Ricky's Point of View

I was going to be late. You know those mornings where you just know from the minute you wake up that you slept in and were going to be late so you take a little longer than you should since you were already late anyways? This was one of those.

I got up out of bed and checked the clock. Sure enough, it was eight in the morning and I hadn't eaten anything yet. I got myself out of bed and woke John up, he had gone to sleep late last night so he hadn't woken up on time, either.

I took my time when I made breakfast and got the two of us ready. By the time we had eaten and were ready it was 8:45 A.M. , twenty minutes before the first bell would ring. I buckled John in and drove him to the church daycare and took him in. Nancy was waiting for me with a strict look on her face when she said, "Ricky, you're late."

I handed her John and rolled my eyes when her back was turned. I obviously knew that I was late so what was the point of telling me that?

I drove to school ignoring my phone that was vibrating every minute of the way there. I thought, whoever you are, quit it, I'll answer when I park the damn car!

Once I parked in the school parking lot, I looked at the phone, Adrian. Four missed calls, three new text messages, and one voicemail message. I was confused. Adrian wasn't talking to me just as much as I wasn't talking to her, so why was she going through every possible means of getting a message across?

I checked the voicemail first and Adrian's voice came over the line, "Hey, Ricky, I know we're not talking, but I'm worried about Ashley. She looked really bad this morning when I drove her to school and I want you to check on her, okay, it's for her, not me. If she looks any sicker than when you saw her last take her to another doctor, or even the hospital, not her house, her parents heard the pregnancy rumour from Amy and they don't believe that it's not true. If Ashley goes home she'll hurt herself trying not to listen to them by leaving by herself. Okay, call me and let me know if she's alright."

I hung up the voicemail and looked at the phone, it was about fifteen minutes past nine and the voicemail was left at nine.

As I walked into the school, I text messaged Griffin and asked if Ashley was in class with him. Griffin and Ashley had most of their classes together and I knew that first period was one of them.

Not even a full minute later I got a text back from Griffin, he must have had the phone in his hands waiting for someone to text.

It said, "No, she's not. I saw her before class this morning, said she was going to the bathroom. I'm walking there now to check on her. I'll call her phone and see if she's in there and then if she is, go in if she doesn't answer the phone or my voice."

Griffin had some good texting abilities. I changed my direction to where one of the girls' bathroom was. It made sense that she would use the one closest to her when she walked in, the one on the main floor.

"Griffin!" I shouted from down the hall. Griffin had a phone pressed to his ear, and even I could hear Ashley's particular ringtone in the quiet hall. Ashley wasn't really one for customizing her electronics but she also couldn't handle the peppy ringtones that were pre-downloaded. Ashley then downloaded funeral music and put it as her ringtone, just so she wouldn't ever have to listen to the Bug's Song, ever again.

"Ashley?" Griffin asked as he carefully opened the door. A moment later, "ASHLEY!" Griffin hurried in and the door closed behind him. I ran the rest of the way to the bathroom and when I opened the door my eyes were glued to the scene in front of me. I couldn't move or think, I probably didn't even know how to breathe.

Ashley was lying on her back on the bathroom floor, her right hand loosely placed over her stomach, left hand by her side. There was blood on all sides of the sink, and even blood on the floor. The blood on the floor was mostly by her face and hands. Ashley looked so pale, blood was dripping down her face from a spot that her hair was covering, and her lips almost matched her skin in colour. Somehow this looked like a scene from a play or a book where the author or writer was going for the actress to look scary in injury or death, but still beautiful to reflect on her personality or life or something. Ashley looked just like that, scary beautiful, it didn't seem real, but it was and it wasn't fiction, she was really there and she wasn't okay, I needed her, I needed her to be okay, but Ashley wasn't. Yet she needed to be–

"RICKY!" Griffin shouted, looking at me like something was wrong with me. I hadn't even noticed him and in reality, he was a wake up call. I ran from my spot by the door to her side in an instant. Griffin and I were both on our hands and knees next to her trying to figure out what was wrong with her.

"Ashley?" I asked. I checked to see if she was breathing and then I checked her pulse. Ashley's pulse was so rapid that I couldn't keep a clear count.

"Griffin, run to the office and say that there's blood in the bathroom that Ashley vomited up and she's unconscious, and that you think she has internal bleeding." I snapped at him, "GO!"

