Chapter 22
Mom, Dad, and Julien just left to go home and eat and take showers.
They stayed in the waiting room all night until visiting hours started up again this morning.
The doctor on rotation came in not long ago and said I should be discharged later today after they do one more blood draw to make sure things look good.
The hospital staff have been nice, but the food is godawful.
I check my phone again. Still no word from Ryder or Liz. I text Julien.
Me: Bring me back two sausage biscuits. Hospital food sucks. I’m starving.
Julien: Got it. I’ll even throw in a side of hash browns. See you in an hour.
To pass the time, I pull up my Netflix app and decide to watch Patriot Act with Hasan Minaj. I hear my hospital door open, more than likely a nurse coming in to check on me. At least the blood pressure cuff isn’t going off every fifteen minutes anymore.
“Hey,” a soft voice says.
My head whips up so fast I see flashing lights behind my eyes.
Or maybe they are caused by the sight of my girl standing in front of me looking like a gorgeous fairy princess in a rose blouse and brown skirt, her long blonde hair hanging loose around her shoulders.
She’s a sight to behold and my eyes devour every inch of her.
I've wanted her to be here with me so badly.
Ryder is standing behind her. “Hey, man. How are you this morning?”
I don’t care how he did it, but she’s here. She’s really here, and I owe him so much for this, for convincing her to come, for bringing her here.
“I’m good. They’re letting me go home today.” I lick my lips, which have suddenly gone dry as a desert, and reach for the cup of water with the bendy straw in it. Liz rushes over to hand it to me and puts it back when I’ve taken a couple of sips. She looks nervous to be here.
“Does she know?” I ask him.
“Yeah, she knows. I told her everything.”
“Baby, I’m so sorry.” I reach out to her, but she steps back and drops her head.
That panic from earlier comes back full force. She’s decided she doesn’t want me anymore. We’re done. She’s leaving me. It’s all my fault.
I watch helplessly as Ryder leaves the room and closes the door, leaving me alone with her, not knowing what to do or what to say to Liz to make things right. Liz’s breath hitches. I look down at the floor and see little puddles at her feet. My heart drops.
“God, baby, don’t cry. Please don’t cry,” I choke up.
“Did you kiss her?” she asks, her voice broken and barely audible.
“I wish I could say no, but I honestly don’t remember.
I would give anything to remember, to be able to tell you with absolute certainty that the answer is no, I did not kiss her.
I pray that I didn’t. Wish it with all my heart.
The only girl I want to touch, to kiss, and be with, is you, Liz.
No one else. Only you. Please come here.
I need you to come here. Please let me hold you,” I beg.
I reach for her and pull her over and on top of me in the hospital bed.
I shower kisses all over her wet face, drinking up her tears.
She wraps her arms around my neck, and it doesn’t take long for her to kiss me back.
I try to tell her with this kiss that her lips and her body are the only ones I want against mine.
I am forever hers, only hers. She owns every part of me.
“I missed you so much.”
Liz pulls back. “Did Jacinda and Samantha really do it?”
“We won’t be able to prove anything. I mean, yes, they handed me the drinks, but the cups could have been their drinks and someone else could have put the stuff in them beforehand.”
“What about the fight? Ryder explained to me on the way here there's a strong possibility that Marshall will bring assault charges against you.”
I roll her to my side and allow her to get comfortable, which is hard as the bed is narrow, but I’m not letting her go any time soon.
“We’ll just have to wait and see and hope for the best. If it comes down to it, I can prove I wasn’t responsible for my actions because someone drugged me.”
“And you have me and the guys. I’ll make an official statement about how Marshall instigated the whole thing by starting the fight.”
I link our hands. “Do I, Liz? Do I still have you?”
“Yes.”
I feel like I can breathe again. “Thank you, Liz. Thank you for believing in me and trusting me. I promise I won’t be that stupid ever again. You have my word.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around what happened. When I saw you and... her…”
“No, Liz. Never her. I love you, princess.” I bury my face in her neck, breathing her in.
Julien and my parents come back a half hour later, and I’m finally discharged. I text Ry a heartfelt thank you for bringing Liz to me, thinking I wouldn’t see him the rest of the day.
So, imagine my surprise to see him, his parents and sisters, along with Liz’s parents and Hailey, all sitting in our living room when we get home.
“Mom?” Liz questions, her confusion apparent.
She releases my hand and goes over to where her mom and Hailey are sitting on the couch. Hailey and Liz talk in hushed voices to each other. Julien joins me, and we just stand at the entrance of the living room, not knowing what to do. Our parents, however, know exactly what they’re doing.
“In light of everything that happened and everything we learned about last night,” my mom begins, “we thought it best for all of us to sit down and talk.”
“Talk about what?” I ask.
“Drinking, drugs, and sex, to be more specific,” my dad says. “Boys, please have a seat.” We do as he asks, knowing now is not the time to argue.
Ryder’s and Liz’s parents stand up to join my parents, so they are all facing us, serious expressions plastered across their worried faces.
I take a seat next to Liz on the sofa, while Ryder and Julien sit on the floor in front of the couch, and Brea and Jamie occupy the armchairs on either side of us.
I reach over to take Liz’s hand, and at first, she pulls away but then stops.
Her unsure reaction to my touch breaks my heart all over again.
The room grows tense as we wait. Everyone looks to my mom.
“I think it’s safe to say that we are all very disappointed in you.”
Jamie is the first one of us kids to speak up. “Hey! Wait a minute! I didn’t do anything. I was at work.”
“For brevity’s sake,” Faith responds to her oldest daughter, “we will be using the ‘royal we.’ Regardless of if you were at the party last night or not, we feel that what we discuss today is important for all of you to hear.” Faith motions for my mom to continue.
“Like I said, we are all disappointed. To find out our children are attending parties where there’s underage drinking and drugs, concerns us greatly.
It also scares the hell out us. Look what happened,” she aims her silver gaze directly at me.
“We are so thankful that you are alright, but things could have turned out much, much differently.”
Liz’s mom’s breath hitches. It could have been Liz that got slipped the date rape drug.
Liz notices her mom tear up and immediately gets up to go to her.
Hailey follows and they form a tight circle, arms around each other.
Liz’s dad is out of town again, and my guilt skyrockets a thousand-fold knowing Ann is having to deal with this all on her own without her husband here to lend support.
Brea starts crying, so Faith goes over to her youngest daughter to comfort her.
Once everyone has settled back down, our parents talk to us.
Over the next two hours, we have a serious discussion about what our parents expect from us, including the always dreaded sex talk.
They ask us questions about Fallon’s party, and talk to us about the dangers of underage drinking and drug use.
Ann and Faith have a conversation with their daughters about date rape.
Needless to say, these were two of the most excruciating hours of my life.
Not because of what our parents said, but because, for the first time in my life, I broke my parents’ trust in me.
I seem to be breaking people's trust a lot lately. Not only do I need to rebuild trust with my parents, but I also need to rebuild it with Liz. I’m still working on it with Ryder.
It took a few weeks for our parents to ease up on their worry whenever we left the house to go out.
Once again, I was grounded. I didn’t mind.
Liz and I took that time to focus on mending our relationship.
Ryder was right. Fallon’s threats worked, and no charges were brought up against us for the fight.
No other videos were posted either, and the one that did pop up was taken down and disappeared within a day after it had been posted.
Things between all of us were good. I would later regret those words.