Chapter 14
She opened the box looking at the new phone, wondering why she hadn’t connected it yet when Luna walked into the waiting room.
“Lex can you do me a favor?”
She looked up shoving the phone back into her bag and stood up.
“Food run?”
Luna shook her head. “The head doctor wants to talk to my parents and I want to be there but we really don’t want to leave Aiden alone. Would you mind sitting with him for a bit?”
She minded, but she couldn’t say that, could she? So instead she stood up and grabbed her bag nodding for Luna to show her the way. She hated hospitals this is where people came to die. Her dad went in and he never came out, no one comes out. She shook her head babies and their mother came out.
Luna stopped outside of the room and turned to look at her, “You don’t have to do anything just sit next to him. Talk if you want, you don’t have to though.”
She nodded her head and watched as Luna walked away down the hall. She took a deep breath in before stepping into the room. She looked around at all of the machines before actually looking at the body lying in the bed.
There was a seat very close to the bed and she knew she should sit but she couldn’t bring herself to be so close to Aden. So instead she walked over to the ledge of the window and sat down staring out. She went through her bag and took her phone out once again.
“What am I waiting for?”
She realized she had spoken out loud and looked over her shoulder to the young blonde boy connected to all of the machines. She sat there watching his chest rise and fall over and over again. She stood u and went to the chair and sat down. She studied his face.
“You don’t look much like your sister.”
She waited for a response but there was none.
“Not much of a talker huh?”
She laughed to herself lightly. A piece of Adens hair was in his face, it was going to drive her crazy.
“Can you hear me? Well if you can you are probably like who the hell is this girl and why is she talking to me. Well let me introduce myself I’m Lexa, Lunas ex-girlfriend and her friend as of recently.”
She heard a noise from the hall and turned around to see if the family was returning and if she had been caught talking to an unconscious child. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to him.
He looked so little, smaller than she thought he would be, then again she hadn’t thought much about him, funny how her life these past couple of days were all about him She kept staring at the piece of hair in his face.
She rolled her eyes at herself and reached forward to move it away when his eyes shot open. She jumped up so fast that the seat flipped and fell to the floor. When she looked at him again his eyes were closed. She didn’t imagine that right?
She moved closer to the bed and looked at him closely the breathing machine seemed to be sounding weird, and his eyes were clenched closed hard.
“Aden?”
Slowly one of his eyes opened and looked at her. She felt her own eyes widen and she ran out of the room the closest nurse.
“He is up!”
The nurse looked at her skeptically before slowly walking to the room. It took everything in her not to push her to move faster.
She waited in the hall as the nurse called a doctor who had the breathing tube removed. They motioned for her to come in and if it was anyone else but Lunas baby brother she would have run.
She walked in and stood next to Aden who was drinking some water.
“How you feeling kid?”
He just looked at her confused. She panicked for a moment and turned toward the doctor. “Oh my god does he have brain damage?”
Aden turned to her and glared at her. “Who are you?”
Oh right he didn’t know who she was. “Lunas friend Lexa.” His eyes brightened at hearing his sisters name.
“Where is my family?”
Lexa smacked herself on the forhead, she forgot to get them! She didn’t say anything but stood up and walked out of the room and walked down the hall she had seem them down. She found Luna on the floor tears streaming down her face.
She crouched in front of her and lifted her face up. Luna pulled her close and nuzzled into her neck. She held her for a moment before prying Lunas arms from around her.
“They don’t think he is going to wakeup.”
She gave her a bright smile and she would have found Lunas confused face more amusing if she had the time. She stood and pulled her to her feet and started dragging her towards his room.
Luna tried to pull away but she just tightened her grip and kept pulling.
“Lexa let go of me!” She saw people turn and stare at them but kept it moving until they were standing in front of his door.
She stopped and spun around glaring at Luna, “Shut up and go in.”
“What the fuck Lexa, you are being an ass, and not your normal level of ass either.”
She sighed loudly and turned and opened the door. She looked in to see the doctor and nurses still looking Aden over.
“Lexa?”
“Hey bud.”
Next thing she knew she was pushed out of the way when Luna barged into the room. Tears were streaming down her face once again but now she had a huge smile on her face.
“Aden! She ran to the bed and stopped before she jumped on him, took a deep breath and grabbed his hand instead.
“When did you get back?”
“Buddy I’ve been here for days. Five now.”
His face scrunched up looking adorably confused, that’s when she noticed how dry his lips were. They looked like they hurt. She reached into her bag and grabbed her chap stick before walking over to the two. She held it out to Aden and he just looked at it and then back to her so she put in Lunas hand instead.
“I’m going to go look for your parents.”
She walked to the door and before it could close behind her she heard Adens voice.
“Is she always that pretty?”
She laughed quietly to herself and walked down the hall going through her bag for phone and beginning to set it up.
*Clarkes POV*
“Clarke you can’t stay here.”
She threw herself down on his bed, “I’m not going anywhere,” for emphasis she wiggled around, getting a smile from him. He reached over and ruffled her hair.
“Seriously Clarke.” They had been going back and forth since she said she was moving back home. “Have you even spoken to your friends?”
She looked away then, she hadn’t told anyone and she didn’t plan to. She didn’t want to be that friend everyone felt bad for. It was shitty enough without having to reassure everyone else she was okay when it wasn’t about her. Lexa never tried to contact her anyway since she left. She got all her updates through Octavia.
“Clarke, you are going to need them.”
She shook her head and reached for his hand, “I don’t need them, I just need you.”
Her dad looked at her with a frown.
“You need to go.”
“Dad! I’m not just going to leave you like this.”
