Juliana

32. Ouch

*The Next Day*

"Jules!" I said running back up the ski slope I had just come down.

She was rolling around on the freshly packed snow. Both of her purple-gloved hands were holding onto her knee.

"You okay?" I asked, kneeling down beside her. "What happened?" She continued to wallow.

By now, one of the first aid people had gotten here. They were able to get Jules to calm down long enough to tell them what happened.

"I fell. I heard my knee pop, and now it hurts like insanely bad."

The fact that Juliana was so calm surprised me. I would have probably still been bellyaching. My girl was a trooper for sure.

We got some assistance back to the first aid station. From there, they directed us to the nearest hospital emergency room. They refused to even see her because of the level of her injury. Honestly, that kinda scared me a little bit.

Now, we were sitting in the waiting room with my mom. Dad stayed behind with the rest of the crew. Jules refused to put any weight on her leg.

"Juliana Keating." A lady in a pair of blue and green scrubs popped her head out of a door. Mom got up, and I helped Juliana get on her feet. She hobbled down the hall into the examination room, still refusing to put any weight on her injured leg. Mom and I followed her.

The person in scrubs left and so did Mom. She said that she was going to go call Aunt Grace or something like that. I couldn't remember exactly. Jules was looking at something on her phone. The silence was about to drive me crazy.

"Psst... Jules." I whispered, rolling and unrolling an InStyle magazine I had found on the counter over and over again.

She looked up, smiling. She whispered back at me. "What?" I was glad she was playing along.

"Wanna know a secret?" I continued to keep my voice quiet.

"Why not?" She smiled again, maybe even giggled. Not quite sure.

I got up and walked over to where she was. I leaned into her and cupped my hands around her ear. "I'm scared of hospitals."

I stood back up and got up on the examination table, right next to her. That stupid crinkly paper they put out on the table kept rattling. It was enough to drive someone insane.

***

"Yes. From what we can tell by the symptoms and the few tests we've run, we think you tore both your ACL and MCL. Not quite sure of the severity, but since you aren't from around here, it wouldn't make much more sense for us to delve deeper into a diagnosis." The doctor clutched his clipboard to his chest.

"So you're just going to let her be in pain?" I raised my voice a little bit. I kinda wished Mom had been in here to go off on them. Jules reached out and rubbed my back.

I guessed she was trying to get me to calm down. But seriously... What idiot of a doctor wouldn't prescribe someone that just tore two major knee ligaments some sort of pain medication? It infuriated me. What a bozo.

They had her laid up in a room for like a billion hours, refusing to give her anything until a stupid doctor evaluated her, and now, they still weren't going to give her anything!

"Juliana should be fine on just Ibuprofen." He handed her a black, stiff knee brace. "We recommend getting her back home as soon as possible, so she can, you know, get her leg up and elevated. The sooner the swelling goes down, the sooner she can get surgery." The doctor opened the door, "Hope you get back to your one hundred percent soon, Juliana."

I glared at the door as it shut behind him. Sure ya do, Bozo.

"Do you want me to go see if I can find a wheelchair?" I asked Jules.

"That would be nice."

"You hurting?"

"Not when I don't think about it." She smiled. "I'm fine, Robbie. Honestly."

"Alright... I'm gonna go find a wheelchair." I pulled my phone out my pocket as soon as I got out of the room and shot Kylie a quick text.

Me: i swear kylie... if you are responsible for jules being hurt... this is ridiculous. we broke up. when normal couples break up that's it. we are and have been done a long time.... leave me and my life alone.

The Crazed Creepy Lunatic: Mmmm... I told her to watch out now. Didn't I? ;)

Me: listen up. you are a crazed, creepy bitch that i don't want anything to do with. you scare me. and you do realize that you very well could have uh... killed ... juliana...

The Crazed Creepy Lunatic: It's not clear to you yet. Is it Robbie? I WANT the girl dead. I WANT to be with YOU. I love YOU, and only YOU. You are my WORLD. My sunshine... Baby... please come back to me.

***

It was times like these that I was grateful my brother was ridiculously famous- enough so that owning a private plane was justifiable. My mom was able to call the pilot, and Juliana and I had a flight home like that. It was nice, especially with the leg-room I got to have. All tall folks loved their leg-room, and I, was certainly no exception to that rule.

"You good, sweetie?" I asked Jules once more after we had gotten settled on the plane.

"Yeah. I think I'm just going to try to sleep. I'm dragging."

"Well, you know you got yourself a pillow right here." I pointed to my shoulder. "It's all yours!"

She giggled before resting her head on my shoulder. About fifteen minutes later, she was sound asleep. I guessed since she was sleeping soundly that she wasn't in that much pain, which was good. I didn't like it when Juliana was hurting.

Another plus of flying home on my brother's plane was the plain and simple fact that Sam had a PlayStation 3 in this thing. Video games with my girl asleep on my shoulder... life was good. Only bad thing about it was that Jules was injured. She was a trooper though. Oh, and did I mention that flying on my brother's plane also meant that I got keep my phone and all that on still? The fact that could I send a text from the air made this awesome flight back to Star even better.

My phone, which was in the cup holder next to me, started vibrating. Pausing my football game, I looked down at the screen and saw it was my mom. God, she was such a worrier.

Mom: Home yet? Let me know when you're home. Don't forget lasagna in the fridge. Love you.

Me: we're still flying. i'll tell you when we land. love you too mom.

            Maybe that would get her off my back till we landed. I just wanted to play my game in peace. I didn't think that it would be that much to ask.