Heartbeat // Grayson Dolan

21. [sleep]

Teala's POV

The next day after school...

"Hey, Mama," I say quietly as I walk into the bland hospital room.

I drove around two hours to get to this unknown city to see my parents and Noah. He sat in his hospital bed, sleeping peacefully on his side. This is the first time I had seen any of them in about three weeks.

Of course I was pissed, they left me at home to fend for myself. But I was also very relieved to finally see some family again.

"Hey, Teala!" She exclaims, getting up and hugging me tightly. I must admit, I'll never get over the love that my mom shows for me; even in times where she's not there.

I pull away with a warm smile. "So, hows it been?"

"Oh ya know, I've gotten to talk to him a few times, but he's normally just sleeping." My heart clenches as I can hear in her voice how much this is tearing her down. Mama tries to act tough in front of people, but I've learned to read through it.

I frown and huff, looking around for my dad. "Where's Daddy?"

"He's on a business trip in New York right now, he left like three days ago. Did he not come home to check on you? He told me he did," Mama explains, soon putting her hands on her hips.

"Um, no..." I trail off, sitting in a chair beside the door.

She presses her lips together and nods her head. "Okay," she says. I can tell she's slightly agitated. "How's school going?"

My eyes widen. Funny story actually, I cussed out Madame Hoochi and like, she dropped my grade two letters. So I'm kind of failing her class. Oops?

"It's going great!" I lie, smiling just to sell it.

"Wonderful!"

I actually look into my mother's eyes and see tiredness. Pain, even. She looks like she hasn't slept well in a couple days, she probably hasn't since Daddy went on said business trip.

"You look tired," I say giggling a bit.

"Girl I am, you don't even understand," she groans, sitting in the chair next to me. "That couch over there doesn't do much justice with getting a good nights rest," she says, pointing to a couch that was seated by a window.

I nod my head. "Have you watched the new episode of How to Get Away With Murder?"

"Oh my gosh, lemme tell you what I think-"

-

I huff and flop on my back onto my bed. Damn. I'm tried as hell. It's like, 9:30 right now.

I ended up staying at the hospital for around two hours before I decided to make my way back home, and for some reason the drive back was worse than the drive there.

Driving alone in general is just never ideal to me.

I unlock my phone and scroll through my social medias, clearly bored out of my mind.

Should I call Grayson?

Nah.

I stand up from my bed and walk to the bathroom, preparing myself for a nice shower. I strip of my clothes and go onto my phone, turning on Apple Music.

As the warm water turns on, my phone rings and I scoff. What the fuck! It's like every time I'm about to do something, then everyone wants to call my damn phone.

Without looking at the caller ID, I answer the phone and put it up to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hey babe," I hear Grayson say on the other side.