a. evans
I sat on the hospital bed clutching the sheets tightly as Emerald pulled out a bandaid and a wet wipe. Lachlan sat in the corner of the room in a chair, staring at me intensely. I chose to ignore his gaze and focus on my hand.
"Alright I'll just use the wet wipe to clean up the blood and then apply the band aid. This won't hurt." Emerald told me. I hesitantly nodded at him and put my hand in his, allowing him to do as he said.
My eyes don't leave his hands until he's finished putting the bandaid on. He may be a doctor but that doesn't mean he wouldn't hurt me too. There are no exceptions.
"Good job, Cutie. Be a little more careful next time, alright?" He tells me, appearing sincere. I half smile at him and nod my head.
"Now that you're all fixed up, I'd really like to ask you a few questions if that's alright?" He asks me calmly, his eyebrows raising slightly in question as if to ask 'please?'
"Ok." I say simply. I didn't want to be rude but I also was not eager to explain how I ended up passed out on the sidewalk. I need an excuse. I scrounged my brain for an idea and almost came up short when something finally came to mind.
"Good! I'll start simple by asking you for your name?" He says, pulling up a chair next to the hospital bed so he could talk to me face to face. He leaned out of the chair with his elbows on his knees and offered me a comforting smile.
"My name's Ainsley." I said, slightly intending my shoulders when he didn't just dive right into the harder questions.
"Well it's nice to meet you, Ainsley." He says, offering me his hand. I shook it politely and inwardly giggled. His hand was gigantic.
"And how old are you, Ainsley?" He asked another question.
"I turned 13 a few months ago!" I said chirpily. I don't like my birthday but I did like that I was officially a teenager. Though I can definitely say the movies have glamourized adolescence way too much.
Emerald's eyes sparkled in amusement and I tilted my head in confusion.
"What?" I asked him.
"I've never seen such a small 13 year old." He muses. My smile wipes off my face and is replaced by a look of unamused misery.
"Second time today." I grumble, thinking about how Xanthe had said the exact same thing to me. Do people not have filters any more? What if I had a medical condition that made me small? What if I was deathly insecure about my height and that was my last straw?
I finish my inner rant and turn to look at Emerald whose eyes shone with amusement and lips were turned upwards in a slight smirk.
"Hush." I state, cheeks flaming in embarrassment. Maybe my inner rant wasn't so inner...
"My apologies, that wasn't very professional of me." He says, not looking very sorry. The corner of his mouth twitched as he tried to hide how humorous he finds the situation.
"How old are you?" I snap back. I would love to wipe that smirk right off his smug face. Not everyone can be born a freaking NBA superstar.
"I am your doctor which means I don't answer to you." He says dismissively. I snort.
"So you're old then? Let me guess! 36?" I ask genuinely. He couldn't be much older but I definitely spotted a wrinkle or 2.
His smug look completely dropped from his face and a scowl took over. From the corner of the room I heard a small snort followed by a stream of chuckles. I turned my head to see Lachlan shaking his head as he scrolls on his phone.
I smiled at the fact that he thought I was funny but then I realized, why is he even here?
"I'm 21!" Emerald whined. 21 my butt. This guy acted like he was 10.
"Why is Lachlan here?" I asked out of the blue. My confusion got the best of me and I had to know. I mean, it made no sense. First he drops me off at home and then I wake up in the hospital and he suddenly walks into my room? I've met this man once! And why was he sitting here listening in on a private conversation between a patient and her doctor?
"Well-" Emerald starts but is quickly cut off by Lachlan in the corner.
"I'm here because the little girl I dropped off at her house earlier today has ended up in the hospital that my little brother works at. Care to explain what happened there?" He says, his eyes staring deeply into my own. I gulp down whatever word vomit was about to leave my mouth and quickly gather my thoughts.
"So Xanthe and Emerald are your brothers?" I ask, avoiding the topic of how I ended up here. I still had yet to come up with a good excuse so I'm trying to avoid answering for as long as I can.
"Yes. Now answer my question." He states, his voice sounding cold and completely different from earlier today when he kindly gave me a ride home and apologized for his brutal brother. His demanding tone only made me react childishly.
