The last time my head hurt this bad was when I ran into the wall once chasing Charlie around, this actually felt ten times worse.
I could hear voices all around me, but I just couldn't make out who's voices they belonged to. My eyelids peeled open and I had to blink a couple of times to adjust to the bright lights above my head.
Where am I?
I groan bringing my hand up to my temple feeling a texture wrapped around my skull.
"Chloe?" I feel someone nudge my knee.
I'm sitting on a bed, but it wasn't mine and neither were these boring white walls. I was hooked up to some kind of device beside the bed; it was a heart monitor. And every second it'd beep showing the status of my heart rate on the screen.
I look down by my feet seeing Charlie peering up at me with an anxious waiting look. Jen, Liam, and Zayn were by my side of the bed looking down at me.
"Hey babe," Jen takes a seat on the bed right next to my hip and brushes a piece of hair out of ny face. "Are you okay?"
I nod slowly looking at everyone. "Yeah."
"Do you remember how you got here?" She asks in a gentle voice.
"Barely," My eyes widen realizing that I was in a hospital. "My dad isn't here is he?"
"Yeah, I told him you were waking up. He's outside talking to Harry." Charlie speaks up.
When I hear Harry's name, my body shuts down trying my best to remember all that happened tonight. The last time I remember seeing Harry was right after I told him to leave me alone. I need to talk to him, I should've never said those things to him.
I sit up and try to move my feet over the side of the bed, so I can hop down but Zayn stops me. "What are you doing?"
"I have to go out there."
"No, stay here. You're gonna make yourself dizzy." Zayn lays me back down on this bed.
"No, I-"
"No, I haven't heard any yelling so everything should be fine. Just stay here, you aren't gonna scare me anymore tonight." He tries to persuade me.
I nod slowly hoping any minute Harry would walk through that door, he's probably pissed off at me and the only thing on my mind was I needed to apologize to him.
The door opens and my dad walks in, but Harry isn't behind him. My father stands by my side putting a hand on my cheek smiling down at me.
"I'm glad you're okay." He says.
"Me too," I answer. "Where is he?"
I didn't even have to say Harry's name because he knew exactly who I was referring to. Without making eye contact with me he says, "He had to go."
I can't decipher what he was trying to tell.me by the tone of his voice. Does he mean go as in go someplace else? Or go as in for good?
"Can you stop him? Please?" I grab his hand and squeeze hoping he'd listen to me.
"Chloe he..."
"Ah, you're awake," A man walks in the room closing the door behind him with a bottle of pills in his hand. "I'm Dr. Silverman and I'm sorry that I have to ask you these questions right when you wake up, but it's mandatory."
"It okay."
"Do any other places on your body hurts beside your head?"
"No, not really."
"Are you feeling light headed or any internal pain in your skull?"
"Both."
"It's normal from the situation you were in. Do you remember anything from tonight?"
"Uhm...a little."
He laughs. "Figured, you had a pretty big amount of alcohol in your system."
"What?" My dad shoots him a look, Dr. Silverman looks at him and then back at me. I can see him cursing to his self figuring out that I didn't want my father to find out about that.
"I only had two cups." I explain.
"Chloe," My dad takes his hand away and runs his hand down the side of his face. "Did you trace any drugs?"
"No sir, I didn't."
"Dad, who do you think I am?"
"I don't know anymore Chloe!" He shouts out of nowhere, I cover my ears feeling my head pound to the beat of it's own drum. "You lie to me and now you're drinking, I don't know who you are anymore!"
"Sir, can I ask you to keep your voice down? Her head is in severe pain." The doctor speaks up.
My father sighs and sits down in the chair beside my bed letting the dad continue. "Can you tell me what you remember?"
"I just remember arriving on the beach and singing at the bonfire, I don't remember much after that...I think I was on the boardwalk at some point...with Veronica and she..." Everything just started coning back to me, and the thing that still surprises me was when Veronica admitted to her love for Zayn. I look at Zayn standing there waiting for me to continue but I don't know if I should say it.
Veronica has probably done worse to me, but it's not my place to tell Zayn she loves him. I can't believe I even let her coax me up there when I knew I was in no state of mind to do so.
"Veronica? Why were you out there with Veronica?" Jen spits in disgust.
