Chapter 9 – Recovery and Discoveries (Part 1)
Ryan opened to the door to his Berkeley apartment which he shared with his house mate Nick and his girlfriend Sara. He sighed about the amount stacked pizza boxes on the table and the fact that Nick had not cleared up. He found a note on the fridge from Nick
"Hey mate gone to on holiday with Sara's parents back on the 1st May. Nick"
It was the 30th well 2 days to clean up and the idea did sit to well with him, so he started to clean up when the phone went.
"Hello"
The line cut out and Ryan looked very confused and carried on with the cleaning and doing his washing, when the phone went again
"Hello"
A quiet voice replied on the end on a bad line
"Hey, Atwood"
"Summer hey, Is Seth with you are you back in Rhode Island?"
"No I'm in Paris, Seth is back in Rhode Island"
"Paris, why are you visiting Taylor be chance"
"Yes not till tomorrow, I have only just got here, I'm in the hotel, sorry for cutting you of earlier"
"Yeah all right so you are seeing her then to discuss everything with her and sort things out"
"Yes"
"Well keep me posted with what she says I hope we can sort this out"
"Yeah Keep save Atwood"
"You to Roberts"
"Bye"
"Bye"
Ryan put the phone down and thought long and hard about it all he walked into his room and finished unpacking his bag, looking at his wall, pictures of him Taylor at his high school prom, 18th Birthday party, Kirsten's 40th Birthday party and even Taylor's 18th. He got his out his camera and loaded the pictures of him and Marissa from the holiday and printed them out and put them on his wall, he had a tear in his eye, and he will learn the truth soon.
Summer sat on the bed of her French hotel and looked at her bag and her hands she felt so scared her hands started to shake and she ended crying. She kept thinking about hat tomorrow bring, but then she was thinking about Seth, they had never been apart for longer than a night, so this was new to her and she worried about Seth.
It was the next morning Summer could not sleep that night all nights she was thinking about Seth & Taylor, she got ready and had breakfast in the hotel and left, the Paris sunshine was different from Newport or Providence. She made her way to the hospital through the streets, she got lost a few times and final got there and went to the reception and asked in her best French.
"Bonjour, je suis ici de voir MADEMOISELLE Townsend, pourriez-vous me dire que la façon à étaient elle est? (Hello, I'm here to see Miss Townsend , could you tell me the way to were she is?) "
"Oui, Elle est sur la pièce de plancher de D 13. (Yes, she is on D floor room 13.)"
"Merci pour votre aide (Thank you for your help)"
Summer left and walked towards the lift and got into the lift and pressed the button for D Floor and waited till it stopped. She got out and walked to the rooms till she reached Room 13, from the tiny window she could see Taylor laying on the bed with her leg up and an oxygen mask, whist reading a book and writing on a piece of paper. Summer felt butterflies in her stomach, she was so sad to she Taylor like this, she opened the door, and Taylor did not move her head to see who had come in as Summer closed the door, nervously Summer walked over to where Taylor was and sat down on the chair at the end of room.
Taylor finally looked up from her book and put her piece of paper down and noticed that Summer was in the room, sitting in the chair at the end of the room, she took of her oxygen mask and Summer came over.
"Summer, Summer you are here" Taylor cried feeling a pain in her chest
Summer came over and hugged Taylor as she cried in her arms, she calmed her down and moved the chair towards her bed
"Hey I'm here" she comforted her friend, and started to cry herself
She wiped her eyes with a tissue and got her bag closer to her and opened it and got out a few items wrapped in paper
"I got you a few things to cheer you up" she passed Taylor the first present, she opened it carefully it was a necklace from Sandy and Kirsten, Summer passed her next present it was a pencil drawing of sunflowers and a photo frame, the picture was from Seth and the photo frame was from Summer and the finally thing was a small envelope with a letter inside. Taylor thought this was from Ryan so she left it till she had some private time to read Ryan's letter.
"Thank you Summer for all these gifts, I love them"
Summer smiled and Taylor smiled back, Summer felt a tiny bit better now that was over there was more she wanted to find out from Taylor, the truth, and what was the future for Taylor.
