The Middle - Volume Two ✔️

Chapter 39

Jamie

"You get Patrick's old room in the basement. Because there's no where else, pretty much. He can sleep on the couch if he stays over here, and I'm sure he will. He's barely left your side since you got out of the hospital!"

Lola will not stop fussing over me, and as grateful as I am to her for taking care of me, it's starting to piss me off already. And I've only been discharged from the hospital for one fucking hour!

The doctors kept me in most of the day, for tests and monitoring and shit. I don't really know, I think they just wanted to make sure my dad knew what was going on before they released me back into the wild. He knows everything now, and fuck me he freaked the fuck out. I called him first thing this morning after I woke up (I slept for around five hours after Noah left my hospital room) and his first reaction was to get on a plane and come home. His second reaction was to quit his job and come home for good, and once I talked him out of that idea, his third reaction was to ship me out of the house and move me in with Jay. I pointed out that Jay's parents might be okay with me living at the palace, but they sure as hell wouldn't be happy to take Benji in. He calmed down a little when I told him I'd be staying with Lola and Dave for a while, and after a lot of fucking talking, I managed to convince him to stay at work. Because I'm totally fine! And I'll see him soon for the holidays anyway.

"You could be living in luxury at the palace right now." Joel whispers into my ear as he walks into Lola's kitchen carrying a suitcase filled with my clothes. Yeah, that was an option, but Jay's parents aren't at home. It would have been pointless, I would have been as well just staying at home in that case.

"Or you could be living in middle class suburban normality with my parents." Erin says as she walks past me with a box full of my school books. Unfortunately for me, my time over here isn't gonna be a holiday. I need to start studying for finals, just like everybody else.

"Or you could be living in comfy companionship over here." Pete says, as he walks in with Benji. I smile when I see my dog. I haven't been away from him that long, but I've missed him. He jumps up at me in his excitement to see me, and Patrick immediately rushes over to calm him down.

"No, Benji. Not today. She's hurt, see?" He says, crouching down and petting my dog whilst pointing out my bandaged up arm. Like that means anything to Benji. He can jump all over me if he wants to, I'm on enough pain killers to deal with that.

"I'm fine, P. My arm isn't broken, remember? Just...mildly fucked." I point out for the hundredth time.

"Language around the 11 year old!" Dave calls out. Steph is in the room, oops.

"Shit, sorry, Dave!" I call over to him. He rolls his eyes at me. Steph and Lola laugh.

"It's nothing I haven't heard before. Living with two older brothers, I've heard much worse!" Steph informs me. Great.

"Okay, it's getting a little crowded in here. Is everyone staying for dinner?" Lola calls out to us all.

She's not wrong. Lola, Dave, Patrick, Pete, Steph, Jay, Joel, Erin, Sarah and me. Ten people in one kitchen, as well as one dog. There is not much oxygen going spare in here.

"I'm staying." Patrick says. I thought he would.

"We'll head out." Joel says, looking over at Sarah. She smiles at him. I still need to hear their story! I don't want them to leave. But, I could use more breathing space in here.

"You guys wanna come too? We could go to that place Marley's you've told me about?" Sarah says to Erin and Jay. They exchange an awkward glance. This one's on Erin, I guess. I know Jay is totally fine going out for food with her, so it's her call. We all know this.