"She kept calling me a coward and-"
"So you have to jump off a diving board to prove that you weren't?" Zayn butts in. "Do you realize how scared you made everyone at the beach with that little stunt of yours?"
"No...I-I can't remember what happened after I climbed the diving board, I just remember standing there and talking to Veronica."
"About what?" He asks.
"I can't remember." I lie, I know I should tell Zayn but now was not a good time.
"Okay, so you were singing around the bonfire and you just got up and went with Veronica to the boardwalk, she was calling you names, and she convinced you to climb up on the diving board and just jump?" Dr.Silverman lists the events.
"Yeah, but I wasn't actually going to jump. I was just going to make her believe I was going to."
"Where the hell were you three?" My looks at Liam, Zayn, and Jen.
Liam and Jen look at each other with guilt written across their features. Jen says, "We wanted some alone time so we..."
"What about you Zayn?"
"I didn't notice her leave, I was singing by the fire too." He looks guilty too. "When I noticed that she was gone I was looking around for her, and I heard her and Veronica screaming at each other way across the lake and I called her name and told her to get down. She was going to, but a firework went off and I guess it scared her and she fell. She held on to the diving board, but it just snapped. It hit her head and she fell in the water."
"Who was popping fireworks?"
"Me, Liam, Harry, this guy named Ethan-"
"Ethan? The boy that came earlier to the barbecue?" He questions, but I wasn't answering his question. I was trying to remember all the things Zayn told me.
"So you three, her so called friends, and her idiot boyfriend were too busy having the time of your lives while Chloe was drunk and high above water?"
"Dad, stop blaming everyone around me. It was me, I picked up the drink, I went over to Veronica, I was the one that didn't tell anyone. Stop putting the blame on them."
"You and I will talk about your actions later, but you need to understand that these people-"
"We tried to help her, Harry was actually the one that jumped in and pulled her out of the bottom of the damn lake," Zayn snaps. "You think none of us feel responsible here? Think again, we care about Chloe way more than you do and I don't know what the hell it is about you that makes you so delusional to the point where you think that ever single person who Chloe is with is trying to hurt her, but I'm the last person you should be pointing the finger at-"
"Zayn." I say before he goes on any further, he was red in the face and his veins were literally popping out of his neck.
He calms down, but his jawline is still tense. "I'm gonna go, it's getting late and my parents are worried."
Zayn leaves out of the door leaving the room completely quiet.
"I should go too actually," Jen slowly hops down from my bed and kisses the side of my head. "I'll talk yo you later, okay?"
"Okay."
Liam gives me an awkward smile following Jen out the door. My eyes narrow at my father as he slumps back in his chair keeping the same egotistical look on his face.
"This is what you wanted right? All my friends are gone and so is Harry, how proud are you now daddy?" Tears sting the rim of my eyes.
He avoids my gaze looking pass me, out of the corner of my eyes I see Charlie has removed herself from the side of the bed and is standing in the corner. She must've moved there in fear of all the yelling.
"Uhm..." Dr. Silverman speaks up, I feel sorry for the guy being in such a tough position. "I have some medicine for you and it might make you sleepy, so now would be a good time for you guys to leave the room so she can get some rest and if you come back tomorrow afternoon she should be ready to go."
My father is silent and so am I as he stands up, he goes to kiss my cheek but I turn my head before he can do so.
Charlie, however climbs on the bed and wraps her arms around my neck, I smile wrapping my arms around her small body not remembering the last time I valued her so much.
She kisses my cheek before crawling back down and holds his hand, my father slowly walks towards the door but I keep my eyes glued to these blankets laid across me.
"Are you ready to take your medication?" Dr. Silverman asks.
"Yes, thank you."
My eyes open to a woman toying around with my heart monitor and writing stuff down on her clipboard, judging by her attire she was probably a nurse here.
She sees me awake and grins, "Oh, well good afternoon darling."
Her southern accent and warm voice made me wonder what hospital this was, Stillton didn't have any.
"You too," I sit up. My head still hurt, but not as bad as the first time as when I woke up. "Can you tell me what hospital this is?"
"Lakewood Emergency Room...you aren't from here?" She asks taking off some tubes from my arm.
