30 MINUTES AGO
LAUREN'S POV
Everything was so foggy. I could barely see my own hand in front of my face let alone someone else's features.
The hospital put me through a few tests. Colors and shapes were pretty easy, but it was reading that really hurt me internally. I couldn't do it. Hell, I could barely tell you what was sitting on my lunch tray from the meal the hospital supplied me.
The doctor and the rest of the girls left me alone for a while because they could all tell I was growing aggravated of my failing sight. I was scared and upset. I didn't like the combination of the two.
My other senses were heightened and I could hear the door click open. "Hello?" I said to the figure in the doorway.
"I'm sorry to startle you, Ms. Jauregui." The woman said, closing the door behind her as she walked in. "I'm the Doctor they sent in to get a second opinion."
I leaned back on the uncomfortable bed and sighed out, "Well, go ahead and do what you have to do."
I heard her footsteps get closer as she stepped in front of my bed to pick something up to look over it. My guess would be that it was my clipboard, but at this point I didn't care what it was.
"So apparently, what has caused this is the fact that you got hit in the head?" The doctor questioned me in an unbelieving tone. "Is that correct?"
Simon and I have already made up a lie that I have to stick to so I sighed and answered the woman. "Yes. My friend's father was coming into the room and I was standing in the way of the door so he hit me."
The lady put down the object in her hand to reach in her pocket to pull something else out. "Open your eyes wide." She ordered me and I followed her instructions and did what I could to keep my eyes open as she clicked on a flashlight. The bright light was easy to see but knowing where the light was coming from exactly was the struggle. The doctor muttered to herself a little bit before asking me, "Now where did you hit your head?"
I lifted my hand to my bruised temple and she examined the wound with her fingers and flashlight. The slight touch of the sensitive skin made me wince, but I quickly recovered when she stopped touching the injury. Soon, she pressed the button to turn off the light and picked the clipboard back up to begin writing on the papers.
"So, what's wrong with me, Doc?"
I heard her scribble and etch onto the paper a little bit before she decided to speak to me. "Well, my second opinion really just confirms the first one. You have amaurosis fugax, Ms. Jauregui."
"Can you speak in English instead of Doctor?"
The lady laughed, "Although you have pretty green eyes, you won't be able to completely use them for the duration of, hm, let's give you about three months at the most."
"So, I'm blind?"
"Only temporarily." She told me
calmly. "It's not that I see physical damage to your eye, but this is like Myopia."
"I'm kind of getting annoyed with all of these medical words." I groaned. I would've rolled my eyes, but what's the point in those dramatics anymore?
"It means your vision blurs at a distance. Sadly, in your case, the distance is short." She scribbled a little more onto the page and sighed out. "I can let you leave now but I need you to see an optometrist tomorrow. Do you have anyone here with you?"
"Everyone I know is upstairs visiting my friend in her room."
"Do you want one of the orderlies to get you in a wheel chair to go see your friend?"
"The word 'see' isn't really in my vocabulary anymore." I growled at her. My anger was only beginning to start inside of me but what made me even madder was the fact that I could only be mad at myself.
YOUR POV
Camila ran off to the bathroom to leave me helpless in the hospital bed as the girls and my Dad stared at me in surprise.
I didn't really know what to do or say which didn't matter for long because eventually Normani started laughing and high fived Dinah who was next to her. "Man, she actually did it. Who would've thought Mila found some balls."
"I don't even know what I just saw." My Dad said in a surprised tone while staring at me from a safe distance by the entrance of the room.
"Don't worry, Dad." I said, clearing my throat to release the tension building up inside of me from the awkwardness that filled up the room. "I don't even really know what just happened."
"Were you asking her something?"
"Yeah?"
"I guess Chanch shut you up pretty good then." Dinah mumbled under her breath as I shot daggers at her with my eyes.
I knew my face was heating up, but before someone could point out the obvious embarrassment written across my face, Camila walked out of the bathroom with a paper towel in her hands as if she had just washed them. She chucked the towel in a nearby trash can and sat down in a seat beside my bed. Away from the other three girls.
Everyone stared at her, including me. No one knew what to say. Camila started to get defensive after the first 30 seconds of awkward eye contact with everyone. "Oh what is it? Do I have something on my face?"
"No, Mila." Ally softly said in the corner of the room closest to the tv. "We're just all surprised that you kissed Y/N and then ran off like we caught you in the middle of a robbery."
"Yeah, well, I didn't expect all of you to come back this soon. I thought you were going to see Lauren."
Dad's smooth voice took a turn talking as he continued to explain. "Well, when I went to the ER desk to check on her and they told us that she took a wheel chair and said she was going to find her way up to your room."
"So, she's basically just rolling around this hospital blind?" I questioned them.
"Well, they said she had a orderly who was pushing her. Maybe he kidnapped her." Dinah casually blurted out before taking a sip of her water bottle.
Everything stopped and everyone's eyes widened. All of a sudden, 3 girls and one man bolted out of their seats to run towards the entrance of the room and leave down separate hallways.
Ten minutes later, a slightly high voice starts getting louder down the hall. Chattering and gabbering something far away enough that it was mumbled to my room in the middle of long quiet hall. Finally, I could hear a man speak but his voice was at a high register.
"So, then my cousin took me to this crazy festival in 2014 and I saw your set. I've been obsessed ever since." He praised as he walked into the room pushing Lauren in a wheel chair.
"Oh my god!" I instantly shot out of bed and pulled on the machines I was hooked up to, to run over to Lauren's side. "Everyone thought you were kidnapped."
