sympathy ~ e.d.

XVIII

It hurts. Everything. But mostly my arm. I know something isn't right. I should have been watching where I was going even better than I had done. 

That car shouldn't have been driving so fast. And speeding away after hitting me wasn't exactly smart either.

I grab my phone. I know something isn't right with my left arm, I probably have to go to the hospital to have it checked up on. I can't drive like this, so I should probably call someone. I don't want to bother Ethan. He's on a hike anyway.

I'll just call a cab. It arrives fairly quickly. 'Madam, are you okay?' the driver asks me. Glad to know I look horrible. 'Not completely, could you drive me to the hospital?'

I shouldn't have gone to the store to get food; a car had hit me while I was crossing. 'We've arrived, no charge for you, you needed it. I hope you feel better soon', the nice cab driver tells me. 'Thank you so much, it means a lot to me.' 'It's fine, go inside, m'lady.' I manage to send him a small smile through the pain before I get out and walk into the hospital.

I walk to the reception. 'Hi, um, my arm hurts quite a lot. Where should I go to?' I manage to croak out. 'Oh honey, I'll bring you to the emergency room. How old are you?' '17, almost 18.' 'Where are your parents?' She keeps asking me questions while we're walking.

'Um, they're away. They've got a business emergency and they're in a different country.' 'Oh honey, call someone else then. You'll probably don't want to be alone and I need to get back to my desk in a minute.' 'Okay, thank you very much.' 'Sit down, sweetie. I'll talk to them', she points at the people behind the desk here.

I sit down. Who can I possibly call? I don't want to be a burden. The only people I associate with here are the Dolans but I have already annoyed them the entire day yesterday and this morning.

Ethan will be worried when I say I'm in a hospital. I'm sure of it. Grayson then? I'll just send him a little text or something. But they're on their hike. Great. I'll ruin their hike.

I sigh and grab my phone. 'Hey Gray, could you text me back?' I send him. I then grab a magazine from the pile to kill time.

A few minutes later, I feel my phone buzz.

Are you okay?

I think so. I'm just in the hospital and they said I should probably text someone.

YOU'RE IN THE HOSPITAL WHAT DID YOU DO?

Are you alright? You're not. Why didn't you text Ethan?

I feel like a burden to you.

I erase the message. It looks so desperate.

I don't know why I texted you, nevermind. Have fun on your hike!

ZERA DON'T GO! WHERE ARE YOU? WHICH HOSPITAL?

No, don't come visit me, I'm fine.

You are not. Send me your location.

Grayson I'm fine, don't mind me.

Yes I will mind you. I care. Ethan does too. Please tell us where you are.

I sigh and send him my location. Texting him was a mistake.

'Miss Laden?' I put the magazine down and stand up. 'Hi, I'm doctor Bemus. I'll help you today. Why don't you tell me what happened?'

I explain how I had been hit by a car. I fell backward, I must've fallen on my arm. I honestly don't know. I just know it hurts.

'Okay. Can you grab my hand for me?' I reluctantly grab her hand but I'm not able to apply any pressure. 'Okay, I think your bone may be broken, so I'm going to have you get an x-ray. There are a few people waiting in front of you, though. So if you could just wait here a little, that would be great. I'll give you a painkiller and for the x-ray, I'll come and get you.' She smiles at me. She then hands me a painkiller and a glass of water before she leaves the room, still clutching her little board.

I'm sitting alone again, on an elevated bed and I'm swinging my feet to kill time. After a while, I grab my phone from my bag using my right arm to check if I had any new messages.

I did. Both Ethan and Grayson had been messaging me. Grayson said they were almost there. I still regret texting them. They should have just been having fun instead of worrying about me.

I can hear two male voices from the waiting room. They seem frantic and in a hurry. I recognize one of the voices as Ethan's. 'I'm sorry, I can't give you information about a patient', I hear the woman say. 'If the girl-' I open the door in the middle of the receptionist's sentence.

She looks around at me. Ethan and Grayson's heads snap my way as well. 'Oh my God, Zee! You're alive!' Ethan runs my way, Grayson just behind him. He wants to pull me in a hug but I put a step back, afraid he'll hurt my arm. He gets it and carefully hugs my waist while I keep my painful arm up.

'Can they wait with me?' I ask the receptionist. She has a small smile on her face. 'Of course, if you know these guys, it's all good.' 'Thank you.' She nods and just goes back to typing something on her computer. I invite the guys into my little assigned room.

'What happened? Are you alright? Where are you hurt?' both of them ask at the exact same time. They don't even seem to notice it, they're just waiting for my answer.

'I got um hit by a car and I think I fell on my arm. It might be broken.' 'Who hit you?' Grayson asks. 'I don't know, the car drove off immediately. 'I'm finding whoever did this, you can't just drive off all of a sudden, I-' Ethan is getting himself all worked up.

'It's okay, I'm fine.' 'You are not, don't lie.' Ethan is looking me dead in the eye. I had sat down on the bed in the room and Ethan was sitting in the visitor's chair across from me. There was barely any room for our legs, though. The room was rather small and our legs touch a few times, giving me the tingles.

In the meanwhile, Grayson is looking through all the cabinets he can find, curious as to what was inside. It takes him some time to read what is on the bottles due to the long words and small letters, according to him. 

I can feel the tension building up while Ethan and I maintain eye contact. It's quite intense.

The door swings open again, revealing the doctor. She looks surprised at the two boys who had seemingly just appeared. 'These are my um... friends', I explain. 'And I'm not seeing double, am I? Twins, how extraordinary! Well, there's room for you now, miss Laden, so if you would follow me?' The smile on her face calms me down just a bit. She was really sweet.

After the x-ray and the conclusion I had indeed broken my left arm, we were left to wait in another room for someone to put a cast on it. I am so tired. I am sitting down on the bed next to Ethan, so I rest my head on his shoulder. My eyes threaten to fall shut but Grayson kills the silence.

'I am hungry, man. Shall we go to In-'N-Out after?' I want to open my mouth to answer him but Ethan is already replying. 'She's vegetarian.' 'I don't mind, the fries there are okay, I'll just take those.' 'You sure?' Ethan is now looking down at me. 'Yeah, it's fine.'

After a lot of waiting, we finally made it out. It's dark already and Grayson keeps complaining about how hungry he is. I've now got a light blue cast on my left underarm. I'm so tired. 'Yeah, our car is like at the other end of the parking garage', Grayson says when we've finally walked to the entrance of the parking garage.

I yawn. I don't feel like I have enough energy to walk through the entire parking garage right now. Ethan crouches down in front of me. 'What?' 'I'm offering you a piggyback ride and I'm not taking no for an answer. Get on, I'll carry you.' 'No, I'm perfectly fine walking, thank you though.' 'I heard a no and that was what he's not taking as an answer', Grayson yells from in front of us. He had been walking on while Ethan and I stopped.

'Fine.' I climb on his back and rest the side of my face against his shoulder. My right hand is loosely holding my fresh cast on my left while I try not to hurt Ethan with it. I'll just pretend I don't notice how his strong hands are underneath my thighs, keeping me on his muscled and beautiful back.