I wake up to a doctor changing my IV bag.
Wait, what exactly happened that landed me in the hospital?
I try to rack my head for what I was doing before. There was a photographer, then a body guard, and Sterling’s hard gaze. Did someone knock me out?
No!
I vaguely recall Sterling asking me what happened with the man being arrested. I must have passed out from the nerves surging throughout my body. The secret cannot come out until he is safely in the confines of Harvard University. We will be hundreds of miles apart from each other. There are just three and a half more months to keep my secret from spilling my guts. Until then, I am keeping as much distance from Sterling as humanly possible. It’s the only solution.
“How are you feeling, Piper?”
Well that plan is now in the pooper. I move my head so it’s resting against the uncomfortably flat pillow. Sterling is sitting next to my bed with a coffee cup in hand.
“What-What exactly happened?” I ask Sterling just to be sure that I didn’t imagine the whole ordeal.
“There was this man that had on handcuffs and I guess you got overwhelmed or something.” He shrugs his shoulders. I know that he’s leaving out the part when he asked me what I knew. Maybe he doesn’t want to bring it up until I am out of this place.
“Oh.” I say because there’s not much else I could say. We sit there in silence until a nurse comes in with a tray of hospital food. Oh great….
“Hi honey.” The nurse is an older, plump lady with red hair. She has that appearance that automatically screams “caring”. “I brought you some mashed potatoes and turkey.”
“Looks yummy,” I say sarcastically. Sterling rolls his eyes at my abruptness.
“Don’t give me that sass, hun,” the nurse tells me with a slight smile. I smile to. Her smile is contagious.
“I mean, it looks soooo good!” I say with mock cheerfulness.
“That’s better,” the nurse says as she takes the tray from me and leaves me with the plate of box of food.
She leaves the room and promises me she’ll be back within the hour to check my blood sugar. I let out a sigh, but a sob erupts from deep inside of me. The tears come before I can tell them to stop. Soon, I’m crying so hard that I have started to shake.
“Hey,” Sterling is kneeling down so he’s face to face with me.
Wiping away my tears, I met Sterling’s face. His eyes are sketched with worry and something else I can’t identify.
“I just-nevermind. Where are my parents?”
“They said they couldn’t get out of their conference. I told them I would take care of you. The hospital had no problem with it because I’m legal. You’re not, so here I am.” He smiles at me like we aren’t in the hospital.
“Too bad this didn’t happen August 24 when I turn eighteen.” What bad timing…I laugh to myself at how asinine that sounds.
He gives me a weak smile to benefit me. The silence commences once again. He carefully moves back to the seat beside the bed. The T.V. is turned on to the ABC Family channel. I watch it for a while and realize that Sterling has fallen asleep. The clock next to me reads 6:30 a.m. Oh God, I’ve been here for a whole day?
The room is so quiet that I can hear the bustling out in the hallway. The nurse pokes her head in. She notices Sterling asleep on the chair and puts a blanket over him. I hold out my arm for her to check my IV. Carefully, she takes it off.
“Ok missy, the doc said you’re good to go on home. As soon as you wake your boyfriend that is,” she winks at me.
“He’s just a friend.”
“Would a friend really offer to spend the night in a hospital for another friend? You should have seen the boy when he brought you in. He was holding you. You looked pretty unconscious. The doctors told me he was yelling to get your help quick.”
“He only did that to be nice. My parents are out of town.”
“Well, for whatever reason he’s here, don’t take it for granted. Feel better.”
“Thank you,” I wave to her as I swing my legs over the bed. Sterling doesn’t show any movement.
Looking around the room I notice a teddy bear sitting on the desk. Making my way over to it, I read that it’s from Lucy. It has a get well card attached. Still not awake, I throw the teddy at him as hard as I can with so much weakness.
He jolts awake and nearly falls out of his chair. I struggle not to laugh but it comes out as fast as the tears.
“What the hell?”
“You know, you should really think about broadening your vocabulary. I think I’ve heard that word come out of your mouth every minute.”
“Maybe if some psycho girl didn’t throw things at me when I’m trying to sleep, I wouldn’t have to use that word.”
