Love Sick

Team Effort

Eva

One week later

"Your bruising seems to be going down." Teresa diagnosed as I began to wipe the sleep from my eyes, bolting up in my bed.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" I groaned, batting the light out of her hands before blinking rapidly to adjust my eyes. "Just checking up on you to see if your face is healing." She shrugged, sauntering out of the room with even more enthusiasm than the day before.

Ever since she had returned from the hospital, Teresa had been filled with inexplicable amounts of positivity and joy, preventing her from seeing the true reality of what had happened. With every sunrise, a positive mantra was repeated until she began to function. Breakfast in bed became a common occurrence, and when that stopped, large elaborate meals were prepared for me and Chris, who she often invited over to share the joy with.

She immediately returned to work and nearly raced out the door each day for her shift, briskly passing me in the halls of the hospital, cheerfully handing out paper cups of coffee or cocoa from a steel thermos to her fellow nurses who had been mocking her just a week prior.

As for me, the trauma of both events still haunted my thoughts, engulfing me whole from the moment I awoke, to the time I managed to doze off into a deep sleep. Her distraught and terrified screams lingered in my thoughts, along with occasional gunshots that caused me to nearly collapse every time someone slammed a door or dropped something. My moods turned sour and her fake positivity only irritated me further.

"I pulled out the ointment for scars and figured you could start using it now to minimize your damage done." She chirped, nearly dancing towards the stove where bacon sizzled loudly.

"I'm fine, I'll just let them heal naturally." I muttered, ignoring the mountain of food in front of me and raiding the refrigerator for the half consumed smoothie from my late night shift.

"Are you sure?! This stuff made it look like I never even had a scar!" She smiled, making me grit my teeth in annoyance and drop my eyes to the purple smoothie.

"Shocker." I muttered under my breath, snatching my cellphone from the dresser to send an irritated text to Chris.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She asked with a hint of shock, turning the fire off before she wandered over towards me, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Nothing." I groaned, wandering back into my room to pack my large bag for my overnight shift. "No, something is bothering you. Come on Eva, talk to me, I can help." She promised with a gentle smile, but I rolled my eyes and tossed a random shirt into the bag, slurping down a gulp of smoothie.

"I highly doubt that." I retorted, causing her to raise an eyebrow in protest, waiting for an explanation. "What are you insinuating?" She laughed, making my nerves tick with complete annoyance.

"I'm insinuating that you can't even help yourself!" I snapped watching her scoff and stare in disbelief, fueling my annoyance as I angrily fixed my bed. "I have no idea what you're talking about!" She laughed nervously, but I just scowled and glared in her direction, ceasing her nervous giggles.

"None of this is real, Tee! Come on! You're not fooling me and you are not fooling yourself! I told you that Chris and I would help you, that all of us would help each other heal, but this is all superficial!" I pointed out tiredly, making her scoff and shake her head nervously, blocking out every word I spoke.

"You're just worried that I'm healing faster than you are, and that's okay! Eva we all move at different paces." She tried to convince, but I growled and slammed my palms onto my dresser, my irritation rising with the comment.