The Road Trip

Chapter 17 - Mistakes

Chapter 17

Mistakes

I ran up to Luke, quickly grabbing his hand. The doctor rose an eyebrow, eyeing my cheek suspiciously.

"How's Trent?" I asked, ignoring his gaze. My cheek probably had a bright red hand mark on it, but for the time being my physical pain had been forgotten. The doctor shook his head, adjusting his think wire glasses on his nose.

"Your friend is stable for now." The man croaked out in his rough, scratchy voice. "We had to pump some water from his lungs, and we're going to have to check him for a concussion since the blow was delivered to his head." I groaned internally. Great, another concussion. "As of now, though, we can see no early signs of head trauma."

"Is he awake?" I asked, squeezing Luke's hand tighter. He squeezed it back but kept his eyes fixed on the doctor. He was probably in his early fifties with salt and pepper colored hair that had a receding hairline. He had gray eyes as well, which were hidden behind his silver wire glasses.

"Not yet," He answered, clicking his tongue, "We do expect him to wake soon, however. Follow me and I'll take you to his room." He quickly turned around, scribbling something on his clipboard. I shot Luke a glance, giving him a weary smile before following the doctor through the hallways.

As we walked, I slowly rose a hand to my cheek. It was still burning, and I could feel the throbbing pulsing through my skull. God, never had I imagined Holden would do that. Most of the time he was sweet as a teddy bear, so why did he get violent now? We'd been dating for practically two years; he had never hurt me during that time.

Maybe he was the one who got hit in the head, and not Trent. But that couldn't be true, because Trent was the one lying motionless in the hospital bed. An oxygen mask covered most of his face, but I could see his closed eyelids. For the first time, I noticed how long his brown eyelashes were. Funny how boys always get those and not girls.

The steady beep of the heart monitor made me feel better, at least that meant he was alive. From the look of his pale body lying on the bed, motionless, I hadn’t been too sure for a few seconds.

"He should wake up soon." The doctor said, writing something down on his clipboard again. "Press the button on the bed if you need anything." And with that he was gone, leaving me and Luke alone. Silently, I sat in a chair that was positioned next to Trent's bed.

'What happened?' Luke asked, gripping my chin and gently turning my face so he could see his cheek. My gut twisted; I didn't really want to talk about it. In fact, I wanted to forget about it.

'Nothing,' I lied, 'I just fell.' I had never been a good liar, ever. It was impossible for me to lie with a straight face, so of course, when I said nothing, I had to wrinkle my nose and bite my lip to keep from smiling.

'You're lying.' Luke signed, narrowing his eyes at me. 'What really happened? Who hit you?'

'No one,' I insisted, getting aggravated. Could he not tell I didn't want to talk about it?

'Yeah, because every time someone falls it leaves the print of a hand on their face.' He rolled his eyes, sitting on the opposite side of the bed. I sighed, running a hand through my hair. Luke would figure it out eventually, he wasn't stupid. He probably knew already, but he wanted me to tell him just so he wouldn't jump to a conclusion.

'It was Holden,’ I finally said, looking at the white tiled floor. I felt so dirty at that moment. So stupid forever falling for him. I knew I needed to get out of the relationship, but part of me still loved him. Maybe it was a one-time thing, and he just acted in the heat of the moment. He was a good guy; he would never hurt anyone unless they royally pissed him off.

I jumped nearly a mile in the air when Luke jumped to his feet. It was so sudden that the chair he was sitting in toppled backward with a loud crash. His face was twisted in anger, turning red.

'I'll kill him!' He said, cracking his knuckles. My heart leaped into my throat. There was no doubt in my mind that he would try, but he would lose. Holden and Luke, we're about the same size, but Luke was a scrawny teenager and Holden was a muscular young adult. Poor Luke would get beat up if he tried.

'No' I said sternly, 'You will not!'

'Watch me.' He started walking towards the door, and I panicked. If he attacked Holden in here, of all places, he would get in serious trouble. I quickly ran to him, placing both hands firmly on his chest. He stopped and looked down at me, anger shining in his eyes. It looked all too similar to Holden's furry, and for a moment I was scared.

