I'm Not Perfect (Michael Clifford)

Chapter 39

Chapter 39



"Come on, we're going to the hospital" Michael demands, pulling me up from the bed.

"No!" I scream back at him, I try to lay down again but he has a tight grip.

"Charlotte! You have been sick for five days, we're going" He enforces.

"I can't even walk" I whine.

"All the more reason to go" He says, helping me slide on my vans.

He assists me to the car and puts me in the back seat so I can have more space.

Michael has been taking care of me for the past few days. He brings me food and drinks, even if I can't keep it down. He gives me the medicine that should help, but isn't. He also reads me books because I told him that is what my dad used to do for me when I was sick. We watched some movies, played some video games, and he even got the boys to come visit me one day.

Then one day Luke came by himself and brought his guitar. He sang me some of my favorite songs before leaving quickly because they had a small acoustic gig. Another day, Calum came to visit and he brought a Clue so we spent a few hours playing it. So being sick wasn't so bad after all, except for the throwing up after eating anything part.

We drive about ten miles until I finally spot the hospital. We drive around the campus until we eventually see the Emergency Room entrance.

"There!" I yell breaking the silence. "Turn in right there"

He makes an extremely sharp turn, throwing me against the car door since I'm not wearing my seatbelt.

"Sorry" He mumbles pulling into the closest parking spot.

He gets out and comes over to my door, helping me get out so I don't fall in the middle of the parking lot, because that would be pretty embarrassing. When we get inside the waiting room is very busy, especially since it is in the evening, when everyone is at the E.R. The sounds of coughing and beeping fill my ears and I start to panic.

I hate the hospital. It makes me nervous to think that people have died here. That there are people on other floors suffering and there is nothing they can do to stop it. Then there is just the fact that I have to possibility to get sick from any of these people. Plus, I have a phobia of blood so if I see it, there is the chance that I could pass out.

I feel myself start to shake as I scan the room. There are so many varieties of people here. To make myself feel better, I look at every individual and visualize a story for them. There is an old woman who can't seem to stop coughing. I imagine that she is a widow, who is terminally ill, but she doesn't know it, and all of her children have since moved out of the state, leaving her here to die. There is a teenage boy with an icepack on his arm and a skateboard by his side. I decide that he was just in a bad break up, so he went to the skate park to let his anger out but ended up falling and breaking his arm. Lastly there is a woman, with a small boy, probably about four, running around and playing with a toy car. I think that the kid is sick but they don't have enough money to pay for a child pediatrician, so they came to the E.R.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Michael asks turning around and handing me some paperwork. "You look more pale than before."

"Hospitals scare me" I say shakily.

"It's okay," he whispers in my ear before intertwining his fingers with mine. "I'm here"

We walk over to a vacant part of the waiting room and sit on the couch so I can be right by him. I grab a pen off the table and begin to fill out the endless stack of paper work. After about six pages my hand starts to cramp up.

"Do you want me to fill it out for you?" Michael asks over my shoulder.

"Yes please" I say handing him the large stack.

"Okay" he says looking over the page. "Birthday?"

"December 14 , 1995" I reply.

"Legal guardian?"

"Stephanie Malcolm"

"Ok, last menstrual cycle?" Michael says before bursting into hysterics, causing me to slap his arm.

"Ow! I'm sorry gosh" he teases. "Anyway, what's the answer?"

"Last week" I answer with annoyance.

"That explains a lot" he mumbles while scribbling down the answer.

"Hey! I was nothing but nice to you last week" I exclaim.

"I know, I know. I was kidding" he chuckles.

"Haha" I mock.

"Alright, we're done with the paper work. I'm going to go give it to the lady" He says before standing up.

When he is talking to the lady I watch the little boy play with his car. He puts it on the table and pulls it back, and it comes flying off towards me, hitting my foot. The boy runs over and picks up his toy before stopping and staring at me.

"Why is you hair that color?" He asks tilting his head.

"Because I like it" I reply with a smile.

"I like it too" he continues to stare.

"Thank you. What's your name?" I ask him.

"Robby" he replies.

"Hi, I'm Charlotte" I greet just as Michael comes back and sits beside me.

"Is that your husband?" He asks curiously glancing between the two of us.

"Nope, I'm just her boyfriend" he replies.

"Why does he talk like that?" he asks with a confused look.

"He's from Australia." I reply with a chuckle.

"Where's that?"

"All the way across the ocean"

"That's far." He says with amazement, "He has weird hair too. Why do you have weird hair?" he directs towards Michael.

"You ask a lot of questions." Michael states, a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

"I know" the boy replies before his mother calls him back over.

"He was cute" I beam.

"Yeah, he was pretty adorable." Michael smiles back at me.

"Charlotte Malcolm?" I hear a nurse call from across the room.

Both Michael and I stand up and walk towards the short woman.

"Hello. I am just going to take you upstairs so you have a more private room until the doctor can see you." She smiles leading us through the maze of a hallway.

She leads us into a small room that looks like the standard hospital room, there is the bed, the doctor things, and the one chair. I make my way over to the bed and lay down in it. Michael begins to sit in the chair but I stop him.

"Noo" I whine. "Come sit with me"

Michael laughs a little bit and I scoot over so there is room. Suddenly the door opens and an attractive young man in a lab coat walks in, I immediately feel Michael tense up.

"Hello" he greets with a smile. "I am Dr. Simons"

"Now, which one of you is Charlotte?" he jokes, making me laugh, but Michael isn't buying it.

"I am" I say nervously.

"I knew it was the beautiful lady" he compliments, making me blush, but Michael clenches his hand into a fist around the sheet.

"Okay, so you have been vomiting for the past five days, correct?" He says reading over my papers.

"Yes." I reply.

"When was the last time you ate or drank?" he asks scribbling things down on his notepad.

"Uh, I drank water before I came, and I tried to eat cereal earlier but it didn't stay down" I explain.

"Alright." He says before standing up and walking towards the bed. "I am going to do a few tests"

He walks over to the wall and grabs the blood pressure test and wraps it around my arm.

"You may feel a slight pinch" he informs me as he turns on the machine. "Relax your arm."

"Alright" he says when the machine turns off. "Your blood pressure is normal. Let me take your temperature now"

He takes the thermometer and I stick it under my tongue, we wait in awkward silence for about a minute. When it beeps he pulls it out.

"That's normal too" he says while walking over to the table where he set all of his equipment. He grabs his stethoscope.

"Can you please lift up your shirt a bit?"