Mom, Grandpa, and I are in the hospital room waiting for Dr. Hathaway to give us the results. When Mom found out I'm in the hospital, she dropped everything she was doing and came to me.
"I can't believe this! You got into a fight, Christopher!" Mom said.
"No. The guy was beating me up, then this other guy came over and got into a fight with him instead," I explained.
"Unbelievable!" she hollered.
"Liv, calm down," Grandpa said.
"Never tell a woman to calm down!" she yelled at him. "My baby boy just got beaten up and you're telling me to calm down!"
Grandpa stepped back from her with wide eyes and his hands up.
To my relief, Dr. Hathaway walks into the room. "Hi, Christopher. How you feeling so far?" he asked.
"Not good."
"Yeah, I understand." He nodded his head. "Well, I should probably tell you that you have a bruised rib."
"Great," I groaned.
"It would probably be a lot worse it it was broken, so that's a good thing. Now, why don't you tell me what happened?"
I told him what happened and after I got done, he rested his chin on his clipboard. "Yeah, I never liked that Malcolm. He can be an ass sometimes."
"You know him?" I asked.
"Yeah, my stepdaughter hangs out with him." He has a disgusted look on his face.
"Stepdaughter?" Wait a minute...
"Yeah, Gabriella." He shakes his head. "Honestly, I like his sister Danielle better."
"So, you're married to Layla's and Gabriella's mom?" I asked.
"Yeah. You didn't know?"
"Well, Layla said her mom found out she's having a girl and Sophia said she'll be excited to have a sister after Layla said it."
"Oh yeah." He smiled. "We're still deciding whether to call her Molly or Melanie."
"That's sweet," Mom says.
Grandpa cleared his throat. "Can we go back to Chris, please?"
"Oh, yes." Mr. Hathaway adjusted his glasses.
"Christopher, do you have any idea why this Malcolm boy would beat you up?" Mom asked.
"Umm..." How am I going to tell her what actually happened at the party?
"I think I know why. Just give me a minute." Dr. Hathaway puts his clipboard down and pulled his phone out. He showed us a video starting with Malcolm talking shit about me. Who's this person that started to record this and why did he or she started to record when he started talking? The video then showed me walking into the living room. When Malcolm started to say about Grandpa being lazy,, I saw Grandpa getting an angry look on his face and his hands curled his hands into fists. The video end when Wilbur and Brent pulled me out of the living room. Dr. Hathaway put his phone away. "Does that answer your question?"
Grandpa clenched his teeth. "I'm going to kick that fucker's ass."
"Esteban, no," Mom says.
Grandpa gives her a look. "Really, Liv. Did you hear what he just called me? It's just..." He shakes his head. "Excuse me." He leave the room.
Mom looks at me. "And you beat up that boy?"
"Mom, please don't." I said. I don't want a lecture from her right now, not even when I'm hurt.
"To tell you the truth, Olivia, he kind of deserved it," Dr. Hathaway smirked.
Mom gives him a glare.
"Sorry." He then tells me what I should and shouldn't do with my bruised ribs. He tells me I should put some ice on my chest for about twenty minutes two to three times a day, what medication I should take, and some breathing exercises. He also says I shouldn't be doing any activities for a while. "And I also think that you shouldn't go to school for a few days."
"I agree," Mom said.
"Is there anything else?" I asked Dr. Hathaway.
"Nope, I think you're good to go," he said.
"Let's go find your grandpa, Chris," Mom said.
We found Grandpa in the waiting room. He and I walked out of the hospital and got into the car. I saw Grandpa gripped really hard on the wheel. He's probably still pissed about the video.
"Grandpa, do you want to talk about the video?" I asked.
Grandpa sighed. "No, Chris, I don't want to. Let's just get some medication for you to take, okay?"
I nodded my head at him. My grandpa can be stubborn about his feelings. He refused to talk about it with anyone, even after my grandma died. I guess it's because the older you get, the more stubborn you get.
We stopped at Walmart where Grandpa got me some Tylenol and some things for supper tonight. When we got home, I started to get tired again.
Grandpa took me into the living room and set me down on one of the recliners. "Just rest, Chris. Okay?"
"Okay." Grandpa put a blanket over me as I started to drift off to sleep.
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Mom stayed home with me the next day. She helped me with my breathing exercises, and put the ice on my chest. She wraps a cloth around the ice pack and shows me where I should put it. She also helps me get dressed. She told me I should take some things slow day by day so I won't hurt myself too much, and I shouldn't rest too much, otherwise the fluids would build up in my lungs, and that won't be good.
After lunch, I got started on my homework Mariah brought home to me yesterday. I was in the middle of reading The Great Expectations when there was a knock on my door. "Come in."
Mom opened the door. "Someone's here to see you, sweetie."
"Who is it?"
She opened the door wider and there stood...Brian? What's he doing here?
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