He Did This To Me

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

***Colton's POV***

"Colton?" Adrianna's mom said as she opened the door. Then she yelled up the stairs, "Kids! There's someone here to see you!" She obviously hadn't heard about Adrianna. I decided to tell her after I got to see my kids again.

Mike bounded down the stairs and into my arms. "Dad!" he screamed. I hugged him and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. Then I ruffled his hair.

"Hey kiddo! How's my boy been?" He smiled. He play punched me in the guts.

"Terrible!" he laughed evilly. "Absolutely horrific!"

Melissa skipped carefully down the steps and jumped up to me. "Daddy! I missed you so much! Grandma made us cookies, took us to the park, and even played snakes and ladders with us! We had so much fun!"

I picked her up and swung her around. "That's great Lissa! Did you save me any cookies?" I joked. She giggled and shook her head. She resembled her mother so much...

"Kids, I need to talk to your father. Why don't you go put in your new movie I bought you? Despicable Me, I think it was?" she must've seen my face when I saw Adrianna in Melissa.

After the kids were gone, she shut the door and stood on the porch with her arms folded. "Do you want to tell me what's going on?" Her foot tapped impatiently on the floor, making me nervous.

"Okay..." I said starting. I hated telling this because every time I told it I broke out in tears. That's what I would do this time, too.

When I told her, the two of us broke down crying and held each other. We were family, after all. Even if I lost Adrianna, this would always be my family. She's done so much for me. I will never, ever, forget that.

***Adrianna's POV***

I can't see. It's like I've been blinded or something because I can still hear everything. I heard Colton and Kelsee, I heard the doctors observations on me, too. By the sounds of it, I'll be stuck in a coma for awhile... unless I can try and force myself out of it. And, believe me, I've been trying. It's not easy to just open your eyes and be normal again. Not after what my digestive systems been through. So they plugged me into an IV hoping to flush it out. And my heart. You can't just not eat for as long as I did and expect to be fine. My heart stopped! I died!

When I tried to pull myself from this seemingly endless sleep, I swear I almost died! Again! How many times does a girl have to die before she realizes she just needs to wait? I've never been the patient type, anyway. That was Colton's gift.

Every now and then I overhear doctors saying how bad I look. How unhealthy. A woman said my cheeks were incredibly thin, and that I was starting to look like an anorexia patient. My body still wasn't ready to eat. All my nutrition came from the IV. So I was pretty much starving until my digestion system started up again.

I wanted Colton to come see me again and tell me I was beautiful. I know, it sounds shallow. But every nurse and doctor is criticizing me on my weight and, apparently, my sickly face. I needed a boost in confidence, and Colton was the only one who could do that.

***Ella's POV***

I woke up covered in sweat. My bed was drenched and my smooth head was wet. My hand started quaking as I pressed my call button. While I waited for my nurse to arrive, I took my hand cloth from my bedside and wiped my forehead. It wasn't healthy to sweat this much. It wasn't healthy at all. I was mature enough to accept the fact that I was sick.

A young, red headed nurse walked in, took one look at me, and told me she'd be right back. She was going to get more towels to soak up the wetness that was pouring out of my body.

Before she could get back, I threw up into my dinner pan. It was the first thing I could grab and there was no way I could force it down.

"Oh dear!" my nurse said. She rushed over to me and handed me a small white pail to use to empty my stomach. While I was busy with the pail, she lapped up the sweat with towels. "It'll be okay Ella." she whispered when she got back from getting more towels.

I didn't sleep that night. I'm sure Sydney didn't either, but she was too nice to admit it. Instead, she gave me a big hug. She was a good friend. I had never had a good friend before. The kids at school made fun of me because they thought I was a nerd, then they teased me about being bald before I was put in the hospital. But Sydney understands me. She'd never treat me like that!

***Melissa's POV***

Daddy left again. He told us that Mommy was sick and that we could see her soon. It seems like my family was falling apart. Daddy's never around, Ella is in the hospital along with Mommy. Mike was the only one who I had left. At least, that's what I've been thinking.

"Are you okay Lissa?" Mike asked me. His dark hair had grown long and was now poking him in the eyes. Mommy would've wanted them cut so that we could his "beautiful eyes."

"Yeah. Just worried is all." I explained. He was a boy, he wouldn't understand how I felt. And how I felt was abandoned. Abandoned and alone.

"Okay." he said and went back to playing with his cars. "Vroom!" he started with the engine noises as he drove his McDonald's truck up the side of Grandma's armchair.

I watched him. He wasn't the smartest kid ever, but he was my brother. We may be little but we still had that connection. I felt like I could trust him not to leave me like the others. I was smart enough to know that he wouldn't. Mike was my older brother by two minutes, and he would always protect me. Even if my family did fall apart...

***Colton's POV***

I go back home. It's been a long day and I need to get some sleep if I want to be back at the hospital to visit Adrianna and Ella in the morning.

My sleep doesn't last long, though. Not at all. I wake up at about one o'clock in the morning with a pounding headache. All I can think about is how I've forgotten something. I struggle to remember what it is. But it keeps coming back to me. It must be important for my mind to keep wandering to it. Death defying, even.

So I stay up all night jotting down everything I can remember that might be useful. I get down facts about Ella's cancer. I get down notes about Melissa and Mike. And then I get to the thing that bothers me the most - Adrianna doesn't come home one night. Everything after that is fuzzy. But does that night have something to do with Adrianna's coma? I can't tell...

By the time I'm down writing, my hair is plastered to my forehead with a cold sweat. Something about what happened next had me frightened. I was reliving my feelings from back then. And something had me shaken. But what?

Then Brayden popped into my head. Where did he come in? Trying to stretch my memory was exhausting. Before I was ready, I fell asleep on my stack of pages; of memories.

That night I dreamt of a tree. A tree that someone was chained to. It meant nothing to me. It seemed important though. Very important. Like a sign.

*****

Her head lay on the pillow. Light, smooth hair shining in the sun. Her soft blue eyes remained shut, just how they had been for the past day and a half. The room was still and quiet, just as her mind was. Adrianna Smoke was still breathing, still "here." Only, she can't talk and hold her children. She couldn't tell her loving husband how grateful she was of all his hard work. No, she couldn't do anything but lie there.

Ella's thoughts had cemented on her mother. All she knew was that she was stuck in a sleep, that she was sick. It left her concerned. Was Daddy not telling her something? It seemed so. How had she gotten sick? What sickness did she have?

And then there were the twins. Mike and Melissa Smoke. Mike seemed a little worried about his mother, but nothing more. It's Melissa who thought like Ella. What had happened to her Mommy?

But there's someone else in this story that you haven't heard from for awhile. Isn't there? Someone who played a big part in Adrianna Smoke's life. Salvatore. And he's about to walk right back into the life of a certain someone. Who would that someone be? Well, I couldn't tell you that. No, you'll just have to wait and see.