Don't hate me.
Please do not forget to comment and vote.
UNEDITED
Laura was playing a card game with Oliver, letting him win every time. She was sitting on top of his hospital bed, across from him, with the card game in the middle in the middle of them.
Oliver was going to be discharged later on today, and he was waiting to get the all clear to start getting dressed for the day. He was tired of wearing the hospital robe.
"Autumn, is Evan going to visit me, again?" Oliver asked me when he beat Laura again.
Upon hearing this, Laura turned her head, her eyes widening when she heard Evan's name. "Yeah, Autumn, is Evan going to visit Oliver again?" she asked me, emphasizing Oliver's name, guessing the Evan did not actually come visit the hospital just for his sake.
I shrugged my shoulders, "Evan has not called or text me saying that he is gong to come visit, but he did come last night before visiting hours ended. You can probably see him when you get back home."
A knock on the hospital door interrupted the conversation. All three of us looked up at the threshold, there stood Nick, holding an owl in his hand and a giant card. "Hi, Oliver," he stood in the entrance, "I heard that you were here from Whales. She sent out a group text telling the newspaper staff that your brother was in the hospital. She got everyone today, during school, to sign a get well card." He stepped into the hospital room and handed Oliver the owl. "How are you doing?"
Oliver shrugged his shoulders, "Fine, waiting to go home. Do you know if Evan is going to come and visit?" Oliver held the owl to his chest, hugging it.
Nick cocked his head to the side, "Why? Has he come over here before?"
Laura nodded her head.
"Autumn, I did not know that you had become close to Evan. How has he been doing?" Nick walked over to the couch and sat down on it. "Did he win the cross country thingie?"
"Yeah, he is going to state with someone else on the cross country team, I can't remember his name," I explained to him. "I talked to Whales, and I get to go to state meet up and take pictures. You can talk to her and ask if you can be the reporter on the scene."
Laura got up from her spot on Oliver's bed, "Nick," she said his name, making him change his gaze from me to her, "you do know that Evan is Autumn's neighbor right? They have some 'special connection,'" she air quoted.
"I remember that from somewhere," Nick commented. He pointed back towards the door, "I should probably go." He stood up from the couch. "Will I see you tomorrow, Autumn?"
"Maybe, it depends al on how Oliver feels tomorrow."
Oliver groaned in bed at my response. "Stay home with me tomorrow, school is boring, sissy."
I walked over to him, and rubbed my hand over his hair, messing it up, "I will try, but I will get my make up work after school tomorrow. Okay, buddy?"
Oliver folded his hands together and looked down at them. Sadly, he said, "Okay."
* * * * *
Oliver was going to be discharged later on today, and Laura was going to watch over him while I was going to get him some pajamas to wear, because it was going to be late when he got back home.
When I walked through the front doors, the yelling filled the walls.
"How in the hell are you going to pay the hospital bills!" My mom yelled at dad.
Dad put his hands on his head, "I do not know, but we can make things work. The insurance and the hospital pay off most of it, that should leave us a few hundred dollars to pay."
"You are not listening to me, Max," mom sighed loudly. "It would not be a few hundred dollars to pay, it would be a thousand. I just spent three fourths of my pay check on groceries and the ambulance ride and the ticket that you got last night. You need to not drink and speed at the same time. How are you doing job hunting wise?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "Nothing. I have been waiting to the engineering company to call me back."
"They are not going to call you back, Max. They heard about the ticket, and you know their policy on hiring people. They are not going to hire you if you have a history of drinking and driving. They do not need that when you are working with mechanics and sharp objects."
Dad rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, "They told me that they were going to reevaluate me after I told them that my son was in the hospital because he had an asthma attack."
Her voice lowered, "When did you tell them about Oliver?"
"This morning."
"It is going to take them about a week, maybe two, to call you back. Within that time, look for a job. We need to pay off the hospital bills once Oliver gets discharged. We do not need another debt hanging over our heads."
Another debt?
I walked behind the threshold to the kitchen, where they were arguing, and listened.
"That was not my fault, Logan," dad raised his voice a little.
"No," Logan yelled, "It was Autumn's."
"She does not even remember what she did! She did not do anything."
"Yes she did, Max," Logan paused. "She was the one that crashed the car into the tree and passed out. She had to be hospitalized in a coma for a weekend. That bill was five thousand dollars. That took us two years to pay off, keep in mind we just paid that off three months ago. She does not even know what she did."
I was that bad when I hung out with Alice? How do I not remember crashing the car? I just remember getting in and waking up in my bed, my bed at home.
Dad sighed, trying to rethink the situation. "At least she stopped hanging out with the one girl a month after it happened. And she got better grades and she made friends with Laura and that boy next door, that she does not know we know about."
What?
