Awkward Meet Normal

Chapter Twenty-Five

Dash:

"I need to go to St Regency Hospital," Annabelle says when she gets off the phone with Benjamin.

She stands up, and I can tell she is in a daze. Not sure what her next step is. She repeats herself, and I stand buttoning my shirt back up. My raging hard-on has disappeared completely.

She's looking around for her purse and spots it a couple of feet behind her couch.

"I'll drive you," I said.

She doesn't fight me, and I realize whoever is there is terrible.

She is quiet as we walk back outside. I locked her front door with the key I had put in my front pocket.  I had been to St Regency Hospital and knew the way.

"It is my parents." She whispered a block away from her apartment. "Dads in critical care."

My knuckles tighten on the steering wheel.

"We will be there shortly," I said, hoping the words comfort her.

My phone rings again, and I answer it over Bluetooth.

"Hello," I say and look at the screen.

"Hey, how did the date go?" It was Kyle. "Did she like the paint..."

I cut him off. "I went with my mother's idea. Annabelle is in the car right now with me."

"Oh hey, Annie," he laughs. "It must be going good. Why did you pick up?"

Annabelle doesn't say anything.

"Right now is not a good time. I'll call you later." I click off before he can say anything more.

Annabelle's phone was ringing, and I should have explained to Kyle what had happened.

She picks up.

"I'm fine, Kyle. Really. My parents had an accident, and he's driving me to the hospital."

I listen as Kyle speaks on the other line, and then she finally talks. "I'll let you know as soon as I find anything out. I promise." 

She clicks off before saying goodbye too.

A couple minutes later, her phone starts chiming with texts. She silenced her phone.

"Somedays, it is rough having as many friends as I do." She said.

We are a few minutes out, and I keep focusing on getting her there. 

"I feel bad. Thinking the way I did about them tonight." I thought she was done speaking, but she continues. "They did not marry for love. They married because of what their last names meant to each other—a modern-day arranged wedding."

I could lie to her and say they seemed pleasant instead I say, "that sucks."

She nods her head.

"I was a child born into that—this weird environment. Benjamin and I had to be the perfect kids. It was suffocating. My complex comes from it. The awkwardness, I overthink everything I do. The only time I don't is when I'm with you. I feel like I can just be me. And then tonight, you brought me there, and I felt like I was being put back in this box. Like I needed to be the perfect date tonight. Say the right things. It hit me even before I knew my parents were there. It felt off."

She was talking to talk. I knew she was nervous or what lay ahead.

"I wish I could rewind to when I picked you up at the warehouse tonight."

She looked over at me. We were two blocks away now.

"What did you have planned?"

I smile. "Paintball, not the gun kind too. I searched for a while, but I found it. It would be the paintball course with balloons filled with paint."

She laughs.

I was shocked to hear it.

"I have always wanted to do that."

And then we are turning into the hospital, and all happiness she just displayed is washed away. I drive to drop her off, but she shakes her head. "Can I walk up with you?" And her eyes landed on mine; I knew she wanted to ask if I'll stay. I was planning on it. She was going to have to kick me out.

"Let's find a spot. I'm here until you send me away." I say to her, and she nods. The scared look back on her face.

We walk silently, hand in hand, up to the reception desk.

Her father is intensive care. We are told to wait in intensive care waiting room. As we step inside, Benjamin stands up and comes straight for us. His mother is sitting beside him on her phone.

"Why is mother up here?" Annabelle hisses at her brother.

"She got checked over and made them release her."

Besides from a couple of scratches on her cheek, she looks fine.

"How is he?" Annabelle asks.

"He's in surgery. They'll let us know as soon as he is out."

She hugs him, and then she goes to walk over to her mother.

"So you guys are pretty serious?" He asks me when it is the two of us.

"I would like to be," I respond to him, watching as her mom looks from Annabelle to me standing in the doorway. Their mom seems rigid, with no tears from what I can see. Her make-up is freshly applied. Next to her is Annabelle, who has fuck me hair spewed about. She had left in a hurry, and I doubt her hair was on her mind.

Her mother starts fussing over her hair.

"Don't judge her," Benjamin said as I watched the scene unfold. "She is acting like she doesn't care, but she does. She is trying not
to break."

Annabelle slaps her hands away from her hair. I walk over to her, and she turns into me, and my arms go around her.

"It'll be ok, smalls," I whisper into her ear as she folds more into me.

Lindsay is sitting next to us, watching us. Her eyes landed on mine, and I know that look she had. It's the same look my mother had when she found out who Annabelle was.

It was her approval of me.

All because of what my last fucking name was. Not because I was at the hospital with her daughter in the middle of the night.