.

"You really scared me, you know?"

"I... I'm sorry. Trust me, I was scared too"

"So... Tell me what you remember..."