love you to pieces

hospital blues

"20 stitches in the hospital room"

I was woken by the beeping of a monitor, I looked around as I realised I was in a hospital room. My mum and dad were there. There was a mix of relief and sadness in their faces. "Y/N do you remember what happened?"

"Yes. Formal. Louis." Words were hard to get out. I did remember. I was having a great time before Louis started a fight, and hit me in the face. It was now Saturday. There goes my weekend. A nurse comes in to check my blood pressure and takes me up for an MRI. Results were fine, I just had a mild concussion, gosh I didn't realise Louis had that strong of a punch. I wanted to go, but the doctor came and told me I needed to stay just for one more night for observation.

Mrs Partridge came to visit me, she brought me a lovely bouquet of flowers. She told me Louis was beyond sorry. Louis did make a surprise appearance later on. I insisted he leave, but when he kept refusing and the nurses could see my frustration, they sent him out themselves. I waited for Eli to come, but he didn't show. Maybe he was injured too and could not visit. Ivy came by for a little while, she bought a cute get-well teddy bear from the hospital gift shop. She tried to bring up formal but I stopped her. I didn't want to talk about it, instead I apologised for the dress because the doctors had to cut it. She said it wasn't a problem. Between the visits, I watched TV until I could go home. When they determined I was fine, my mum and dad picked me up from the hospital and took me home. My room was all nicely done up, better than normal. I caught a glance of myself in the mirror. I had a big bruise on the side of my face where Louis hit my face. It was completely purple, hopefully nothing a bit of concealer can't fix. I didn't do anything after I got home, I just caught up on a few more episodes of Friends.

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Oh god. Monday. I had to face the whole school. As Millie used to say, 'words spread quickly around Wandsworth". I got a lift to school, not willing to face the bus since as it turns out the bruise was something the concealer can't fix. No matter how many layers I applied, the purple peaked through. I walked through the halls as people turned to each other to whisper. I saw Ivy and waved, she waved back and joined me to walk through the corridor. That was the worst part of my day, from then onwards, people got used to it and I stopped noticing the whispers. I thought my bruise was bad but that was until I had chemistry class with Eli, his whole left eye was nearly fully shut, his cheek and the side of his mouth was bruised, worse than mine. Normally we are chemistry partners but this time he sat away, with some boys I find completely self absorbed and the definition of toxic masculinity. I heard them talking to Eli about how fun the skate park was on Saturday. I guess Eli wasn't too hurt to visit me, I didn't even know he skated.

At lunch, Eli was the centre of attention in his new group. They worshipped him after the fight with Louis even though there was clearly no 'winner'. Eli spent the whole day being praised, avoiding any contact with me. I was pissed at Eli for not showing up at the hospital, but mostly at Louis for starting this in the first place.

Louis came up to me at recess, and when I saw him, I rolled my eyes.

"Y/N- please. I know I messed up, and badly but are you not going to give Eli even the slightest bit of responsibility he deserves?"

My head hurt badly, and getting through the day was a struggle. "Louis, stop. I can't do this. Not again. We keep going in circles. It's time for this to end. If you left me alone and didn't come to my house that day, this would all be fine. Please leave me alone, I'm done."

And I walked away. The only person I had for comfort was Ivy, who I only got a chance to see in history. Because she was so popular, she hung out with her big group of friends at lunch and recess whilst I merely sat alone.

"Y/N, how are you? You look a bit better since I last saw you at the hospital. What was that with Louis I saw?"

She questioned, giving me a soft hug.

"I'm OK, thanks, just a bit bruised and tense and with Louis, it's nothing," I replied.

"What is this love triangle we have here with you, Eli and Louis?" She asked.

"That is very much an exaggeration, tensions between me and Louis have been very high since Millie's passing, that's all." I replied.

"You and Louis used to be close, like really close, right?" She asked,

"I guess. It was more me and Millie though", I replied,

"He really cares about you Y/N, I can see it, I know he messed up at formal but-"

"Please Ivy, I have an awful headache, I have to go" She knew there was more to the story than that. She nodded, and we went our separate ways as she went back to her big, popular group.