Chapter 11
Caleb
It was eleven o'clock in the morning when he heard Bailey's voice.
"Hellooo?" she said quietly. "Good morning, sunshine."
"I’m sick," Caleb said, his voice coming out a hoarse, deep moan.
"I know. You texted me that last night. I knew you didn't have any groceries in the house, so I went to the store and stocked you up. There's all sorts of soup, some crackers, popsicles, I even bought some throat lozenges, and nice tissue with lotion in it… stuff like that."
"You didn't have to do all that," he said, sitting up in bed. He took the pillow that was on the bed next to him and stacked it behind his back.
"Are you hopping out of bed? Would you like me to make you some food now?" she asked, smiling at him. Her smile dropped a little. "Goodness, Caleb, you have lost weight. I thought the last footage you sent made you look thinner, but it's true. You've lost weight. How long have you been feeling bad?"
Bailey sat down on the bed next to him and reached out to hold his hand. She looked at him with such affection that his chest ached. He gently pulled his arm out of her grasp.
"I don't want to get you sick."
"Oh, I don't care. I'm probably going to get it from you, anyway. I'm planning on being over here today. I need to get some work done, and I prefer using your computer."
"You have the software on your laptop," he said, sitting up further on the bed.
This all felt wrong. It was nice to have someone caring about him and willing to do tasks when he was feeling sick. But this was wrong. All of these actions felt far too intimate. He had never so much as kissed this woman, and yet he had let her into his life in ways that were too familiar. She was in his bedroom unannounced, and he knew it wasn't right. He had to say something to let her know things had changed. He owed that to Lila. He owed it to Bailey and to himself. He blinked, praying silently for clarity and help.
"I know, but your monitor's so much nicer. I get more done when I'm at the office. And I don't have to be at my other job until three."
She was moving around his room like it was her own. She took the pants that were on the end of his bed and began to straighten them and fold them. She went to his window and cracked the blinds to let in some natural light. Caleb was sweaty and sick, and he could think of nothing but telling her the truth. His head was pounding—a hot, pulsing signal of pain. He squinted, trying to think of the words he wanted to say and in what order he wanted to say them.
"Hey, Bailey?" he said, finally.
"Yeah? Do you want me to close the blinds? I'm sorry. You probably have a headache. I thought it might feel good to let some sunshine in."
"No, it's good, it's just… can you hang on for one second? I was going to talk to you."
"I'm sorry for waking you up," she said. "I knew you got home at eight last night, so I figured you had a good night's sleep by now. You got some good footage in Chicago. I'm anxious to get going on it this morning. I bought groceries, too. I had to get them here because some of them were frozen."
She was on the move, straightening his room.
"Bailey, hang on. I need to talk to you about life, and our lives, because things might have to change."
"What does that mean?" she asked, turning to look at him with a blank expression.
His head was pounding and all he could think about was Lila, even in the midst of the pulsating pain. "I met someone in Chicago," he said.
She blinked. "What do you mean? You met lots of people."
"I met a woman, and I like her a lot," he said, feeling like he had no other choice but to spit it out.
The words had only been out of his mouth for a few seconds when he noticed that the look on Bailey's face changed. She went to a blank expression and then an odd, silly grimace happened before she went limp and lifeless. Her eyes rolled back and her head tilted, and just like that, she was going down. She fainted so suddenly that Caleb was helpless to do anything but watch her fall. Bailey was instantly limp and lifeless, and she had no ability to stop herself from falling like a ton of bricks. Caleb could do nothing but watch in horror as she went down, hitting her head on the nearby dresser. Caleb yelled out in terror as he scrambled to the edge of the bed to help her, but there was no way he could get there in time to do anything but watch her fall the remaining way to the floor.
It was useless no matter how fast he moved.
It wasn't fast enough.
Caleb had been helpless to do anything but watch.
There she was.
Completely lifeless.
Definitely unconscious.
"Bailey! Bailey!"
Her body was in a lifeless heap on the floor.
"Bailey!"
Caleb forgot all about being sick or his own pounding head. He scrambled to the space next to his friend and turned her over, lying her carefully on her back.
"Baileyyy!" he whispered frantically, begging her to wake up.
She didn't wake up.
Caleb was too focused on the fact that she was unconscious to notice the blood at first. Her head was cut, and there was blood at her temple, near her hairline, dripping down the side of her head. Caleb felt sudden hot panic coursing through his veins. He instinctually reached and put his fingers below her jaw to check for a heartbeat.
It was no use. He didn't know what he was feeling for, and he gave that up without wasting any more time. He left her side and flew to the bedside table where he found his phone.