I look at him with the most innocent look I can muster. Sterling gets out of the chair ad grabs my purse.
“Nice purse,” I joke.
He looks at me with a look that could sharpen knifes. When everything is picked up that we need, we exit the room. I stop in my tracks. “Sterling?”
“Yea, Piper?”
“I was wondering if maybe you could carry me out. Like you did when you brought me here,” I say with as much seriousness that I can.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Hehe. I am.”
The nurse waves to us when we pass her station. I point to Sterling who is still carrying my purse. She laughs and winks at me. I catch up to Sterling. He has stopped dead in his tracks and I run into his back. The impact causes me to lose my balance and I crash onto the hard floor. My bottom throbs at the sudden impact.
He doesn’t notice that he knocked me over. His focus is set on his dad talking to a pretty blonde outside the elevators. There’s nobody else around to help me up, so I get up in the most unladylike way possible. Sterling drops my stuff and then realizes his mistake. His dad looks at him with a guilty look. The woman has also frozen in place.
This reminds me of that scandal with Bill Clinton. A presidential affair part two?
“Crap,” he mutters. His dad starts to walk towards him but Sterling grabs my hand. His pace is too fast for my weak body. I feel like I’m about to collapse from the lack of food I’ve eaten in the past 24 hours. The mashed potatoes and turkey didn’t do it for me. My breaths come out in gasps. We reach the elevator in time before I fell. Slumping against the metal door, I press myself against the cool steel. Sterling is pacing in front of me. I feel insanely dizzy. There is no way I’m going back to that hospital room.
“Sterling,” I let out a gasp.
“I just can’t believe he would do this to my mom.”
“Sterling,” I plead.
“He blatantly displays his affair in the public with some trampy nurse.”
Knowing I won’t catch his attention, I use all the power I can and kick him in the ankle.
“Ow! What? Oh my gosh! What’s the matter?” He’s in front of me within seconds. His large hands capture my cheeks.
“Feels-like I’m out of breath.”
“Maybe you have asthma.”
Then I realize that I forgot to take my inhaler before I went to bed the night of prom. I mentally slap myself. “I can’t believe I forgot to take my inhaler. Sterling, you have to take me home, please!” I’m frantic. My parents are going to be outraged at my irresponsibility.
“I could so easily freak out right now. With my dad cheating on my mom and you practically passed out in the elevator. What is my life?”
“Please, don’t talk.”
The elevator doors open and Sterling stuffs everything in my oversized purse. I sit limp on the elevator floor. It’s almost like the germs are radiating off the floor onto my skin.
Oh, gross.
Sterling shoulders my bag and grabs me from under my knees. He lifts me up like I weigh nothing. My head slumps against his chest. The nurses give us a curious glance. He nods his head at her. I manage a small smile to make them see that I am more than okay.
“Just don’t think about anything. The car is in the front.”
Sure enough, there is car parked in the front of the hospital. The man walks around to the side of the car to open our door. Sterling sets me down. I collapse in the back seat.
Sterling gets in on the other side. My face is heating up and sweat trickles down my face. He hands me a handkerchief from my purse that I keep in case of moments such as this. The driver gets us home in less time than when I drive.
Hastily, I struggle to make it towards the large front doors. Sterling catches up with me. He wraps his arm around my waist. I rest my head on his shoulder. The headache is pounding against my head. Everything around me seems like a dream. It all seems fuzzy. My vision becomes a blur as we walk into the air conditioning. My breaths become more frantic. Suddenly I’m wheezing from lack of oxygen. I need my inhaler, but my room is on the opposite side of the house on the ground level.
“Piper, I’m going to lift you up and run to your room so we can get to your inhaler faster. Hold on.”
I feel him lift me from the ground, but everything seems like a dream. People ask him questions as he runs by. He gives them vague responses. We stop at my bedroom door.
“Is it fine if I go in and get it for you? Tell me where it is and I’ll give it to you.”
“On,” I take a large breath of air, “vanity.” I lazily point on my vanity with my pearl colored mirror above it.