But that was silly. Luke would never hit me or anyone. But then again, that's what I thought about Holden. I couldn't help it when I flinched away slightly, readying myself for a blow that would never come. Luke's eyes softened slightly when he saw my reaction, and he quickly calmed down.

'When did this start?' He asked, 'When did he start hitting you?' Tears pricked at my eyes just thinking about it. I was scared of Holden, yes. But at the same time, I wanted nothing more, in that moment, for him to hold me, stroke my hair, and tell me everything was going to be alright. I wanted to smell his comforting scent of mint gum and feel his soft lips against my forehead.

'It was just that once,' I signed, hanging my head, 'About ten minutes ago. I... I never thought he would really hit me.'

"Who hit you?" I gasped in shock, turning to see Trent sitting up in his bed. He winced, pulling the oxygen mask off of his face.

"Trent!" I exclaimed, running over to him. I threw my arms around his neck, smiling like an i***t. At least he was okay, that made one thing better.

"I said who hit you." He growled. I could tell he was angry. Again, I flinched away, stepping back a good two feet from his bed.

"I..I'll tell you later.." I stuttered, looking at his hurt face. I hadn’t meant to react like that, and I felt guilty, but how was I supposed to react? My boyfriend had just hit me. "Right now, we need to get you checked by the doctors." Hesitantly, I walked forward and pushed the nurse button on the bed. As I did, Trent grabbed my wrist. I squeaked in fear, pulling out of his grasp.

`"Addie," He exclaimed, reaching out to grab me again. I softly screamed, stumbling back away from his grasp. In doing so I tripped over my chair, falling backward with it and hitting my head against the tile.

"Owww," I groaned, slowly sitting up and rubbing my head. Crap, that really hurt. Why did I react like that? He wasn't trying to hurt me!

"Addie, what's wrong?" Trent said. I gave him an apologetic smile just as the doctor came into the room. It was the same man as before.

"Trent, good to see you're..." He trailed off, raising an eyebrow at me, "Ma'am, why are you on the floor?" I shrugged as Luke pulled me to my feet, giving me a curious look. Why was I so jumpy? It was just one hit. One slap that hurt like hell. "Anyway," The doctor shrugged, "How're you feeling?"

"It's hard to breathe..." Trent said, wrinkling his nose. I knew him well enough to know that he was thinking hard. "And my head hurts the tiniest little bit." The doctor nodded, jotting down notes on his ever-present clipboard.

"That is to be expected," He mumbled, still nodding his head, "I'll get you some medicine for that and then we'll get you down for an MRI to check for a concussion. Have your parents been notified?" Trent shot me a curious glance, and I shook my head.

"They're dealing with another son right now and we didn't want to bother them," I explained, making the doctor wrinkle his face.

"Usually we need parent permission for MRI's..." He said slowly, tapping his pen to his chin. "Unless the patient is over eighteen, and it is my understanding Trent here is not." I shook my head, frowning. None of us really wanted to call the Daniels' for this, they were busy, and it would put a damper on our road trip plans.

"Well, Holden is with us. He's over eighteen." I said, suddenly remembering this fact. My boyfriend was, in fact, graduated from high school, sometimes I forgot about it.

"Hmm," The doctor hummed, flipping through some papers, "Is he the man your parents put in charge of you?"

".... Yes," I said, only slightly hesitating. Thank God the boys remained silent, otherwise, we would've had a problem.

"Alright then, I think we can make this work. I'll go get that medicine for the headache, and you go get Holden, I need him to sign papers." I signed to Luke, asking him to go find my boyfriend. Something told me that wasn't a good idea, Luke still wanted to kill Holden, but I just couldn't handle being alone with him quite yet.

He understood and said he would be right back. Sighing in relief, I picked up the chair I had knocked over and sat in it. Trent watched me closely, looking me up and down. I bit my lip. The chair was so close to the bed I was a little uncomfortable, but I kept chanting to myself that he wouldn't hurt me. Slowly, Trent reached out and cupped my face.

"Who hit you?" He whispered, looking at me with a weird expression in his eyes. I shivered from his touch, looking away from his gaze.

