|A L W A Y S & F O R E V E R| B O O K 1

34||A f t e r t h e S t o r m

Date: 12/26/15
Day of the Week: Saturday
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Place: The Hospital

Ciara
I woke up to the sun shining through the windows in the hospital room. I groaned and rubbed each side of my temples as they throbbed with pain. I sat up in bed and scanned around the room. No one was there. A frown spread across my face before I let out a sigh. I'm assuming the nurses forgot to close the blinds because the sun was shining right into the room, causing my headache to worsen. Since I was alone in the hospital room, I had no choice but to get up and shut them myself. As I made my way over to the window, I stumbled a bit, losing my balance and groaning while rubbing my temples again.

"Babe, why are you up? You should be in bed." He came over to me and held on to my waist as he led me back to bed. I let out an irritating sigh.

"I know that, but the sun was making my headache worse." He walked over the the window and shut the blinds.

"Thank you," I say in relief.

"I don't know why they left them open in the first place."

No longer than ten minutes later, a nurse walked in with a cup of medication and a tray of unappealing hospital food.

"Good morning, Ciara. How are you feeling this morning?"

"My head hurts like hell but I'm here." She smiles softly.

"Well, I brought you some ibuprofen for the headaches and something to eat." She sat the tray down on the table at the bedside.

"Thank you." I smiled politely, even though I wouldn't be eating any of the food.

She smiled back before leaving the room. I picked up the pill and placed it in my mouth, swallowing it down with water afterwards. When I was done, I put the cup of water down on the table and picked up the cup of jello that was on the food tray. It was the only thing I could stomach. Once I finished it, I put the empty container back on the tray and lay back down in bed.

"You want to watch some TV?" Russ asked. I shook my head.

"I just want to go home now." My head rested on my fist. I hated being in the hospital, and I didn't want to stay here any longer.

"You should be able to go home today, but I'm not sure yet. We'll have to talk to the doctor."

"Okay. Where are my parents?"

"They left late last night after you fell asleep. They're staying in a hotel room close to your condo, I believe." I just nod my head before turning over on my side to face him.

"I can't believe this happened. I can't believe I'm here." I stressed. Russ sat in the chair next to the bed. He reached out with his hand and rubbed the top of my head gently as I began to tear up.

"I didn't want them to find out like this." The tears began to fall down my cheeks repeatedly.

"It's gonna be alright, baby girl. It happened, and there's nothing we can do about it. All you can do is keep moving forward."

Russell
I tried my best to comfort Ci as she lay in the hospital bed crying. The doctor and nurses were already monitoring her blood pressure since it was so high due to the amount of stress she was under. On top of that, she had a mild concussion, and she was dealing with the symptoms of it. She started to breathe heavily. So I stood up from the chair and handed her the cup of water. She was on the verge of having an anxiety attack. After drinking some, she calmed down a little and I took the water, placing it back on the bedside table.