The reflection staring back at me is terrifying. I look like hell.
I slump against the walls and wait for him to find it. There are noises of him rummaging on my messy vanity. Dang, he probably thinks I’m a huge pig or something.
“Ok, open your mouth Piper.”
I do as he says and I take a gulp of my inhaler. The air in my lungs starts to flow again. It feels like heaven. He’s looking at me with the same eyes like in the hospital. It’s almost like he cares but I know we’ll be back to avoiding each other on Monday. Thankfully tomorrow is senior ditch day. The teachers actually tell us to not show up.
“Better?” Sterling swipes back the sweaty hair plastered across my face.
“Yes, thank you for everything. I felt like I could’ve gone into a coma. Listen, you can’t tell my parents.”
“Um,” he looks at me before proceeding, “don’t you remember when I told you your parents weren’t able to leave?”
“I remember. What I meant was about not taking my inhaler. The passing out, they can know about.”
“Then you’re clear. The doctors said you passed out from stress and dehydration,” Sterling sits across from me in the hall.
The cool air rushes around us. I welcome it with open arms. The silence envelopes around us. A maid walks past us with the phone in her hands.
“Excuse, Mr. Sterling, your father is on the phone. He said it’s urgent.”
“Sure,” he grabs the phone from the maid and dismisses her with the wave of his hand.
He listens to his dad while rolling his eyes. “I really don’t feel like talking to you right now. I’m not going to tell Mom.”
He throws the phone across the hallway. The phone smashes into many pieces inches from my head.
“I hate the guy. The country thinks he’s some great family man. They don’t know him like I know him.”
“Maybe that was just a friend.”
“Ha! My dad’s a selfish man. I wish the country knew that so they wouldn’t elect that-“
I sit down next to him and put my hand on his shoulder. “Find out the story first. Please.”
“I’m so pissed at him.”
“That’s understandable. I would be a little curious too.”
The silence surrounds us again. The phone lies in pieces on the floor. A sound comes from around the corner and we both sit up, smacking our heads together in the process.
“Ouch!” we yell at the same time. Whoever was walking towards us in clear view.
Elle.
“Hey guys, like my new hair color Piper?” She flaunts her freshly died auburn hair my way.
“Looks nice.”
“Thank you. Listen, I have to go to my friend’s beach house ever the weekend to watch it. I’ll be back in a week.”
“Have you told the parental units?”
“I’m twenty one. They can call me if they need me,” she winks at Sterling and disappears back down the hallway.
Sterling watched her walk away. I swat him on his shoulder.
“What was that for?”
“Oh I don’t know. Maybe because you were checking out my big sister.”
He laughs but chooses not to comment. He runs his hands through is mused hair.
“I need to shower. That hospital did not provide me with the care I needed.”
“Yeah because you were in so worse condition than I was,” I roll my eyes at him.
That earns him to smile back at me with teeth so white that I almost need my sunglasses to see. Everything about this boy is great. I can’t let him get to close though. We all have secrets we bare, but this one might push him even farther away than I could.
No way can he ever find out a girl half his side is doing the butt kicking for him.
“Anyway, I’m going to head to my bathroom. If you need me between tonight and tomorrow, don’t hesitate to call me.”
“Thanks for everything you did last night and today. I was almost a goner.”
He nods his head and makes his way up to the living quarters for the presidential family.
What it must be like to live up there with at least one parent who cares.
Thinking over my day, I head into my bedroom and blare music while I take out my journal and write.
Usually, my journal is used for important events, but I think these past days were pretty interesting. Who knew Sterling was capable of being so caring and sweet?
These past few days were odd to say the least. On the bright side, I forced myself to brave the prom and I didn’t have such a bad time. The day after was unbelievable. Not unbelievable in a good way. How could I have forgotten to take my inhaler? On top of that, I passed out from the nerves I felt when Sterling demanded to know what I knew. There is no way I’ll ever reveal what I am to Sterling. He would freak out. Switching topics, I am pretty sure the President is having an affair with some blonde nurse…
I slam my journal shut and close my eyes. Escaping the day that has come in as fast and destructive as a storm.