Chapter 4: A Smile is Worth a Thousand Words
It’s been two weeks. Two damn weeks and he is still here. He’s been here everyday. He comes at breakfast with bagels or donuts and always offers me one and I, of course, always decline. Then he sits in the same chair he did the first day and just talks. He talks, and talks, and talks, and talks, and never shuts-up and doesn’t leave until visiting hours are over. I miss before when I didn’t get any visitors.
Justin and Sandra seem to get along quite well. I’m not happy about that. In fact it really irks me. If he’s gonna come here to see me don’t talk to her.
“Mornin’ sunshine!” He greets me cheerily holding what appears to be a bag of bagels. I roll my eyes. “I brought breakfast.” Like I’m gonna eat it. “I got your favorite….Tasty Cakes.”
Unable to stop myself I look up at him with surprised eyes and see him grin. I immediately pull my eyes away from his when I realize what I did. I can’t believe he got me Tasty Cakes. If you’re not from Philly you probably don’t know what these are. I would describe them to you but I don’t think I could do them justice. Me and Dan used to pig out on them all the time when we were kids. We always use to joke that they were the best thing since sliced bread. Oh what I would give to have one of those again. Too bad taking one would only encourage him to stay longer.
I look at the cake out of the corner of my eye. He picks up the package and every so carefully unwraps it making sure not drop a crumb. He takes a bite and my mouth begins to water. He licks the chocolate crumbs off his plump lips and winks playfully at me. Argh! He’s so cocky. I roll my eyes again. He chuckles and unwraps another one of the Tasty Cakes he supposedly brought for me. He holds it out to me. I stare at the decadent dessert and I think I’m actually drooling. It takes all my will power to turn away from him.
“Come on Mackenzie,” He taunts, “I know you want some….” I shake my head and continue stare in the opposite direction. “Mmmm….this tastes soooo good.”
My mouth twitches. God he sounds like he’s having an orgasm over there. I try to hold it back but it’s useless. I smile. It feels good; really good. I don’t think I’ve smiled since the accident. I bite down hard on my bottom lip to try to hide it but I know he saw it.
“Was that a smile it saw?” I roll my eyes at him for about the millionth time. “I do believe it was. I feel so honored to witness such a monumental occasion. And to think I was the cause of it.”
My smile is gone now. I don’t like that Justin made me smile. That defiantly will not happen again. He must have sensed my discomfort because he changed the subject. “Kate told me to tell you that you’re mom said she won’t be able to make it this week but she’s gonna try to come twice next week.”
Great; At least having her here would give me some distraction from Justin.
I bet you’re wondering where the rest of my family is. All I ever talk about is my mom. I do have a dad. He’s at home pretending that none of this happened to me. He’s too ashamed to come see me I’m sure. I can’t say I blame him, I would feel the same way. Would you be proud if your son or daughter got dumped by her fiancé, lost all of her friends and couldn’t even stand on her own two feet…literally?....I didn’t think so.
“I asked Dr. Jones if I could take you on a walk and she said she thought it would be a good idea.” Justin prompts. Like I’m going anywhere with him. “Are you up for it?”
Ummmm…..let me think about it…..NO! He never gives up. Anyway, as I was saying. I also have a sister. She’s only fifteen. One of the only times I talked to my mother was just a few days after she checked me in. I told her that under no circumstances did I want Aubrey to see me like this, in this place. I’m her big sister you know? Of course she comes anyway but not very often.
Then there's my brother Dan. Ha. He was my best friend. He was two years younger than me but everyone thought we were twins. We did everything together....everything until...
“I noticed you always writing in that journal of yours and that you’ve gone through three of them already,” Justin says as he fidgets nervously with his long fingers, breaking me from my thoughts. That’s right. I went through three notebooks….well almost three. All I do is write; All day and into the night. It frees my mind and helps me ignore Justin. I watch him reach down and pick up and bag that he places on my bed. “Look in it.” I stare at the bag but make no move to touch it. He sighs dramatically and pulls a thin, silver, laptop out and pushes it in front of my feet. “I thought you might like to use that instead of the notebooks. Plus you’ll have email so you can email your mom and dad and…. I’d really like it if you’d email me too.” He throws in the last sentence tentatively.
I push the computer back in his hands. I don’t want his charity. I don’t’ want him to talk to me. I don’t want him to look at me. I don’t want him at all…period.
~*~*~*~
“J, man, where you been lately?” Trace asks as I slide into the limo to sit next to him. “You supposedly got all these mornings off and I still never see you.”
“I’ve been doing that Make a Wish stuff.” I grumble adjusting my sunglasses as we turn the corner on our way to the studio.
“How long you gotta do that sh*t for?”
I roll my eyes. “A few more weeks.” Mackenzie Connor may not be the easiest woman to deal with but I feel like I’m really helping her you know? She smiled this morning. She never smiles; at least that’s what the nurses and Sandra tell me. When I saw that smile grace her face, even only for a few seconds, it made my heart flutter with excitement and pride. Pride in that I caused the smile. I would tell Trace that but he just wouldn’t get it. He thinks I only go visit Mackenzie because my publicist tells me to. If I listened to my PR I would have stopped making trips to the hospital weeks ago.
TBC....*Please Review!!!!!!*
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