The Price of Gold | Fortune's Fool #1

39 | weight of water

• [ t h e w e i g h t o f w a t e r ] •

♥ louisa ♥

NOTHING APART FROM the sound of my anxiously tapping heel filled the private hospital room. I'd been sitting besides the bed for the past half hour, rerunning the events that had happened earlier today. The others had offered to stay and wait with me yet I had convinced them to go watch Arlo perform at the Opera House.

It wasn't fair on Arlo to lose out after he'd spent so many hours practicing.

Besides, it had taken a lot of persuasion to stop the blonde musician from pulling out of the show and I knew it would take as many people as possible to stop him from turning around on the journey to the venue.

The scent of the sea still clung to my skin from our scuba diving session that had been cut short. I hadn't had the time to take a shower. Part of me was still horrified at what had happened. It had been disastrous.

I glanced at myself on the weak reflection of the turned off bedside television. My damp hair had been tidily smoothed down from the weight of water but contained a dozen of knots when you looked at it closely.

At the sound of the bedsheets ruffling, I turned my head to the curly haired boy who shifted slightly as his sleep broke. Despite his jaggedly sharp features, he seemed relaxed and at eaze as his eyes opened. The hazel flecks seemed surprisingly bright for somebody who had nearly died. "Morning Princess."

"Morning? It's 7pm, Prince," I started sarcastically before looking at his seriously. "How are you feeling? Wait. Let me call a nurse to check up on-"

"No no, it's fine," Prince stopped me, rubbing at his eyes as he adjusted to the room. "7pm? Bloody hell, I've been asleep for eleven hours. That's impressive."

I chuckled at his pleased expression.

Eleven hours was lengthy but not as long as somebody else. Plus he'd been on the roof of a building for christ's sake, not a god damm comfy bed. I scolded myself when I realised who I was thinking about. He seemed to have a mysterious ability to weave his way into my mind.

It's not the time to think about Gabe, Louisa.

Shuffling towards Prince, I angled myself in his direction. "Can you remember anything?"

Prince rolled his eyes and laughed in response. "I haven't lost my memory, Louisa." I couldn't help but frown when he made light of the issue of memory loss. It wasn't a joke. It could destroy lives. "I remember waking up to that diving instructor giving me CPR. Did I fall asleep after?"

"Kind of. When you say it like that it sounds less dangerous than it was," I said letting out a breathy sigh half way through the sentence. "Once they'd pulled you out the water and given you CPR, they said you had opened your eyes briefly. After that your body shut down from exhaustion."

His eyes still seeming slight dazed as he glanced at the drip he'd been connected to. "Oh shit."

"Yeah," I said, quickly hiding the slight shake that had situated itself in my hand. "Even thought you had started breathing properly again, they said you needed to be put on a ventilator to give your lungs a little rest."

It had been terrifying to see one of my closest friends floating lifelessly besides me underwater. Haunting even.

One moment I had been pointing out to Talisa some beautiful pinkish corals and the next moment, I'd turned around to face an unconscious Prince. I couldn't even describe it. It had been a horrifying contrast to the dashing assertive man I'd seen less than an hour before.