66Sorry about not posting sooner. I feel extremely guilty. Apparently my classes all decided to get tough at the same time, so I had little time to do anything else. When I did have free time the last thing I felt like doing was writing, since I had already been working on long essays for class. Good news is it's almost over and in about a month I will be on break. However, I probably won't be posting until then. I've got exams and then for November I'm doing this thing called Nanowrimo. If you've never heard of it you should check it out. Basically you have exactly 30 days (November) no more no less to write a novel. 50,000 words is the minimum and if you don't get 50,000 you fail, which is really disappointing. So, I'm working extra hard to complete that while staying on top of my course work. And because I've made you wait long enough, I'm going to let you get onto the story.
I awoke the next morning to my phone ringing. Rubbing the gunk out of my eyes, I peered at the screen. Chad was calling me.
"Hello?" my voice groggy from sleep.
"Sonny, hey. Are you ready?"
"Ready?" I was confused, what would I possibly be ready for on a Saturday morning.
"Chrissy? Remember, we were supposed to go see her at the hospital."
Aw crap. I rolled over and glanced at the clock. The glowing red numbers glared at me. I was supposed to be up half an hour ago.
"I'm going to take your silence as a no."
"Chad, I'm sorry, I haven't gotten up yet. I'll let you in so you don't have to wait outside."
Not a moment later I heard the doorbell chime. Man that boy moves fast. When I opened the door to let him in, he smirked at me.
"Like the clothes, Monroe."
Shoot, I forgot about that. I'm standing with my door open to Chad Dylan Cooper in gym shorts and an oversized t-shirt. There is nothing embarrassing about that.
"Shut up, Chad" I replied as he finally walked in so that I could close the door.
He was glancing around the apartment with interest. It was beyond me as to why he found it that interesting, but whatever.
"Do you want anything to drink?" I spoke, having decided to break the silence.
He stopped staring at everything and looked back at me, "Do you have orange juice?"
I poured him a glass before returning to my room to change. I was busily brushing my teeth when a funny noise came from the other room. Ignoring it, I quickly finished getting ready. When I exited the bathroom, Chad was waiting for me, sitting on my bed.
"What do you think you are doing?"
He turned his head in my direction, "Waiting for you."
"In my room?"
"So, you've seen mine. I wanted to see yours."
"You're lucky my mom is in Wisconsin for the time being. She would have killed you."
"Nah, Connie would have forgiven me."
"Need I remind you that it isn't appropriate for you to be calling my mother Connie?"
"Come on, let's go. We are running out of time to go shopping. Chrissy is expecting us at eleven thirty."
We looked at several different stores, not finding anything appropriate for an eight year old girl in the hospital.
When we were in the fifth toy store, I finally found something for Chrissy. It was a stuffed golden retriever. It was extremely soft and it reminded me of Peaches, who I'm sure Chrissy missed like crazy.
Chad came up from behind me and scoffed, "Sonny, she has a dog, why would she need a stuffed animal that looks like it?"
"You probably don't understand, but some people would miss their pet when they are away from home. Besides, isn't the point to make the hospital seem a little more like home?"
He sighed and gestured for me to hurry up.
"Did you find something?"
He held up a box, already gift wrapped with a bow and everything.
"When did you get that?"
"When you were too busy looking at all the stuffed animals and hugging them. I am never going to let you live this down. Thought I'd give you a heads up."
I used the stuffed dog to hit him over the head before heading to the checkout. On my way there, I saw a selection of coloring books. As part of a last minute purchase, I grabbed a couple of Disney ones and a pack of crayons. Ten minutes later, I was all check out, my presents in a gift bag with pretty pink tissue paper. Chad placed his hand on the small of my back, pushing me in the right direction. I thought about moving away from him, but decided against it. There was something about the feel of his hand on my back that I enjoyed. So against my better judgment, I allowed it to remain there.
It didn't take us long to drive over to the hospital. This time the nurse let me in without a fuss. For this I was grateful, I didn't want to have to go through that again. It seems that our friend Francesca was given the day off; either that or she was ordered to stay away from us. This was a relief to be polite about it. Nobody else in the hospital was impressed that two celebrities were walking through the waiting room and down the halls. Everyone else was too busy or concerned about loved ones to pay us any attention.
When we entered Chrissy's room, she was staring intensely at the door. Her precious face had a frown on it as she spoke directly to her brother.
"You're late."
I looked at my watch. It was seven minutes past eleven thirty. She was sure a stickler for being on time.
After hugging her, we sat down in the plastic chairs next to the bed, setting our packages down on the floor. For the first time since we entered the room, I studied her. She was still the same Chrissy, that's for sure. However, the IV's sticking out of her arms and the monitor hooked up to her chest made her seem so much more fragile. It amazed me how much different she looked. Her blonde hair was tied back, and it was greasy from the lack of bathing. Her leg was in a cast, with metal braces keeping it completely straight. I didn't get to pay much more attention to her appearance because Chrissy had decided it was time to talk to me.
"I'm glad you came, Sonny. Chaddy told me that they wouldn't let you come back yesterday."
"That's right. I heard that you set them straight, Chrissy."
"Of course I did. What else was I supposed to do? You're family; you're almost like my big sister."
I grinned at her. Those words made my day. It was great to see how much the girl liked me.
"So, I see you guys brought me presents. Can I open them?" she asked, her small eyes sparkling with excitement.
Chad made to hand her his package, but she shook her head.
"Sonny's first."
I shot him a victorious smile and handed her the bag. She quickly pulled out the tissue paper, throwing it carelessly on the floor. Her eyes lit up even more when she caught sight of the stuffed animal. Pulling it out by an ear, she hugged it close.
"It looks like Peaches!"
I throw Chad another triumphant smile before turning back to his over excited sister. She had pulled out the coloring books and laid them on the bed next to her. She now held her hand out expectantly for Chad's gift. He handed it to her and she had the wrapping paper off in two seconds flat. He had bought her a board game. It wasn't one I had heard of, but it looked like it could be fun.
"Chaddy, can we play the game now?"
"Why do you think I bought it?" he asked her before opening it and beginning to read the instructions.
We played the game twice. I let Chrissy win the first time, but the second game was more heated. Chad ended up being the victor and we ganged up on him accusing him of cheating. We spent a good four hours in the hospital room, playing games and telling jokes.
Finally it was time to go and we bade our goodbyes. Chrissy made me promise to come back again before she left the hospital as we were heading out the door.
"Thanks for letting me come, Chad. I had a great day." I told him as we stood outside my apartment later that afternoon.
"Me too. I'll call you tomorrow; maybe we could go grab lunch at the new diner on Broad."
"It sounds like a plan."