Hell

two

My eyes fluttered open as I gained consciousness. Upon looking around the room, I saw Branson sitting in a chair looking down at his phone, and my mom on the other side of the room biting her nails. I shifted a bit, feeling pain in my side as mom's eyes darted towards the bed.

"Good, you're up! I was so worried about you." She said, quickly getting up to kiss my forehead before going to find a doctor.

"You're still here?" I asked Branson, his phone now in his pocket.

"Well I couldn't just leave, could I?"

"Yes, actually. But, thanks." I told him as my mother and a doctor rushes in.

"Hi Charlotte, I'm Doctor Massey." He said, putting his clipboard down on a nearby table. "Normally we would leave the bullet in, but this one wasn't in a good place. Luckily, it lodged in between two of your lower left ribs, only cracking them a bit. It just missed your lungs and stomach, but we couldn't leave it in due to the close proximity of the two. There's not much else for you to do but avoid a lot of physical activity for a while and let it heal. But you should expect to make a full recovery." Doctor Massey explained as mom sat down watching my reaction, as she's probably already heard him make this speech.

I nodded. "Alright."

"Do you have any questions?"

I thought about it for a second. "Yes, actually. I have two. When can I leave and when can I eat?"

Mom shook her head at my words and Branson covered his mouth with the back of his hand to keep from laughing.

"Those are very reasonable questions, yes. I was just getting to that. We'd like to keep you overnight just to make sure everything goes well, you should be able to leave around noon if that's the case. And food wise, there's a menu on the bedside table to your left, all you have to do is use that phone to call it in and we'll prepare it for you as soon as possible." The doctor explained with a reassuring smile, before picking up the clipboard again.

"I'm going to get going, then. A nurse will be in to check on you in the morning- and feel free to push that red button on the remote if you need assistance for anything. Good night." Doctor Massey concluded, nodding his head and walking out the door.

Mom looked at the menu and her eyes widened slightly. "It takes a good half an hour for food to get to your room when you order. Do you want me to run down and get you something from the cafe myself before I head home for a bit?"

I furrowed my eyebrows, unsure why it was such a big deal. "Um, sure, I guess. What time even is it?" I asked.

"4am." Branson stated from the chair.

Oh wow. For some reason I had thought it was 7pm or something of the like, which actually wouldn't make sense considering I left the house around 8pm before the accident happened.

"Alright then, I guess just some soup?" I asked, mom nodding before smiling and walking out of my room.

As soon as she left, Branson let out a laugh. 

"What's so funny?" I asked him, mildly irritated.

"Just that I saved your life and you think it's that easy to just walk away."

It sort of is. People do it all the time. 

"Then what do you intend to do?" I pressed on.

Branson shrugged. "I don't know. Get to know you, become best friends, spend every waking day together," He said, breaking into a gorgeous laughter at the end of his statement. I couldn't help but smile as he looked at me.

That didn't sound too bad to me. "Alright," I agreed. "But keep in mind, there will be lots of parties involved."

Mom took the time to walk in at this moment with a cheddar-broccoli soup and a stern look on her face. "Not any time soon, there won't be."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Yeah, yeah. Goodnight mom. And Branson."

"Night, honey. Get some rest, you deserve it. Dad should be back from the trip in time for you to wake up tomorrow, he left early." She informed me, planting a kiss on my forehead and walking over to the door, waiting for Branson.

He got up and nodded at me. "Goodnight Charlie."

I didn't even know my dad wasn't home. A rush of guilt ran through me as I thought about how careless and selfish I had been.

.

The next day consisted of many 'quick tests' and finally being discharged from the hospital at 3:30, two hours later than what I was originally told. I didn't really mind, it's not like I could go back out and continue my life the way I want to right away. Apparently I have to heal.

Who said you can't heal while shopping, though?

"Absolutely not," My dad said sternly as he wheeled me out of the hospital exit and towards the car that mom pulled up in front of the curb.

"It's just a little shopping. Not like I can break another rib." I whined. I was originally supposed to go shopping today anyway, me and the girls did every Sunday.

As I got in the car, mom turned around to look at me from the driver's seat before handing me a napkin. 

"Branson wanted you to have this."

My dad's head snapped towards the both of us. "Who's Branson?"

"No one special," I told him the exact same moment mom practically shouted, "The charming boy who saved Char's life!"

I sunk back down in my seat with an eye roll. Opening the napkin, I came across Branson's phone number and a note:

'Because it's not that easy, Charlie.'

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A.N: 

this chapter took so long to put out and im very sorry for that! hope you all enjoy. in the media box is a gif of our lovely branson!