Watch Me Drown

44. Worse

(Abby's point of view)

When I woke up, there was light coming through the plastic shades. Someone had closed them, yet some glow still got in. I looked around the room, stretching. I realized Julien when my foot hit her arm. She was curled up at the foot of the bed, her legs pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped around them. Half of her face was buried in the blanket. From what I could see, she was sleeping, snoring lightly. I pushed myself up into a sitting position, careful of everything that was connected to me. I peeled the top blanket from the others, and placed it over Julien. Then I just sat there for a while, watching her. Occasionally, she'd move a bit, or make little hum noises. She had uncurled some when her phone buzzed. I tried to ignore it, but I got nosy. I slid her phone out of her pocket gently, convincing myself that she wouldn't care. There were a few messages. The older ones were from Phoebe and Lucy, telling Julien to get some sleep. The most recent ones were from my parents.

"Has she decided if she'd like to see us yet?" The newest one said.

I glanced at Julien. This was related to what she had mentioned that night, wasn't it? She would be in trouble when she woke up.

Which wasn't much later. Her eyelids fluttered, then opened slowly. She grimaced at the light, threw her arm over her face, and went to roll over, but practically slammed into the footboard.

"Jesus." She mumbled, and rolled back over.

Her eyes met mine. I raised an eyebrow, showing her the phone screen, where the messages still waited, unopened.

"Good morning to you too." She rubbed her eyes.

"Wanna explain this?" I said, shaking the phone.

"Not really."

Julien sat up and pushed her hair back, then fixed her necklace. Her voice was rough and tired.

"What?" She smirked when she noticed me watching. "Do I look sexy to you?"

"You have drool on your face." I said, deadpan.

She immediately wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, then cleared her throat. "Your parents want to see you."

"And?" I coaxed.

"What do you mean?"

"There's more."

She groaned and face planted into the mattress. I giggled a little, and started messing with her hair. I couldn't resist.

"They want to see you and, like, apologize to you," She said, loud enough that I could understand her. "For being shitty parents."

"Oh." My fingers stopped in the middle of brushing a knot out of her hair. Something (fear, grief, anger?) gripped me, and the air became a little difficult to inhale. Julien lifted my hand from her head, then sat up, still holding my hand.

"Sorry." She whispered. "I kind of got you into this. You can still choose if you want to or not, though."

I was silent.

"You don't have to decide now."

Silent.

"You don't even have to do it."

"How long until I'm out of here?" I questioned.

"Depends on how you're doing."

"Well, I feel pretty good."

"You're on about six different medications right now," She tapped my arm, one of the many places covered in tiny tubes. "One of them being painkillers."

"Did I break a leg or something?!" I exclaimed.

I quickly tossed the blankets off my legs, searching for the cast I knew wasn't there. This was only the beginning of my paranoia.