A/N: Sorry for such a long update! Disclaimer: Gallagher Girls= Not mine :(
The car ride home three days later was awkward, to say the least. We were about forty-five minutes from the hospital and I was very uncomfortable sitting upright in the back seat for that amount of time.
My mother was quiet, concentrating on the road, and my stepdad was quiet too, just because he's a quiet kid of guy. Did I mention I hate him?
My real dad hadn't been to see me at the hospital. He'd called, sure, but it wasn't the same. In my fragile state I'd cried about it like a baby, while my mom held me and told me it wasn't my fault, but that my dad blamed himself for my injuries and just couldn't face me quite yet.
Ouch.
Max had been to the room, too, wheeling himself in with a wicked big cast all up his right leg and a goofy grin plastered on his face.
We talked a little, and he tried to help me remember anything from the last few months by saying helpful things like "You really don't remember when we went streaking in Giggle Park?" No Max, I really don't. And I'm sort of glad about that one, too.
Bex had sat by my bed for a bunch of hours, just sort of hovering around not knowing what to do. I wasn't really sure what my course of action with her should be.
Should I break off our relationship? Would that be better for all of us? But then again, what if I really liked her? So I let her hang by me whenever she showed up, and we had a nice time just sitting sometimes and talking other times.
And then there was Cammie. That gorgeous, smart, friendly, sexy- Ok I was fantasizing again. But really, she was everything.
She bustled through my room every so often, and when she did I would stop talking and just stare at her. When she conversed with Dr. Newman she had so much knowledge it was mind blowing. She could talk about medications, procedures, surgeries-anything. And you could tell she really cared about her patients, too. She was incredible.
Her car was traveling behind ours on the highway. I'd already looked back at her a few times to see her breaking out in song and nodding her head. She was too cute.
My mother cleared her throat. "Well," she prolonged the word, "We can do anything you want when we get home, sweety, ok? We can play a game, or watch a movie, or play outside..." Her voice trailed off.
"I think I'm just gonna rest mom," I responded. She nodded, "Of course, honey."
Annnnd the car was silent again.
"Do you need anything else?" Cammie asked me from the door of my room. She was wearing jeans and a loosely fitting white shirt. Her hair was up in a ponytail and her face was flushed and radiant. She had just administered my nighttime medications.
"You," I said huskily, forgetting myself for a moment. Then I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand. She blushed and closed the door behind her as she left.
"Fuck, I'm such an idiot," I said to myself. I heard her humming as she walked down the hall to the guest room, and smiled before drifting into a dreamworld of Cammie.
Bex came by the next day. She looked uncomfortable when she walked up to my room and knocked on my door. I called her inside.
"Hey Bex, what's up?" I asked, sitting up in bed and running a hand through my hair. She hovered by the doorway awkwardly, so I motioned her towards me.
"Um, I just, well, um, I, well...I wanted to see you," she said slowly. I smiled at her; she could be really cute sometimes, too. I patted the space next to me and scooted over a bit. Color rose to her cheeks, and she sat down with her hands over her knees.
The silence was comfortable for a while, and I almost drifted back to sleep until she spoke quietly. "So do you maybe want to do something?" she asked, "Like, this weekend. Maybe see a movie?" I was sort of stunned by her question and didn't answer.
She rushed to say, "I totally understand if you can't, of course. I know you have appointments and what not." She trailed off and looked away. I smirked.
"Sure, Bex. Just not a movie; they're too loud for my head." She beamed. When she left the room a few hours later, after chatting for a while about nothing really, the only girl on my mind was Cammie. Wouldn't it be something if I went on a date with her?
I left my room only once that day, for therapy. My mom drove me downtown to a local psychologist where I would discuss memories. We waited together outside the office, and when I was called in she gave me a big hug and her eyes watered like we would never see each other again.
"I'll pick you up in a hour," she told me and I nodded. As she walked away, she looked over her shoulder and smiled sadly at me. I opened the door and walked into the office.