Griffin ran out the door as fast as he probably could. When he got to the office the blood on his hands and shirt would help the secretaries believe him about Ashley.

I gently moved her hair from her face and began stroking it, which was just about all that I could do at the moment.

Not long later, Griffin came back with the principal right behind him. The principal said something into his walkie talkie to confirm that Ashley Juergens did need an ambulance and to call one, and that her parents should be notified immediately.

The principal awkwardly excused himself after that saying that he would wait for the ambulance and then lead them to where we were.

After the principal left I knew that Griffin was staring at me and Ashley. I had a feeling that I would be having a talk about Ashley with Griffin later and probably one with George, too. It wasn't the time now though, so I just continued using one hand to stroke Ashley's hair and the other I kept on the pulse point on her wrist as I thought over and over again, As long as she has a pulse, she's alive.

Griffin and I waited and while we waited I thought about all the things that we could have – should have – done differently. I should have insisted that even though she hated hospitals that she go. I knew that Ashley hated hospitals since back when Amy had John. Ashley had been sitting outside, drinking the same cup of coffee for an hour so she wouldn't be in the hospital, even though she didn't even like coffee very much. I should have made that doctor pay attention or taken her to see a different one after that.

A little over ten minutes later we heard the principal's voice outside the door, "Ashley Juergens is in there."

The door opened and three people who I assumed were paramedics came in, but I couldn't be sure if that was what they were or not, I didn't know a lot about ambulances except for the fact that there was usually a paramedic. They had to have other kinds of doctors right? Why hadn't I ever thought of this before?

The three began looking over Ashley, poking and prodding, checking her pulse rate, whatever they did in this type of situation.

"Are you friends of hers or did you just find her like this?" One of them, a woman about thirty-something asked, she had brown eyes and bright red hair.

Of course we found her like this. We're guys, why the hell would we go into a girls bathroom if we didn't care about the one girl in it?

"Friends." Griffin answered.

"How long has she been unconscious?" The same woman asked.

"We found her a little past 9:15, but she probably has been unconscious before that since the first bell rang at 9:05 and she didn't make it to class." Griffin said.

"Has she been experiencing any sickness or pains lately?"

What hasn't she been experiencing lately?

"Ashley has had bad stomach pains, so bad that she can't sleep most nights for the past week, and last week on Friday she vomited up some blood, but it was nothing like this."

"Any chance that she may be pregnant?" The woman asked.

"None." Griffin and I said at the same time.

The woman lifted Ashley's shirt up a little bit and touched her stomach gently and examined it, the woman didn't like what she found and not long after they said that Ashley was likely bleeding internally from an underlying condition. That was all they could tell us, either because that was all that they knew or because legally they couldn't reveal too much information.

The paramedics put Ashley on the stretcher and wheeled her out of the bathroom. Griffin and I followed, by unspoken agreement it was decided that I would be driving behind the ambulance and Griffin would be riding shotgun.

Some classrooms had their doors open and when people noticed that someone was being wheeled out on a stretcher everyone crowded by their classroom door and stared. When they realized it was Ashley, the phones came out and people started texting, and the people that didn't have a cellphone talked with the other ones that didn't.

"Is she having a miscarriage?"

"I hope not, her sister's baby is so cute, hers would be too."

"Really? You think she would keep it?"

I had the impulse to yell at them, but I kept it in.

"It's not like she doesn't deserve it though, she's a bitch." Before I could hit the guy that said that comment, someone else beat me to it. Some guy that Ashley had complained about once – Ethan – I think, had punched him so that the guy that said the comment hit the wall first and then fell on the floor where Ethan then kicked him twice in the nose, probably breaking it, before a teacher pulled Ethan away from the guy. "You're only saying that because she rejected you." Ethan hissed at him.

I saw Madison in the doorway of her classroom, she was staring while her thumbs texted, having learned where the letters were without needing to look at them. Everyone would know that something was wrong with Ashley before the hour was done.

Everyone had returned to their seats once we had almost left the building, but no studying or learning was going to take place today.

As the paramedics hooked Ashley up to the various machines in the ambulance, Griffin and I got in my car.

We waited until the ambulance had left and then followed at a safe distance, already knowing which hospital she was going to be taken to anyway.

