Fight For It

Chapter 21.Sunrise

I walked back into Scarlett's hospital room the morning after CJ made an unwanted appearance. I was angry, indescribably angry, but that gave me no right to shout at Scarlett. I'm sure she was angered by the situation as well, and my inability to keep my cool with her did not help at all. Waiting it out for a day seemed like a good idea, but it was nearly impossible for me to keep away from her for that long. Not a moment passed when I didn't think about her; I wondered what she was doing, who she was talking to, and what the progress was with detoxing her body.

We finally confessed our undeniable love for each other and then I abandoned her in the hospital after she had three unwanted visitors. I seriously needed to focus on her in this tough time and keep my own emotions in check. After all, she was the most important thing to me.

I was met with a surprising sight when I saw the front desk nurse and Scarlett sleeping in the bed with Friends continuing to play on the TV; I'm sure it played all through the night. I was not only surprised, but also a bit hurt; watching Friends as we fell asleep was mine and Scarlett's tradition. I was mostly hurt by myself for abandoning her at the hospital and forcing her to find someone else to spend the night with. It should have been me sleeping in that bed with her while Friends became nothing but background noise to our dreams, but I was stupid and bad-tempered.

The nurse began to stir and slowly opened her eyes. She smiled at me when she noticed that I was in the room; I returned the gesture. She carefully slipped out of the bed and moved closer to me to speak without waking Scarlett.

"We had to hook her up to an IV yesterday so she wouldn't get dehydrated by the drugs as they leave her system. But she should be able to go home later today."

"That's good - her and I have school tomorrow. Did you two have a sleepover last night?" I asked weakly smiling towards my beautiful, sleeping girl.

"We did. I thought she could use a friend so we watched some movies and talked until we were both tired, then we put on Friends and fell asleep."

"I feel awful for leaving her alone yesterday."

"You were too heated after the situation with CJ - I think it was best that you steered clear until you were level-headed enough to come back." She made a good point, but I couldn't help but feel guilty for what I did. I needed to find some way to make it up to Scarlett, as long as she wasn't too angry with me. "Have you eaten breakfast yet?"

"No, I was going to go get something for us to eat once she woke up and told me what she wanted."

"Well then let's go down to the cafeteria and see what we can find!"

I wasn't expecting to have any company while getting food for my girlfriend, but I figured maybe I could find out what the two of them talked about if I had time alone to speak with the nurse. I also needed to figure out what her name was...

The options in the cafeteria weren't the best, but I decided on getting her a chai tea latte, a bowl of chicken noodle soup, and a Chicago style hot dog. I hoped she liked the combination seeing that she wasn't a fan of breakfast.

Before going back up to Scarlett's room we sat and had a cup of coffee.

"You must be a pretty incredible boyfriend; she speaks so highly of you," the nurse said.

"What did she say?" I asked.

"She said she hated you at first because of something someone said, but then she came to love you pretty much the moment your first date began." I smiled at the pleasant memory. I thought for sure she was still indifferent about me even after our first date, but I guess she was just really good at hiding it.