"I don't have to answer to you. You aren't my doctor." I say back, high-fiving myself in my head knowing I probably just destroyed him. He'll never come back from that. I've been known to mess people up pretty bad with my comebacks.
Lachlan scowls and turns his gaze to his brother.
"Make her answer me!" He says firmly. I roll my eyes. This guy is something else. Who does he think he is demanding private information from a minor in a hospital?
"Lach, you know I can't do that. Doctor-patient confidentiality and all. That and she's a minor. We don't even know who her parents are." Emerald tells him, also rolling his eyes.
Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this guy is insane. His mood did a whole 180° from this afternoon.
Lachlan looks between the two of us, sees my smirking face, and leaves the room.
"You're a sassy little thing." Emerald teases, turning back to me as he refers to my interactions with Lachlan.
"Your brother is nice and all, but he seems to think he can have everything he wants, when he wants it. Plus I never get to rile people up like that. Everyone usually just ignores me." I state, leaning back into the comfy hospital bed. It was much more soft than my mattress at the orphanage.
Emerald smiles and ruffles my hair to which I groan in displeasure. My hair was very thick and would take forever to put back in place.
"I do still have to know how you ended up there, Ainsley. I also need the names of your guardians so I can get in touch with them and let them know you're here." My heart rate picks up and I curse myself as I realize that if the orphanage found out I was in the hospital, Miss Harrison would find out too. She would lock me in the closet for a week if she knew I was in the hospital drawing attention to myself and racking up a medical bill.
"Well I was walking to the convenience store to buy a chocolate bar because I needed one, and just as I was about to turn the corner by the orphanage, I slipped and fell."
I tell him, hoping he believes my lie.
"But why would you have passed out from a little fall? We're you feeling dizzy prior to that?" He asks me. I nod my head, thinking of how lightheaded I felt before I passed out.
"When was the last time you ate or drank something?" He asks me. I scrunch my eyebrows. The orphanage doesn't feed bad kids everyday. I was a bad kid. I hadn't eaten in a few days, but I couldn't exactly tell him that.
"Yesterday." I said simply. Emerald sighs and shakes his head. "Why? It is very important to feed yourself and stay hydrated, Cutie. It's not healthy to skips meals."
"I know that. I was nervous because I had an event at school today. Just ask either of your brothers since apparently your whole family knows me." I told him.
Emerald looks into my eyes for a minute and nods his head as he shakes out of it.
"How about your guardians? Where can I contact them?"
Shoot! Out of sheer panic and quick thinking, I blurt out the name of a person I knew I could trust to help me out. Emerald accepts my answer and asks me if I know their number. I remember seeing it one time and so I recite from memory all the digits and when he leaves the room to make the calls, I let out a huge breath.
I'm so screwed.
My hands trace towards my mouth as my teeth starts gnawing on my fingernails in anxiousness. Biting my nails was a bad habit of mine that I just couldn't seem to drop. Especially when I was stressed.
"Alright, your guardian is on the way!" Emerald says, bursting through the door and startling me a bit. My body flinched slightly as the door slammed into the wall but he didn't notice.
"Now I just want to go over some things with you before you get picked up." He says, not looking up from the small notepad he had as he wrote furiously on it. If that note was for me I doubt I'd be able to read it. He was a doctor after all.
"Stay hydrated, eat 3-4 meals a day, and don't go to the convenience store unsupervised. I don't want to see you again." He says sternly, handing me a folded piece of paper. Wow, harsh.
He sees the look on my face and his eyes widen slightly as he shakes his head.
"I meant I don't want to see you here again. Sorry, Cutie." He says apologetically, eyes softening as he squeezes my hand.
I smile at him to let him know I accepted his apology.
"Thank you." I tell him. He opened his mouth to say something when suddenly the door to the room opens and there walks in my "mother."
Mrs. Montgomery.
"Ainsley!" She exclaims, running over to my bedside worriedly. I felt awful for using her like this but I couldn't risk the orphanage finding out. Or Lachlan and Emerald finding out I was an orphan.
"I'll leave you 2 alone to talk." Emerald says, waving bye to me as my teacher leans over the bed and hugs the life out of me. I wave back at him and as he closes the door I sigh.
