Chapter 17- Technicolor
"Pete, I have a dare for you," Joe said, sitting in the living room of Pete's parents' house with Danielle on his arm. They came over early the next morning to break the news of the engagement. Everyone was really excited for the two of them. The girls had gone into the kitchen to fix coffee for everyone, but really were gushing over Danielle's ring.
"Everyday for the next week, you dye your hair a different neon color, but don't tell anyone what you're doing," Joe said, whispering so that the girls wouldn't hear them.
Pete just snickered. It had been along time since he had done something crazy with his hair. The thought of being crazy with it for a week had appeal.
"What color should I dye it first?" Pete asked, agreeing to the bet. Joe smiled, stood up and gestured for Pete to follow to the bathroom.
"Hey Leila, come here a minute," Joe yelled from the hall way. Leila stood up from her spot in the kitchen where she and Danielle were still discussing her engagement.
"What is it Jo-" Leila began to ask, but stopped short when she saw Pete. Her eyes bugged out and her mouth dropped. They were sitting on the couch and Pete had hot pink hair. She was speechless.
"What do you think?" Pete asked, half smiling half afraid to see Leila explode.
"What did you do?" Leila said, upon finding her voice.
"I dyed it," Pete shrugged. The corners of Leila's mouth began to twitch; soon she was smiling. The more she looked at hot pink haired Pete, the funnier he looked. Soon she was in tears from laughing at him. Pete couldn't help but smile.
"Wow, I was expecting her to freak. She's acting really awesome about this," Pete thought.
Pete's train of thought ended when his phone started ringing, instantly realizing Patrick's ringtone. Still laughing, he answered.
"What's up dude?" Pete said. His smiling face went to grim in an instant. Leila, who had been watching him, got concerned.
"Okay, Patrick, don't worry; we'll be there," Pete said and hung the phone up. Pete looked solemnly towards Leila; which made her only worry more.
"Leila, we have to fly to Alabama; right away," Pete remarked.
"Why?" Leila was afraid of the answer.
"Cara's in the hospital."
Leila felt her world spin. The only thing she felt was Pete's arms around her, to hold her up.
The plane ride to Alabama seemed to take forever. Leila was so worried about what was happening with Cara, she forgot to be scared about the plane. Pete hadn't really told her anything, and she didn't know if he knew much; he wasn't on the phone with Patrick very long. They landed in Birmingham and headed straight for UAB hospital. Pete had gotten all of Cara's room information from Patrick before they had hung up.
They arrived at the hospital and asked from the front desk nurse where Cara's room was; the nurse pointed down the hall to the elevators and they were on their way to Cara. Once on the hall where the nurse told them to go, they saw Patrick sitting in a chair right outside her door. Leila took off in a run down the hall. Patrick looked up at the sound of hurried footsteps.
"How is she?" were the first words out of her mouth.
Patrick was a little taken aback by Pete's hot pink hair. Trying to tear his eyes away from the neon follicles, he looked to Leila, "They said she'll be fine. They pumped her stomach and have her sedated now," Patrick said. Leila looked up at him in concern. Upon seeing the clueless face of Leila's, Patrick looked to Pete. Pete looked away and Patrick frowned.
"She overdosed on Xanax," he stated.
Leila gasped in a sharp breathe. She had no clue that Cara was prescribed those.
"She took them from a patient at her hospital, but no one knows that. I didn't say where she got the pills. But it won't be soon before long that someone figures it out," Patrick said, looking around down the hall, making sure no one heard him.
"We'll figure something out, but for right now let's just focus on getting her better," Pete said. Having personal experience in this category, overdosing can be very embarrassing when everyone knows about it. He knew how sensitive she would be about the whole thing; this had to be handled with extreme care. Patrick was looking to Pete, knowing exactly what he was thinking.
"How do you think she's going to feel Pete?" Patrick inquired.
Leila looked to Pete in a puzzled fashion. What would Pete know that someone else wouldn't?
"Don't treat her like a child, but be nice. She probably wants to forget this whole thing happened, and that's okay at first; but after a week or two, you going to have to talk to her," Pete said, remembering who made him talk about his problem. Again, the feeling of complete change came over him. He couldn't believe that Ashlee had been the one to talk to him, and now here he was; extremely happy with another one in his arms. He wondered if Leila knew that detail about his past. The nurse came out of Cara's room.
"She's awake, but not for long. The medicine she's on is going to make her very loopy, so she might not make much sense. Normally I would say only two guests at a time, but since there are only three of you, you can all go in," she told them.
Patrick took one last look at Pete, and led the way into the room. Cara was lying on the bed that stood in the middle of the room. Her skin was very pale and her lips were almost white. Her eyes were sunken in with dark circles around them. The sight of her made chills go down all their spines. Patrick all but ran to her side. Cara turned her head as Patrick took hold of her hand. You could see the sadness in her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she croaked out.
"No, just relax… Don't talk," Patrick said, holding back his tears.
"Please, I need to say this. I'm sorry that I was so selfish about Micah. I knew it was a huge shock for you, and I should have been there for you. I could never say I'm sorry enough, but I want to make it up to you. I realized while you were gone that I can't live without you, Patrick. And if that life includes Micah, then it includes Micah. I don't care what you bring into this relationship, as long as you at least bring yourself. That's all I ask. Me and you will figure this out and we'll be happy again… I promise," Cara finished in a whisper, a solitary tear rolling down her face.
