AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Lizzie
One.Two.Three.
Three numbers that ruled my life now. Or any derivative of. Three. Six. Nine. Those worked, well. But only in batches of three. Couldn’t count straight through, disaster would happen. I didn’t know exactly what disaster, but I knew something bad would happen.
I had to keep counting. Coming here every day and counting to Damon. Then he’d wake up.
God, I’m stupid.
I slapped my book shut and sat back in the hard, unforgiving hospital chair, staring at a man I didn’t even know. But for some reason I had to be here. Every single day. Whether I counted to him, read to him, or watched movies with him. I needed to be here.
I’d once been alone in a hospital, in a coma no less, with no one to sit with me. My parents had been killed. I’d been all alone.
Damon’s mom died, which landed him in here, beaten to a pulp. He’d tried to attack the guy who killed his mother. I didn’t blame him, but now he was stuck here.
I brushed my finger along the raised skin on his temple, then to the other scar below his left eye. The scars were mostly healed by now, but the evidence of the severity of the attack he’d suffered would remain forever.
The rest of his pale skin was smooth. I insisted on having him shaved every day when the nurses bathed him. His big brother, Drey, said he’d like that.
But I fought Drey when he tried to have Damon’s gauges removed from his ears, and his other piercings. Didn’t feel right to make those choices when Damon wasn’t around to voice his opinion.
And, I kind of liked them. Which was totally strange. They were so thug-like, but that was Damon, I guess.
If only he’d wake up. He’d been asleep for nearly a month!
I scrubbed my face and sat up, taking a deep breath. The scent of rubbing alcohol and cold. Yeah, cold smelled. And I knew. I, too, had been in a coma before. Years ago, and only for a week or so, but it screwed me up.
Drey and his wife Sarah came by every day. I absolutely swooned every time I saw them together. They had such a wicked-awesome romance it made me jealous. She was a former sex slave who escaped. Drey had left the gang life after having lost his little baby and the baby’s mother to a drug overdose. They survived it all and managed to find true love.
They came every day as well, but they also had lives and couldn’t sit here all day like I could. I didn’t have a life.
I wasn’t sure I ever would. But at least I’d finally gotten my butt out here. New York was a prison for me in more ways than the agoraphobia. The memories. The fear. The…
I shook my head and reached for my water. “Want some, Damon?”
Waiting a beat in case he answered me this time, I took a drink.
“You know, my voice is going to go hoarse if you don’t wake up soon. I need someone to talk back to me so my vocal cords don’t poop out.”
Staring at his lips, I had to smile. They were pale and pasty, yes, but still full. I imagined a slight curve to the right side as he let out a laugh at me talking to him day in and day out. A total stranger.
Yes, it was weird. Then again, so was I.
“What movie are we watching tonight, bubba?”
Silence. Not one single movement.
“Vin Diesel it is, then.”Again. He royally kicked ass, and I need a little kick-ass going on right now. Who knows, maybe if I tweeted out to him he’d come kick Damon’s ass.
I laughed to myself.
“Scoot over,” I said as I maneuvered the computer and sat on the bed. “You’re a bed hog. But I guess I should be happy you’re not mouthing off at me. So I’ll let it go.”
I wiggled next to him and lay on my back beside him. There really wasn’t much room, but that was okay. I was small. Compared to his big body, which I’d read on his chart was five-eleven, my five-two body was pretty tiny. Then again, him lying in that damn bed made him look small.
He had physical therapy every day, but still, it seemed like he was shrinking. There was only so much they could do to keep his muscle mass up.
