We had gotten to the hospital in a blur of taillights and Eric’s panicked voice. The doctor had been running tests on me for what felt like an eternity, and the sterile, white walls of the room were beginning to feel like a prison. They had hooked me up to an IV bag to combat my dehydration, the cold fluid stinging as it entered my vein.
Through it all, Eric was as tentative as ever, hovering over me like a shadow. He was worrying around the small room like a headless chicken, his expensive shoes squeaking against the linoleum as he paced back and forth. He thought he was helping, but he was honestly just giving me a headache. His constant motion, the way he kept checking the monitors and then looking at me with those wide, wet eyes, was doing nothing for my blood pressure.
"Can you plea
