The Beginning of Us (88 page)

Mom and Ivy walk in with coffee. What I would give right now for a cup of coffee. “Did you call the nurse when she woke up?” Mom asks Talon when she sees that I’m awake.

“No ma’am, sorry.  I was enjoying a minute with her before she goes to sleep again.” 

“Talon, if you call me ma’am one more time, you will need a bed right next to her.  Ma’ams are old ladies.  I'm not a ma’am.  Besides that, you saved my baby’s life.  You call me mom like all of her close friends have for years.”   I see Talon’s face light up with a huge smile and I can’t help but love the fact that both parts of my life fit so well together.  I could never be with someone that my parents couldn’t accept.  At the same rate, I'm not sure my parents could ever not accept anyone that I fell in love with.   

The door busts open and Taron makes his presence. I notice that he hugs Ivy from behind just as he walks in.

“I didn’t sleep well last night. I guess I'm just so used to hearing your sounds in the night Eaven. It's hard on a guy to go without once he's used to getting it every night. Hey, what the hell?” Taron only stops talking when Talon punches him in the shoulder.

Awkward! My mom acts like it's no big deal and just smiles at me. I know there is a long conversation to come in my near future. You know the one about the birds and the bees and not being a slut or a sleaze. Great!

The nurse comes in and I manage to sit up more in bed. I decide I don’t want the strong pain medicine that they have been giving me this time. The nurse works that out with the doctor and I can finally stay awake a little and enjoy my visitors.

“Where is dad?” I ask my mom, thinking it's strange that I haven’t seen or heard him.

“He has been here. He went home to do some work at the office and get showered. We have been taking turns staying at home with Avery. He will be staying here tonight with you.”

I manage to keep the soup down at lunch and fluids throughout the day.  I'm finally cleared for real food!  I have also been forced to walk around a little bit and decided that I really hate this damn cast. 

My mom takes Avery home and I'm left with Talon and Ivy staring at me and jumping every time I think about moving.  Taron has his feet kicked up on the foot of my bed and is sprawled out in a chair controlling the TV remote.  I don’t even mind.  I feel fortunate that I have the opportunity to be irritated by his pompous ass. 

They bring dinner in from the cafeteria.  I gag at the thought of veal parmesan.  The meat looks like mystery meat that has been processed in a plant and smashed into a square shape.  Taron isn’t shy about digging in when I force them to put it as far away from me as possible. 

“Do you want me to go grab you something?” Ivy offers.

“Oh my God, yes please.”

“I'll drive her and we will get you both something.” Taron demands and I get real excited at the possibility of being alone with Talon.

“Lay up here with me.” I work my way to the edge of the bed to make room for him beside me.

I lower the back rest and turn to face him in the bed. I try my hardest not to wince in pain, but I don’t do very well at hiding the fact that it really hurts to move.

“Hey there!” I say as I notice his frown.

“Hey.” I run a finger from his chest down the front of his shirt. He grabs my hand and moves it to his mouth and begins to place soft kisses on my hand.

“I fucking thought I lost you forever. I was lost at that river. I kept wondering around like an idiot.”

“You found me before anyone else. I kept praying that you would find me and that gave me enough strength to hold on until you did get there.”

“I put you in that mess to start with. If you had never met me, you wouldn’t be here in the pain you are in.”

“If I had never met you, I wouldn’t be here with you feeling more love than I have felt in my entire life.”

“I should have been more concerned with Nicole and I never thought she would try to hurt you. I'm such a naive fucker.”

“Don’t blame yourself for her crazy behavior. You obviously had no idea she would do this. No one did.” I say in frustration. Then I realize that I have never asked about her. I know I heard someone say that she didn’t survive, but I need to confirm that. I can’t bring myself to say the word ‘dead’ or ‘died’.

“Where is Nicole?”  I say through a constricted throat. 

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Talon

She wants to know where Nicole is. I want to sing ‘Ding Dong the Bitch is Dead’, but I'm sure that will appear as disrespectful.

“She didn’t make it. She died at the river.” I know Eaven is going to struggle with this. She begins to cry and I lean in to kiss her tears away.

“Do not cry for her. She tried to take you away from me. I'll not let you cry a tear for her.”

“I can’t help it. I hate that this is how it ended. I wish she could have gotten help.”

“Her parents stopped by and told me that she was diagnosed as bipolar and her new doctors were working with her on taking the right dose of medication. She was getting help. She chose not to use that help.”

“I just think if she had a friend to help her through this, it would have been different.”

“Maybe, but there are a ton of people with bipolar disorder and they don’t go around trying to kill someone.  She had other issues.” 

“I tried to save her.” She says through her tears.

“Are you kidding me?  She was trying to kill you!”  I say appalled that she would try to save her after everything. 

“I couldn’t leave her buckled in at the bottom of the river. That image would have haunted me until the day I died.”

I realize how amazing Eaven is in this moment. She was held at gun point by my crazy ex-girlfriend, knocked over the head with the gun, driven into a river, escaped a vehicle that sank to the bottom, tried to rescue the person who has done this to her, lived through the rapids of the river that is full of crap from the recent rains, straddled a moss covered rock with a fucking broken leg and a concussion, and then after all of that she wishes she could have been Nicole’s friend to help her through her fucked up issues.

“I fucking love you! You are amazing! Do you know that? I don’t know anyone else who would have tried to rescue the person trying to murder them. Well, you are either amazing or fucking crazy! I love you either way!” I lean in to kiss her gently when I hear a knock at the door.

“Hey Ev! How are you feeling?” Luke and Lilly enter with flowers and more balloons. We are going to need a moving truck to take these flowers and balloons home. This is insane.

