I think I'm falling for you - Katie McGrath

Bittersweet

Katie's PoV:

My eyes slowly pulled open and the pain shot through my body, targeting mostly my head.

My eyesight was too sensitive to the light of my kitchen so I closed them again, only for my senses to focus on an incessant beeping noise.

Where was I?

I kept my eyes closed as I tried to hone my hearing into other noises.

There was mainly silence, the beeping noise interrupting the tranquility.

I now tired to identify my pain. Where hurt the most?

I started at my feet and determined that the pain predominantly focussed in my lower abdomen up to my chest and then mostly in my head.

I was still exhausted, I wanted to sleep again but my mind was overflowing with questions that needed answers.

I devoted focus to each of my senses, trying to answer some of my questions.

Feeling dissatisfied with what I had determined individually, I took a deep breath.

I could now hear a body next to me adjust and gasp slightly.

I prized my eyes open, blinking multiple times to adjust to the bright light above me.

I could now determine that I was in a hospital, but I still couldn't decipher what had happened.

I tried to look around the room, my eyes squinting due to the pain behind my eyes and the blaring light.

"Katie?!" A voice echoed through the room and I visibly winced.

I turned my head slightly to wince at the person next to me, my face dropping when I saw who was seated in the uncomfortable chair to my left.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you or anything." Her voice was softer now, however, it still didn't explain her existence here.

"Why are you here?" I mumbled groggily, my voice laced with anger and impatience.

"Oh... well... see you didn't show up for work... and... I got worried... then... well..." She stammered and couldn't form a coherent sentence so I interrupted her.

"Do you have any English sentence skills or not?" My tone was still very arrogant, a bit more brash than my brain had anticipated.

"Look.... I was worried about you, as I should have been... I spent ages, we spent ages, tracking you down, finding you all to see you half dead on the floor! I wasn't exactly going to leave you and never come back Katie." She rambled and I cut her off.

"Don't say my name... I don't think I really want to hear it come from your mouth." I spat and closed my eyes again.

"Look... please I know I hurt you but you hurt yourself more." She pleaded and I sighed heavily.

"So it's all my own fault now?" I retorted and she shuffled in her seat.

"That's not what I said." She defended and I scoffed.

"It's what you implied." The room fell silent.

"So, do you want to know what's wrong with you or not?" She asked, her tone laced with pain.

"I'm sure you'll tell me anyway." I rested my arms on my stomach.

"Well... the paramedics and doctors said that you had been drinking heavily and there were a lot of unknown substances within it. You reached your point of tolerance and lost consciousness, you hit your head as you fell, causing a laceration and subsequently a haemorrhage which was treated and you were also stomach pumped to remove the alcohol from your system, to preserve your liver." She outlined briefly and I sighed audibly.

"That's a heck of a lot." I tried to digest what she'd told me. I could vaguely remember singing Taylor Swift's saddest songs and drinking some wine but I can't remember anything past then.

"Can you remember what you'd had to drink?" She leant forwards and I opened my eyes again.

"Wine.... but after that, I can't remember." I wanted to know everything that had happened just as much as everybody else but I couldn't remember for the life of me.

Before she could reply, an elder man entered the room.

"Miss McGrath, it's lovely to see you awake." He smiled widely and I forced one in return.

"How do you feel?" He asked and I tilted my head to the left and then the right.

"You have motor skills, that's a good sign." He walked closer to me and I flinched slightly.

"Are you okay... if you're uncomfortable, I can find somebody else?" I shook my head and his facial expression relaxed.

He carried out a physical and neurological exam and I tried to respond to the best of my ability.

"Okay... I'm happy to discharge you... but your girlfriend will have to stay by your side for a few days." He informed and I shot up bolt upright, wincing in pain.

"G- girl...girlfriend?" I stammered, the girl sinking into her seat next to me.

"So... it was the only way they'd let me stay with you.... and... well I do love you Katie. I know you don't love me anymore but I never stopped loving you, I just got scared. And then I realised, that I would rather suffer with my mother than ever ever lose you." She rambled.

I lay back down, closing my eyes again, trying to decipher whether this was some twisted nightmare or just a twisted reality.

"Miss McGrath? Do I need to request security?" The male voice filled the room and I contemplated the scenario in my mind.

"No... it's fine." I decided and shook my head softly, opening my eyes to prop myself up again.

"Katie? Please..." She pleaded and I squinted my eyes in frustration.

"I could have died today... I don't want to lose you and my behaviour almost led to me losing you forever. I never stopped loving you either Charlotte, I'm angry that you left me when 12 hours previous you'd promised that you'd be by my side forever but I still love you." I sighed with relief.

"You... you still love me?" She asked and I nodded lightly, turning to face her for the first time since we'd left the car over 36 hours before.

"I still love you." I confirmed and she beamed before kissing me softly on the lips as I kissed her lightly back.