Light Me Up

Part 39 Im ready

That night, everyone didn't get much sleep from the stress of Elliott being hospitalized. I could hear Lily crying down the hall with colin comforting her, my mum was down stairs cleaning and keeping busy, Viv was sleeping and I was lying in bed thinking back to the last moment I had of Elliot in my arms, making love on this bed.

By the time I could fall asleep, the sun was rising over the ocean, and there was no point in trying. I go down to see my mum napping on the lounge. I start cooking a big breakfast ready for everyone to eat. Sooner rather than later, everyone was at the table ready to eat their food.

Everyone's eyes are red from crying and black from the lack of sleep. Today, colin will take Lily and viv back to the hospital to see Elliot and will stay here most of the day. Mum went off and done her own thing, and I took my work out to the beach and read on the sand. It was another nice day, and I was in need of some alone time.

After completing my days work, I head back inside for lunch and notice my table is full of food. My mum isn't home yet, and the others are still at the hospital. "Um, excuse me, is Aiden here." I turn and look to see Jasmine standing on my deck asking me about Elliot. What do I say to her, without slapping her in the face?

She doesn't look to good herself her face is bruised; her head has a minor gash, and her clothing is covered in blood. How is she even walking around like this? "Shouldn't you be in hospital? You look horrible." She looks down at her clothing and then throws her head up. "That's none of your business, were is Aiden." She is getting on my nerves, and if she doesn't show some respect, I'll be kicking her on her arse.

"Oh, it is my concern when he is in a coma at the hospital, while you prance around. And by the look of you, you are responsible for putting him in there."
Her eyes narrow as she stares at me. She knows I am right. "What do you have to say for yourself, Jasmine? Why don't you tell me how you put him in hospital?" her face turns white, her hands start to shake and is looking around to find a way to escape.

I can see she is in pain, and I'm sure she is hungry as well, but I am not opening my home to this stranger until I get an answer. "I'm waiting for an answer, Jasmine." I look down at her, my arms crossed and my foot tapping the ground. "I don't have all day; people are going to come home in a few hours." She drops her shoulders, and her body language changes from defensive to submissive.

I grab a glass of water; make tea, and we sit on the sofa. "Well, yesterday Aiden called me to pick him up after he explained something happened at his family home, I was drunk and high, but that wasn't going to stop me. I knew that he would need to let off steam, and he usually does that through sex. After he rejected me, I got angry and was driving him back home when I blacked out from the drugs. After that I don't remember what happened, I woke up at the hospital so I ran out and came here."

My blood is boiling and I want to yell at the top of my lungs but a loud yell comes from behind us making Jasmine and I both jump out of our seat,

"WHAT THE FUCK JASMINE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS ABOUT DRUGS!",

we both look back and see Arlo. Instinct wants me to protect Jasmine, "Arlo, I" she is lost for words, but how did she know him.

Arlo is furious his hands shaking, "My little sister, taking drugs. What happened to you? I haven't seen you in years. Mum and dad said you ran off obviously with the wrong kind and I see you here, and so happened to hear you confess to putting this girl's family through hell. You're not who I thought you'd be." She has her head down crying; I get up and leave the room. I grab some spare clothing and place it beside her.

Arlo is still yelling at her and she is hiding into her hair like a puppy hiding when getting into trouble. I don't feel so overwhelmed by the yelling like I was when Elliot yelled at lily back in the city, but I knew she needed more than just her brother yelling at her.

"Arlo enough please, I can't talk over the sound of your voice." I put my hand up to shush him. "Jasmine, here are some spare clothes there is a shower over there, go freshen up and meet us at the dining table." She grabbed the clothes and ran into the bathroom. "As for you Mr, what are you doing in my house? And what is this lunch you cooked?" he looks over to me, I know he wants to leave and he won't without her. "Please, sit and we will have some lunch, we are all hungry and you need to sort things out and catch up with your sister".

He takes a seat at the opposite side of the table, Jasmine sat next to me, I don't know why, but she must feel safe being next to someone else. But she wasn't going to be let off easy, not until I had something to say to her first.
"Now, Arlo cooked this wonderful meal and we are going to enjoy it. This will also be the best time to talk your problems through. BUT I'm going first, then you guys can talk. Jasmine you are a sneaky bitch, and I'd appreciate that you leave Aiden and his family alone that includes me, we had actually fixed our relationship then the next night he snuck out to have sex with you. I'm not blaming just you because he made the decision to leave, but you are really pushy and it seemed like he had no choice, then when I saw you two out the front of my house and you were hanging from him looking over, you thought you'd had won but you clearly didn't. So, I ask you again stay away from him, if you don't I know your secret".

My comment hit her by surprise and Arlo hasn't moved a muscle, "Fine, I will leave him alone". I get up with my plate of food and I go eat outside in the sun, leaving them to talk. My life has been something out of a soap opera. Arlo comes outside he is distant, "I'm leaving" and he walked out with jasmine.

Moments after they leave everyone arrives home, they all sit for lunch, dad and Christian go up for a sleep, they have been working around the clock looking after Elliot. It's only been 1 day since his been there, but it feels longer, I leave everyone to eat and I stay in my room until I see the sun setting into the horizon.

I hear a knocking at my door and lily walks in. "Hey, would like to let you know that Elliot is doing well he is responsive and his body is recovering, he hasn't woken and the chances of memory loss is low, I guess that's a good thing.".

I look over to her and smile, I am relieved that he is recovering and will have his memory because when his well enough, I'm sure there will be many questions, and not just from me. "Thanks, Lily, for keeping me updated." She leaves the room and I fill the bath. I place a bath bomb in the tub and let the aroma fill the room before getting in. I put some relaxing music on and closed my eyes focusing on my breathing and letting go.

Suddenly I start to feel something touching my leg, I fling my eyes open and see Arlo in the bath with me. "Oh, Fuck, you scared the crap out of me". He isn't talking, his eyes are set on me and I'm starting to worry, he held out his hand and I placed mine into his, he pulls me into him turning me so my back was against his chest. He rests his chin on my head and lets out a deep sigh.

I haven't known Arlo long enough to be prying into his life, so I sit there quietly until he was ready to talk. It is awkward but it's nice at the same time. "What did you mean by, you and Aiden fixed your relationship?" he caught me by surprise with the question and I had to really think about what I was going to say. "When I say relationship, it's meant as friends, after getting my memory back we decided to be friends, we did consider dating, but he ran off with jasmine and blew any chance of an intimate relationship."

He holds me tighter, "I'm glad you don't have an intimate relationship with him." We stay in the water till it went cold, then we changed and laid in bed. As soon as Arlo rested his head on the pillow, he was asleep and I was left awake staring at the roof. I turn my head and look at him, he looks so peaceful when he sleeps, he has his arm around me and I can feel the beating of his heart.

I couldn't sleep and I could hear Christian and my dad downstairs getting ready for the night shift, "Hey kiddo, did we wake you?". "No, not at all, I can't sleep, I was thinking maybe I'd come with you to hospital and spend some time with Elliot. I think I am ready to see him." Christians face lights up "ill drive you in, and ill drive you back home when you're ready" I smile and nod at Christian.

I run back to my room, his still asleep on my bed, I cover him in a blanket and I write a note and leave it on the pillow beside him, I run back down and we make our way to the hospital. "ok kiddo, here is his room, find us when you're ready." Here I am standing in the door way into Elliot's room, and I am finding it hard to enter, I walk away and sit in the waiting room, my foot is tapping the floor rapidly as I think of reasons why I should see him.