THE ONE WHERE PAIN DOESN'T STOP FOR SYMPATHY.
C H A P T E R T H I R T E E N ;
millie's pov;
f l u t t e r i n g o p e n , my eyes became drowsily aware as the rest of my body laid numb, not hurting nearly as much as before... must be the medication.
noticing a warmth encasing me comfortably, i slowly raised my head to take in finn sound asleep as i used his chest as a pillow. i unlinked my hand from his and a smile twinkled upon my lips, i wasn't dreaming, i was actually here.
it'd be wonderful for this to last forever— finn being with me, not the whole hospital situation. is that creepy to want an ideal with a boy to last? i know maddie will wisk him away and i'll go with jaeden like normal which is totally fine, i really like him.
glancing at finn's freckled face, i hadn't realized the boy was up as he quietly chuckled followed by a very groggy, "good morning."
opening my mouth to question why he was laughing at me, an unpleasant raw sound came out and my voice disappeared in a matter of seconds. i seemed to forgot that i couldn't talk.
"you have horrible bedhead millie," he admitted, i snapped my head away not thinking it was very funny. i mean i'm in one of the most dreadful pains in my whole life and finn has to make fun of my hair.
maybe i'm exaggerating a bit.
he left the sheets and returned holding a white board and a black thin tip marker, gently pushing it into my hand as i accepted it. i assumed i wasn't able to go on any screen for awhile because of my head, so typing was out of the question.
"the doctors gave it to me, ya know, until your voice comes back," he said, silently i began judging how bad his bedhead was too— his curls can in no way be messier than mine.
deciding to keep quiet and nod, i scribbled words down after flicking the cap off and tapping the marker to gain his attention.
"are you going back to class today?"
"and leave you alone on your first full day awake?
no way, we can binge shows or uh online shop?" he cheerfully suggested, sitting in the chair nearby as we both knew he despised shopping.
i erased my question with my finger, writing the next sentence i couldn't speak as finn gave me a tissue to use for the marker.
"i want you to go, you're missing out. i'll be fine i'll call jaeden"
i shot him a weak reassuring grin as he scoffed and shook his head. "i'm staying here with you mills, there's literally nothing you can do about it."
third person pov;
the girl rolled her eyes at his persistence so finn opened his mouth to continue until the door made a surprising thump. a figure burst into the room with a decreasing pant, both of their heads whipped around to see the one and only jacob sartorius. of all people.
before finn or millie could say anything, jacob took the first open opportunity out of their hands. "millie aye, ya look greaaat," jacob said awkwardly, lying straight through his teeth as she appeared like a car wreck to him.
"mind if i steal this hottie for a sec, i-i need to talk to her," he chuckled. "alone? uh no?" finn ran his hand through his curls, trying to figure out what was going on. millie held out the white board dramatically so finn would notice, some letters appearing messy but somewhat distinguishable.
"idiot let him talk to me, he's a friend."
biting his lip when reading it, finn nodded his head and put his hands up in fake surrender from his attempted protection, making his way out and quietly shutting the door behind him.
sliding down against the wall, he smelt his clothing realizing how repulsive it was. plugging his nose, he stood up and went to the bathroom to wash his face, dialing caleb to bring a set of clothes down.
while calling his friend & getting no answer, he thought it was unusual to have a large number of notifications via instagram and text, but didn't think anything to check it. then again, he didn't care.
"uhh, you can't talk?" jacob asked the girl cluelessly, millie nodded as it was probably an obvious thing, but a question was a question.
"iris wanted me to deliver a message to you, she's sorry uh-" jacob cleared his throat and millie began jotting down something along the lines of "why cant she be here herself?"
jacob coughed awkwardly thinking of how to say what he needed to, going along with exactly what iris scripted was no doubtly too aggressive.
"basically..." he nervously laughed showing how anxious he was, he felt bad for once. "she wanted me to tell you specifically, that word gets around fast and she didn't have a choice, but uh you shouldn't let your friend, meaning finn, get out of control because it can ruin things very uhm not goodly?"
he decided to leave out where he was supposed to threaten her and give her a scare, along with avoiding various harsh swears, figuring millie had enough to deal with.
she cocked her head slightly to the side in confusion of his jumble— goodly wasn't even a word?
"it hurt my feelings, i thought you definitely loved me," he winked slyly and did a couple finger guns at her before opening the door, returning to his normal self.
jacob decided to say one last thing, "it was bound to come out one day," he left the room as finn bumped into him, glaring into jacob's eyes somewhat rudely as he passed by.
"what was all that about?" he asked narrowing his focus, unable to read a solid expression from her face. millie shrugged, dismissing him once again to catch his class starting in five minutes.
after much debate, finn decided it wouldn't be too painful to stop annoying her and fill in his professors who surely wouldn't be happy with him— but he definitely would come back right after.
waving goodbye, he left while placing the christmas presents at her bedside incase she wanted to open them. leaving millie alone to think, she really couldn't identify the significance of jacob's message.
