Life with the Stevens' Boys

Chapter 16

© Copyrighted.

** Please read Author's Note at the end.    It talks about updating schedules, etc.**

My head was pounding and my brain felt like mush. I wanted to open my eyes, to say something but it was if my brain and my mouth and eyes weren't connected. No matter how hard my brain told my eyes to open, they wouldn't.

"Vanessa, wake up. Please, please wake up. I need to know your okay." The voice was familiar, but distant. As if I was hearing it oceans away.

"Come on, Vanessa. You can wake up, I know you can." The voice called to me. I tried to listen, to focus in on the voice and target where it was coming from, so I could follow. But it was as if I was spinning around and around in circles.

"Ness." It was a new voice and it was sharp and clear, right behind me. I whipped around.

"Mom. Is that you? How are you here? Am I dead?" I gasped, suddenly unable to draw breath.

"Honey, breathe, breathe. You're alive and you're fine." She smiled at me, something I had craved for so long. Her brown curls were bouncy, energetic. Her face was young and healthy and glowing. I drank the sight of my mother in. I never wanted to forget her smiley dimples and the scar above her left eye.

Overwhelmed, I stumbled into her arms. "Mom," I cried.

"Mom, what am I gonna do? I don't want to live with him, you can't let him take me!"

My mom quietly shhh'ed me, rubbing my hair, letting my salty tears fall rapidly onto her cream sweater.

"Vanessa, Vanessa," She took my face into her hands. "You know I would never let anything bad happen to you. Never."

"But how can you--?"

"I will always look out for you." Her brown eyes electrified my body, alerting me.

"Now, I want you to listen to me. And listen hard. You have a battle to fight. You have to go back and fight. I know you can do it." She smiled widely. "You're my daughter, after all."

My vision was tunneled completely on her, her voice.

"Go home, Vanessa. Wake up."

* * *

I jolted back to life, sucking in every ounce of air I could into my lungs, coughing it out.

"Vanessa!" Chris was by my side, on his feet, holding my hand. "Vanessa, Vanessa, oh my god, you're awake." he planted kiss after kiss on my forehead.

I tried to talk, still gasping for breath, "How... w-what... happen...? Where's... everyone?"

"They all went home to shower and get some sleep. It ... It was bad, Vanessa. You fainted. But as you were falling, you smashed your head on the kitchen table. Your head hit some glass too. Your brain was swelling... and there was bleeding. They didn't know if you were gonna be okay." Chris took the chance to gently press his lips to mine.

They didn't know if you were gonna be okay.

I suddenly became aware of my throbbing head and the bandages it was wrapped tightly in. How bad was it actually? I vaguely remember a voice. This one voice. And a hug. It was comforting, it pulled me back. From what? Death? Was I really that close to death?

* * *

"Careful, careful," Joanna warned as Chris lightly laid me on my bed. The doctors wrote prescriptions for lots of medication and gave specific instructions of bed rest, which Joanna was taking very seriously. My head still hurt, but I could think a bit more clearly now.

"Chris, go grab her some water? And bring up her medicine, in case she needs it." Joanna ordered.

Nobody had said anything about Adam. I knew it was a looming conversation I would have to deal with eventually. For some reason, after being in the hospital, I was feeling a lot more confident about the whole situation; I was ready to fight to stay with the Stevens'.

"Joanna. What are we going to do about Adam?"

Joanna's head shot up from fluffing my millions of pillows she had given me.

"Oh, Vanessa... you don't have to deal with that. Don't worry --"

"Joanna, I need to be involved. I'm fine, promise. I won't go passing out anymore. But I need to know what's going on. Every step of the way, even if the news sucks." I breathed.

"We're currently looking a lawyer. The best lawyer money can buy. We're not going to let him take you from us."

"Is there anything I can do?"

Joanna patted my hand. "You can get some rest."

Author's Note: 🎉THANKS FOR 50,000 READS!! YOU GUYS ARE INSANE🎉

OKAY SO - I want to be more consistent with my updating (cause I know it's super random and sucks lol) so what do you think would work best?

* Updating once a month, once a week, every two weeks? What days? Give me some feedback in the comments!!

Thank you so much for reading, please let me know what you think!