Patrick couldn't say anything. All he could do was just stare at her. One of the tears that he was holding back leaked onto his cheek. As he looked into her eyes, he knew that they were going to be okay. He smiled up at her and kissed her hand that he was holding.
As Cara slipped into a sleep, he heard her say, "I love you, Patty Cakes."
"I love you too, Cara."
Leila walked down the stairs of Cara's townhouse, getting ready to see her in the hospital with Casie. She went into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. Leila leaned against the counter, sighing. She was thankful that Cara was going to be okay, but she couldn't help but think what else could happen. She heard Pete coming down the stairs.
"About time… That boy was in the bathroom for long time," Leila thought to herself. She walked out to meet him in the living room and stopped short when she saw Pete.
His hot pink hair had changed colors; it was now a bright shade of turquoise. Her eyes popped just like they did with the hot pink coloring.
"Are you going to do that all week?" Leila asked, with a smile on her face.
"Why not? Black was getting a little boring…" Pete said, checking out his new hair on the side of the toaster. Leila just shook her head, laughing at him.
"But the black hair is my favorite," Leila said softly, walking over to Pete. "Black hair is my Pete," she said running her hand through his bright colored hair, missing the black shade.
Pete looked at her affectionately, "When I'm done with the bet, I'll go back black."
There was a knock at the door and Pete went to go answer it. Leila wondered who it was, because Casie was going to meet them at the hospital. As she was walking into dining room, she saw Andy, Joe and Danielle following Pete inside.
"What are you guys doing here?" Leila asked, watching the three newcomers.
Joe was trying to contain his laughter at Pete's hair and Danielle and Andy were just smiling.
"We came to see how Cara was doing," Danielle said, smirking in Pete's direction. Smiling to herself, Leila looked towards Danielle.
"She'll be fine. Patrick hasn't left her side for more than an hour. They are doing a good job on working their problems out. We were just about to go see them, you want to go?" Leila said, looking between everyone but Pete.
"Hey Andy?" Joe said, sitting in the lobby of the hospital waiting on Pete and Leila to come back out. "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind being my Best Man at the wedding?"
Andy looked up at Joe in surprise; he was touched. "Of course I wouldn't mind. You're going to have the best Bachelor's party!" he said laughing. Danielle just rolled her eyes.
"Well, all I have to say is that there better not be any strippers," she said giving Joe a mock look of stern. Joe just shrugged his shoulders, giving her a wink. Just then, Leila and Pete came back out from Cara's hall. They were smiling, so they knew that everything was going well.
"Hey Leila," Danielle said, standing up from her spot on couch, "I was wondering if I talk to you in private?"
Leila nodded her head and followed her across the floor. Pete sat down by Joe and Andy.
"Pete, man, will you be one of my Grooms' Men?" Joe asked him.
Pete blinked, and looked at Joe, smiling. "Nothing I would rather do, man."
Joe smiled and looked to Danielle across the room.
"Leila, I was wondering if you, Cara and Casie would like to be my Brides' Maids?" Danielle asked, seeming a little uneasy.
"I would love too! I'll tell Casie and Cara," Leila said, smiling fro ear to ear. She had never been in a wedding before. Danielle sighed in relief.
"We're planning on having the wedding in mid-August, so that gives us about two months to get everything in order. Joe and I have never been ones to wait, and we want to be married as soon as possible. It'll be in Chicago at my parent's house. I can't wait!" Danielle said, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
Leila just laughed at her, smiling at the giddy girl in front of her. She hoped one day that she would be that giddy when Pete proposed; but that was a long way into the future.
Andy was sitting on the couch in Cara's house the next day, flipping through the channels when Pete walked down the stairs, with lime green hair. Andy looked up and started laughing.
"Dude, how many times do you think you can do that and expect Leila to laugh?" Andy said through his chuckle.
"As many as I can, I guess," Pete laughed along with Andy. "But I think this is the last time, because I don't want to kill my hair."
They heard keys jiggling in the lock. Pete ran and jumped on the couch with Andy, trying to hide his laughter. Leila walked into the room, carrying bags of groceries. She looked around the room, to Andy and Joe (who had come down with Pete) and she just rolled her eyes when she saw Pete's hair; a smile twitching at her lips.
"You're going to burn out your hair doing that, you know?" Leila said more than asked Pete.
Leila was lying on Cara's bed, flipping through the TV, finding nothing that peeked her interest. She heard Pete fumbling around in the bathroom and she just prayed that he wasn't dying his hair another color.
"Hey Leila! You'll never guess what color I just dyed my hair!" Pete's voice yelled through the bathroom door.
Leila groaned, "What this time?"
The bathroom door creaked open. Leila was afraid to look at his head, so she kept her eyes focused on his feet. They were walking closer to her.
"Well, aren't you going to look?" he said.
Leila looked up and smiled. Black. He was back to normal. Leila knelt on the bed, right in front of him. She ran both hands through it.
"Now that's the color I like to see."
-note from the author-
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! The next chapter will be called Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.