this love • gracie abrams

036 painful care

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
painful care
•

HER eyes were attacked with a bright light the second the opened them, making her close them just as fast. her nose felt insanely dry and there was a uncomfortable lingering feeling of something gone through there, down past her throat which felt insanely scratchy and disturbed. she felt fatigued and wildly nauseous, her limbs so weak as if she'd lost half her body weight.

she did her best and re-opened her eyes and adjusted them to the light, groaning and bringing a hand to her forehead, "hmm?"

she looked around. her gorgeous tight pink glittery dress was gone and replaced with a hospital gown and a blanket overtop of her. blue curtains were hung up on the sides by her bed. a machine set up next to her with a long very thin tube extended from it all the way down to her a hand. a needle safely injected into her vein.

"hm?" she hummed again, this time more of an overwhelmed confusion to it.

she coughed on the sensitivity of her throat and tried to push herself to sit up properly but her stomach ached so bad that she knew she'd puke. it was scarily quiet. the only thing she could hear was the beeping of the machine next to her and her hoarse and shallow breathing. the chaos and stress of hospitals, of all that could happen to you in there, what you might find out, fuck even just the look and atmosphere of them alone — it all freaked her the fuck out, but waking up in one with no clue why the hell you're here, something wrong with your body and a fucking IV hooked up to you in odd silence? this was like a whole new nightmare. she felt like a little kid, sitting small in a giant haunted house. and for some reason the first word out of her mouth was a word she hated to say.

"dad?" she anxiously called out. "dad!?" she called again, waiting for him to be right next to her like when she was fifteen years old and in for stitches after a nasty fall in track.

of course, he didn't just magically walk in. her eyes darted to the IV in a stir of a panic. she took the tape off and carefully took the IV out and covering the small dot of blood with her other hand as the machine started frantically beeping towards a flatline. she swung her legs to hang over the bed and gagged at the retching feeling in her stomach as she tried to get up. she stood and took deep breaths to try and subside the overwhelming nausea on her shaking legs. her hand gripped the frame of the hospital bed as she tried to take a step forward, but it was then when she heard the rushing of footsteps.

a older nurse popped from around the corner with alarm, "miss? woah, hey," she said in her very southern accent. she hurried up to charlotte and put her hands delicately on her arms despite her flinching away. "you need to go lay back down, you're not quite clear yet i'm sorry—"

"what the f-fuck," charlotte tiredly mumbled, a dizziness hitting her head. "don't touch— what happened...?"

she was laid back down easily given that her muscles simply refused to muster any strength to shove the nurse off her. the nurse cleaned out a new IV drop and took charlotte's hand, "can you tell me your name and what you remember, miss?"

charlotte gave a wary exhale at the needle being put in, "what happened?" she slurred.

"your full name, miss, can you remember your full name?"

"charlotte b-blair..." she watched how the nurse analyzed the numbers on the monitor of the machine and frowned. "am i okay?"

the nurse seemed to soften. she looked at charlotte's soft and flushed face, shining with sweat on her brow and eye makeup smudged all under her eyes.

"you're gonna be just fine, darlin'. just stay put for me," she kindly smiled.

charlotte let out a strained and small shaky exhale from her nose and leaned back, wrapping her arms over her torso. she watched the nurse crouch and mess around with the IV bag to focus on something. she had eyebags and soft wrinkles at her eyes. messy blonde hair in a somewhat decent ponytail and a name tag that read 'margot t.'