Off The Edge

Chapter 9: Hospitals are Hell

I am cold, and my head hurts. I blink open my eyes, it was dark.

Cold.

Dark.

I think this is a dream.

Alcohol.

I smell Alcohol.

Wait, no.

I blink a few more times.

I'm in a car, I smell gas.

God my head hurts.

Sirens.

I lift my hand to my head, I gasp in pain. My hand is covered in blood. I look around, where's Jude?

Flashing lights.

Blinding light.

I blink, I'm in a hospital.

Beep.....Beep.....Beep.

What the hell? What happened? Where's that bartender?

Where's the nurse button? I try to sit up, my head screams in agony.

I lay back down, my hands to my head. God I'm freezing, why am I so cold.

So fucking cold.

"Hey, you're awake." Fuck, fuck, fucking, fuck. They called her, she's still my emergency contact.

"Oh thank god." Annnnnnnddd Joy's here too. "I'll go get the nurse." Joy leaves and Amanda comes closer.

"What happened?" She looked down, trying not to really look at me.

"I don't really know, we were in the car and then I woke up here." She sat down and took my hand. I was shocked. I went to move my hand away.

"Don't, we should actually talk." She sighed, "I understand that he took advantage of you. And joy convinced me to..." She trailed off, before I could say anything she cleared her throat. "To talk about about what happened."

"Amanda...." I sighed, I don't deserve her, at all. Never really ever did, I'm a shit ass person. Hell I cheated on her, and then had sex with a stranger. At least I think so. I'm still not sure.

"Leo?" She got my attention and lightly squeezed my hand. "It's been lonely without you..."

Next thing I know I'm waking up, colder than before. Shaking from the cold, or maybe not. Joy is the only person in the room, she's looking down at her phone.

I shift to get water to settle my tumbling stomach.

"Hey," Joy says looking up from her phone. "She had to get something to eat. She hasn't eaten much since she got the call." I shock my head.

"How long have I been here?" I asked her. She looked down and sighed before she looked back up.

"Almost 3 days now. The nurses don't know when they can send you home. They are saying you've been going through withdrawal and have some brain bleeding or somthing." I looked at her a little dumbfounded. I know I have a problem, but withdrawal? Isn't that just for drugs?

"Where am I gonna go?" I try to sit up again, but god the pain in my head was bad and the pain in my stomach was unbearable. I pushed through it and looked at her seriously. "Don't tell me I'm going to rehab."

"What do you think." Joy said matter of factly.

I nodded my head in defeat. "What else have they said?"

"You had a seizure. Maybe the accident, or something else caused the bleeding."

"They think it's my drinking?" I asked. Joy just shrugged her shoulders.

"We all think you have a serious problem. Leo, hon you really got to stop. It's become so bad that you've started to lose days. And that was before Amanda and you broke up. God only knows how much worse it's gotten...." She trailed off looking to nothing. When the door slid open, we both looked towards it.

"Hey..." Amanda had red rings around her eyes, it's obvious she's been doing a lot of crying. "You're up, the doctors said that it would take a while for you to even start twichting." Her voice cracked, and joy shot up to hug and hold her.

They hugged for a few moments, Joy reassuring Amanda.

"Sit down amanda, I'll leave you two to talk." Joy leads Amanda to the seat she was in, then walked out. There was silence for a moment before Amanda speaks.

"Joy and I moved the rest of your things into a storage uniy," she cleared her throat, "that's where it'll stay until you find a place." The entire time she said this she was looking down at her feet.

"What if I can't find some place else to live?" I say, my voice sounding weird because I'm trying not to cry.

She shrugged her shoulders, "You have a month until I stop paying for the unit." She gets up and leaves. I sit there stunned, wanting some Jaeger..... or whiskey.