When we entered the hospital doors and went to the waiting room, Griffin and I were greeted by the sight of a pacing, panicking, terrified George and Anne who wasn't doing much better as she tried to calm Robbie down, who sensed the tense atmosphere and was crying accordingly.

"Breathe, Anne, she'll be fine, she'll be fine, just because you two had a fight this morning doesn't mean it'll be the last thing she hears. You were right, maybe she miscarried and will be fine, minus losing a baby, that is." Anne said as she paced, bouncing Robbie trying to get him to calm down.

George saw us and completely ignored me, instead going for Griffin, "Griffin, what happened? Who found her? What do you know?"

"You know what happened, Ricky and I found her, all I know is that Ashley has internal bleeding, George." Griffin said.

"Okay, okay, it's good, internal bleeding is fixable." Anne said. Finally giving up on calming Robbie down because there was nothing that she could do.

I sat down and tried to think about how many days Ashley had been in pain for, bleeding slowly for, and there wasn't a clear answer, but the obvious one was: Too many. It wasn't only Ashley's fault for not getting enough medical help, it was also her parents' fault for it. Everyone else noticed that something was really wrong with her so why didn't they notice? I finally understood that although they loved Ashley a lot, Ashley was right, they did ignore her a lot and often they knew they were doing it or even chose to do it. Anne and George were great parents, but they didn't treat Amy and Ashley equal, it was always one over the other, and the only reason Robbie wasn't included was because he was too young.

Half an hour passed with no update, but Adrian had showed up with Ruben and her mom, and so did Ben with his dad.

Ruben and Ben's dad were trying to calm George down because by this point he was sweating and going to the nurses' station and asking for an update every minute. Anne had given Robbie to Adrian's mother, despite their problems.

"When they have an update they'll let us know." Ben's dad said.

Adrian sat on the chair with her feet on it and knees pulled up to her chin and she said, "I drove her to school. Ashley looked like that and I drove her to school."

A doctor with greying hair, a old, tired looking brown eyes walked up and said, "Relatives of Ashley Juergens?"

Ashley's dad almost ran into the man trying to get the update first, "Yes? What's wrong?"

"Is she having a miscarriage?" Anne asked, walking to him.

The doctor showed obvious signs of confusion as he said, "Mrs. Juergens, your daughter's not pregnant."

It was Anne's turn to look confused, but George jumped in the air and shouted, "YES!"

"Did she say she was?" The doctor asked.

"No, it was just a rumour going around school." Adrian said from her unchanging spot.

"Would you like to talk about this in private?" The doctor asked.

"No, whatever you have to say you can tell everyone else, too." Anne said.

"Ashley first came in with severe abdominal bleeding and we gave her a blood transfusion when she came in, however her heart did stop briefly due to lack of blood and we had to insert another line. We've ran tests on Ashley for the past half hour and based on the endoscopy, anaemic positive test results, and internal bleeding, we're quite sure that she has an ulcer that perforated the wall of her duodenum, and another ulcer in her stomach that is bleeding heavily or possibly ruptured. Ashley does have a minor concussion from when she hit her head, but it should heal on its own. We will, however, need your consent to remove both ulcers and repair the damage through surgery." The doctor said.

Anne's mouth dropped open and George went back to his pacing back and forth and George asked, "How could this get so bad?"

"Ashley may have never felt any symptoms of having ulcers until she had massive complications. It's been known to happen in children and older people, and although she's neither it is entirely possible. It's luck, either bad or good depending how you look at it."

"She hasn't been in pain." Anne muttered.

"She has, you just didn't notice." I said.

"She has?" Anne asked.

"Yeah." Adrian, Ben, Griffin, and I all said.

"How did she get it?" Anne asked the doctor.

"Sometimes the ulcer can be caused by a certain bacteria, which we've tested Ashley for and she doesn't have it, other causes can be irregular levels of acid in the stomach, which Ashley has and that's likely the cause." The doctor said. "Until we know for sure that the higher levels of acid in her stomach is some form of overproduction we won't do any preventative surgeries, but she will need to have a partial gastrectomy and a gastroduodenostomy, meaning that she'll need to have a portion of her stomach removed and a new passage between the duodenum and the stomach will be created."

