From the bottom floor, I can hear the rain pounding on the sidewalk outside. There are so many floors to Park West that I doubt you could hear the water against the roof if there was a tsunami crash into the building. In the quietness of the room, it kind of sounds like there is. I wonder if the rain is always so heavy here.
"Try not to fidget if you can help it." Doctor Yates says as she lays my hand on the small, movable cart with a camera hanging over it. A red X is displayed on the table as soon as she turns a knob. She lines it up with my cast, the longest of the two lines running down my covered up forearm. She tells me to hold still and I obey. The camera makes a few noises and then shuts itself off.
She turns the knob back. "I'm not sure how long it will take these to develop. The times vary." She unplugs the cart from the wall and wraps the wire around her arm until it is coiled up. "Usually, it takes some time between fifteen minutes to an hour. Maybe even two."
Two hours of sitting in a room with nothing to do. Perfect.
I nod and lay down. She wheels the cart from the room and closes the door behind her. I grab the remote and turn on the television. The news is on yet again. "New developments on the murder case sweeping the nation tonight. Investigators believe the suspect to be left-handed, over six feet tall, and somewhere in the Manhattan area."
I turn the channel. I'm not in the mood for depressing news.
I watch various commercials for the next twenty minutes, flipping through channels to see if anything is on but only finding advertisements on every station. By the time I get bored of them and change the channel, I catch the end of an episode about to go to commercial again or more infomercials. Eventually, I give up and let it play. I grab my phone and start to text Zach.
A moment later, before he can reply for the first time in the conversation, Doctor Yates makes her way back through the door. She is empty handed, something I take as a pretty good sign.
"Good news." She states in a monotone voice, slightly making me guess whether or not she is being sarcastic. Although, I'm not sure if a doctor is aloud to be sarcastic with their patients or not. "Your arm is healing remarkably well. Quicker than most I've seen."
The two feelings of sadness and content cancel each other and I'm left feeling no emotion at all at her words. I look to her, asking with no words if she has anything to add.
"May not be long now until it's healed, despite the short amount of time you have been here." She continues in a flat tone. "What your arm has accomplished in six days is what usually takes two weeks for a break that size. Perhaps we just overestimated the size of it to begin with and it is no more than a fracture." She grabs a chart from off the table and the sound echoes through the almost completely silent room besides the advertisement for some clothing store having a sale. "I'm going to allow you to stay overnight tonight and possibly one more day after that, but after, you will need to check in once a week and see where it goes from there."
I nod.
She nods back. "Have a good rest of the afternoon, Mister Tedder."
"You too." I reply.
She opens the door and closes it quickly behind her. The second I hear the door click into place, my feet swing off the side of the bed and I stand. I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. It's probably just Zach finally responding. It can wait.
The hinges squeak when I turn the knob and open the door. The place is quiet, as always, making every little sound more pronounced. The rain has slacked off for the most part. The occasional group of raindrops can still be heard, but the precipitation has more or less stopped.
I trek back to the cafeteria to see Zack and Drew eating what I guess would be lunch. Zach waves from across the room and then focuses on his true love once more: food.
I wave back and survey the room. The table Nicki and I sat at is completely empty. Now that I'm paying attention, Drew and Zach are eating the remainder of the pizza I bought this morning. She must have given it to them once I left.
Which means she must be back in her own room. I wonder down the hallways until I find the door to her room. Through the light colored wooden doors, I hear voices. Knowing good and well that I probably shouldn't, my curiosity piques and I put my ear up to the door.
I can't make out any solid words. Only vibrations. I can tell for certain that one of them is Nicki but the other is not so clear. Whoever it is has a slightly higher voice and a mere southern accent that comes and goes with certain words. Must be Safire.
I knock and wait for a response. Before I even have time to lay my hand on the doorknob, I have permission to enter. I turn it and the door swings open.
Nicole sits at the head of the bed with her lap covered up, a smile on her lips as I enter. As I guessed, Safire is also in the room - laying beside her best friend and watching something I don't recognize on the television. She is wearing an oversized jacket with the sleeves rolled up; one I've seen Brent wear many times. Speaking of, he is also in the room. I hardly noticed him, completely silent in one of the chairs and typing away on his phone; believe it or not, jacketless.
I sit at the edge of the bed. "What are you watching?" I ask.
"Firefly." Safire answers.
I raise an eyebrow. "What's Firefly?"
"If you don't know the answer to that question, we can't be friends." She says flatly, never taking her eyes off the screen.
Brent smirks slightly. "I can fill you in on the first episode, if you'd like."
My eyebrows knit together. "You like Sci-Fi?"
"No." He mutters silently and tilts his head toward the girl wearing his jacket. I like her.
I roll my eyes. As if it wasn't obvious to begin with almost a week ago.
I turn back to Nicole and my phone vibrates again. I take it from my pocket and see I have three new messages. Two from Eddie and one from an unknown number. I open the unidentified one. "Brent made me do it." It reads.
I'm instantly more than a little worried. While the man comes across as silent most of the time, he can be the craziest son of a bitch you'll ever meet. I am almost completely certain whoever this is is talking about a murder or getting a fork stuck in the garbage disposal.
Five seconds later, I get another text from the same number saying, "This is Nicki, btw."
