Life in the city

1.) it's all tough

It had been two days. Two days since Carina had been awake, she had no recollection of how she even ended up there.

"Anything?" The nurse asked carefully and she shook her head no, just how she had been for the past two days.

"How did this happen? Why does she not remember anything? How am I supposed to live like this?" Aldo screamed, making Carina flinch with his words.

"Sir, you need to calm down. You're gonna scare her. She can't deal with your mental breakdowns right now, step outside and talk to Dr. Mark and share your concerns with him, not in front of her-she- she won't be able to handle all this." The nurse told him as she pulled him to the side.

The nurse gave Carina a sympathetic smile, that's all she could offer as she made her way outside and left Carina with her thoughts. The last she remembered was her being in Italy, with her father and brother after her mama passed. She didn't recall anything, although because she once did medical studies, she knew she was maybe experiencing some form of amnesia.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Not too many rooms away, Maya was sitting inside the room, on the chair, waiting for her best friend and half sister, Vic, to wake up. They shared a father, though Vic already had another half sister called Andy from her mum's previous marriage. The three of them were incredibly close. Maya, Victoria and Andy. Maya and Andy were not even related but because of Vic, they became close as well. It was them against the world.

Maya and Andy took turns. For the first two months, they both came everyday, but after that it had severely started affecting their work schedules, so they decided they'd visit alternatively.

It had been 5 months since that traumatic accident where Vic's car was hit by a truck. She instantly slipped into a coma. Maya and Andy could never lose hopes though, never. They were ready to be there, for as long as it would take for Vic to wake up.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"Carina! How are you feeling today?" Dr. Mark walked in with a smile on his face. Carina shrugged at his question, not wanting to say anything because she felt well physically, but the agitation was intense, not being able to remember anything was intense, knowing English this well was intense. She didn't know how that even happened.

"Right, so Miss Leone-"

"Miss De Luca, how many times do I tell you? My last name is De Luca." Carina said with irritation in her voice. Dr. Mark just politely nodded.

"Miss Carina, I just wanted to see how you are doing. But also, I needed to ask you some things, since we will have to discharge you soon. There are some things you need to know and some that you will need to work on." Dr. Mark explained.

Carina let out a big sigh and agreed for him to continue.

"You probably understand that you've lost a chunk of your memory, right?" He asked.

"So I'm being told." The brunette said bitterly.

"Right, so we can't tell you everything. That would be the wrong procedure. So that would just mean that a lot of things, you'd slowly start to have recollection of. It will take time, but we're not sure how much exactly. The only thing we ought to tell you right now is how you ended up here, we feel that could help you remember more things eventually. Are you okay with that?" He asked.

"Yes, I want to know." Carina said, nodding her head.

"You were on a morning walk and there was some construction going on. Since no one was with you, we're assuming you were leaving the park and a car full of construction equipment hit you as it was a foggy morning. You ended up here last week and you were in a coma for 4 days to be precise. You had some internal bleeding, a third grade concussion, a distortion in your elbow as well, but thankfully that was not broken, we could fix it. Physically, your body is recovering quite well, from what Dr. Bailey had told me." He said the last sentence with a smile.

But Carina wasn't smiling. She didn't want to smile. It was so confusing, even though it was just basic information about how she ended up here, but it was confusing. It was draining.

"But Miss Carina, you mustn't worry. You have options from here on. You can choose to enroll in a therapy program that we have for our patients who deal with accident induced amnesia, or you can choose to work on yourself as you wish. Whatever you choose, Mr. Aldo will be with you every step of your way." Dr. Mark looked at the tall man standing in the corner and smiled at him.

Carina didn't know who he was. She had seen him for the last two days, hovering around. She saw him get frustrated earlier. She knew the doctor wouldn't tell her who he is directly, but it only made sense for him to be her partner. Boyfriend? Husband? But she was called Miss Leone a few times now, so she assumed he was her husband. Though she just wanted to throw up at that thought. Not because she didn't like him, but because who the fuck was he?

"So, you're discharging me... when?" Carina asked as she fidgeted with her fingers.

"Next week, your internal injuries are still healing, we don't want to risk it. So next week it is." He said. Carina just simply nodded her head.

"Okay babe, I'll head home to grab some dinner and sleep. I'll come tomorrow with breakfast and coffee." Aldo kissed Carina's forehead and exited the room, leaving her incredibly confused, yet again.

"Mr. Leone, wait!" Dr. Mark shouted as he ran behind Aldo.

"Yes?" Also simply asked.

"You might wanna skip those forehead kisses and affectionate words for a bit, please." Dr. Mark told him sternly.

"I'm already skipping on I love yous, what else do you want from me?" Aldo asked bitterly.

"I'm sorry sir, but it looks like you're not at all concerned about your wife's recovery. You're just worried about your challenges, which I know it's hard. It's incredibly hard. I can't even imagine, I'd never want my husband to go through something like this. But you need to see someone for that, you can't do these things in front of your wife. She needs to remember things, in her own time, on her own terms. Okay?" Dr. Mark said and Also sighed, understanding what he said, but he did flinch and get weird at the term 'husband', making Dr. Mark slightly sad, though he never showed it.

Back in the room Carina was just incredibly bored. She had asked for her brother for the past two days but the hospital staff kept telling her that he isn't available and that he'd be here soon. It was exhausting. All of it was like running a marathon.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"Ma'am, the visiting hours will be over in 5 minutes." The nurse gently reminded Maya which led in the blonde sighing deeply and picking her stuff up, in preparation of leaving.

She walked towards Vic, to do something she had done everyday since Vic had been in this situation. She kissed her sister's forhead.
"Wake up, soon. I miss you. I miss you so much. It's not funny anymore." She whispered as a tear left her eye.

"But okay, I'm leaving you alone for a bit. Now you rest. Okay? Andy's gonna be here tomorrow morning to irritate you. If you wake up in front of her and not me, I'd be very salty." Maya chuckled as those words left her mouth.

"But I hope you do." She whispered and kissed her forehead again.

She left the room soon, being tired and sleepy as she was prepared to call it a night the minute she made it back home. She quickly texted Andy, letting her know Vic's vitals for the day. While typing, she crossed Carina's room. Unbeknown to her, this woman was going to change her world.

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Hey guys, it's me again. You know me from 'it is what it is' or not 🌝

But I've wanted to write this story for a very long time now. I hope you love it as much. You suggestions are always appreciated. Much love. Take care.

Adios chicos, un beso grande!

twitter: @imalright67