I ate my lunch in silence, scanning my eyes around the room for something to do to keep me occupied for a while. My eyes met a T.V.

What the heck Jess, how did you not see a T.V. there before? You're so stupid. I told myself.

I scanned around the room again for the remote, and surly enough, when I looked on the side table next to me, there it was.

I reached for the remote and when I got ahold of it I studied the buttons. I pointed it and pressed the red button at the T.V. and it came on.

I flipped through all of the channels until I found MTV. Even though MTV was pretty new, I have always liked to watch MTV because I just love music videos and seeing which new ones came out. I love jamming out to the songs and singing along.

One of my favorite songs that I loved to see and rock out to was You Better Run by Pat Benatar. Now, I know the song came out a couple years ago but I still love it. I always admired Pat Benatar and her music ever since her first record came out in '79. I found that her music had always made me happy.

None of her music videos showed that day but a lot of other good musicians videos were on. I sang along to almost all of them so loudly that I bet the people outside of the room thought I was crazy. But I'm just a girl who loves her music.

That night I found it hard to sleep because first, I had to sleep on my back and I normally sleep on my side or on my stomach, but because of my stupid leg injury, I had to sleep on my back. It was also very uncomfortable. Not to mention the ECG was beeping right in my ear the whole night. How long am I gonna have to stay here for? I wondered.

The first thing that I did when the nurse came into my room in the morning to give me my breakfast was to ask her if the doctors or someone could turn down the volume on the machine. It wasn't like I was on life support or something. No one needed to hear my heart rate. I had a leg injury not a heart attack for crying out loud.

Later on that day, around 10:30, I heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," I said. I thought that it could've been the nurse but actually it was the total opposite. It was one of the boys I met the day before.

It was Richie. He was wearing a suit and tie and had flowers in his hands.

"Hi." He said nervously but smiling.

"Hi," I responded. By the way that he looked at me and the way he dressed, I got the feeling that something was up. I had a feeling that he liked me, even though we just met.

"Umm..." He started. He looked down at the flowers in his hands. "These are for you." He said, coming over to the bed where I was and handing me the flowers.

"You know." I giggled. "You don't have to wear a suit and bring a girl flowers to impress her." I said sniffing the flowers.

"Oh," he said awkwardly, probably now just knowing what he did. He looked at the floor.

I could tell that he was shy and a little nervous.

I smiled at him. "It was a good effort though. It takes some real courage for a boy to do this. Thank you." I said biting my lower lip.

He laughed. "Yeah. I guess it was kind of stupid though."

I looked at his suit and tie again. "I find it kinda cute."

He looked up at me and showed a gentle smile. His eyes lit up with joy. "You do?" He said happily.

"Yeah."

For the next few hours we played a few rounds of connect four.

After we played that, Richie looked at his book bag. "Hey... I have a couple hours to spare. I brought my Atari if you wanted to play. I could set it up to the T.V."

"Yeah, sure. That would be fun." I responded. I was wondering why someone would carry an Atari around with them.

Richie took the Atari and the joysticks out of his bag and set them at the foot of the bed.

We were lucky that the T.V. was on a cart so we could just roll it over to the bed.

After Richie rolled the T.V. next to the bed, he grabbed the different wires and chords and put it into the back of the television.

When he was done setting the Atari up, he came back over and sat down in the chair next to the bed.

"What kind of games do you like?" He asked me.

I thought for a moment. "I really like Pac-Man and Space Invaders. I also like Centipede." I responded back to him, resting the joy stick on my lap.

He looked up at me. "I like all of those games too. They're my favorites."

I was silent for a second. "Do you know who Matthew Labyorteaux is?" I asked.

He smiled. "Of course I know who Matthew Labyorteaux is? He's like the best actor ever."

"I know right. Well he entered a Pac-Man tournament a year or two ago and got the high score of one million, two hundred thousand."

"Yeah, I remember hearing about that in a Blip magazine once."

I sighed. "Too bad that I suck at that game. But it's so addicting. I would never be able to get near a score like that."

"Me neither, " he agreed.

After we were done for the day playing the Atari for about another hour, I'm not going to lie but I lost most of the games. But I kept beating his butt in Space Invaders, so I was happy about that.

There was another knock at the door. This time, it was the nurse. She was carrying a tray. I guess it was lunch time.

"Hi Jessica." She walked over to me and set the tray on the table. "This is your lunch for the day."

"Thank you," I said politely, taking my eyes off of the T.V.

The nurse looked at Richie and then back at me. "And who's this?" She asked with a smile.

"Oh, this is Richie. I met him yesterday."

He smiled.

"Nice to meet you Richie." The nurse said. She looked at the clock. "Well I have to go now. Remember what I said earlier about your leg."

"I know." I responded. "Don't put much pressure on it."

"Yeah." She said as she opened the door. "I'll see you later."

"Okay."

When she left, I got hungry so I leaned to my side and reached for the tray.

"Oh, let me get that for you." Richie said politely. He slowly picked up the tray and handed it to me.

"Thanks." I responded.

He responded with a kind, gentle smile.

I picked up the plastic fork that came with my food and put it in the salad. I took a bite and finished the bite before I swallowed.

Richie looked up at me. "So tell me a little bit about yourself.

"What do you want to know?"

"I don't know... anything." He paused. "Here, I'll go first."

I nodded.

"Let's see." he started. "My name is Richie Adler. I'm 15. I've lived in Los Angeles for my whole life. I live with my mom, sister, and dog. I go to North Centennial high school.

I thought for a second. "Well, my name is Jessica Johnson. I am also 15. I have lived here in Los Angeles for about two and a half months now. I'm actually going to the same high school you go to in the fall. And, I like to sing and dance."

"Nice." He said, engaged. "Who do you live with?"

My smile faded when I remembered about loosing my mom.

"I, um... my mom passed away a few weeks ago. And my dad died when I was really young." I said sadly.

He showed a sign of concern. "Oh... i'm so sorry. I had no idea."

My eyes started to water as I tried not to cry. "It's fine, honestly." I said as a tear slid down my cheek. I wiped it away quickly before he could notice.

His face turned into a frown as a few more teardrops fell from my eyes. he opened his arms and wrapped them around me.

I sobbed but I felt safe in his arms while he made me feel better. His arms were gentle on me and even though I didn't feel that sad anymore, I didn't want him to let go.

"It's okay." He whispered in my ear. His voice was calm and sincere. "It's all going to be alright."