I lower my phone and look to her. "What did you do?" I ask with equal parts worry and annoyance. Like with the fork in the disposal, I have a feeling I'll have to clean this up too.
"You told him." Brent states. "You weren't supposed to do that yet."
"Sorry." She replies.
"What? What are we not telling Ryan?" I ask.
"I was supposted to keep texting you and freaking you out, but I think that first sentence alone worked well enough." She smirks.
"Thanks." I quip. "At least it wasn't another fork in the disposal."
Brent cracks up. The other two look confused.
"That's a story for another time." I look at my phone again to check the messages from Eddie.
"Look who had his first one night stand. He's growing up so fast." It reads. And below it is a picture that makes my eyes widen.
The picture is of a brown haired girl laying cuddled up to a larger man with curly hair. They are both sleeping, the sheets tangled up around them. Her head rests on his chest and her hair is almost completely covering her face. His arms are around her middle, making sure she doesn't go anywhere while he's asleep. They are both fully clothed - excpet for the fact that she is wearing nothing of her own - only the oversized attire of the man resting beside her. They both seem completely oblivious to all the bad in the world, including Eddie with a room key and a camera.
And I have never in my life seen Brent Kutzle look so relaxed, so worry free, and yet so determined to do whatever it takes to keep Safire Barnes that close.
I drop my phone and my mouth falls open. I look to Brent and practically scream, "You two slept together!?"
He looks like he got caught committing a crime. His eyes widen.
Safire stands up. "I'm going to kill him."
"Now, just because you slept with the man doesn't mean you have to kill him!" I inform and pick my phone up from where it tumbled onto the bed.
"No. I'm talking about Eddie." She groans. "We've already been over this once. We didn't sleep together. We fell asleep next to each other! There's a huge difference!"
"Is the difference that his hand is around your back and not a little lower?" I laugh and throw my phone to Nicole, who catches it and also ends up laughing.
"This is not funny!" Safire shouts.
"Well, I don't like to think I'm the worst person to get caught sleeping with." Brent smirks at her.
"You are not helping in the slightest, Kutzle!"
He shrugs and says in a sarcastic voice. "I tried."
She rolls her eyes. "Fine. I'll go handle this myself." She mutters and makes her way to the door, throwing it open just enough for her to step out.
Brent doesn't move. He starts typing on his phone again. I clear my throat to get his attention. He looks up at me.
I glance over to the door. He looks confused. I shake my head in disbelief.
I purse my lips together and nod toward the door, trying to add some urgency. His eyes widen and he mouths, "Oh."
With that, he stands up and follows Safire out the door. Nicki and I are now alone.
"And you tried to subtly get Brent to leave without me noticing why?" She asks, smiling slightly.
Damn it. I thought I did a better job of being discreet.
"Because I wanted to talk to you." I answer truthfully.
"Go on." She lays back against the pillows, not breaking eye contact with me. "Because I've been meaning to talk to you as well."
"You have?" I answer, a little surprised. "You first."
"What were you about to say this morning before you stopped yourself?" She questions.
I freeze again and try to change the subject. "The doctors gave some good news."
"Uh huh." She answers. "And was it that you are perfectly capable of understanding and using human speech?"
"Smartass." I mutter.
"Answer my question and we wouldn't have to argue." She crosses her arms.
"God, you're stubborn."
"I am. Now tell."
"I will later." I say.
"Fine." She agrees. "But I'm holding you to it. Now, what's so damn important?"
I glare at her, suddenly angry. How is it this girl has complete control over my emotions? "I'll be gone in a few days, and I thought you'd like to know. But as I can see after this, I don't think it matters."
Everything about her changes the moment I say this. The look in her eye, the hardness of her face, her confidence turns to dust. "What?"
"You heard me." I stand up and turn to the door.
"Ryan!" She shouts.
I spin around on my heels. I glare at her.
"I'm sorry." She assures. "What do you mean by 'gone'?"
"I mean," I start in a much softer voice, "that they don't need me here anymore and told me to leave the day after tomorrow."
"Oh." Is all she says, looking down to her hands.
A few moments of silence pass. I stand by the door but don't have the heart to leave. Eventually, she mutters barely loud enough for me to hear. "What did you say this morning?"
I sigh. "I'll tell you in two days from now. Before I leave. I promise."
"No." She whispers. "Tell me right now."
"My arm is starting to hurt again." I make up a quick excuse to leave. "I'm going to lie down and see if it starts to feel any better."
She can tell I'm fibbing. A bit of hurt plays across her features. She shakes her head slightly. "Just go, Ryan."
"All right." I drawl and open the door, leaving the room.
I'm not sure how long I was in her room or in mine, but it is starting to get dark out when I walk out her door. Nobody I know sits in the waiting room. They must have turned in for the night. Something I guess I ought to do as well.
I climb up the stairs and find my room in no time. I don't even have to think about where I'm going anymore to find it, I just know.
I open the door and find the empty room. As I guessed, they must have gone back to the hotel.
I close the door behind me and lay down. Hours pass before I finally close my eyes and drift off. But something as peaceful as sleep never lasts as long as it should. Or so I learned around midnight, when I was awoken with news that another problem has just arisen.
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Stuff starts to pick up after this chapter. I feel like the story's not as interesting as it should be, so I'm spicing it up a bit.
I waited to update today becuase it's Drew's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DREW BROWN!!!