17 Nights {c.h.}

+one+

The First Day

It had taken me a total of roughly six hours to make it to BWI Airport, about an hour more to make it back to my house, and at least half an hour, maybe forty five minutes, to get to the hospital. By the time I had finally made it into the lobby it was half past four in the afternoon, California time. In Maryland time it was already half past seven.

“Bella.” Mali managed to smile, the corners of her bloodshot eyes crinkling as she embraced me.

“Mali, where is he?” I asked, wishing I had seen her under any circumstance but this.

She didn’t say anything; she only grasped my hand and pulled me to where the elevators were located. After escaping the confines of the elevators we headed straight for what seemed like seven hundred feet, but in reality couldn’t have been any more than fifteen, when we came to a fork in the road.

In front of us was a sign spelling out three words I hoped I would never see again: Intensive Care Unit. My breath caught in my throat at the thought of Calum in there, attached to more wires than I could count and his usual caramel skin tone turned pasty.

I was able to breathe again once Mali tugged me to the right, down another endless hallway. I thought we were in the clear, I thought I would see Calum breathing on his own, maybe attached to an IV, but nothing more than one simple point of attachment. I was wrong.

She stopped in front of a room labeled with the number 213, but I could only see two figures blocking the view of my boyfriend.

“Bella, you have to listen to me.” Mali’s grip on my wrist tightened as I gave her all of my attention. “Cal was moved out of the ICU about an hour ago, but he’s still not in good shape.”

“I know, I mean he-”

“There’s one more thing,” she quickly interrupted me. “Calum, well, he… He hasn’t woken up.”

“What do you mean he hasn’t woken u?” I narrowed my eyes, hoping dearly I was dreaming and this was all some messed up nightmare. I pinched my arm while Mali bit her lip, deciding how to tell me what was happening. I managed to figure out one thing before she spoke; none of this was a dream.

“I don’t know all the details but I do know that he should have woken up awhile ago. “ I couldn’t take the waiting any longer; I pulled my arm away from Mali and rushed into the room.

I wasn’t ready, I can tell you that. I can also tell you how the tears began to stream down my face when my eyes landed on my uncharacteristically pale boyfriend. He had wires coming from numerous entry points on his body and an oxygen mask covering the lower half of his face.

Not only was he covered in bruises, no, his right arm and left leg were incased in hard plaster. His normally rosy cheeks now red with small, seemingly harmless scratches. His hair was neither in his slightly gelled quiff nor down and fluffy like I preferred. Instead it was pushed back from the woman sitting on his right, who was pushed his fringe back and lightly stroking his cheekbone with her thumb in a motherly fashion.

I couldn’t tell you how much time I wasted while my feet were frozen to the hospital tiles. I have no idea how many times Mali called out my name before I was broken out of my trance, how long it took until life returned to normal speed instead of the shitty slow motion speed you see in movies.

There was one thing I knew: I wasn’t ready to see the boy who was always so full of life, to see the boy I loved be so close to death when he had rescued me from its gruesome grip mere months beforehand.  

I wasn’t ready.

It was obvious how I felt once I catapulted myself into Mali’s arms. She quickly wrapped her arms around me as well, stroking my hair in an effort to calm me down. It didn’t work. Nothing seemed to work.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Mali chided, pulling back to look me in the eyes. “The doctor said he could- he could hear us. Do you- do you want to talk to him?” I nodded, furiously scrubbing at my eyes to get all the makeup off before I made an even stranger impression on our audience than I already had.

“I’m sorry, but who are you?” The woman had turned in her chair, eyes directed to where Mali and I stood.

“I’m Bella, Cal’s-”

“You’re Bella?” She inquired, moving away from where Calum was laying.

“Yeah-” My words were cut off once again as she brought me into a hug.

“Calum told us all about you. I just wish we could have met you in- what- 17 days? He went on and on about how you were coming home soon.”

“I was looking forward to meeting you guys too.” I smiled, squeezing her back.

She pulled away and motioned to the man still standing against the wall. She whispered in his ear before turning back to Mali and me.

“We’re going to go and get some coffee to prepare for the long night. We’ll be back in a few minutes.” She dragged her husband out of the room and I hesitantly sat down next to Calum’s bed.

“Um… Hi Cal,” my voice clogged up as I grasped Calum’s hand in my own. “I’m home, and I love you. I just- I want you to wake up okay? So, please, just wake up soon.”

+|+|+

“Do Aubrey and the rest of them know about what happened?” I asked, the clock chiming as the hour changed to ten o’clock in the evening.

“I didn’t tell any of them,” Mali bit her lip. “It all happened so fast.”

“I-I’m going to go and call Aubrey, let her tell everyone so they can visit tomorrow or something.” I informed her, already grabbing my phone from where it rested in my pocket.

After multiple rings Aubrey finally picked up, a small smile overcoming my face as she happily answered the phone.

“Bella!” She shrieked, giggling after someone else said something out away from the phone.

“Hey, um, I have something really important to tell you. You might want to sit down or something.”

“What is it?” She questioned. “Did Calum get you pregnant? Is that why he wasn’t in school today?”

“No, I’m not pregnant. But, um- it’s Calum. He’s- well, he’s in the hospital right now. And I’m here to, but I’m not hurt, obviously-” My ramblings were cut short when Aubrey gasped, shock laced in her tone.

“Oh- um, yeah. I’ll tell everyone, we’ll be over as soon as we can.” She explained. We talked for a short amount of time before hanging up.

I reentered the room and took a seat beside Mali, resting my head on her shoulder. I was extremely tired from traveling across the country, from the west coast to the east coast. I guess it caught up with me because my hand relaxed from where it was tightly gripping Calum’s.

My eyes began to shut, something I had been fighting since my plane had landed two and a half hours ago. I succumbed to the slumber I didn’t have the energy to fight, unable to think about anything except the fact that Calum had to wake up, that he needed to wake up. For me, if no one else, because I needed him more than I ever expected, or wanted, to need anyone in my life.

_____

well hello there. figured that i should go ahead and update so you guys might not hate me as much as i think you did. now if you excuse me i have 2 irl friends who read this and 16 days that have threatened to kill me in numerous ways and it kind of scares me in a way. ALSO THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR GETTING 16 DAYS RATED I'VE WANTED TO HAVE A RATED STORY SINCE I JOINED WATTPAD I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH

question: thoughts on the book so far? good, bad, suspenseful, etc.

bye guys love you lots!

em xx