"So how are things and how did this all happen"
Taylor felt nervous at summer's direct question and was afraid to answer, then after a minute silence she answered the question
"Well not so good, well is this enough prove to you" Taylor saying angrily pointing to her leg then she continued
"Well all I can remember it started back to when I started to date Jean-Paul whist cheating on Ryan. I was really missing Ryan, I did not think that Jean-Paul was right for me; I was not also enjoying my placements, and so drink was my only escape from it all, drinking a whole bottle of wine in one evening and then moving on to vodka having half a bottle, I would end up sleeping with Jean-Paul each night and various other men, then I got into drugs well I would be taking cannabis from a dealer and then anti depressives from the doctor as I told them I was home sick. So the night that I Jean-Paul had enough my drug taking and my drinking I told him to leave me alone or take me back to Berkeley and home, he did not and left me alone and dumped me. The day of my accident I went to visit my friend from the university it was my cannabis dealer, so I got to his flat and we started to drink and some cannabis, sleeping pills whist having sex with each other, I can't remember leaving his place to get back to my flat, then I woke up 2 days ago and now they want to send me to London away from Paris, the police questioned Jean-Paul and the guy I got my cannabis from has been jailed, Summer I'm such a mess, I'm a drugie, I cheated , I drank alcohol, I took drugs, I fell of a metro platform, and I'm in hospital, all I have to is get of the drugs and the alcohol and leave Paris and come home"
Summer was shocked by what Taylor had said to her and did not know what to say or do, nobody ever had done so much to fall so low and become so far away from everyone around her
"I do not what to say Taylor I'm shocked at your confession and what you have said to me, I think you should get your self clean and maybe someone can help you, maybe its time for you to expect things in life and move on from Ryan and Jean-Paul"
"How is Ryan, by the way" Taylor asked
"Not so good he felt upset by your action, but he does not know what you have told me today and I know he would punch somebody to get his anger"
"Yes I know he would like to, so I remember when he spilt from me he had a friend with him, I can't remember her name"
"That is Marissa Cooper now they are going out, we went on holiday together for spring break and he asked her out"
"What Juile and Jimmy Coopers Daughter, the one at boarding school"
"Yes, but she is not at boarding school, she is in New York"
"Oh yeah"
Summer felt that so much had been asked and that Taylor condition was good, she kept thinking about Seth and his picture. At that moment a nurse came in to check Taylor was okay and left again and Taylor asked about Seth
"How is Seth, what is he studying?"
"Fine, he is studying graphic design"
Summer noticed Taylor was suffering from selected memory loss as well; it must have been the drugs that affected her memory. It was getting late around 3pm Summer had not had lunch yet and then looked at the thin Taylor she was all skin and bone, her stomach gave her sign, and Summer went to get a chocolate bar, sandwich and some coffee and continued to talk to Taylor about there spring break, the scuba diving and the meal on the boat. By the time Summer had finished talking a nurse came in and said in French
"Visiter les temps sont finis pour le jour, vous pouvoir s'il vous plaît la feuille le plus tôt possible s'il vous plaît. (Visiting times are finished for the day, could you please leave as soon as possible please.)"
Summer felt annoyed she did not want to leave Taylor alone
"I have to go now, but please stay strong and when you are out come back to Newport and we can let you recover with your family and friends, Taylor you are my good friend and I hope that you come home"
"Thanks Summer, I wish I could change the events of the last 6 months and be back with Ryan and be in Berkeley, the nurses are strict about visiting times so you better go"
Summer hugged Taylor and cried, and left with a smile on her face. She left the hospital feeling that a lot of stuff was explained and got back to her hotel and ordered room service
Taylor sat in her hospital bed and opened the letter it was from Ryan it said
"Dear Taylor
I'm sorry to hear about you been in hospital and I did now you had problems. I would like to say sorry if the break up between us took you to this, but I do hope you get better soon
Ryan "
She felt that she had to write to Ryan and tell him about it all as he would not take things lightly and in a letter then maybe they could discuss this later when she got back to Newport, she started writing, it took her most of the night, she poured out her heart to him and saying she was a bad girlfriend and she hoped that him and Marissa were happy as she felt that he was getting much better with her than she could ever.
Summer sat on the plane the following day and was at last peaceful about Taylor's situation and her future, now she could think about was Seth and the fact that he tutor would be very angry that she had missed 3 days of classes.
FIVE DAYS LATER
Ryan opened the mail box to find a letter addressed to him from Paris, he felt a chill down his spine, and he walked back into the flat and went to his room and opened the letter and started to read it. As he read it a tear started to fill his eye and he nearly felt like he had let her down, but then when she had explained what she had done Ryan knew that it was that she was lonely and going Paris was not a good idea for them, but he knew he would have never started going out with Marissa if Taylor had stayed. At the end of the letter Taylor wrote that she still loved Ryan and she would come clean for him and come home to Newport and they will be friends no matter what happens and that she will be leaving Paris as soon as possible and was going to Rehab in the same centre Julie had gone to when she had drink problems and that he would support her through her treatment.
Taylor also wrote that she hopped that she would she him this summer and that she would be able to go back to Berkeley and do her third year soon. Ryan finished the letter and pinned it on the notice board and did feel a little guilty about Taylor, but he knew that summer they could sort out there problems and be friends.
Summer got back to Providence to a happy Seth, she was glad to see him, and they kissed at the airport and Seth said he time to think about them and he wanted to stay Summer and since she had been away. He produced a canvas on it was a picture of Summer and her rabbit Pancakes in her arms, Summer did not know what to say and kissed him and they walked of to there taxi holding hands.