aura

Chapter 17

"Indie, darling. It's midday. I thought you might want to get up." Gaga's voice was lulling and soft and to be honest, made me want to go back to sleep. A strand of her hair tickled my nose and I held my breath to stop me from sneezing. "Do you have a hangover Indie?" Gaga's voice was a little concerned. She was as bad as my mother.
"Seriously Stef I'm fine. Just a bit of a headache." I groaned. Truthfully, my head was throbbing like a speaker had been surgically implanted in my brain. Gaga's doe eyes lingered on my face. She kissed me on the cheek.
"Indie, darling. I'll get you an aspirin." I gave her my death glare.

I caught Dorota just before she was about to leave to go grocery shopping.
"Dorota! Stop! I need to ask you something." Dorota sidled up to me nervously.
"What is it Miss Indie? Has someone been hurt?" Her voice was like velvet.
"I think Gaga's ill. I know we went clubbing last night, but she seems pretty out of it right now. I'm so worried about her." A tear trickled down my cheek, and Dorota brushed it away with a perfumed hand.
"Miss Indie, I have not heard anything from Stefani since this morning. I did not even know she was still in the apartment." Dorota looked concerned. "However I will make sure to check she is okay before I go to the shop. Is this okay?" I smiled, Dorota always knew what to do.
"Thank you."

Half an hour later, I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. It was Taylor. "Taylor? Have you found anything about Stef?"
"Yes. She's in the hospital. I'm so glad you talked to Dorota otherwise it may have been too late. I need you to come to the hospital as soon as possible." With that he hung up. I made sure I caught a cab quickly. When we arrived at the hospital, the cab driver turned round and glared at me.
"Money, miss." I fished in my pocket for my purse, which usually held my emergency money. I was a dollar short.
"I'm sorry, but I'm a dollar short. I've really got to go, someone's in the hospital and it's really urgent." The driver's glare softened.
"Of course. This is just a one off, okay?" The driver winked and gave me a cheesy smile. I poured the coins into his hand and walked off. I needed to know what was going on.

"Indie! It's you! I'm so glad you came." Gaga smiled at me wearily from the hospital bed. I could see red lines on her wrist where the tag had been digging in. Her upper arm was hooked up to a drip. What the hell had happened?
"Gaga, what's happened? Are you okay?" The concerned look in my eyes told it all.
"Well, I found out about Taylor. He's been with someone. And I overdosed." I must have looked incredibly shocked because the nurse came over to check if I was alright. Nausea swept over me and guilt settled in my stomach like a brick. I felt ice-cold. "Are you okay, sweetheart?" I struggled to find the words.
"Well, it was me with Taylor. The night we went clubbing. But I swear nothing happened between us. He was telling me that we could definitely not stay together..." Gaga didn't look at all bothered. I was really confused.
"It wasn't you Indie. It was someone else. I know what happened at the club, I wasn't that out of it." Honest kindness sparkled in her big brown eyes. "I overdosed on cocaine. They had to take me out on a stretcher." As soon as the words came out of her mouth, fury bubbled inside me like a volcanic eruption. Suddenly all the pent up anger I had been bottling up for so long came pouring out.
"Stefani Germanotta! I can't believe you would do that to yourself! After everything, after you got clean, after we thought we'd sorted everything. Why would you do that to me? WHY?!" I couldn't believe it. How had I let myself blow up like that? She didn't deserve it. "Stef, I'm so so sorry." Tears trickled down my face as I bent over to give her a hug.
"It's okay baby, we're gonna be okay. I don't know what to do about Taylor. He just can't seem to control himself." I frowned.
"He managed fine before." Gaga frowned in response.
"Yeah, sleeping with another girl, kissing you, and now this. Really managed fine." When I thought about it, to be honest Taylor was doing a pretty bad job sticking with Stef.
"You'll get over it Stef. Hopefully we can drum some sense into him." I grinned enthusiastically at her.
"We'll see about that. If he has that much trouble staying with me I'm not sure if it's worth it or not."
"Stef, he proposed to you. He must really love you." We hadn't had a chat like this for a while. In the hospital in front of everyone it was a little awkward. "You've gotta promise me there'll be no more hospital trips for a while. I'm sick to death of this place." Gaga half-smiled.
"If you say so."