'of course i don't like jacob at all and that's for sure... why'd he even bring it up though?' she pondered, 'what was bound to come out?'
her brain pounded alarmingly from the heavy thoughts but she began to put the words together, she was a smart girl with puzzles and mysteries no doubt.
iris,
word gets around fast,
bound to come out... love.
millie's eyes widened and it felt like it made sense, 'how could she know?!' her thoughts screamed almost as if she actually had a voice again.
'maybe it was a wild guess, she doesn't know about whatever i have for finn i mean people have made sooo many assumptions like that before!'
millie tried soothing herself, not able to find a logical conclusion to if this was even for certain- if so, why would iris do this for no reason, weren't they friends?
reaching for her phone, she powered it on to a fully charged percentage (courtesy of finn), and was surprised by the billions of text messages— did that many people care about what happened to her?
although clicking on the lime text message icon, there was one specifically standing out from maddie reading, 'you don't reallyyy love finn right?'
answering many messages and DMs with no's, definitely not's, and he's only a friend no way's, an unfamiliar weight only further burdened her chest.
not realizing she was sweating and shaking, millie tapped into finn's contact and wrote out a text.
'finnie don't listen to the rumor i don't know why people are so childish, you would think they would have grown up by now and it rlly rlly rlly sucks but at the end of the day i DON'T love you like that so ignore it someone just made a joke and it got taken too far ty'
pressing send without double checking what she typed in panic, a nurse came in checking her stats and assigning a medication to make her sleepy.
nervously running her fingers through her somewhat knotted hair, she shortly fell asleep without control, aiding her sky high pulse.
finn shoved his phone back in his pocket after reading millie's text of word vomit and sneakily slipped into his class in the middle of the lecture.
he realized some people were starring at him weirdly and others whispering, maddie making a disgusted eye at him expecting an explanation. "i knew you and millie were the to-be married couple, or or uh or the most shipped or whatever, but i didn't realize you two built such a reputation that its like high school drama again," she whispered with sarcasm, clearly annoyed.
"what're you talking about?" finn asked having a slight crack to his voice. "everyone's saying that millie loves you and wants to marry, so you're breaking up with me and planning a wedding," she flatly responded, gluing her eyes to her worksheet.
he backed up with his mouth slightly agape and darted his eyes back and fourth trying to connect the dots. "i don't think that's- uhm no, mads that's not even remotely true!" his tone came off angry, the teasing never really got to him until now... 'they couldn't wait until she got out of the hospital at least?!' finn commented through his thoughts.
he quickly held her delicate hand and pecked her cheek, "i'm not ending things with us either, at least i don't plan on it. you seriously believe all this crap?!"
"well when you've been with her for like the past week and failed to know i exist as your girlfriend, can you fucking blame me?!" maddie snapped back, pulling away with a pout on her face.
a jump of panic hit him, "no no no i'm sorry, i should have at least texted you- shit everyone can't mind their own business," he grumbled.
maddie took a few deep breaths to calm herself down and slid him a stack of notes that consisted of about twenty heavily bullet pointed pages, double sided.
"lecture notes, you missed a lot..." she blandly spoke, finn took them and slipped them into his cheap red notebook, looking back to her.
"you know i'm sorry... look i messed up, can i make up for it and we can go out tonight? i heard that nice italian restaurant has karaoke now," finn asked hopefully.
a quaint smile dawned maddie's face, "very funny, i will not be doing any singing... but if you promise we can get some tiramisu instead, then it's a date."
"deal," he chuckled, proceeding to attempt to understand what the professor was saying but becoming distracted and lost anyway.
millie stirred awake only a few hours after she fell asleep, not even realizing it happened anyway. hearing a familiar voice coming from some corner of the room, she forced her heavy lids open and drew her attention towards them, seemingly forgetting all past events with the finn drama.
as the figure realized she was awake, they hung up the phone and slowly approached her bedside. millie followed their path as their shadow dragged behind, and she reached out to touch their hand.
it was cold and unfriendly, reeking of an unfamiliar perfume that smelled like a wonderful field of flowers, maybe some peaches, as well as the smoke of a cigar.
lifting up her phone in failure to locate her white board, typing into the notes section made her fingers seem to be moving extremely slow. yet it was due to how dazed and sleepy her whole system was.
"i can't talk. where have you been? i missed you."
"been here all this time baby, maybe you just forgot... i missed you and your lips too," jaeden smirked with the flirting she knew so well, rubbing her hand in an attempt to comfort but was too rough for her liking.
millie remembered everything— starting first where she was in the backyard of the college party alone. her mind seemed to skip over when it all happened, but jumped to when she was in an ambulance with finn by her side, crystal clear although she really wasn't 'there,' per-say.
and all that way until the present, her mind never brought up any significance of jaeden nearby.
she shrugged, maybe she missed something although she was pretty sure she didn't. she observed jaeden moving his hand to her mid thigh and went back to his phone.
a soft grin sprinkled across her face, she was beyond pleased that he was finally here at least.
millie decided to admire his alluring facial features while he took in his social media feed.
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a u t h o r ' s n o t e:
happy extremely late new year!
this took ages to write because i wasn't inspired in the least, but i feel like i'm starting to get my writing flow back. editing this again, but i needed to get something published.
if you want to, click the little star and leave some advice or commentary for this chapter.
-elara xx
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