“Better! How are you guys?” Eaven rolls onto her back so she can see them better. We lift the bed and I start to get up. She stops me by grabbing my hand and holding it.

“I would be doing better if you were out of here and in the clear.” Luke says.

“What do you mean in the clear? I'm feeling fine and should be released in the morning.” Eaven responds to Luke’s strange comment.

“Have the police questioned you yet?” He asks both of us.

“They questioned me some, but she's just recently coherent enough to carry on a conversation.” I start to get a little concerned with the look on Luke’s face.

“Well, I'm not sure what is going on, but rumor has it they're waiting for the autopsy results to see if there will be charges filed.”

“Charges filed? Fucking who are they going to press charges against? She drove the mother fucking car into the river and held Ev at gun point.”

“I know, but the DA is a dick and wants to file charges because of her head and torso injuries.”  Luke is infuriating me right now with this nonsense. 

“HAVE THEY NEVER HEARD OF SELF-DEFENSE?” I yell and come up off the bed. I start pacing the small room and begin to feel like the room is enclosing on us. That bitch has ruined my life every time I turn around and now she's still managing it after she's dead. I'll not let them do this to Ev.

“Ev, did you ever make contact with her head or torso?” I ask hoping that she will say that there is no way she can be blamed.

“Oh my God. She attacked me when I was pulling her from the car. She was trying to pull me down, so I kicked her with my free leg until she released me. I just kicked until she let me free. I was running out of air in my lungs and it was instinct. Tell me that isn’t what killed her. Tell me she drowned in the river!”

You have got to be kidding me.  There is no way they can blame her for this. 

“We are calling a lawyer.  Ev, you do not speak to anyone without your lawyer.  I'm going to call my dad.  He has a good friend who is a lawyer and will know what to do.”

I call my dad and he tells me that he will come to the hospital immediately. We call Eaven’s dad to see how far out he is and find out he's almost here.

We spend the evening with the dads and Mike, the lawyer.  Eaven goes over her entire story.  Luke, Taron, Ivy, and I also tell Mike what we witnessed. 

Mike assures us that with the phone message she taped we have enough proof that it was self-defense and we will fight it.  I can tell Eaven’s dad is stressed to kill.  I want to reassure him that everything will be ok, but I have a hard time believing that I'll get a happy ending.  Mike decides that we will go to the police station in the morning once she's released.  He will make arrangements for the meeting. 

I spend the night sitting in my hard ass chair watching Eaven while she sleeps. The nurse gave her something to help her rest. I can’t think about anything but the possibility of her getting arrested tomorrow. She tried to save Nicole’s fucking life even after she tried to kill her and now she's possibly going to jail. The more I think about it, the more pissed off I get.
      

Eaven’s dad is pacing the halls while over dosing on caffeine from all of the coffee that he has been ingesting. That man can put down some coffee.

Ivy and Taron are asleep in the chair in the corner. It's the only chair that reclines into a bed, but they don’t have it pulled out. Taron is sitting in it with Ivy on his lap. Her legs are draped off of the arm and he has his arms wrapped around her while their heads are leaned back together. I wish that was Ev and I.

“Hey you!”  She says softly.  “Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“I can’t sleep.” I whisper.

“Get up here with me.  I want you to hold me.”  She demands.  I quickly obey and melt into the mattress.  I'm so fucking tired. 

“You really need to consider a shower.”  She says as her face comes in contact with my shirt. 

I squeeze her tighter. “Do you want me to get up and shower?” I really hope she can deal for the sake of sleep. I haven’t left this room since she was brought in here. My twin brought me a change of clothes, but that is all of the grooming that I have done. In the beginning I wasn’t sure that she would be ok. Now I'm just being a selfish nasty ass who would rather spend time with her than take a shower. Three days is definitely not the norm for me and showers, especially when Eaven is around.

“No!  Stay here with me.” 

Morning rolls around all too quickly.  I haven’t slept that good in days.  I know I only got about three hours, but damn I feel better.  I wake up to the feeling of being watched. 

I open my eyes to see the mean old lady nurse is back on duty and she's glaring at me. The nurse is not impressed with the fact that both of us fit in the bed. She's the one that made Taron leave for talking inappropriately about his penis being neglected. He was just giving details of what he will do the next time he's with a hot girl. It was just the two of us in the room while Eaven was sleeping. The nurse grabbed him by the ear and yanked his ass up out of this room. She didn’t appreciate it when he told her that he loved a girl who liked to play rough.

“You aren’t the patient. If you don’t mind removing yourself from the bed that you are crowding my patient in, I would appreciate it.” She looks mad as hell. I know not to fuck with this bad ass. I get out of bed and in the process get a whiff of myself. Holy shit I stink.

“Honey, you'll be released today. You might want to get up and take a shower before the doctor arrives to check you over once again.” The nurse talks all sweet and loving to Eaven. “Would you like me to clear the room so you can have some privacy?”

“No, I'm ok.” Eaven quickly responds since I'm the only person in the room right now.

“Do you need assistance in the shower?” The nurse asks as she checks the bathroom for proper supplies.

“No, I'm good!”  I say to her.  Her fake smile drops and she turns her death glare back in my direction. 

“Would you like me to escort you out of this hospital?” Wow she can flat scare a boner right out of a guy.

“No ma’am.” That seems to suffice her enough that she leaves the room.

“Will you help me get my leg ready?”  Eaven asks.  She has to wrap it in a bag and put a towel around the top to keep the moisture out. 

I help her wrap it and assist her as she walks to the shower.

There is a chair in the shower for her to sit on and the hose for the shower head comes down so that she can hold it.  I help her take her gown off and I feel like my gut is punched instantly when I see all of her bruises and scrapes.