Hello! A Pubble FanFiction

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Sunday 10:00 a.m.

Shelby

"Are your ready to go?", Parker asks, standing in the doorway with my bag.

"Yeah. Bye Stacy! Thanks for inviting me!", I say, waving goodbye.

"Bye Shelby. Thanks for coming!", Stacy replies. I walk out of the house and down to Parker's car.

"Where are we going?", I ask, completely confused.

"You'll have to wait and see. Be patient.", Parker says as we get in the car.

"I can't help it! I'm not good with surprises!", I exclaim, watching him start up the car. Parker just laughs and backs the car out of Stacy's driveway. We drive for about an hour until we pass the city sign.

"Why are we leaving town?", I ask impatiently.

"You'll see in approximately two minutes.", he replies.

I breathe in and my lungs protest painfully. I look out the window so Parker won't see the tears welling in my eyes. Luckily, he doesn't see me, and instead pulls onto a dirt road. I look over to my left and see a farmer's market, with a restaurant at the end of a cute pathway. The entire place is surrounded by trees and flowers.

"This place is so nice! How did you hear about it?", I ask, my jaw slightly dropped.

"My mom read about it in a newspaper. She told me about it and I thought, 'That sounds like a great date idea.' It looks much nicer than I expected.", Parker replies, parking the car in an empty space.

"This is really sweet.", I say and grab his hand.

He smiles proudly and says, "Come on! Let's check it out." We both get out of the car and walk down a cement path littered with flower petals.

Something occurs to me and I ask, "Did Liam forgive you last night?"

"Yeah. Only because we may have told him you guys deleted the photos.", Parker replies sheepishly.

I just laugh as we reach the beginning of the booths. We walk through buying things like cute little plants and handmade necklaces. I have a few flares-ups of chest pain, but ignore them.

I will not let my illness get in the way of having a good time.

After we're finished looking around, we walk back to Parker's car to put our stuff in the trunk. Once everything is loaded up, I get another wave of chest pain, and have to lean against the car for support. I close my eyes, trying to block everything out.

I feel Parker grab my hand and ask me a question, but I keep my eyes closed, not answering. As the pain slowly fades, I open my eyes. I look up and see Parker looking at me in concern.

"I'm okay.", I say quickly.

"Do you need me to take you home?", he asks. I nod my head and get in the car. We make the long drive back to my house, my chest hurting the whole time.

When we walk through the front door, I call for my parents and they come running in from the living room. Parker explains what happened, because I'm in too much pain to speak.

They quickly usher me upstairs to my room, and I lay down, clutching my chest. Tears start to escape my eyes and I feel large amounts of air leave my lungs that I can't regain. I begin to feel light-headed and my eyes close as I lose consciousness.

                                                                                          *

The sound of machinery echoes through the silent hospital room. I'm sitting next to Shelby's bed, holding her hand.

After she lost consciousness, her parents called her doctor. He said that all her symptoms pointed towards a respiratory infection, and she needed to be monitored at the hospital.

So here we are, two hours later.

Shelby's woken up a few times, but she's mostly been sleeping. The doctors say that's good, so I'm gonna stay positive.

I feel her squeeze my hand and I look up to see her smiling.

"Hi.", she croaks.

"How you feeling?", I ask, scooting closer to her.

"Tired. And my chest hurts.", she replies, barely getting above a whisper.

"I'm sorry. I wish there was something I could do.", I say.

"All you have to do is be here.", she says. "I don't think I could do this without you."

"Glad to be of assistance.", I say, making her laugh.

We continue like that the rest of the night. Her, in and out of sleep, and me, never leaving her side. When visiting hours are over, I kiss her and leave, promising to come back tomorrow.

Once I'm home, I flop down on my bed. I try to do something to distract myself, but it doesn't work. My thoughts keep going back to Shelby. Late into the night, as I lay awake, I have one thought.

Just one thought.

But it's enough to make me happy. Enough to make me smile.

And I think of this thought as I fall asleep, smiling sincerely for the first time since this whole mess started.