Page 41 of Guarded By Death
I nod. "It's good to meet you too," I say through my sleepy daze.
Pierce gets up and I whimper from his absence in the bed. He reaches his hand out to Brian. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Pierce.”
Brian smiles, returning his handshake. "I know who you are, Stacy here loves you." The men exchange a laugh and Pierce gestures for them all to go in the hall to give mom and I a minute.
When the door shuts, we both look at each other, tears welling in our eyes. "Why are you so pale, honey? What happened? Pierce said you have the flu?" She questions me with worried eyes.
I look around the bare room. "Well, Liv is going through that breakup, you know, so I was worried about her," I lie "and I didn't realize I was getting sick. I’ve barely eaten, and I kept getting nauseous." I sigh.
She brushes a rogue piece of hair from my face. "Well, honey. You will feel much better soon; you can't let yourself get that sick again!" She lightly scolds me. "And why didn't you go to the doctor?" She looks puzzled and now that I realize how serious this is, even if it was just the flu and not poisoning, I can't help but wonder why I didn't. I truly thought I was just so heartbroken that it was making me physically ill.
"I thought it was just a cold or something," I shrug, wanting to get off this topic. " Kayla was so sweet bringing me flowers. You can tell them to come back in whenever."
She shakes her head. "I don't want to bother you, honey, I'll send them home and you can rest. I'll stay here," she tells me.
"It's okay mom, really. I'll be leaving soon and I'm about to go to bed anyway," I assure her.
She laughs but there's no humor involved. "I'm not leaving you in a hospital alone." She gives me a knowing look.
"I have Pierce," I say quietly.
"Pierce isn't your mother." She counters, but a smile plays on her red lips. "I do like him though. Why didn't Zack call me? I should wring his neck!" She jokes and I laugh, thankful Pierce thought of that one first.
She rubs my head for a while as we sit in silence in the bright room. My eyes flutter closed, and mom gets up to leave. As soon as she opens the door, Liv comes frantically rushing in, will I ever get to sleep?
Her worried expression makes me feel guilty about everyone being here at this hour, they all care so much for me. "Hey, Liv," I smile, sitting up a little.
"Don't get up!" she gently orders, "Hey, Ms. Wells." She wraps her arms around mom, squeezing her in a tight hug.
"Hey, Liv! Scarlett, honey, I'm going to tell Brian and Kayla to head home. I'll be back soon." She promises as she closes the door behind her.
Liv’s flip flop taps against the linoleum floor. "I just finished cussing Zack out, I can't believe he just let me sleep while he took you here! I was worried sick when he called and I realized you two were gone." She sighs as she sits down on my uncomfortable bed.
"Everything is fine, I have the flu," I lie, and she looks to the needle in my arm.
"The flu?" she says with a raised brow. "Is that why you've been throwing everything up?" she asks, tilting her head to examine me.
"Yeah, it is," I lie, again. "I thought I was just upset but Pierce rushed here when he found out," I say the words, but they frighten me. If the bond was broken, how did he know I was here unless I almost died tonight. A shiver rakes down my spine, a familiar feeling nowadays.
She pouts her full lip. "Aww, Scar! We could have avoided all of this by going to the doctor, and wait! Did you say, Pierce?" She dramatically opens her mouth, and I use my index finger to close it.
My breath catches in my throat, "Yeah, you didn't see him outside the door?" A slight panic rises inside of me.
"Zack was by himself, but I didn't look around too much. I gave him a few choice words and rushed in here." She shrugs.
I throw my sweaty hand to my forehead, wishing what I was saying was true. "I hate that everyone is here worried about me and all I have is the damn flu."
She looks around the room, "Are you going to explain the Pierce thing?" she questions.
I hear no judgment in her tone, so I don't mind explaining a half-truth. "He works out of town a lot, so he didn't want to get too serious, but he changed his mind.”
A cheesy grin creeps up on her face, "Well good! You two seem cute together, I'm happy for you." She yawns.
"Go home, please. I'll text you as soon as I leave but I know you're exhausted." I plead with her.
She mulls this for a moment before finally nodding, "Okay, okay. But only because you aren't alone. Text me when you can." She hugs me before making her way outside, I hear Zack talking to her as the door closes. She wants him to go with her but of course, he's stubborn and refuses.
The voices are drowned out by my tired mind as I go to sleep. It feels like seconds have passed when I open my eyes again. I can't tell the time, but I see the bright fluorescents on overhead. Mom holds my hand as she sleeps in the chair she pulled up to my bed. Pierce has a chair facing the closed door, on guard with his eyes scowling forward. I gently let go of her hand and notice the needle that was in my arm is now gone, they must have taken it out while I was sleeping.