Anne and George looked terrified but they accepted the forms given to them and looked them over for a few minutes before signing them. After that, everything moved quickly. Ashley was moved to the surgical floor and we couldn't even see her before she was. We weren't even told how long it would take, but the doctor said at least over four hours, depending on the damage the stomach ulcer did to Ashley's stomach. If too much damage was done, a full gastrectomy instead of a partial one would have to be done or if there wasn't enough of the upper duodenum left they would do a different procedure that had different more unpleasant side effects.

"This is a really bad day." Adrian said.

"How is Ashley?" Grace asked, Tom, her mother, and her mother's new husband right behind them.

"Going for surgery." George said.

"That's terrible! What's wrong?" Grace asked.

"Ashley has two ulcers and they caused damage to her stomach and something called a duodenum and there can be some complications because one has already perforated and the other is bleeding badly." George said.

"Oh, the duodenum is a part of the small intestine." Grace said.

"Well, technically, it's the first part." Grace's stepfather said.

"Jeff, I didn't need the help." Grace said.

Okay, so their problems had not resolved in the slightest.

"Did anyone call Amy and tell her that her sister is having life-saving surgery?" Ben asked.

"No, we aren't going to tell her until we know that Ashley will be okay." Anne said.

"Ashley will be fine. They've diagnosed her and taken her in for surgery and the doctors will repair the damage." Adrian said.

"I don't know, people have died from ulcers before and she has two." Grace said, thinking out loud, only to be met with everyone staring at her in a how-could-you-say-that way.

"Grace, honey, it's really not the time for sharing." Grace's mom said to her.

The four of them took seats in the waiting room. It would only be a matter of time before everyone else came, too.

Adrian's mother gave Robbie to Anne who then gave Robbie to Griffin. Griffin was good with kids, Ashley mentioned that once, and so was Grant.

Ten minutes passed and then Lauren and Madison ran into the waiting room, Jack walking behind them looking like he didn't want to be, and Madison was shouting, "Are we too late! What happened! What's wrong! Is she losing the baby! Why is no one answering me?"

"Because you're shouting and completely wrong." I said.

"So she isn't losing the baby?" Lauren asked.

"There isn't a baby to speak of." Griffin said.

"So she already lost it? Poor Ashley." Madison said, pouting.

"There is no baby now and there never was. Ashley has never been pregnant in her life. Ashley's only problem is two ulcers that have now decided that they want to put her life on the line so will the two of you shut up already and go gossip in a corner." Adrian snapped at them.

Lauren put a hand on her hip and walked to a seat with Madison following behind her. Ashley didn't like those two, they knew it and we all knew it, they were only here to get the latest information. When Ashley finds out that Madison and Lauren showed up at the hospital she will yell at everyone in a ten mile radius to get them out, and maybe even burst a stitch. I did not want to be the one to tell her. I could always just send Jack in, he was very non-violent so he could use a little toughening up.

Five or six hours later and not a single update, we were all going more than a little insane. I saw the guy that Ethan had punched and kicked in the hospital, he did in fact have a broken nose and a loose tooth.

Not telling Amy hadn't worked because the person that Madison had texted earlier was Amy and Madison told her through text that Ashley was having a miscarriage. Amy read the text two hours after that and called and texted Madison and Lauren for the latest information. Lauren and Madison didn't know much so everything they said only freaked Amy out more, so Anne eventually had to call and explain everything that was wrong with Ashley and then calm Amy down when she wanted to get on a plane and fly back.

Adrian had lost her patience with Madison an hour ago and took Madison's phone and threw it into the garbage, destroying it. Adrian told Madison that if she actually cared she wouldn't be on a phone and texting everyone with an available number. I had to agree with her on that because Madison acted like life was one big game to play and include everyone in. It wasn't intended to be that way.

"Why haven't they given us an update yet?" George asked.

"I'm sure that they will soon, George." Donovan said.

Donovan had showed up two hours ago after he closed the shop for the day. Emergencies came first and he was worried about Ashley, he had seen her grow up for years.

The same doctor that we had spoken to before came out a little while later. Everyone looked at him and his eyes went a little wide at the larger crowd than earlier. Hospitals should impose some law about having too many people in the waiting room.

"Is she okay?" I asked.

