Predictions (a student/teacher relationship)

**Chapter 16**

I came to an abrupt stop and so did Derek. He looked back at me, but I couldn't stop staring at the lady at the receptionist desk.

"Brandi, are you okay," Derek asked, resting a hand on my shoulder. I still couldn't look at him. He followed my gaze to my mother and turned back to look at me. "Is that your mother?"

I nodded and he moved to stand directly in front of me so I couldn't look at her. I moved my eyes up to look at him and he looked down at me. "I can't let her see me. She'll just start a whole scene here in the middle of the whole hospital."

"I understand that. That's why I'm hiding you. Just stay right behind me and I'll make sure she doesn't see you, okay?" I nodded and we started walking.

We got to the receptionist desk and asked for my father's room. Right when Derek said my father's name, my mother's head snapped up.

"You know my husband? How?"

Derek looked at her and asked, "You're Cynthia Carter?"

"Yes. How do you know my husband?" She eyes him suspiciously.

"Mrs. Carter, I'm working your husband's case. There's no way he could've beat himself that badly." She sighed and looked behind him, straight at me.

"What are you doing here?" Derek looked back at me and gave a little nod to tell me I can answer.

"I'm here to see my dad. You know, the only parent I have that does love me." She stared at me with hard eyes before opening her mouth to say something, but I beat her to it. "Don't even bother Cynthia. I don't have time to listen to your annoying voice or be in the presence of your bitchy existence." I looked at the receptionist. "May I have the room number my father's in, please," I asked nicely. She looked at her computer screen and gave me the room number.

"Mrs. Carter, can you stay down here while Brandi visits her father, please," Derek asked. She nodded and we started heading for my father's room.

We finally got there and I stopped before walking in. I turned to Derek and asked, "Can you tell me what happened now?"

He looked down at me and sighed. "Yeah." We took a seat on a bench outside of the room and he turned towards me. "We got a call at about 8:30pm from the room service attendant saying that he found your father laying on the floor, unconscious. When we got there, I saw how badly beaten he was. He regained a little consciousness and started mumbling something. When I leaned down to hear him better, he said your name. That's how I found you. After that, he was unconsious again and the ambulance took him." He looked at the ground while telling me this. When he finally, looked back up at me, somebody walked over to us. I looked up and saw Mr. Wood standing there.