Adrenaline coursed through his body. He was trying to be calm and breathe as he called 9-1-1. He concentrated on the task at hand, telling himself to be methodical and focus on the details.
"Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?"
It was a man's voice on the other end.
"I-I have a friend at my house right now, and she just passed out and she's not waking up. She passed out from a standing position, and she hit her head on my dresser on the way down, and she's not waking up. There's also blood. She hit her head really hard. I saw it happen. There was nothing I could do to get to her."
"Okay, sir, are you in a safe location?"
"Yes."
Caleb took a deep breath.
He continued to answer the man's questions.
The next ten minutes passed in an absolute blur. Bailey was out for what must have been a full minute. It was fifty-one seconds from the time he placed the call with the operator. Caleb heard him make a note of that for the EMTs. Bailey had woken up before they got there, but she was out of it. Caleb followed the operator's instructions from over the phone, saying certain things to her until the paramedics arrived.
The medics tended to Bailey's head wound, and she left in the ambulance. Caleb promised that he would meet them at the hospital right away, and that was what he did. He got into his car and drove there.
Minutes turned into hours, and in what felt like the blink of an eye, it was afternoon and Caleb found himself sitting in a hospital room with Bailey, her parents, and her sister, Addy.
Bailey had been through two different scans. She had temporary amnesia, remembering nothing from the time right before the incident. The last thing she remembered was leaving her house to go to the grocery store. She didn't remember shopping, going to Caleb's, or talking to him. She asked Caleb if he was sick and said that he looked like he lost weight. She asked him what time had gotten back into Los Angeles, and was mixed up on a few other details from the previous evening.
The doctors had asked Caleb and her family a lot of questions. Twice, during the whole process, someone had asked what specifically happened right before she fainted. Both times, Caleb had answered with a half-truth. He had casually stated that he was talking to her about his trip to Chicago, which was the truth. It might've been a lie by omission, but he just couldn’t bring himself to say that the reason Bailey could have six stitches and a severe concussion was because he had just told her he loved someone else.
He would never forget the look on her face as she lost consciousness and went down. He cringed every time he imagined it.
He left the hospital at 3pm, and her family was still there. All of them knew that he wasn't feeling well, and they said he should go home and get some rest.
His body had been in adrenaline mode all day, and he was weak and tired when he got home. He fell asleep right away and didn't wake up until 9pm that evening. He had a few texts from people who knew he was sick and were concerned about him, including Marcus. He also had two missed calls with no message from Bailey's sister. There wasn't a voicemail, but there was a text from her saying 'call me'. He dreaded hearing what she had to say. He was still in a sleepy sick haze when he called her back.
"Hey, Addy, it's Caleb."
"Hey, are you sleeping already?"
"No, I'm up, what's up? Is Bailey okay?"
"Hang on, I'm going to step outside for a second."
She was whispering and shuffling in such a way that Caleb knew she was still at the hospital.
"Okay. She was resting so I didn't want to talk in there."
"Bailey's resting?" he asked.
"Yes. She was asking about you. I think she was hoping you would come back up here. We didn't know she'd have to stay the night. Mom left earlier, and I was going to try to go home and get some rest. They're just keeping her for observation, it's no big deal. She's doing good. It's just that I have work in the morning. Mom's at home with Dad because he's uncomfortable up here with his back. He's got that pinched nerve. I told them I would stay up here if I needed to, but I was going to see what you were doing. She wants you here, anyway. Could you come stay the night?"
"I’m sick," he said. "Nobody needs me up there with this sore throat. Is Bailey okay?" he added. "Did she eat? Have the doctors been in? Did she remember anything?"
"She did eat some Jell-o, and yes the doctors have been in. She's doing better—resting now. The memory's the same, she remembers the morning. She asked about you so much. I was hoping… since you work from home or whatever… that you could spend the night up here."
"I'll, uh, I'll take a second to think about it and call you back."
Addy let out a short sigh like she was frustrated. "Can you try to decide pretty quick since it's after nine already? I'd like to get home if I'm going."
He had already told Addy that he was sick. If she was going to be persistent, Caleb figured he would step up and go spend the night at the hospital.
"Yeah, uh, I'll do it. I'll come up there. Just give me a half-hour."
"Thanks, Caleb. You're the best. They said she should be released tomorrow morning, so it's really just a few hours."
"Yeah, okay, I'll be there in a bit."
"I'm going to go ahead and take off since I know you're coming."
"Okay."
This whole thing had turned into so much more than Caleb ever bargained for. But he didn't give himself time to think about it. He got dressed and went directly to the hospital.