"Is the handprint still there?" I asked, attempting to change the subject. It wasn't really a subject change, but it was better than telling him that Holden had slapped me.

He shook his head, "No, it's just a big red blob." I nodded. It was starting to hurt less, but his touch was starting to make it throb again. I gripped his wrist, slowly pushing his hand away so he would know I wasn't mad. "Who slapped you?"

I sighed. There was no way to get out of this. "Holden," I whispered. Trent hissed through his teeth; his hands curled into fists.

"That bastard," He growled, "I should've known." This is why I didn't want to tell him. Both Trent and Luke were like my brothers, and just as protective of me as if we were blood. They would kill Holden for this if I asked, I had no doubt. Just like I would punch a girl for them, since they can't hit a girl.

"Trent, don't,” I whispered, looking at him. So much for trying to forget about the slap. Tears were slowly building up in my eyes, I blinked furiously to push them back. "He… He was just angry...I don't even think he knew what he was doing..."

"Don't try to defend him, Addison," Trent said in a low voice. I flinched; I had never heard him speak that that. "He's a no-good son of a b***h that doesn't deserve you. He doesn't deserve anyone!"

"Shhh," I pathetically wined, standing up and gripping both of his hands. That didn’t seem good enough, so I placed my hands on either side of his face and put my forehead against his, our noses touching. He gripped my wrists and squeezed lightly. I didn’t know was possessed me to get so close to him, but it made my heartbeat slow down. It was comforting. However, tears had started rolling down my face and I knew I couldn't stop them. "I don't want anyone to know."

"Addie," He said, using a softer tone. I could feel his breath against my face, but my eyes were squeezed shut. "He needs to pay for that. It's not okay," I nodded my head, a sad sob escaping my lips. Trent tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, using his thumb to wipe away a few tears, "I hate seeing you like this." He whispered. "I hate seeing you hurt." Opening my eyes, I saw the sincerity in his gaze, something I realized I had never really seen in Holden's eyes.

Suddenly, I was questioning everything. Did he mean it when he said he wanted to be with me? Did he mean it when he said I was beautiful? Did he mean it when he said he loved me? There was no passion in Holden's eyes when he said those words, how had I not noticed it before? Because I was stupid, naive, and young. I was head over heels in love for the first time and had looked over the imperfections.

Trent wiped away more tears and cupped my cheek. I closed my eyes for a second, leaning into his touch. It was so soft, so gentle. When I opened my eyes, Trent was still looking at me. I gave him a small, half-hearted smile, which he returned. Slowly, he leaned forward. I could see him inching towards me, but somehow it didn't seem real. Our faces were so close that it didn’t take long for his lips to be brushing gently against mine.

If it wasn't a dream, I didn't want him to stop. So, I didn't move. I moved my lips against his, letting one of my hands wander into his hair. It felt nice to forget about the stinging of my cheek, to forget about the piece of s**t man I had waisted two years on, so I kissed him urgently, fiercely. Trent seemed to sense this because he gripped my hips and pulled me up, so I was straddling his lap. I pushed myself forward so that there wasn’t an inch of our bodies that wasn’t touching, biting down on his lip. In response his mouth open and his tongue slid against my mouth, waiting for me to let him in. My heart had never beat so fast in my entire life.

I was just about to slide my hands up his shirt when the door burst open so forcefully it slammed into the opposite wall. We jumped away from each other, and I quickly scrambled into my chair. Luke stormed in, looking royally pissed off. Holden had a smug smirk on his face, which made my blood boil.

"Addie," He whispered when he saw me. His smirked dropped, replaced with a look of apology. This time, though, I looked into his eyes. It wasn't real, it was all an act. Angrily, I wiped away the remainder of my tears. He wasn't worth the crying. The doctor came in and handed Holden the papers. He signed them without question, he probably didn't even know what they were for.

They took Trent away for his MRI, which left me, Holden, and Luke alone in the room. The tension was so thick I swear you could've cut it with a butter knife, but I didn't really pay much attention. I was too focused on the tingly sensation in my cheek. I'm pretty sure it was from the slap, but part of me thought it was from Trent's touch. What was up with that? And then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I had just been making out with Trent Daniels.