Infected

Chapter 6

Several hugs and tears later, we're sharing coffee and pastries, one of the many goodies that Mel had snuck in for me to snack on.

"So they have no clue where he is?" She asks me while picking the streusel off a muffin.

"It seems that way."

"It makes sense and from the sound of it no one really knew who he was. I heard a nurse talking about it earlier when I checked in, they think he's connected to murders, somewhere near New York. They found a few girls near the state border, not in the same shape as you and Liv, but it fit the description: hidden away in a seedy neighborhood and left behind. They died from the injuries."

"How long ago?" I cling onto the new information, sensing that she'd be the only one to give it to me without a second thought.

"I didn't catch it. It feels like I shouldn't even be telling you what I heard. Everyone has theories about what he was. The latest is that he's a drug dealer, on the run for something it he did outside the country."

We sit in a moment of silence. Rucker didn't seem to have enough brain cells to be involved in a cartel but his brute strength could've made up for that. I notice now that everyone is grasping at straws to understand how this could've happened and anything I got had to be taken with a grain of salt.

"Can I ask you something?" My mind urges me to turn to an alternative topic, something that's been bothering me since I woke up last night. "I woke up for a little while, and I swear I heard Galen talking to someone. It was a man but I don't know who they were."

Mel's eyebrows come together, confused but she answers, "You mean Quin? He's been watching over you just as much as Galen, moreso in fact, and he fully volunteered even though no one asked him to. They were probably bickering about some stupid guy thing."

Quin. It was the same name I'd heard come from Galen. My silence doesn't go unnoticed as Mel starts describing the mysterious Quin.

"Come on Elle. Mr. Dreamy? The hot new professor at the college? Dazzling eyes and a soul crushing smile."

I slowly shake my head in refusal, a frown setting my mouth into a thin line. Perhaps this was the trauma I'd been warned about, something that my psyche felt I shouldn't remember because of its proximity to my accident. I'm sure I'd learned about it somewhere while in college but I was quickly losing the energy to dwell on the repression.

"I've never met him. You said he's a professor? What does he teach?" I pop a piece of donut into my mouth to avoid making more of an ass of myself.

"History." She looks at me from head to toe, like I'd sprouted wings and a horn to match my abnormal attitude. "Elle, I'm finding it really hard to believe that you've wiped him from your memory."

"I'm sure I know it just-" I let out a short laugh. "My brain is kinda scrambled, from the medication and stuff. I just barely remembered what I was doing the day before, it'll come to me eventually."

"It's okay, I don't want you to push yourself. How are you liking your coffee?"

"A million times better than what they've been trying to feed me." I reply, ecstatic that we were once again changing the topic.

We both look at the tray that has been left untouched on the bedside table. We laugh together at the sad excuse for a turkey sandwich and return to our meal of sugar and caffeine.

"How was Florida?" I ask her.

She'd gotten enough sun to make her tan last a lifetime, and then some, her body now perfectly golden and flawless. I detect a hint of sunburn on the bridge of her pert nose, faintly concealed by her makeup.