Page 50 of Built to Fall
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
LINA
Grant seriously meant what he said, because there hasn’t been a second where he hasn’t been next to me, unless he wasn’t allowed to be.
I still feel a bit out of it. Tired. Confused. It’s a more intense version of the brain fog I’ve been feeling for the past few weeks.
Set up in an ER bed, Grant doesn’t ask any questions as he sits in the uncomfortable-looking plastic chair next to me. All he does is watch. Listen when the doctors come in.
He even asked if I wanted him to call my friends. I told him not yet. It’s barely morning. They’re probably still asleep. In reality, I probably won’t let him call them at all.
From what the doctors have been telling me, they’re doing a pretty basic workup of lab tests, IV fluids, and some preliminary scans. In the moment, I’m sure the seizure felt a lot more serious, but right now, it seems like they’re doing run-of-the-mill protocol. I wish Kara was here to decipher all of it, even though I know she’d be worried, and that’s what I don’t want.
“Any chance you could be pregnant?” one of the nurses asks as she takes my blood.
I cough, surprised. “No.”
“It’s really important that we rule out any possibility of you being pregnant since you have to have a CT scan.”
“I’m not pregnant.”
She looks back and forth between Grant and me.
“Listen, unless there is a possibility I’ve been carrying a baby for well over a year, I promise you, I’m not pregnant.”
Great, just what I wanted. For Grant to know when the last time I had sex was.
She backs away while jotting something down on my chart. When she sets it down, I read it over.
Pt was alert and insistent that they are not pregnant. Claims last sexual activity was over 1 year ago. No urine samples need to be drawn at this time.
Grant snorts under his breath after the nurse leaves, but he doesn’t say anything. Not right away.
“They have to ask,” he says eventually. “Even if it’s obvious.”
I nod slowly, my head still feeling like it’s floating a few feet above the rest of me. “I know. It’s just weird. Being asked that while I still feel like my brain’s buzzing.”
“They said it’s normal.” Grant glances at the monitor again, as if he understands what any of it means. I’m not sure if he does or not. “You might be foggy for a while.”
“I know.”
Silence settles again. Not heavy, just careful.
The IV pump clicks softly in the background. I stare at the ceiling, then over at him. “You’re still here.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “Yeah. Where else would I be?”
“I don’t know. At practice. Or asleep. Or anywhere but a hospital at six in the morning with a girl who passed out on the sidewalk.”
Grant leans back slightly, crossing his arms. “You scared the shit out of me, Lina. Don’t expect me to pretend I’m not worried about you.”
That makes me blink hard. He doesn’t say it in an accusing way, but it hits me anyway. Right in the ribs.
He keeps picking at the corner of the blanket on my bed like he’s trying to smooth it down.
Like it’s something he can fix. He seems to be that kind of guy. I’ve picked up on the fact that he likes being a helper. In nearly every interaction I’ve had with him, he’s been helping me in some capacity.
The first time was him helping me away from the glass I dropped, and then when I was puking in his backyard, and again with him fixing our laundry room shelf.