"Both of Ashley's ulcers were removed. The new passage has been created successfully, but we did end up taking out more of her stomach than we had initially planned to. It wasn't a full gastrectomy, but it was still a substantial part of her stomach so we'll have to wait and see what side effects she will have when she wakes up." The doctor said.

All of us were relieved, even Robbie, who was asleep in Anne's arms.

Ashley is fine. Ashley will have some unpleasant side effects, but she is fine.

"Can we see her?" Anne asked.

"Ashley isn't awake yet and she still has tubes, needles, and machines hooked up to her, but if you want to see her, you can, two people at a time only. Ashley will be in room 403 until the anaesthetic wears off and then she will be moved to a different room for the next seven days, maybe a little longer depending on how she recovers." The doctor said and then left.

Madison took Lauren's phone and began texting. Adrian glared at Madison as if just the power of her staring could kill Madison.

Anne and George went in first and stayed for ten minutes before coming back out.

"Ashley looks horrible." Anne said.

George just sat down, no smile or happiness, that was a sign that Ashley did look bad.

"It's the ICU, what do you expe–" Grace stopped talking, seeing the look we were all giving her.

"Griffin, you can go see her." George said.

"Ricky, come with me." Griffin said flatly and I got up and followed him into Ashley's room.

Ashley was lying on the hospital bed, still very pale, but a little more coloured than earlier in the bathroom. Ashley's face looked sweaty and her eyelids had a pale bluish look. There was a tube in her nose and a mask that provided oxygen covering her nose and mouth. There were two needles in her left arm, both giving her some type of clear fluid or medicine. Another needle was in her right arm, giving her blood. There was also a machine that monitored Ashley's heart rate, and something else that I didn't know. Another machine was connected to her, but I wasn't sure what it did.

Griffin stood next to her and while looking at her said, "Ashley cares about you too and not in a friendship way or a twisted brother-in-law way either."

I didn't smile because something else was coming. Griffin had a protective edge to him, especially when it came to Ashley. I was probably one of the last few people on the entire planet that would be good for her, and Griffin had to know that.

"You better not treat her like you treat every other girl. Expendable." Griffin said.

"I wouldn't." I snapped at him.

"Why should I believe that?" Griffin asked.

"Because–" I started, but couldn't finish. Griffin had every right not to believe me, because there wasn't a reason for him to believe me. I hadn't really been in love before Ashley, the closest ever being Adrian and that didn't turn out well. With Adrian and me it had been non-stop cheating and mind games.

"Exactly, so you better prove it."

I nodded. Griffin was giving me a chance, a small chance to see if Ashley and I could be anything by giving us his approval, which would be good. Griffin was Ashley's only friend and if he wasn't fighting me at every turn Ashley and I could be something, and if it didn't work out, it wouldn't end badly.

Griffin started walking out the door, but before he left he said, "And I'm not great at figuring out people that I don't know well, so if I'm wrong about how you feel and you do treat her like every other girl, be prepared. At other schools before this one I was bullied for being gay, sometimes words, but mostly guys punching, kicking, or purposely bumping into me to teach me to be a 'man', I can hit and be hit just as well as you can, Ricky."

With that, Griffin left. I could see why Ashley's dad liked Griffin so much. Griffin may be overprotective of Ashley, but it kept her safe. I wanted that for her, safety. If I hadn't been already going to check on Ashley when she was in the bathroom, Griffin would have, and it felt nice to know that Ashley had someone besides me looking out for her, even if she didn't like it when people did that.

I took the seat by Ashley's bed. If I was going to prove it, I would be here for her as long as I could. I didn't have to pick John up until seven anyway. I would take care of John and Ashley, and that would be all I would do until Ashley was better and could take care of herself.

Alright, I did the best I could when it came to Ashley's medical problems alright? If you see any obvious things I got wrong just ignore them. And yes, usually there are symptoms of ulcers but rarely there are no symptoms until serious problems happen. It's happened with children and old people, like the doctor said, so I'm making Ashley that rarity despite her age. Aww... Griffin's protective. I love him, all the good guys are either taken or gay.

Disclaimer:

Me: Am I mentioned in the credits of the show, Secret Life of The American Teenager?

Everyone reading this: NO!

Me: See, so I don't own the show, script, or any places you see on the show! I own a tiny laptop, my own TV, books, and a journal, NO SECRET LIFE! Not even the series on DVD...