Always | ✓

34. Recovery

For a few days, my home just felt empty.

We didn't really want to come home, but according to the nurses, staying at the hospital wasn't a choice. For as long as we were allowed to, we stayed there and then at night, Mum and I would return home.

That was pretty much my life for a bit, just hospital and my house. That was all it all revolved around and honestly, I couldn't even think of anything else.

But after spending many days in hospital, my Dad was finally allowed to come home yesterday.

His health had really improved. There was still a bandage wrapped around the area of his bullet wound, and every now and then, he would wince in pain when he made too much of a sudden movement, but apart from that Dad was okay.

I could finally believed that.

My Mum, however, was a slightly different story.

It was like something inside her changed.

She would still smile and laugh but every now and then, I felt as if I could see pain in her eyes. It was like when we were in that waiting room, and she was just waiting and waiting to hear something positive. Although Dad was okay now, Mum still seemed like she was stuck in that moment.

Dad was extremely happy and thankful to be out of the hospital.

Ever since he had woken up, he was just cracking jokes as usual, like nothing had happened. Like he wasn't just shot.

A part of me was angry at how he could act like nothing had happened, but then again it was better than the alternative. I didn't want to see him unhappy or hurt, I like seeing him back to normal.

After Dad came home from the hospital, Liam and his family came over to see him, bringing some food and flowers too.

After that night, Liam didn't bring up my whole breakdown. Even when he was at the house, he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he smiled and nodded at me, and I did the same.

There were no words that needed to be spoken between us, just a silent acknowledgment that everything was okay.

Everything was in recovery.

***

It used to frustrate me when we were basically ordered to read a certain book for our English Lit class. It would never really be something that I wanted to read, my mind was quite into the fantasy genre, but of course we were never told to read those.

Those books weren't bad, in fact, they were a classic. But I could never really get into the stories - mostly because I didn't want to.

We always had to find the inner meanings and analyse it, I much preferred to just lose myself within the imaginative world created.

Much like I was doing now.

I liked reading things that I wanted to, especially the books that would create their own entire world. It quite like to imagine myself living in one of these universes - to be something more.

"Serena."

The sound of my name being called, suddenly pulled me out of my fantasy world and back into reality.

I looked towards the doorway of my room and saw Mum standing at the threshold.

She smiled at me and then walked into my room, taking a seat in front of me.

Immediately, I began to think of all the things I had done wrong in the recently. It was just this reflex, assuming that I was in trouble. Although, with my Dad being in hospital, I'd like to think I was pretty helpful around the house.