Chapter 9: Phoebe's POV
When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was the smell, a sharp scent with hints of fake citrus.
The next thing I noticed was the scratchy feeling of the sheets covering most of my body.
And then I noticed the pain.
It wasn't as bad as it was when I was first stabbed, but it still hurt like hell. The pain was centered under my rib cage, but I felt it throughout my torso
Before I could analyze anything else about my surroundings, a doctor walked in. He looked kind, and he had a scruffy beard similar to Ethan's.
"I'm glad to see that you're awake, Ms. McLean," he said, looking at his clipboard before continuing, "Mr. Jacobs ruptured your spleen, but since you got here in time, we were able to get you into stable condition and give you a blood transfusion. However, we weren't able to save your spleen. Don't worry too much about it though, you'll just be more at risk for colds and the sort." he said, keeping a level voice throughout.
"When should I be able to leave?" I asked. It was currently a tuesday, and usually I played piano at Bennington on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. I couldn't afford to miss those gigs, especially now that we would have to worry about hospital bills.
"We'll need to keep you here until at least tomorrow night to make sure there won't be any further complications with your spleen, and to make sure there won't be anymore internal bleeding."
Well, shit.
"But the good news is that you've made a lot of progress already, so we shouldn't have to keep you for more than three days," he said with a cheerful grin.
I nodded my head before smiling at him. But before I could say anything else, the door to my room opened, this time revealing Ella Jones, who was carrying my backpack.
"Well that's all for now," the doctor said, "I'm Dr. Micheal Browning, just press the nurses call button if you need anything," he said, nodding at Ella before leaving and closing the door.
For a second, Ella and I just looked at one another, before she broke the silence.
"I brought you your backpack," she said, before moving to sit on the couch next to my bed.
"Thanks," I replied, smiling at her. Ella was nice, and also the best clarinet player in the band.
"I'm sorry we didn't stop Jeremy sooner," she said, before putting her head in her hands, "I wish I could have stopped that bastard from hurting you"
"It's not your fault, Ella," I said, adjusting so I could look at her more clearly, "It's Jeremy's. I don't blame you or Ryan for what happened."
She seemed to relax after that, and sent me a grateful smile.
"I have to get home soon, my mom is super worried about me, but I wanted to make sure you were okay" she said.
"It means a lot to me that you came," I said, and she shot me one last smile before leaving my room.
But my solitude was not to last, as only a few minutes after Ella left, Caroline came in. She looked downtrodden, to say the least.
"You're not allowed to do that ever again, Pear" she said, after moving the hospital chair as close as she could to my bed.
"I wasn't planning on it," I said dryly, smiling at her. She let out a short laugh, before smiling at me.
"How bad were you hurt?" she asked, in a small voice, so unlike how she usually sounded. All I wanted to do was comfort her, tell her that it would be alright, but I also knew that if I tried she wouldn't let me.
"Well…" I said, trying to figure out how to phrase 'he stabbed my spleen out' without sounding bad. She just raised an eyebrow at me, geturing me to continue.
"I'm alive, and I should be able to go by at least Thursday morning, but the knife ruptured my spleen." I said, trying to gauge her reaction.
Her face went through a lot of emotions- mainly variations of sadness and anger- before she took a breath and held my hand.
"Everything's gonna be okay, Pear" she said, and for some reason, I believed her.
"So how was your day?" I asked, trying to bring the subject away from my… encounter.
She looked at me for a second, as if she was trying to tell if I really wanted to hear how her day was, but after apparently realizing my desire was truthful she launched into a story about how the new principal at her school banned the use of half of the staircases due to two students making out in one of them. She was gesticulating wildly, and that's when I finally noticed that she was wearing my shirt.
"Are you wearing my shirt, Cherry?" I asked, trying to hold in my grin.
She blushed and looked down at her shoes
"Maybe" she said, and I couldn't help but laugh.
"It's okay, you know," I said. The sight of her wearing my shirt was one of the cutest things I had ever seen. She was 5'2 to my 5'9, but to stop it from being too long she put it in a scrunchie.
"I missed you" she said, still looking down at her shoes.
"Then come here," I said, patting the left side of the bed and shuffling over to the right.
"Is that allowed?" she question, but before I could respond she had already taken off her shoes (a worn pair of red converse) and walked over to the left side.
"Tell me if I hurt you," she said, before carefully climbing in. I smiled at the warmth she brought.
"You're freezing," she said, before settling her head between my left arm and torso.
"And you're hot," I said, before laughing at the pun.
We chatted lightly for a few minutes before sleep overtook me, ending the day the same way it began.
AN: Isn't it strange that Reid didn't visit? Hmm…