Prying my tired eyes open, I checked the time on my watch: 8:30 AM. I felt something stir at my side. Looking over, I saw that Nick was still asleep. “I can't believe that he stayed with me all night” I thought, both touched and amazed. The familiar feeling of safety I had whenever I was around him returned to the pit of my stomach. There was just something divinely soothing about his presence. I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I failed to notice that Dr. Ali was standing a foot away from me.
“Miss Lawford?” he said tentatively.
“Yes, sorry.” I went, rising to my feet at once. “How’s my brother? Is he alright?”
Dr. Ali grinned. “It’s Ok, you can relax. I just came to tell you that he’s ready to be to be brought home.”
“Great” I heard Nick exclaim from over my shoulder. Our conversation had obviously woken him up.
Dr. Ali looked down at his chart, “Your brother seems to be recovering nicely. However, he’ll have to take it easy for the next couple, which means no school and as little physical activity as possible.”
“Thanks so much for everything” I said, shaking the doctor’s hand.
“Just doing my job” he smiled. “Now if you’ll excuse me.”
I waved at Dr. Ali as he walked off to tend to his next patient, and then turned back to Nick.
“Bet your bro is dying to get home. We’d better go get him.” went Nick, making his way towards Jason’s room.
But I was hesitant. “Nick?” I muttered.
“What? What is it?” he asked, turning to me and looking worried.
“Well” I began, not daring to meet his eyes “I just wanted to thank you for staying with me. It was… It was very nice of you, and I know that you probably had better things to do…”
Nick put up his hand to cut me off. “Felicity, listen to me. It was nothing, k? I know that we don't know each other very well, but me and the guys really like you. I’m just glad I was able to help.”
Not quite knowing how to respond to this, I gave him a small smile. “Let’s get Jason then, shall we?” I finally said.
“Sounds good to me” Nick grinned, before turning back to the door again.
**~~**
“I'm so glad to be out of that place! The food sucked ass!!” Jason complained loudly during the ride home.
“Watch your mouth, Jase!” I said, slapping him upside the head.
“Oh come on, Eli. He's right! Hospital food does bite” went Nick, casting Jason a supportive wink.
“Fine” I smirked “Y’all just gang up on me then.”
Minutes later, the cab pulled up to the hotel.
“Thank you, sir” I said, handing the driver a wad of cash.
As we walked into the lobby, we were surprised to see that Brian, A.J, Howie and Kevin were there.
“Where have you been?” Kevin scolded in a towering temper. “We were supposed to meet Jane two hours ago!”
“Err” went Nick, looking horribly guilty. He’d clearly forgotten all about their meeting with Floyd. “Well, the thing is…”
“I’m sorry Kevin, but he was with me” I interrupted. “My brother had appendicitis, and Nick was good enough to accompany me to the hospital. If anything, it’s my fault.”
“Oh” went Kevin sheepishly. He then looked over at Jason. “I’m assuming everything’s alright now?”
“Yes” I answered, pulling Jason into a one-armed hug.
I tried catching Brian’s eye, but he was too busy staring blankly at his own shoes.
“Eli, can we go now?” Jason moaned, twisting himself out of my loose grip.
“Of course” I replied, tearing my eyes away from Brian with difficulty.
“I’ll walk you up” said Nick, placing his hand at the small of my back and guiding me towards the elevator.
“Hurry the hell up, Nick!” Kevin shouted after him “We still have to meet Jane!”
Grunting, Kevin waited until Felicity was out of earshot before rounding on the others.
“One of these days, I swear I’m gonna murder that idiot boy! The second he sees a pretty girl, he looses his head…”
But Brian wasn’t paying any attention to his cousin’s whining. All he could think about was Nick and Felicity, and the fact that they had spent time alone together. Brian scowled, suddenly feeling extremely jealous.
This Chapter Was Written By:Tamara Evans (former co-writer)and edited, corrected and re-written by Me.
