*Nate*
My driver brings me back to my apartment, but instead of going in, I head to my SUV. I think of what I'm going to say during my drive. To the hotel.
Me and James need to have a talk.
*****
The weekend is over, and I'm back at the hospital to see my sister. I feel better about this weekend after I had a little chat with James. I push him to the back burner of my head and focus now on my other issue. My sister.
"Cara, what happened?" I ask. Seeing my sister still on this specific floor of the hospital breaks my heart. She doesn't belong here.
The unit she is in looks completely different from the rest of the floors. The walls are a sage green, and the common area has a couch facing a wall where a tv hangs. There's some kind of plastic shield over the TV. Maybe to protect the screen from damage if someone has a fit? I imagine that's why.
A bunch of colorful different chairs all around the room. Under the tv is a bookshelf with a few beaten up board games, painting supplies and old novels, again, with a plastic screen over it and a lock. It looks like you may have to ask permission to borrow something off the shelf. This community area is in the center of the unit. The patients' rooms are around the perimeter. Most of the doors are closed. The front desk is staffed with 4 nurses and 4 security guards. Two male and two female.
Cara got a room with a window, which is nice. The rooms are tiny. Only a bed, a shelf for your clothes, and a shared bathroom. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was her favorite sneakers no longer have laces. Maybe they aren't allowed here.
My sister lays in the bed and fidgets with her IV. She's pulled the thing out three times already, the nurse told me before I entered. Cara refuses to drink enough and has been giving the staff a hard time with taking her meds so they administer everything through her IV. She was never this difficult before.
She looks tired. Dark circles under her eyes, thinner than I've ever seen her, wearing what looks like the same blue scrubs everyone else in this unit wears. Her hair down and her bangs in her eyes a little, and for the first time I've ever noticed, she has some acne on her cheeks. Her eyes look different. The blue is still blue, but there's no sparkle left, just a dull existence like she's checked out. But she still looks like my beautiful little sister. In there... somewhere.
I repeat my question because she has yet to make eye contact with me since I arrived ten minutes ago. I don't have a ton of time either because I have to be at the studio with the band in an hour and a half.
I attempt to hold my sister's hand, but she pulls away at first touch.
"Please, Cara. Talk to me. I don't have much time." That got her attention. She looks up at the ceiling and rolls her eyes.
"Of course you don't." Cara snaps back.
"What's THAT supposed to mean?" I came here to see my little sister, not fight like a twelve year old.
"You're fucking Nate Hollan. How could I forget. You're always busy." There's no emotion to her words. Like she has nothing left in her.
"I'm here now. And don't give me that shit. I have been coming here almost every fucking day. I can't help it you drugged yourself up into a coma." Ahh, brotherly love. This is not how I wanted our discussion to go. I stand up and start pacing the room. Cara doesn't bother to watch me, she knows this is what I do when I'm mad. I look out the window and keep my eyes focused on...nothing... while I talk.
"Tell me, Cara. How the hell did you go from Coke to shooting up Heroin?" I ask dryly.
"How quickly you forget. I'm a Hollan, remember?" She huffs. "Like mother like daughter."
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The Winner
العاطفيةNate, Julia, and James. Who loves who? Who is worth the risk? Who is worth the heartache? Multimillionaire Nate Hollan would have never met her if it weren't for the contest, and Julia Moretti had no idea what she was getting herself into when she...
