Hunter sat in a chair by Bethany's hospital bed, still gripping her hand and staring at her face. A doctor walked in, wearing the generic white lab coat and scribbling on a clipboard. Hunter looked up, and the doctor came over to shake his hand.
"And you are?" the doctor asked.
"Just call me Hunter," he replied, hoping this doctor would be able to tell him more about Bethany's condition. She'd woken up about a half hour ago, after being out for nearly a full twenty minutes. She had been seriously disoriented and had immediately begun to retch uncontrollably, so the nurses had ushered him into the hallway to wait. He hadn't been able to see her while she was awake, and by the time they let him back into the room, she was sleeping peacefully.
At least she's alive. She's alive. But does she remember me?
"Okay, Hunter. Miss James is going to be fine." Hunter breathed a sigh of relief. But? "But we aren't sure how much she remembers at this point. When she woke up, she was experiencing a lot of disorientation and nausea, which is normal for people with blunt force head trauma. For now we've decided to let her sleep it off as best as she can. The concussion should heal itself naturally, but you should be aware that any similar traumas that occur before she is completely healed can be fatal. You'll have to make sure she's very careful in the up coming months."
The doctor crooned on and on, but Hunter couldn't focus on anything he said. Fatal? Had he said fatal? So, if Beth was knocked on the head by a guitar, or if a box of mics fell on her in the trailer, she could die? That is not happening. No, no way. Stop imagining it, Hunter, you're going to embarrass yourself!
"Anyway, she should be fine. We don't see any hemorrhaging on her brain, and her heartbeat is stable and strong. As soon as we assess how much - if any - memory loss she has, we'll let her go."
"Thank you, doc," Hunter said, rubbing his jaw and trying to smile gratefully.
He sat back in his chair next to Beth and leaned his head on the side of her mattress.
"This can not be happening," he whispered. He had a show tonight, and there was no way he'd be able to focus on the crowd of screaming fans when his entire being was still so worried about Beth. Still, he knew it was far passed the time he needed to be back, so he got up, looked at Beth one more time, hoping her eyes would open and give him a reason to stay.
Her eyes didn't open, so he sighed and left.
***********************************************************************
"I'm so sorry, guys," Hunter said, wiping the sweat from his eyes and stopping in the middle of singing "Storyline". "Can I share something with you guys?"
The crowd cheered, and Hunter looked back and forth to the guys in the band, seeing their confusion, but shrugging his shoulders at them. He grabbed the mic and went to sit down on the top of one of his speakers.
"I'm really sorry about the show tonight, guys. I'm not focusing, and that's not fair to you. So, to make it up to you, I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone. How would you like that?"
The crowd went wild just like he'd known it would. He took a minute to gather his thoughts. He needed to talk about Beth, but for the sake of privacy, he couldn't say her name. He wasn't even sure that he could afford to let them know he was talking about a person. He would have to come up with the perfect analogy.
"I don't like perfect music." The fans began looking back and forth at each other, trying to figure out where he was going with this.
"I heard this song once, and everything about it was perfect. It had the right rhythm, the right rhyme scheme, the right notes, and the right harmonies. It was just absolutely perfect." Like Amanda: not one line out of place, not one hair out of line. "And of course, I loved it. How can you not like something that's perfect?" The crowd was beginning to warm up to what he was saying; he could tell in the way a few of them were nodding their heads and looking a little less confused.
"See, as time went on, I heard the song over and over and over again. And eventually I decided I didn't like it anymore. It was just too perfect. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, and that...well, you know it was almost irritating. Because it just felt like the song was trying too hard to be exactly what everyone wanted. It felt like, if that song had a personality, they'd be far too focused on material things than on what's really important." Okay, you're starting to sound ridiculous, Hunt. Try not to give away that you're talking about Amanda.
"Well, anyway. I stopped listening to that song all together. And I started looking around, and I found this other song that was not perfect. It had unresolved chords and the singer was really awful," he said, laughing at himself. Beth really does have a hilariously awful voice. "And there was something there in the words that made it feel like it was hiding something dark. But I'll tell you what: I love that song. Because even though it has so many flaws, that just makes it seem more real and genuine. And the artist may not have been able to sing very well, but you can feel the emotion in their words and you just know that everything they're saying is the truth." Like Beth. She's so real, so full of heart.
"So, yeah, I don't like perfect music," he concluded, hearing the crowd cheer a beat late and with just the littlest hint of their returning confusion. His band looked confused, too. What was he talking about? He realized that what he'd said made hardly any sense to anyone else, but it had felt nice to talk about Beth for once...well, sort of.
"Now, I'll stop talking and actually play some music now, if that's all right."
This time, the crowd screamed with actual mirth, and Hunter smiled, though his eyes still flickered to the empty spot just behind the curtain, where a certain beautiful girl with a headset and a clipboard was missing.
Okay. That analogy turned out more awkward than I thought it would, but there you go! Kind of a filler chapter. (: Love you guys, I'm stoked you're still reading! :D God bless and Happy Reading!
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Secret Love (Hunter Hayes Fanfiction)
Romance"I'm falling for someone who isn't falling for me." "I know exactly how you feel," he answered, leaning down and hugging her tightly. "Do you?" She hugged him back, willing him to know just how much she cared for him. He chuckled. "Yeah, I do." H...
