Heartbreak Roommate

Chapter Thirteen (Part 2)

I didn't even look him in the eye, I knew they'd be in the waiting room. Of course they would be.

"Who all is out there?"

His face paled.

"Uh, well...there's a roommate, a brother, your two parents and a friend of the family...but not everyone who has visited has stayed the entire time so I'm not sure who all is out there this very moment."

"Okay, you can tell them what you've just told me."

"Great. I'll let them know and then they'll come in to visit you, if that's alright?"

I sighed.

"Yes, that's fine."

I didn't have to wait long, probably half a minute, before the doors swung open and my mother was standing before me. Flashes of our conversations and fights flooded me but I didn't have it in me to fight her anymore.

Maybe it was time to forgive her? To use this medical crisis to come to terms with the fact that we are completely different people. I needed to let go of the hate I had for her in my heart...maybe that was what was poisoning my system, all the hate and anger in my system.

"My baby..."

"Hi mom."

Her wistful eyes filled me up with pain and old torment, the old wounds opening up and a flash of rage tilted my entire world on its axis. No, it was too soon.

"Dad."

He scooped me up into a hug, careful of my IV's sticking out of my arms and his hug was healing and powerful.

Lucas trailed behind him and while I was still harboring resentment against him from the words he'd said to me out of anger, I hugged him as well. I didn't know if I could forgive him yet, like my mother, but this was a start.

Amalia wheeled herself over to my bed and grasped my hand within hers. Her touch was more comforting than my entire parent's combined.

"We barely registered what the doctor was saying, we were just dying to get back here to see you," my mother said.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

"Yes, but we heard that you would have to stay with someone for at least a week to make sure that there's nothing else wrong with your heart while they monitor you. I told the nurses to print off the new diet and exercise program for you as well, oh and we got in contact with Harvard and student services reassured me that your classmates were taking your notes and that should you fall behind you can always retake your current classes over the summer."

That was my mom, all business, no heart. I sighed in surrender, knowing that I would be at the mercy of her whims for the rest of the time that she'd be in town. I was counting down the seconds until she left.

My blood pressure cuff decided to start tightening then, and I waited patiently until it squeezed the life out of me before finally releasing, but once it did, the machine started beeping like crazy. I grew lightheaded as a few nurses ran into the room.

"Okay, let's clear out people. You're all stressing her out too much, her blood pressure is off the charts. Do you take anything for anxiety? Your levels weren't like this an hour ago, but then again you were also passed out the last time your vitals were taken."

"No, I'm not but I used to be," I said as I looked down, remembering my mom flushing my pills down the sink.

'No daughter of mine will have a substance abuse problem,' I remembered her telling me with such vehemence that I wondered if addiction ran in the family.