~Saturday, May 14th~
I try not to speed, but it's hard not to. I follow my GPS to the hospital Noah's aunt told me to go to and park in a visitor's spot, then walk in the front doors right up to the reception desk.
"Hi, I'm here to visit a patient, Noah Thompson," I say to the young woman sitting behind a computer.
"Alright," she clicks a few buttons on the computer with her mouse before looking back up at me.
"Relation to the patient?"
"Umm, his girlfriend..." I say, already knowing what she will say to me next. I start to panic.
"I'm sorry Miss but only family is allowed to visit with that patient right now," she says before looking back down at her computer, probably signaling for me to leave.
"None of his family can come right now, his aunt asked me to come. She was his legal guardian until he turned eighteen," I begin to explain, hoping she'll see that I do deserve to visit him.
"I'm sorry, it's the hospital's policy. Until he reaches a more stable condition, only family is allowed to visit."
"I'm the only one that can be here though, his aunt has to watch his little sister," I begin frantically.
"Miss, I'm sorry-"
"Please, his dad is dead and his mom is the one who hurt him. He doesn't have any family left." I finally let my tears fall, but only a few. I hadn't wanted to mess up my makeup, so that I wouldn't look even more strange than I already do. But at this point I might as well let it happen. I've got nothing left to lose.
The receptionist pauses for a moment, looking me over, and then looking through something on her computer screen. Finally she sighs softly and looks back to me. "If we can get Anne Thompson on the phone for her verbal permission for you to see him, then I'll let you in." Relief washes over me at her words, but only more tears form in my eyes.
"Thank you so much," I say with a trembling lip as she picks up the phone, typing in Anne's number from her computer screen. I listen to her half of the conversation until she hangs up.
"Alright, please fill out this visitor's form," she says and hands me a clipboard with a piece of paper on it and a pen. I gladly fill it out, and quickly hand it back to her. "Sarah will walk you to the section of the hospital where Noah is staying in. You'll have to wait in a waiting room until one of his nurses is told that he has a visitor, then you should be able to go see him."
"Thank you, so so much," I say. A nurse named Sarah comes out from behind the front desk and walks me through multiple sets of doors, on an elevator, and then through another set of doors into another waiting room.
"I'll go let the nurses know that you're here," Sarah says, and I thank her. I sit down in a cushioned chair and start to mentally prepare myself for what I might see. No matter how bad or hurt he looks, I'll have to be strong - for him. My job is to comfort him, make him feel as brave as possible before the surgery. But it's really hard to convince someone else of something if you're not sure you're convinced of it yourself. No matter what though, I have to try my best not to cry in front of him. Knowing him, he'll start worrying about me when I'm supposed to be the one worrying about him. So I'll keep on a brave face.
Five minutes of nervously fidgeting in my chair later, a nurse walks out of one of the doors off of the waiting room.
"Teresina White?" She says and I stand. She walks towards me, meeting me at my chair before I can work up the courage to start walking. "I'm sorry, but Noah has already gone into surgery. You'll have to wait until he is done and begins recovery to visit him."
My gut drops at her words. I'm too late? I was supposed to make him feel better about going into surgery. I should have left the dressed rehearsal sooner, Miss Marie would have understood, I could have...
"Miss?" I snap out of it and refocus my attention on the nurse standing in front of me.
"Sorry, I was just hoping I could make it in before his surgery." My voice shakes with each word. "Do you know how long it will be?"
"He should be ready for visitors in about four hours. You're welcome to stay here and wait, or leave and come back. We could give you a call-"
"I'll stay," I cut her off. "Sorry, I'll wait for him here."
"Alright. Don't worry too much Miss White, it's not a complicated surgery. He just needs it to repair some tissue and prevent further blood loss. But you should know, even if you had gotten here before he went into surgery, you wouldn't have been able to talk to him. He's been unconscious since he first blacked out in the ambulance."
"Thank you," I am extremely grateful for her reassurance, and willingness to inform me about his condition. I didn't know he has been unconscious this whole time, and I'm not sure that Anne knows either.
"Of course. Myself or one of the other nurses will continue to keep you updated and let you know when you can see him. Feel free to help yourself to water or coffee while you wait" With that she turns and leaves, exiting back through the door she came in. That means Noah is somewhere through those doors. Unconscious and in surgery.
I sit back down in the small chair, only a few other people waiting in the room with me. I decide I ought to call Anne and let her know that I'm here, but that he's already in surgery.
The phone rings a few times before she picks up. "Hello?"
"Hi Anne, it's Theresa, I'm at the hospital," I say, calming my nervous voice so she won't think something is wrong.
"Oh good, how is he?" She says quickly.
"I actually didn't get to see him. He had already started surgery when I got here. I'm sorry that I wasn't here soon enough..."
"Oh don't apologize to me darling, we did what we could. I'm sure he'll be alright, he's brave, you know," Anne says with a warm tone.
"Yeah, I know he is," I say with a small smile, but my eyes are still glistening. "The nurse also told me that after he blacked out on the ambulance, he hasn't woken up. So I couldn't have talked to him anyway," I inform her.
"Okay, thank you for updating me Teresina. Are you doing alright?" Asking me how I'm doing while her nephew is in surgery was the last thing I had expected Anne to do. After a second of surprise, I answer her.
"I'm okay. I'm going to wait here until he gets out of surgery. It should be about four hours."
"Four hours? Honey, you'll starve to death!"
"It's alright, I've got... water." I know how pathetic I sound as the words come out of my mouth.
"And didn't you say you were in a performance? Noah said you're a dancer, you must be exhausted and starving-"
"It was just a dressed rehearsal, I'm okay, really," I try to assure her.
