The Girl Next Door

Chapter Seven: Hernia It Is

While we waited on a nurse, Shaina dozed in and out of sleep.

A nurse came into the room with a wheeled chair. "Shaina Collins?" she asked.

"That's me" Shaina croaked. I hadn't even realized she was awake.

"Alright. My name is Holly and I'll be doing your sonogram today. Why don't we go ahead and get you situated in the wheeled chair and we'll get going?"

I gently lifted Shaina from the bed, careful not to jostle her and placed her in the chair. She curled into a tight ball, obviously in a lot of pain. It broke my heart. She shivered. I draped the blanket over her.

As the nurse wheeled her to the sonogram room, I never left her side. She held my hand tightly.

I heard her phone begin to ring. She worked it out of her back pocket and answered it, "Hello?" she mumbled.

"Oh, Chad. Hang on. I'm passing the phone off I can't talk well..." she croaked.

She handed me the phone.

I brought it to my ear, "Chad? Hey, it's Matthew. Look, I'm at the hospital with Shaina. She was attacked by some guys at school and we think she may have a hernia. You're welcome to come here and I'll meet you in the waiting room. We're in the ER."

Chad started to respond to me but Shaina called my name. I knew by the she said it she was about to get sick.

"Hang on." I told Chad as I set the phone down on the arm of the chair and helped Shaina to sit up.

I looked around frantically for a trash can or something but there wasn't anything around. She heaved and threw up on the blanket and all over the floor. But as normal, it was all blood.

"I'm so sorry." I began to apologize to the nurse.

The nurse just took the blanket and smiled. "No worries," she said cheerfully, "Its nothing we haven't seen before." She grabbed her walkie talkie from her hip, "I need a clean up over in ER outside sonogram room. There's blood." She slipped it back in her pocket, "Alright let me go take care of this and we'll get started." She left with the blanket then returned a few minutes later and pushed Shaina into a dark room with a bed and a monitor. "Alright honey, if you could just lie flat on your back on that bed." the nurse commanded.

Shaina tried to get up but I beat her to it and swiftly swung her up in my arms. I gently laid her on the bed and sat down at her feet.

"So, I'm going to run this little thing over your stomach and you'll see the images up here on the screen." the nurse told Shaina. "If I hit a tender spot be sure to tell me so I can be sure I note it. Ready?" Shaina nodded hesitantly. I entangled our hands together. She squeezed my hand in thanks.

The nurse lifted up her shirt and I averted my eyes to the screen. "Alright nothing yet." she told us and then she must have hit something because Shaina whimpered.

"Oh!" The nurse exclaimed, "And there is our hernia."

The nurse pointed to a long dark spot on the screen. "That's the hernia. It's a big one. That boy must have kicked you hard."

"He did." Shaina muttered. I got angry all over again.

"Well I'm going to go ahead and take you back to the room and the doctor will be in shortly to discuss what happens next." The nurse told her.

I suddenly became very protective of Shaina. "If you don't mind, ma'am," I began, "But can I just carry her back? I just feel better if I have her."

The nurse smiled warmly, "That's fine. Are you her boyfriend? She's a lucky girl."

I chuckled a little, "I'm not her boyfriend. I'm her neighbor."

"Well she's still lucky to have you." the nurse told me.

I scooped her up from the bed.

I took her back to the room we had been in and we situated ourselves like we had early with her head on my lap. I held her hand and stroked her hair hoping to calm her.

"Matthew? I'm scared..." she muttered quietly.

My heart practically broke. It made me so sad to see her so scared and upset. "Oh it's gonna be okay, Shaina. You've got nothing to worry about, yeah?" I reassured her.

Suddenly the door flew open and Shaina's dad rushed in. "Oh Shaina!" he exclaimed.

"Hi, Daddy." she croaked.

He sat beside down at her feet on the bed, "What happened, honey?"

"I think Matthew should answer. It hurts to talk." she sighed.

Her dad looked at me expectantly.

I cleared my throat suddenly nervous and told him what happened, "I um found Shaina being beaten on by a group of guys. I got them away from her and beat them up. When I was going to take Shaina home she said she felt sick so I pulled over and she threw up blood. That's when I decided she probably needed to go to the hospital. We got here and she's thrown up four more times, all blood. She just had a sonogram and she has a hernia. The doctor should be in shortly to tell us what's happening next."

"Thank you for saving my daughter. I underestimated you, Matthew." He told me. "How are you doing, Shaina?"

"Very sore..." she croaked. "My tummy hurts." She sounded like a child.

"I'm sorry, baby. We'll figure this out."

She suddenly squeezed my hand.

I jumped down from the bed, "Crap." I grabbed the trash can and held it to up her holding her hair back. She threw up again. This was getting really old really fast.

Her dad got off the bed. "Is she okay?" he asked worriedly.

"She's been doing this all day. We're kind of used to it." I told him.

The doctor suddenly came into the room followed by a nurse with two IV bags. "Am I interrupting something?"

Her dad sat back down and so did I. "She just got sick again." I told him really annoyed honestly.

"Well we have stuff to help that. And the pain." he held out his hand to Shaina's dad.

"You're gonna be okay." I whispered to her.

"I'm nervous. I don't want surgery." she mumbles to me.

The nurse started prepping her for the IVs. The nurse gave her the IV and she sighed looking content.

Yay! Finally got a new chapter up! I'm going to spend the rest of today editing these chapters so they're ready.

I hope you guys enjoyed it!

Avery