Red Love and Cheap Booze

Chapter 6: Karen

I open my eyes groggily and blink them rapidly. The bright light above is shining into my eyes irritating them.

"Ugh someone shut of the light!" I yell turning in the covers putting my pillow over my head. That's when I see the edge of the bed. My side table along with my lamp, alarm clock, and other such things are gone and replaced with some beeping and pumping machine. I widen my eyes and pull the pillow off my head. Looking around the room, my mind starts to wake up.

"What the...." I mutter. I turn around and see a window, a small tv, and a couple of chairs. Oh, and more beeping machines. 

"Either someone changed my room or I got dropped off at a hospital for this year's sorority prank," I think to myself. I calm down at the thought of the prank and lean back laying my hands on my stomach. And that's when I see all the machines are pumping morphine into me. I sit back up again startled and feel pain shoot through my head. I yelp and slowly lay back down. Slowly, I though my head and feel the bandage around it. Carefully, I sit up and lean over the edge of the bed grabbing the clipboard attached by my feet. I lift it up and read the sheet. That's when I remember. The party, me falling into the pool, the red blood spreading through the pool, Matt grabbing me and putting me in his car, me not knowing where he was taking me.

"Shit," I say looking for the call button. I reach back to the wall behind me and feel for the button. With my shaking hands, I push the button down and hold it. A noise sounds above and I let go startled.

"Don't worry a nurse is on their way to assist you," a voice says. I tilt my head at the sound of the woman's voice, but sit back and relax on the bed. I sigh and look up at the ceiling thinking of how many classes I might have to miss on Monday if I'm here for that long.

"Karen?" a woman says knocking at the door. I turn over and see a nurse standing there with a cart behind her. The badge on her outfit says Mary.

"Hi. I'm Karen," I say awkwardly.

"I can see that," Mary says smiling at me and bringing the cart in. "I'm Mary by the way. Mary Jones. You can call me Dr. Jones or Mary or whatever really," she says taking out a bunch of weird tools. She begins to use the tools on me looking in my mouth, eyes, ears, etcetera.

"Nice to meet you Mary. Um, what happened to me exactly?" I asked as she used a blood pressure wrap on me.

"Well Karen," she said pumping the device, "You made a little cut on your head when you hit the floor of a pool as your friend described it. We are going to test you to see if there is any kind of a concussion left over, but no brain damage was made. Just keep that bandage on for 2 more days and then you can take it off. Depending on how you heal, you can come back in to get your stitches removed in about 2-3 weeks." I nod at her in relief, and then pause at something she said.

"Thanks. Erm. Who was this friend that described this incident to you?" I asked raising an eyebrow in confusion. Mary began putting her things back in the cart and when she finished, she turned back to face me.

"I think his name was Matt? He stayed for a while actually. And he put up quite a fight too until he calmed down. Quite a guy you got there. Lucky duck," she said smiling. I stare at her stunned with a loss for words.

"Why would Matt do that for me?" I think to myself looking down, inspecting my hands.

"Your testing will take place in room 403. Tom will come down and help you out. Feel better!" Mary says walking cheerfully out the door, and leaving me in utter shock.