"What happened this past weekend, Max? She almost killed Oliver, I know that is was an accident, but she was around drugs and alcohol. How do I know that this will not happen again. You promised me that this would not happen again, but look. Oliver is in the hospital, you lost your job, and we are going to be in debt again," she started to calm down. "When she comes home, we are going to have to talk to her and give her a consequence." She laughed softly, "Maybe put some bars on her window to keep her from going over to the boy's house, like Harry Potter."
"I do not think that would be a good idea," Dad proposed.
"But he was at the house."
"And he helps Fall out," he commented. "So, are you good? Can we take a break from arguing?"
"After you go job hunting," Logan ended it and I could practically hear them kiss.
Before they could hear me, I ran up the stairs and into my bedroom. My breath started to become ragged, and I needed something to take my mind off of things. I waited until my breathing slowed down before I looked around my bedroom.
Nothing caught my eye but when I looked through my window, I saw Evan. I quickly made my way across the oak tree and into Evan's house.
"Fall, what is wrong?" he asked me as soon as he saw me. "Is Oliver okay?" he put his hands on my face, and rubbed away the strands of hair that was covering my face. "Are you okay?"
I shook my head, "Oliver is fine, but I just heard something that does not make me feel so great at the moment, and I just need something to keep my mind off of it. Do you have anything to take my mind off of of things?"
Evan nodded, walking towards his radio and turned it on. It was some song by Kodaline that I have never heard before. He stuck out his hand, "Come here, Fall," and I put my hand in his.
I laid my head on his chest, closing my eyes, trying to forget what just happened.
Evan bent his head down and whispered in my ear, "Step onto my feet."
Shaking my head, I moved my head from his mouth, "I do not want to hurt you."
"You won't," Evan said softly into my ear. Following what he told me to do, I kicked off my shoes, leaving me in only my socks, I stepped onto his feet, balancing myself on his feet, that were also covered by socks. "I got you," he whispered, putting his other hand, that was not in mine, on my back, holding me close to him. I rested my other hand on his back, trying to keep myself from falling off of him.
He continued to shift his feet, up and down, comforting me in his rhythm. I kept my eyes closed, enjoying the feel of Evan being close to my body.
When the song ended, I moved my head up from his chest, and looked him in the eyes. "Thank you," I told him, stepping off of his feet.
"Are you going to tell me what that was about?" he asked me while walking to the radio to turn it off.
I shook my head, "Maybe when you tell me why you take those pills that make you sleep, when it is obvious that you do not like to."
"Well, then," he commented. He paused, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, "Are you going to go to the pep rally for the football team, tonight?"
Drowsily, I responded, "What pep rally?"
Evan chuckled a little, "The football team made it to the state play- offs, same as cross country. The school decided to host a pep rally on the football field at seven tonight. Cross country can show up if we want, but it is mostly going to be about football since there are only two people going to states from cross country. I thought that Whales would have told you? Or at least texted you about it?"
"She didn't. She has kind of left me alone this entire weekend," I explained to him. "I might. Are you going to go?"
Evan shrugged his shoulders, "I might. I know that Jackson is going. I just do not want to be alone after to it, since the teams have to clean up afterwards."
"I will come then," I told him. "I think that it would be interesting to watch you clean up."
"Hey," He gently pushed me backwards with his fist against my shoulder, playfully, "The football team will also help clean up too."
"Yup," I said, popping the P, "I might even say hello to Jace tonight." Once I finished speaking, I heard my dad call out my name from my house across the way. I turned around, hoping that the bedroom door was still closed, and suddenly the past argument popped into my head.
I guess that I could only get away for a while I am with Evan. He is only a distraction.
I looked back at Evan, who had his mouth in a sideways smile. "So, I suppose that is your cue to go back over to your house right?"
Nodding, I told him, "You know, you could always visit me at my house, instead of me having to come over here every time I want to spend time with you."
Evan raised his eyebrows, "So you like to spend time with me?" he leaned forward and started to poke my sides, making me squirm. Upon hearing me laugh as he tickled me, he did it again, making me giggle again.
"Evan," I laughed his name out, "Stop it." I moved away from his reach, but I accidentally bumped the back of my knees into his bed and I fell on top of his bed. I said his name again, trying to tell him to stop again, but he climbed on top of his bed too and put his fingers back on my hips, tickling me again.
In one moment, we were laughing and playing around, but when I looked up, his fingers suddenly stopped right at my sides. His brown eyes danced with emotion that was a little hard to decipher what they were portraying.
Evan's head leaned down and he pressed his lips against the side of my neck, kissing it gently. I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of his lips on my body. I wanted to live in the moment.
"Evan," I whispered his name as he kissed it one more time before taking his head away from mine. I gazed back into his eyes, and his eyes showed one emotion, and even I did not know what that was.
