Playing With the Rich Boys | ✓

Chapter Forty-Five (Part One) - Back to You

Part 1

I CAME TO IN THE AMBULANCE. It hadn't all been a vivid dream. The white roof of the ambulance came into view. My body shook against the stretcher beneath me as the sirens echoed in my ears. I turned to look to the side when I realised there was a neck brace on me. I wiggled my fingers and toes but couldn't see them to be sure they were actually moving.

"P-Parker – is he okay? What happened? What's wrong with me?" I asked frantically.

"Daisy, Daisy," one of the paramedics said, trying to calm me down. "He's fine. He's in the other ambulance. You're okay but we have to bring you in to hospital so the doctors can properly assess your injuries. Who can I call as your guardian?"

I gave them my mum's details. My whole body was aching and the throbbing in the side of my head was relentless. I was taken through the emergency department where several doctors took history and examined me. I saw Parker being wheeled into a different ED bay. In the bright lighting of the ED, his injuries looked even worse. The blood had started to dry around his mouth and nose and his face was swollen, black and blue.

My neck brace came off soon when they were sure I hadn't had a spinal injury. Then bloods were taken. X-rays. There were a couple of bad bruises and pain that would last weeks, but all in all, I was surprisingly okay considering what had happened. It was almost five by the time they moved me from the ED into the general medical ward. Room 9. My mum had been going out of her mind waiting for me in my room.

"We're going to keep you until tomorrow for observation, but otherwise you have no fractures or injuries that need intervention. Let a nurse know if the pain worsens, or if you start getting any strange headaches, change in your vision, confusion, anything like that," she smiled. I nodded. She let me know that Parker was in the room next to mine and that he'd just been brought up from ED as well.

My mum came to my bed, squeezing me tightly. "I'm so glad you're okay," she wept. She took both of my cheeks in her hands and looked at my face as the tears continued streaming down her face. I cried too, because seeing her cry made me cry. When she finally calmed down, she fired a million questions away at me. I finally convinced her to go take a toilet break, to get some food and water and that I was fine. Reluctantly, she agreed, but only if she could finally meet "the boy who's been picking you up for weeks and who got you into this mess." She promised she wouldn't grill him.

The throbbing in my back intensified as I pushed myself up from the hospital bed. I slipped on the hospital-issue slippers and entered the linoleum lined hallway that was bustling with nurses and doctors rushing back and forth. I ventured down to the room beside mine and peered inside. Parker was sitting in his bed, watching TV with a splint around his left forearm, as if nothing had happened. I let out a sigh of relief.

He glanced towards the door and saw me staring. "You're awake," he said. I walked over to his bedside.

"What'd the doctors say?" I asked him.

He held up his left arm. "It's a fracture. They're splinting it until the swelling comes down and they'll see if it needs a cast. Doesn't look too bad. I have a couple of rib fractures, but those just heal on their own so it's pain killers until then." There were a couple of small stitches across his lip, but all the blood was gone from his face. "This is going to scar," he said, noticing my stare.

"How are you feeling?"

"I feel fine. I am so sorry about what happened – I should've picked you up in the morning -"

I cut him off. "I'm fine. I just have a couple of bruises. Surprisingly resilient you know," I grinned.

"Your face looks horrible," he managed with a small smile.