He sat up straighter, “Your mom has already basically her life to take care of me and I hate it. I definitely won’t have the same from you.”
“It isn’t your decision to make.”
“I don’t want you here.”
She looked at him with tears in her eyes and saw his eyes were stern. “You don’t mean that.”
He nodded his head. “I do, if things get worse we will call you.”
She shook her head no.
“Clarke.”
“Things were bad when I got here and you were keeping it a secret from me. Was mom just going to call me one day and say you didn’t know you were sick and just didn’t wake up one day? Could you do that? You would be okay with not spending every moment you could with me?”
She had tears streaming down her face now and she hadn’t breathed while talking and she began hyperventilating.
“Princess, breathe, please Clarke breathe.”
Her mom came rushing into the room and pulled her onto the floor and sat behind her wrapping her in her arms. She squeezed tightly.
“Listen to me baby, you need to breathe. Close your eyes and focus on me.” Her mother began to hum a song she used to sing to get her to sleep. She closed her eyes and a few minutes later she was breathing normally and the tears had stopped falling.
“This is why we wanted to keep this from you. You went through this with Wells we didn’t want you to have to do it again.”
She tried not to flinch at the name but she couldn’t help it and her shoulders dropped in defeat. She was weak.
She stood up not looking at either of her parents and walked down the stairs to the kitchen. She poured herself a glass of water. She looked at the water picked up the glass and threw it against the wall. Glass shattered everywhere. She opened the cabinet next to her and grabbed the vodka.
Her pone vibrated in her pocket and she pulled it out placing the alcohol down. Lexas name flashed across her screen.
Lexa: Lunas brother woke up! Everything looks good according to the doctors J
She looked at the message and all she felt was hate. It crossed her mind that she wished Lunas brother was gone if it meant her brother would be okay. It was a dark thought and she knew it but it didn’t make her wish it wasn’t true any less.
Her phone vibrated again.
Lexa: I miss you Clarke.
She turned the phone over so she wouldn’t have to look at it anymore. She opened the bottle and took three big gulps savoring the burn that went along with it.
She woke up the next morning in her own bed unsure oh how she had gotten there but her bag was packed at the foot of her bed along with a ticket for the bus. She sat up staring at it for a while. Her own father didn’t want her around in his last days. How was she supposed to take that?
She knew she hadn’t handled Wells death in a good way. She had spiraled but she was sixteen then, how are you supposed to handle your best friend dying out of nowhere at sixteen.
She woke up with her mother holding her by her shoulders and shaking her. The shaking made her want to puke and that’s just what she did. Her mother held her hair back for her but said nothing. She was definitely in trouble.
“What did you do?”
She looked into her mother face, her eyes were swollen. She reached forward and caressed her mothers cheek.
“What’s wrong?”
Her eyes widened and she felt the first pang of a migrane.
“Look at you Clarke.” She was confused she didn’t understand what her mother was talking about and why did her head hurt so bad?
She stood up slowly noting how wobbly her legs were and walked to the body length mirror in her room and gasped when she saw herself she looked like a complete mess.
The last thing she remembered was being at Ethans house they were taking shots after shots, they had ended up in his room making out on his bed, the last thing she remembered was the feeling of his hands moving in her pants, making her feel better for the first time in weeks.
She started walking to the bathroom to clean herself up hoping her mother wouldn’t follow but of course she was wrong. “Clarke you can’t keep doing this. You don’t think I know you are sneaking out and drinking!? You are sixteen. Are you even using protection?”
She looked away from her mother then, she used it sometimes but when she was that drunk it didn’t cross her mind too often.
Her mothers look changed from sadness to anger and she grabbed her by the arm and began dragging her out into the hall.
“What are you doing!?”
Her mother spun around scaring her. “I refuse to let you live like this. Do you understand me? You are a child Clarke. MY CHILD!” She felt the tears spring to her eyes as she nodded her head. Her mother was right. Her mother let go and opened the front door and pointed to where her car sat.
Clarke walked towards the car and got in closing her eyes as her mother made her way to the drivers side. She laid her head against the window and let the tears fall. What has she been doing?
She stood up and went to the bathroom to see herself in the mirror, her eyes looked gone. She was looking at herself but it was almost like no one was looking back. She had her dads eyes. She shut them quickly and splashed water onto her face before going to change her clothes.
She began walking towards the door to leave with her bag in her hand when she heard her father call to her. She turned and looked toward the stairs deciding whether to go up or not.
She put her bag down and began walking. Her dad sat up in his bed looking better than he had in her time home. He waved her over and she stood next to him.
He took her hand in his and looked at her for a moment. She tried to remember every little line on his face, she stared into the eyes that looked just like hers.
“I love you Clarke, you may hate me for this right now but I need you to be okay, that is my number one priority.” He reached up and brushed her hair out of her face. “You will always be my baby girl, I would do anything for you.”
“Don’t push me away.”
He looked at her with sad eyes and pulled her into his lap where her tears sprang free. He rubbed her back until she calmed down enough to pull herself away.
“You need to take care of yourself, me and your mom know how you are. We just want you to be okay. Can you try for me? Don’t shut your friends out okay? Things could get better still.”
She nodded her head and stood up. Bending down to press a kiss to her fathers cheek. She turned away before she could try and fight to stay again.
She walked down the stairs to see her mom standing at the door. She turned when she heard her coming.
She had a sad smile on her face. “I will keep you updated I promise, facetime and call whenever baby, we just want you to keep living your life, be the amazing girl we raised you to be.”
She didn’t say anything but just walked out of her home without looking back. She took out her phone and went to the contact she never thought she would use again.
Clarke: When can you come over?