They Never Expected

Chapter 15

After I'd explained things to Isac and made a few arrangements, we left the complexities of my plan behind to go get something to eat. Before, I had been forced to eat the food that the nurses brought to me on the plastic trays for the patients, but Dr. Groves had, thankfully, given me permission that night to go to the hospital cafeteria to eat so long as someone went with me. A hospital cafe wasn't exactly the ideal place for a date, but Isac and I were just happy to be "out and about" together for the first time in a long time. 

We walked through the line hand-in-hand, each grabbing a piece of pizza and a soda before paying and locating an empty table. We both took huge bites out of our slices of pizza, starved.

"You know, this is a thousand times better than the food they made you eat." he commented.

"You don't have to tell me twice." I said, savoring the first piece of real food I'd eaten in forever, "Wait... How do you know what my food tasted like?" I stopped chewing, imagining myself looking like a chipmunk as I spoke.

"Oh, well... Sometimes I stole your food when you were asleep and I'd stayed the night." 

I laughed, swallowing the bite of pizza before continuing, "So, what are our date plans for the evening, Romeo?"

He smiled, setting his pizza down to take a swig of his Mountain Dew, "Well, I thought we'd do dinner and a movie since I'm staying the night to take you to school tomorrow."

I stared at him for a second, sure he was joking. I could tell by his expression that he wasn't though. He was up to something, "How exactly do you plan on watching a movie in a hospital? I don't even have a television in my room."

"There's certainly a fair share of obstacles, aren't there?" with that, he dropped it, smiling contently to himself as he finished the bag of chips he'd grabbed. I decided to just play along.

"So, how's school without me to walk you around?"

"Well, Calculus is always miserable, but English has kind of gone down hill since you left."

"You're not failing anything, are you?" I knew he was diligent about his grades-he was as set on college after high school as I was-but all the worrying he'd been doing since I'd gone into the hospital had taken its toll on him and I knew from what Lexie had told me on her solo visits that he was struggling to concentrate on much else.

"Nope. I've maintained a praise-worthy B average since you left." he stated in fake pride.

"Isac, you realize that a B average isn't likely to get you where you want to go, right?"

"Of course I do," he almost seemed hurt, "but it's incentive for you to come back to school as soon as possible, right?"

"Great. Now your future is in my hands. Don't you see something wrong-like, extremely wrong-with that?"

"Grace, you have to understand that you're going to have a hand in my future no matter what you do. At least I hope you will." his sincerity was romantic despite the pizza sauce all over his chin.

I reached across the table to wipe his face with my thumb. He grinned like a little kid.

"Why must you be so wierd?" I giggled. I stood up and found the trash can, dumping my tray and leaving it on the dish conveyor belt before turning to leave. Isac followed, realizing that I was headed back upstairs.

"I'm wierd because it makes things so much more fun." he grinned, kissing me before dumping his tray and jogging to catch up to me before the elevator left.

We walked together down the hospital's winding hallways and finally found our way back to my room. I checked in with the nurse who had wheeled me down to the gym the night I found Tara marching and let her know that I'd returned for the night before I shuffled into my room to lie down. Isac was already in the room, fended off by the looks he'd been given by the nurses scurrying past him in the hallway and, as I walked in the room, I saw what he'd been talking about when he had said he was taking me to a movie. As opposed to leaving the hospital-which certainly wouldn't have gone over very well with Dr. Groves-Isac had brought and overhead projector and his laptop. He smiled at me when he saw the dumbfounded look on my face, "Don't underestimate me." he teased.