"No, I'm from Stillton."
"Ohh, very small town."
"Yeah."
"We don't get a lot of patients from there, nothing major ever happens to a person in Stillton. All the people are so nice and cautious."
She obviously hasn't met Veronica and her group of followers.
"Looks can be deceiving." I say making her laugh.
"How's your head feeling darling?" She asks when she's done unhooking all the tubes.
"Better."
"Well your doctor had to attend another patient, but he told me to give you the medicine," She walls out of the room and comes back with a pile of clothes; they were mine from last night.
"You have to take one of these every morning and every night, but if it hurts more than take two. No more than two. As soon as you get home make sure you sleep for a little while longer and that you're in a quiet place. Your father called and he is on his way here, here are your clothes and uhm...your phone."
My mouth gapes open seeing her pull out my iPhone that was completely shattered.
"I'm sorry." She apologizes.
I shake my head. "It's okay, chances are phones don't survive when you fall off a diving board and smash into the water."
She laughs. "You are such a funny girl. The bathrooms are right there and if you need anything just press this button."
She points to the door on my right and the button beside my bed.
"Okay, thank you."
"You welcome honey." She says before leaving out of the room closing the door behind her.
My lips purse looking at my phone, I had valuable pictures in there and I didn't save them anywhere else. Charlie, my friends, me...but none of Harry. He hates taking pictures, but he always takes come of me when I'm not looking
I smile faintly already missing him. He saved me, I thought it was Ethan because I remember waking up with everyone crowded around me, but then I passed out. Maybe Harry was right there, but I just didn't see him. How can my dad sit there and still blame him when he saved me from the bottom of that lake?
Now I really wanted to talk to him, thank him, or even yell at him just as long as I get to talk to him. But he left last night, without even seeing me first. He must be really pissed off at me or my dad, either way I completely understand.
I was out of line for saying what I said about Ethan yesterday.
I get up and go inside the bathroom pulling on my shorts and top, they were wrinkled from the dried up saltwater. I was completely bare-footed, my boots that I wore last night are probably gone from last night's mayhem. I look at my reflection in the mirror. My mascara and eyeliner was completely wiped away, black smear wasn't even present.
I walk back out and the nurse is gathering the sheets and the pillows from my bed.
"Do you take these or..." I hold out my blue gown that the hospital gave me.
"Mhm," She says taking it and going back to my bed. I stand there awkwardly seeing her gather everything together, I walk to the other side and grab my blanket folding it up. "Oh no honey, you just go sit."
"It's only fair."
She laughs when she reaches to grab the blankets from me, but I step away continuing to fold it.
"You're very kind, what's your name?"
"Chloe."
"Chloe? Smith?" She asks.
"Yeah." I was going to ask her how she knew my name, but this is a hospital full of files on commuters and cabinets.
She shuffles through her pockets and pulls put a piece of paper. "A boy with curly hair told me to give this to you."
"Oh." I say looking at the sloppy folded piece of paper, I could see the hosptial's symbol on the bottom of the paper.
"Well, it was nice meeting you Ms. Chloe."
"Yeah you too, uhm..."
"Mary."
"Mary. I was wondering how long do I have to keep this gauze on my head?"
"When it starts getting worn out, you can take it off. It usually gets worn out after about five to seven days."
"Okay, thank you again. For everything...and this." I hint to the small piece of paper.
"It's my job, take care of yourself and I like you and, but let's hope we don't meet again."
At first I'm confused and was offended, but the I realize I'm standing in a hospital. She didn't want me to end up here on this bed again and that makes two of us.
I sit down on the edge of the naked bed and tuck a piece of hair behind my ear before opening the paper.
You deserve something more than a shitty ass piece of paper from a hospital front desk, but if I said this to your face I know I'd just take it back. Someone once said that the hardest goodbyes are never said and never explained, and I'm not saying it obviously, but I'll do my best to explain it. Chloe, everything that people were saying was right. You should've stayed away and I was wrong to keep pushing our relationship further knowing it'd end in catastrophe. All of this has been fun, but it ends here and I'm sorry I can't be all that I can be for you.
-h.
In nothing more than a paragraph, my eyes reread the note over and over again breaking pieces of my heart each time.