We hadn't made much progress and it was about half way through the meeting. We had mostly discussed my parents divorce, which was about a year and a half ago, and he'd said it was so very great that I remembered it.
We also talked a little about the fight my dad and I had had before the crash, and decided we should ask Bex to accompany us at a future meeting to tell us exactly what had gone down that night. But, that was pretty much all that we had come to a conclusion about.
The shrink was a balding, plump man named Dr. Steve who insisted that I was making excellent progress. Which I highly doubted.
"Now tell me," he said seriously, "You and Max really weren't friends?" I nodded.
"We were best friends in kindergarten, and up through elementary school and the beginning of middle school, but soon we starting going in opposite directions. He went with the 'bad kids' and did drugs and drank and stuff, and I played sports and focused on friends and school. We never had a fight, but we haven't hung out in forever." His brows furrowed.
"Except that you were with him the night of crash, and from what I hear from Max himself, you guys have been very close recently." He looked down at a clipboard in his hands.
"Actually, it says here that, in his words, 'We'd been buds since his parents nasty separaion.'" He looked up at me.
"Tell me, what do you remember after your parents divorce?" he questioned.
I thought for a minute. "I don't know," I said. A knock sounded at the door.
"Think about it," he said. He stood and I followed as he opened the door and gestured me out. "Until next time, son. You've done some excellent work today."
It was Cammie at the door.
"Your mom had to run some errands, so I'm here to bring you home," she said brightly. A hint of a blush still lingered on her cheeks. I walked behind her to the car and climbed into the passengers seat, my arm cast bumping the front slightly.
"Kay," I said. The radio was turned on and we drove home in an awkward silence, Cammie sometimes humming along to the music. I stared at her the entire ride home, and when she caught me look she stopped humming.
"Zach, I just want to clear something up," she said, her gaze darting and her cheeks reddening. I swallowed.
"Yeah?" I prodded.
"Well, it's just," she paused, "You do know that we can't have a personal relationship until I'm no longer your nurse, right?" I blanched.
"Yeah, yeah totally," I responded like a dumb ass. She bobbed her head a little, embarrassed.
"Alright cool," she said, "Cool." I smirked a little at her discomfort, and then she grinned at me and we both started to laugh.
"How old are you Cammie?" I suddenly asked a few minutes later. She stopped laughing and looked at me questioningly.
"Seventeen," she answered.
"Sweet," I uttered under my breath, "Me too."
"I know," she said, and then blushed and rushed to explain, "Well, it's just that it was in your records, you know, and I looked at them because I'm your nurse, and it's really-" I cut her off.
"Speaking of which, aren't you a little young to be working as a full-time nurse?"
She nodded. "I know that I want to be a nurse when I grow up, so I've interned at the hospital every summer for the past three years. This year, I get to actually have patients. Dr. Newman is my uncle and he set it up with the hospital board." That explains their many conversations, -with words like 'sweety' no less.
"That's really cool," I told her, and I was completely serious. Everything Cammie does is really cool. And then I ventured, "Are you sure we can't go on just one date?"
She groaned. "Zach!"
"Fine. At least I get you at my house all summer long," I said smugly. She smiled at my childishness.
"You have a girlfriend, you know," she reminded me.
Right. And I was going on a date with that same girlfriend in two days.
A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all of the awesome comments and adding this story to your favorites and what not. Sorry if I couldn't respond to your comment...if you want a response you should log in so I can PM you.
I'm DEEPLY sorry about the long update. I had finals and stuff, yada yada. But it's summertime now, yay! So I'm hoping to update by the 4th of July, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to. I certainly don't want to give you all a crappy update.
Buuuut, it would really, really, help my motivation if you guys REVIEWED! All you have to do is press on that button down there, and say anything. If you don't have any suggestions or ideas, you could always tell me which One Direction member is you favorite. I'm very curious to know.
-Silvya