Sign On The Dotted Line

Chapter 11

Claire

I set the bowl of porridge down onto the tray along with the antibiotics the doctor prescribed for Beth.

After the scary incident with Jenkins, Beth passed out from exhaustion. She was rushed to the hospital where the doctor told us that she was lacking sleep, dehydration, and in the beginning stages of bronchitis.

I lifted the tray, having deja vu of doing the same action just a couple of days ago as an apology to her. It's strange, when Jenkins had the knife up to my throat, it wasn't Nathan that popped into my head, but Beth's face. If at that moment, Jenkins decided to press a little harder and slice, I would've never had the chance to apologize properly to her and it would've been one of my biggest regrets.

I let out a sigh as I remembered seeing Beth come down to the lobby with Joe, limp in his arms. Before I even had a chance to reach her, she was whisked away by the second pair of paramedics and was taken to the hospital.

My phone vibrated and I was pulled away from my thoughts as I looked down at my phone.

Nathan <3: hey I just read about what happened. It's all over the internet, are you ok?

Ever since the party, Nathan and I haven't been in contact. I've tried texting and calling multiple times, but was always met with his voicemail or no response.

I frowned at my phone, of course he read it on social media. If he really wanted to know if I was ok, he could've at least called.

I locked my phone without responding and shoved it back into my pocket. It was his turn to wait.

Beth

I turned over in bed and winced when I felt how stiff my body was. I laid back down onto my back and tried to stretch. Along with stiff limbs, the rest of my body felt heavy. I felt gross and lethargic so I rubbed my hands over face to try and wake myself up but I still felt like a semi-truck hit me.

I let out a breath and was about to turn over to go to sleep until my eyes fell on my guitar case propped up against the wall. I furrowed my eyebrows as I remembered what happened with Claire.

I tried getting out of bed to find her, hopefully, she was ok, but it was such a struggle getting up that I could only sit up in bed. I licked my lips and only realize how dry my mouth is. I swallow what felt like a rock and tried to clear my throat but was met with a searing pain in my chest.

The door to my bedroom opened and Claire walked in, her eyes trained down on the tray in front of her as she tried to keep everything on it.

"Good morning," I greeted, the raspiness in my voice shocked me.

Claire looked up, surprise written on her face, "you're up!" she held up the tray, "perfect timing, it's time for you to take your medication."

I quirk my eyebrow at her, "medication?" I saw a faint purple bruise on her neck and started firing questions, "wait, are you ok? You know after the whole creepy intruder thing." I tried standing up but I felt too weak.

"No, don't get up," she put the tray down and walked over to my bed, fluffing my pillow against the bed frame so I was at least sitting up.

I watched her take a seat next to me on the bed and she chuckled while shaking her head, "I can't believe the first thing out of your mouth was whether I was ok. You were the one that fought the bastard. I'm surprised that you only came out of that with bronchitis."

Ahhh bronchitis! that explains how gross I feel.

"You thought that I would've lost to that dirtbag? that's kind of a blow to my ego" I joked.