He shook his head and climbed off of me, and I followed him with my body, sitting up as he got off of the bed. "I'm-"
I held up a hand, but before I could speak, my dad called out my name again, interrupting us.
Evan walked closer to me, and he leaned his forehead against mine. "We need to talk about this, don't we?"
I breathed in his natural scent, the woods and vanilla smell, "We do." I slowly pulled away, and his head dipped down, clearly invested in keeping his forehead against mine. "I have to go," I whispered to him. "I will see you tonight at the pep rally."
Before I was tempted to stay any while longer, I left Evan's bedroom and climbed across the tree back to my bedroom. I unlocked the door and opened it to reveal a very distraught dad.
"What were you doing, Autumn?" he said, exasperated. "Taking a nap or something?"
Not looking behind me, knowing that Evan was probably trying to be discreet by spying on my dad and I, I focused on the floor in front of my dad's feet. "Something like that."
"I did not see you drive up or hear you come in. How long have you been home?" he asked me, obviously wondering if I had I heard the conversation between him and my step-mother.
"Twenty- minutes ago," I told him, trying to estimate how long I had been at Evan's. "I just had to close my bedroom door, go to the bathroom, because the bathroom at the hospital is creepy, and take a nap."
Dad scrunched his eyebrows together, "Autumn, you do not have a bathroom in your bedroom."
My mouth formed an O, "Oh," I said with a dumbfounded expression on my face. "Well..." I paused for a few seconds, trying to think about something else to say. "I am out of excuses."
"Did you go see that boy?" he accused me.
I crossed my arms over my chest, "You really want to have this conversation dad. I overheard that conversation you had with mom. You think that I tried to kill my little brother."
"Logan and I do not think that, but your actions are leading up to very touch consequences that are starting to get out of our reach. Since Oliver's asthma has gotten worse because of that house, he might not be able to play soccer. It is not your fault, Oliver was wanted to see where you were going. It is that house's fault," dad explained to me. He flinched when he recalled what the other part of the conversation involved, "You heard us talking about the car accident didnt't you?"
I nodded, "But I do not want to know anything about it because I am about to go pick up Oliver and bring him back home." I tried to push passed my dad.
Dad shook his head and placed his hand on my forearm, stopping me from moving forward. "Do you want to ride with Logan and I, or just drive yourself there?"
"Drive myself there," I told him. "I am probably going to head over to the pep rally once Oliver is home, it starts at seven and I want to be there for the whole thing." I took a deep breath, knowing that the next words were going to be hard to say, "Without my camera with me."
His eyebrows sky-rocketed into the air, "Seriously?"
I nodded, "I think that it is time for me to experience life without a camera around my neck. And besides I have a camera app on my phone, so, I am not completely lost without it."
"I am proud of you kid," he complimented me.
Thirty minutes later, mom and dad were signing discharging papers while Laura, Oliver, and I played rock, paper, scissors. Oliver was hugging onto his owl stuffed animal, content that he had gotten a get well present that was huggable and did not smell and not edible and not a card. He was pleased with his gift.
Once they papers were done, Oliver hitched a ride with mom and dad, and Laura got a ride with me to the pep rally.
"Hey Buddy," I called out to him before he went into the car, "I will see you when I get home. I will even tuck you in and read you a bed time story." His eyes widened in happiness and he hugged me, telling me that he loved me and that he would see me soon.
When Laura and I made it to the pep rally, it had all ready started but I did not really care. I just there to watch it, and not take pictures... which was kind of hard to do.
"Hey, Nick," I called out when I saw him on the football turf, finishing up an interview with a coach. "How has the pep rally been so far?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "Fine. I have been waiting for cross country to show up because Whales wanted an interview with Jackson and Evan, but I think that the sophomore Nick is covering those two."
"By the way, Oliver loves his owl, he has not stopped touching it since you gave it to him," I told him. "Why did you give that to him?"
Nick gave me an odd look.
"What?"
"You seriously do not know why?"
"No?" I responded.
He smiled and chuckled to himself. "Owls are your favorite animal."
"Oh" I commented, "then why did you give to Oliver and not me?"
"Because I figured that you would like to see your brother have your favorite animal around him," he explained to me. He paused for a moment, looking at the field, where the cheerleaders were dancing to Miley Cyrus, then looked back at me. Randomly, he said, "Would you like to go somewhere on Saturday?"
I raised an eyebrow, "With you?"
"Yeah, with me," he answered.
I nodded.
Once the pep rally ended, I had lost Nick in the crowd of drunk people, and I was sitting on the empty bleachers, waiting. Seeing everyone clean up the football field, I took out my phone and started to take a pictures of people cleaning up.
"Hey Fall," I glanced up from my phone and looked at Evan.
Please do not forget to vote and comment.
Until next time...