"Y/N?" Lauren asked me but I didn't say anything. I studied her features to check and make sure that Cuban was still as perfect as the last time I saw her but there was something different. A huge bruise covered the side of her head and her eyes were foggy. Hazey in the middle and white enough to coat the green layer of her eyes. "Oh, this is Anthony. He's a orderly who's a fan of us. He saw us in New York with his cousin but then came to G.AY. and Wango Tango and finally decided to be a harmonizer. We've just been talking."
"I took her the long way around. I told her I would give her a tour of this place. It's humongous. Last week I got lost in the basement and it took two security members to find me in that maze."
"Let's save that for another time when I can see. We'll do a ghost adventure." Lauren spoke up in the wheel chair in front of Anthony. She began trying to slide out of the seat. "Now, kid, if you don't mind. Could you help me out of this seat?"
"Magic word?" He joked.
"Please." Lauren responded with a slight smile.
He helped pick her up to get on her feet and held her hand to guide her to the seat by my bed. After making sure she was situated, he turned around and smiled at me. "Now, let me help you over to your bed. My boss would have a fit if a patient was out of a bed on my watch." He held onto my arm and waist to lift a lot of weight off of my legs to get to the bed faster as I pushed my IV alongside of me. I sat and swung my legs over onto the bed and he covered me up with a light sheet. With a friendly voice he asked me, "Now is there anything you two need before I leave?"
"No. That'll be all, Anthony." I told him.
He turned around and smiled over at Lauren, "And it was great meeting you, Lauren. I hope everything goes well."
"Thanks, kid." Her half smile was displeasing. I know she was upset about whatever happened to her and even though she played a happy girl for a while in front of Anthony, I've figured out how to read her now, and she's anything less than happy.
Anthony took the seat and wheeled it away from our room and right down the hallway.
There was a lot of silence as I stared down Lauren. Her gaze was focused on a spot on the wall across the room. I wasn't going to speak, but when her raspy voice filled the room to break the tension, I decided to listen. "Please tell me you're not just staring at me?"
"Well I am now."
"Quit. Your obsession with me is starting to get out of hand."
I felt defensive. "Excuse me?"
Lauren giggled, "I'm joking, Mama. I honestly don't care if you stare at me right now. I can't really stare back." I scooted up to edge of the bed and swung my feet off of the side. I was intrigued by her foggy eyes and her newfound niceness and happiness. I would've thought she would've been angry about her current situation. I hopped off the side and walked up to the girl but she stopped me in my tracks when she started to talk again. "Why are you off your bed again? He just helped you up there."
"I thought you were blind?"
"I can still see you in the light, Y/N. Get back up there."
I didn't listen to her. I continued to walk up closer because her eyes weren't the same as before. It was like a white layer of window paint covered over the darks and lights of her eyes. The green ring around the pupils was still there but it wasn't as strong or alluring. I placed my hand on her cheek and she held her breath and her expression changed completely. No longer was she joking around. She was upset. "What's wrong?" I asked, scanning her face.
Her exhale was deep and she closed her eyes, "I just really don't want to be here now. That's all. I want to go home."
"Well, I can ask my dad to get you a ticket for Miami if you really want that." I said reluctantly but my voice was friendly enough that she couldn't tell the difference.
Her brows raised and her eyes opened, "That's not what I meant."
"Well, then what did you mean?" I was pathetically clueless.
"I meant that I just want to go back to your house and rest. There's no way I'm going to Miami right now, Y/N." Lauren responded to me sternly. Like she was trying to control her emotions to the best of her abilities.
Normani and the other girls ran in through the doorway before I could say something back to Lauren. As they were catching their breath, they noticed the girl in the chair that I was standing in front of.
"OH MY GOD, LAUREN!" Ally yelled as her breath hitched. "WE THOUGHT YOU WERE KIDNAPPED BY A CRAZY FAN."
"That's a good idea for a story." Lauren smirked, but continued to act as sarcastic and unbothered by the current panic attack the others were having over her. "A blind girl gets rolled away by some super stan who's actually about to Stockholm Syndrome the gorgeous band mate. Too bad I can't read it."
"If you could see right now we would be fighting in that hallway. You seriously scared us, Lauren." Dinah said in a worried tone as she looked over the girl I was standing in front of.
"So sorry." She fake pouted, crossing her arms. "Now if the four of you are done freaking out over my well-being, then I'd like for one or two of you to take me home. I mean, if that's not too much trouble, Moms." Her sarcasm towards the girls only resulted in making me chuckle as I got back into my bed. This conversation didn't include me, so I thought I'd stand on the sidelines to watch the infamous OT5 fight.
The four women looked at each other before Ally decided to start giving some orders as oldest of the group. "Okay, Camila and I will take you home, Lo."
Lauren got up from her seat which made Camila rush to her side in fear that the blind girl would trip
or run into something. Her hand latched onto Lauren's arm as she directed and pulled her out of the room.
I laid on my side and watched as the girl struggled to walk out of the room with two girls clutched to each arm.
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a/n: YALL I HAVE A JOB NOW WHICH IS 96% OF THE REASON WHY I HAVENT UPDATED BUT IM TRYING REALLY HARD TO FINISH ALL OF MY FICS IN DRAFTS SO I CAN UPDATE LIKE I USED TO. IT MAY BE BY THE END OF SUMMER BUT YOUR FAVES WILL HAVE A HAPPY ENDING. I PROMISE.
-agf