"I'll make you something and I can bring it to you. And I'll bring Melody along, as long as she doesn't have to see her brother in pain, she can come to the hospital. You know how much she looks up to him, I couldn't do that to them. Anyway, it's the least I can do since you're helping us out so much Teresina," Anne says. I pause for a moment, thinking about how I can tell her this isn't necessary. But thinking of eating a hot meal and seeing Melody is just too tempting right now. I desperately need that type of comfort.
"Thank you," I say instead of fighting her. Anne tells me she'll be here in an hour, and we say goodbye. I sit and stare at the wall for a matter of minutes before I already can't take it anymore. My thoughts keep circling back and back to the idea that I'm losing Noah.
I pick up my phone and decide to call Olivia. I fill her in on everything that's happened today, and she does the same as Andrea by telling me that I am doing everything I can to help him. She tells me that Noah is not leaving me, and that's exactly what I need to hear to finally break down. When she hears me crying through the phone she asks if she can come visit, but I explain that there's no way they would let her in here if they barely even let me. I also assure her that it's a good thing that I'm crying and letting everything out now; I want to be strong in front of Noah's aunt, and especially Melody.
Olivia makes me promise her that I'll let her know if I do need anything, and that when I leave the hospital I'll go over to her house. Once we've run out of things to say, we hang up, and I'm left to silence again.
I wait not-so-patiently until I see a nurse bring an older woman through the door I came through, and I wonder if this might be Anne. My suspicions are confirmed when the woman turns to look behind her, and I hear her call "come on Melody, your surprise is right in this room!" I smile at the words - something I didn't know I was capable of doing right now - and watch as Melody follows her into the waiting room.
"What is it, what is it?" She says as she scans the room. Finally her eyes find me and I watch her face light up in the most adorable way. "Miss Teresina!" She yells and comes running over to me, the volume of her voice attracting the attention of the few other people in the room.
"Hi Melody," I say as she reaches me and launches herself into my arms for a big hug.
"Miss Teresina, are you my surprise?" She says as she pulls her face away from my shoulder, looking at me with awe.
"I think so," I say glancing up at Anne, and finally get to see what she looks like. I see some similarities between her and Noah, leading me to assume that Noah must look more like his father. Her hair is now salt and pepper colored, but I can imagine it being a brown shade close to Noah's in the past. Her eyes are more gray than his, but the way they light up when she smiles at me is almost identical.
Melody notices me looking at her aunt, and oh-so politely introduces me to her. "Auntie, this is Miss Teresina. She's my ballet teacher, and Noah's really good friend." Leave it to Melody to be the last thing on earth able to make me laugh right now, when I feel this nervous and scared. I'm suddenly extremely glad she's here to lighten my mood.
"Really good friend?" I ask her quietly as she gets comfortable sitting on my lap.
"That's what Noah said," she says nodding her head.
"It's nice to finally meet you Teresina, I've heard lots of wonderful things from the both of them," Anne says, smile lines and eye-crinkles prominent, indicating to me that this woman spends a lot of time with a kind look on her face.
"It's nice to meet you too, Anne. I never thought this would be how we would end up meeting," I respond, bouncing my legs and making Melody giggle.
"Neither did I, darling. But I suppose this had to happen eventually. She couldn't stay hiding forever. At least now she's been taken care of," she says, indicating to Noah's mom but without actually saying those words to keep Melody out of the loop. I nod in response. Anne sits in the chair across from me and begins to pull tin foil off of a large casserole dish. "Melody, why don't you sit down in the chair next to Miss Teresina so that she can eat." Melody follows her instructions and hops off of my lap.
"Thank you so much Anne, again you really didn't have to make me food, I would have been alright," I say as she pulls paper plates and plastic knives and forks out of her purse - much like a magical bottomless bag.
"Oh it's nothing dear, I was making this anyway. This way we can all eat together. Right Melody?"
"Yes! Chicken pot pie!" Melody says, excitedly kicking her legs in the chair too big for her. Anne chuckles warmly as she dishes a large pile of the casserole into a plate.
"Chicken pot pie casserole, I hope you're not vegan," she says as she passes the large plate to me along with a fork and a knife.
"Thank you, this is perfect," I respond as she does the same for Melody and herself.
"So dear, Noah has told me that you're going to be a professional ballerina," Anne says with a kind smile. "Tell me about that, how you got into ballet and how you're going to pursue it professionally." I feel warmth rise to my cheeks at the realization that Noah must have talked to his aunt about me a lot. I hope he's doing alright...
I allow Anne to distract me with conversation as we eat out meals. The food is nothing less than what I had expected: delicious. I realize that having comfort food in my belly, a conversation not about Noah's injury, and Melody's presence are really helping me stay calm. I worry too much when I'm left to my own thoughts, and right now worrying won't change how Noah is doing.
The time does roll around for Anne and Melody to leave. Anne says Melody needs to take a bath before bedtime - which earns some resistance on Melody's part, but in the end she listens to her aunt. After Melody gives me one final hug, I promise Anne to call her with any updates, and they leave.
~~~~~
Written 3/28/20, Published 3/29/20
I promise that Noah's character will actually makes an appearance in the next part of this chapter, I know that's what you're all waiting for!
I also hope that everyone is staying safe and healthy, and hopefully I am providing some form of entertainment in this time of extreme boredom. If you are in the mood to read some more, while you're waiting for me to keep updating, my "Favorites" folder on my profile is filled with all of my absolute favorite wattpad books! Some of them have become paid stories since I read them though :(
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Thanks a whole bunch for reading 😊