A New Life

Chapter 15-The Scary Truth

I followed him out into the hall and he informed me about everything that was going on with her. They decided it would be best to keep her in the hospital for at least a few more days. She didn’t have any internal bleeding as far as they could tell but outside she was pretty beat up and they wanted to make sure nothing went wrong and that everything could be stabilized over the next few days. When she first arrived, they did have to put her to sleep and they checked and found evidence of rape. In the back of my mind, I almost knew that before he had to tell me, but I never wanted to believe it. I still couldn’t believe it. What kind of a sick person would do this? The thing was, what he said next surprised me even more. The evidence showed that it was not just from one person. I faintly heard him telling that the police were already looking into it, but I wasn’t listening much anymore. I couldn’t. I leaned back against the wall no longer being able to support my own body weight. I tried to contain myself and sort out all of my thoughts but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. I didn’t know what to say or do. I couldn’t grasp everything. I slowly slid to the ground and sat not caring about how dirty the hospital floor probably was. I don’t know if the doctor was finished telling me everything, but I was finished listening. I think he sensed this and so he just patted me on the back said something that was probably supposed to make me feel better and left. I had my face buried in my hands. I didn’t look up or move.

I concentrated on my rugged breathing as I stressfully ran my fingers through my hair while staring at the cold hospital floor. I couldn’t focus on all of my thoughts. I didn’t want to think. I had to will myself not to cry, to be strong for Jess. I couldn’t let her see me cry. She had gone through so much already and I needed to be there for her. I needed to be strong for her. I could deal with my own thoughts and everything later, but right now Jess was my number one priority. I took a few seconds to gather myself before returning to the room. She looked up at me and managed a slight smile. Nothing like the bright smile she used to flash all the time, but it was something more than I could manage at the time. I tried my best to return it as I sat down on the bed and swung my legs up. She was lying down still and I was still thinking and not paying much attention, but I felt her pulling on my arm to lie down, so I did. She wrapped both her arms around my arm and lay her head on my shoulder.

“What did the doctor say?” She asked me, her green eyes clouded. She may not have ever really had an innocence about her due to the environment she grew up in, but I liked to believe I gave her some of her childhood back in the two weeks we had before all of this. Now, though, I don’t know how much of it survived the last week.

“He said that you’re gonna be okay, but you have to stay here for about three days just to make sure nothing’s wrong. Okay?”

She sadly nodded her head and I knew how much she wanted to get out of here. “Are you going to stay with me?” Shit, I never thought that far ahead. But now that I think about it, we have a show every night starting tomorrow for three nights in a row.

I exhaled and tried to find the words to answer. “I want to babygirl, but I don’t think I will be able to. We have a concert tomorrow in Maine and then two more the next two nights.”

“Okay,” she whispered sadly. The last thing I wanted to do was leave her. But I couldn’t let the fans down. I knew that she would be okay and that she had to stay in the hospital. She understood that I had to do what I had to do, but I know that it didn’t make her feel any better knowing that she would have to stay in the hospital and I wouldn’t even be there to comfort her. But there really was not much I could do.

“Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you, the guys came all the way out here with me and they were wondering if you were up for some visitors.”

“Really?” her eyes lit up a little and I was so glad for that. She was happy and excited to see them, which is great since they were practically her other older brothers and they cared about her so much.

“Yes,” I chuckled at her sudden change of mood, but I was so thankful that she was smiling.

“Are they coming now?”

“I don’t know, but I can text them to let them know you want them to come.”

“Right now, right?” she asked still excited.

I laughed this time at her enthusiasm. “I will tell them you want them to come right now,” I said while smiling at her. “You weren’t even this happy to see me,” I joked.

“I was happy to see you!”

“Yeah, yeah,” I replied jokingly again.

“Is Ranel here too?” She asked.

I just smiled and said, “Yes, he came too.” Over the two weeks she was with us, she grew this attachment for Ranel and the feeling was pretty mutual which was interesting to watch. Ranel definitely had a soft spot for Jessie and sometimes it seemed like he was her bodyguard instead of ours. They did spend a lot of time together while we were on stage or during interviews and stuff. I was glad that he watched out for her so well though. He didn’t have to, I mean it wasn’t in his contract to be taking care of little sisters, but he didn’t seem to mind.

I quickly texted them that she really wanted to see them, now. James replied saying that they had to make a stop but then they would be on their way and I told her. She was quite excited and I couldn’t imagine having to leave her in less than twenty four hours. Soon, her breakfast came and she looked at it with a disgusted face. “Don’t you want to eat it?” I asked not wanting to have a repeat of what it was like when she first arrived.

“I’m not really hungry.” She replied pushing it away.

“Please just eat a few bites.” I begged motioning to the eggs and sausage on her plate. She shook her head. “How about the fruit?” I asked trying desperately to make it sound good. She just looked at the cup of fruit salad, then she looked at me. I shot her a pleading look, and she looked back at the fruit making a face before slowly picking up the fork and poking an apple slowly moving it to her mouth. She ate two more pieces of fruit before putting down the fork and pushing the tray away. I exhaled in defeat, but didn’t want to push her anymore. I just hoped she’d eat when she got hungry enough.

A few minutes later, James texted me that they were pulling up, and I replied telling him the room number. Only a few minutes later, I heard the door to the room open and a second later all three boys and Ranel appeared. I couldn’t help but let out a laugh when I saw them, but Jess just had a huge grin plastered on her face. Logan was in the front, he had the backpack that he had packed for Jess swung over his shoulder and store bought container of sugar cookies in his hands. Soon after we met, Jess discovered that she really loved those sugar cookies, but I didn’t like her eating them because she could easily eat the whole container in a day and that was just way too much sugar. However, the guys would sneak her cookies and even buy her containers of them and tell her to hide them in her bunk. So of course it’s no surprise that they bought her cookies.