"What happened, honey?" Mrs. Montgomery questioned confusedly. I smiled sheepishly and explained the situation to her. She knew I was an orphan and she also knew I didn't like many people knowing. Sage knows and look how that works out for me.
"Oh honey." She says sadly, rubbing my shoulder. I assure her that I'm okay and then Emerald walks into the room and says I'm free to go when I'm ready.
"What about the bill?" I ask him.
"An anonymous donor has taken care of it for you." He winks. I look at him shocked and quickly run up to hug him. My arms wrap around his waist and I squeeze tightly.
Miss Harrison always tells me I care too much and that it's my weakness. She tells me to toughen up and face the real world. But I won't. The one thing she can't take from me is who I am.
So I hug Emerald. The man who treated me and took care of me more than anyone has in my life. It may be a small thing to him or anyone else, but to me it meant the world.
After a few seconds I feel strong arms wrap around my shoulders that grip his waist and for a minute, I relinquish in the warmth of a real hug.
When we part he past my shoulder and smiles at me one more time before heading back to his desk to do work.
I step into Mrs. Montgomery's car and buckle myself up. She drives me back to the orphanage and we talk about the event today. As we come to a stop at my destination she bids me farewell as she pulls away and the smile on my face is quickly wiped off when I turn towards the front door of the orphanage.
I was very late, and I was about to be very sorry for it.
𒊹︎ ꕥ꧁꧂ ꕥ 𒊹︎
My palms stung and scalp burned as I was dragged upstairs. I didn't scream or plead like I did last time. My punishment was inevitable. Miss Harrison yanked me by hair as we neared the closet and laid her metre stick which she had used to batter my hands, against the wall.
Silent tears rolled down my face as I tried my hardest to keep them at bay. She wasn't worth my tears.
"You will spend 24 hours in here this time, brat. Maybe you'll learn your lesson now that the rebel has been beaten out of you." She sneers, finally unlocking the door to the dark and cold room with the keys she kept on her key ring. Nobody touched the keys to the closet except Miss Harrison. Nobody tried to either. That would be a life sentence to the closet.
I stayed silent as she continued to verbally assault me until I felt a harsh slap against my cheek which shocked me out of my dazed state.
"You. Are. Worthless." She seethes, grabbing her metre stick and using it to push me into the small room. I tripped over a pipe on the ground and when my ankle touched the pipe I let out a scream of pain as it burned.
"Serves you right. Have a good night!" Miss Harrison says, smirking as she waves and closes the door, locking me in this cold room with no windows to see from or blankets to keep me warm. I was blinded, and I was frozen. My thin clothes did nothing to aid my temperature and my teeth chattered as I finally let the exhaustion take over me.
I cried.
My tears ran down my cheeks and fell to my shirt, my hands trembled as I tried to wipe them away, and my head pounded as I released a sob and my face tensed. It hurt physically and emotionally to break down like this.
I wish I was back at the hospital with Emerald. Or Lachlan. Heck I'd even take Xanthe.
I reached into my sweater pockets to keep my hands warm when I felt something.
I pulled it out of my pocket to reveal the note from Emerald. I smiled as another tear fell down my face and landed on the paper. I wiped them away and opened the note, but then I realized I couldn't even see my own legs let alone a note.
I sighed and then all of a sudden, the crack by the door of the closet lit up. Somebody must be up here!
I quickly moved over to the door, being careful to avoid the burning pipe as I held the note out in front of the light.
Then I saw it.
I smiled so brightly I'm sure I could've lit the room up with my teeth as I read over the note.
Take it easy, Cutie. Keep on smiling :)
Below the surprisingly legible writing, was a poorly drawn stick man, smiling happily as he stared back at me.
I laughed and suddenly the night by the door shut off. Back to darkness.
Curling up in a ball to maintain heat, I took the note from Emerald and held it to my chest. I would cherish it.
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Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thank you so much to everyone who messaged me and asked me when or if I would be updating. It actually really encouraged me. I'm sorry it took so long but I was busy and in a bit of a writing slump.
I tried to make this chapter longer so the wit would sorta be worth it. Hope it was good enough 😊