Bridge (Three)

My parents coddling me got really old, really fast.

As soon as Sebastian had left the hospital room after our...intimate interaction...my parents had gone to my side and stayed there ever since, regardless of the fact if I wanted them there or not.

They didn't let the fact that I was there stop them from arguing, either.   Oh no.  If anything, it irked them even more, and I knew there was some secret they were hiding from me but I just couldn't figure it out.

The worst part was that it felt like I already knew exactly what this secret was, I just couldn't put my damn finger on it no matter how hard I tried.

We were sitting in the living room deciding on what type of food to order out to the house when I had had enough of their incessant fighting.

"She doesn't need pizza, she's recuperating from a terrible fall!  She needs nutritious and balanced foods, not greasy cheesy heart attacks waiting to happen!" My mother yelled at him, and I cringed when she bashed on my favorite food.

"Hey!  I happen to love pizza and-"

"See?  She doesn't want the kale you're trying to shove down her throat!"

"I just have her best interests at heart, John!  And what of you, hm?!"

"Oh don't you dare tell me I'm the one who doesn't have her best interests at heart!"

"Umm.  Guys?" I tried interrupting them.

"Well, what else am I supposed to think from how you've been acting lately?  Don't think that just because of this emergency means that we'll forgive and forget you for what you said!"

I sighed.  There was no getting anywhere with those two.

I left them be and stumbled up the stairs as best as I could, the both of them still fighting like cats and dogs behind me.

I limped up the stairs, the aching hole of pain returning to my chest, although this time it was a bit easier to ignore with the excruciating pain in my left side where I assumed I had some bruised or broken ribs.

I hadn't really paid attention to the long list of injuries my nurse had catalogued and recited back to me.  I didn't want to know just how broken and damaged Dylan had made me.

I shivered in fear of returning back to school in a few days.  The doctors had cleared me to go back the next day after I got out of the hospital but I told my parents I wanted to wait.  They had tried to bring up talking to the police and having him arrested along with his friends but my father had put a stop to that as soon as it came out of my mom's mouth.

I wondered why, what kind of stakes he had in the matter.  Maybe he was running for public office again and didn't want to make an enemy out of the chief of police and the mayor at the same time.

But then I thought about it again.  Maybe he just wanted to protect me from the stress of a high profile trial in the middle of the media circus camped outside of our house.

We had to throw a blanket over my entire body as I stepped outside of the hospital for the first time.  More like was wheeled out of there in the wheel chair, they wouldn't let me walk out of there myself, it was the hospital's policy or something stupid like that.

The paparazzi had hounded me like there was no tomorrow, although it wasn't like it had never happened before, I had gone through it two times beforehand when I was with Sebastian.  But this was something totally different.  I was with my family!

They were scared, confused, and a little worried, although my dad looked more angry than scared.

He said he'd punch every single reporter and photographer out on the ground if they so much as even touched me, but of course he's all talk.

I sighed as I reached my bed, forcing myself to slowly lower down onto it as gently as I could.  The ribs were the most sore, and I had a permanent headache.  The ache was still there too, but if I focused on my physical pain, the emotional hurt dissipated just a bit.

I thought of Sebastian and how he'd asked me to call him once I was discharged and back at home safe and sound.

I'd been home for over three hours, and still I hand't called him.  I didn't know what I was waiting for...maybe I was scared of what would happen after what had occurred between us.

That kiss wasn't just any kiss.  Could it even be described as a simple kiss?  Surely there was a better word for something so spectacular that I could't even describe it if I wanted to.

I put my fingers to my tingling lips and with the sudden smile that burst onto my face from the memory, I knew exactly what I was going to do, my mind made up the second his unearthly handsome face crept into my mind's eye.

The phone rang for what felt like hours but I was sure it was only a few seconds.  Finally, someone answered the phone.

"Hello?" a breathless voice asked, although it wasn't the voice that I was expecting.  It came from a girl.

A breathless girl answering Sebastian's phone?  Don't jump to conclusions, Holly.  Don't jump to-

A manly grunt came from the other end of the line, and I definitely recognized that voice.  I wanted to throw my phone across the room in surprise, anger, even...hurt?

I forced myself to start speaking, I knew that if I didn't then there would be no way that I'd live it down.

"Y-yeah, I'm calling for Sebastian?" I stated in a question form to the girl on the other end of the line.

A short laugh escaped the girl's mouth on the other end and I tensed, waiting for her to yell at me to stay away from her man but she did something that definitely surprised me.

"Hey Bash, your lady friend is on the phone.  What's her name again?  You can't shut up about her even if you-"

"Hey, what's up?" Sebastian's voice filled my ears as he cut off the woman on the other end of the line.  I wondered what exactly was going on.

"Umm, nothing much.  Just a little confused I guess?"

"Oh, that was Blake, she's my cousin.  You know, the one who's clothes you borrowed last time you were here?" he asked me and I felt a huge weight lift off of my shoulders.

What did I think was happening, that he was having sex with some girl and she picked up his phone while they were in the middle of it?  Who would do that, anyway?

"Oh, yeah okay.  She seems...nice." I said, not sure what else to say.  I couldn't get those words out of my head though.  He talked to her about me?

The thought brought a bright red hue to my cheeks, and I was grateful for once that Sebastian wasn't right beside me.

"Hah.  Yeah right.  Say that again and I'll punch you in the throat." I heard her voice exclaim from the other side of the phone.  Okay, so maybe she wasn't nice...

I gulped.  "Noted," I said, fearing that she wouldn't like me after that.

"I'm totally kidding.  You've got a cute one on your hands, Bash.  Now go somewhere else, I'm trying to focus.  I can't work out while you're being a sappy little love sack on the phone."

I snorted into the phone and then my eyes widened in horror as I realized how awful that must have sounded coming out.

"Whatever.  You don't need to work out, you have no meat on your bones in the first place!" I heard Sebastian tease her as I heard a door opening and shutting, a string of colorful curse words being shouted in the background.

He chuckled to himself before I heard another door shutting.  I took that as my cue to tease him myself.

"So...Bash, huh?" I asked him, hoping that I could make him blush.

"Coming from Blake, it would annoy me.  But coming from you it only turns me on.  Keep going, maybe add a little moan in there too," he said, adding a sultry effect to his voice that made me laugh at him even harder than I already had been.

"You're ridiculous."

"Maybe.  But you like it, don't lie.  Otherwise you wouldn't have called me.  So what's up?"

"I was just calling you like you asked me to do...my parents have been driving me crazy ever since we got home," I said to him, the desperation to get away from them clearly evident in my voice.

"Well, then you've come to the right place.  Shall I have Jason pick you up and escort you to my humble abode?  No strenuous activities of course, unless you want me to do the heavy lifting?" he asked and I could just picture his eyebrows wiggling suggestively after what he'd just said.

I didn't automatically cringe and shout out in argument about how he should be less dirty, and that hesitation seemed to goad him on even further.

"Oh, so I take your silence for agreement.  Finally, I've been waiting for this day since I first met you and you were in that skimpy little black dress that showed off your ass-"

"Sebastian!"

"-sets.  Gosh, you really have no faith in me do you?"

I laughed at him, wishing I could physically punch his arm through the phone.

"I don't think I'll be able to visit your 'humble abode' tonight as you so eloquently put it.  My parents have me on lockdown mode.  They won't let me out of their sight for a while now.  Plus, have you forgotten the paparazzi problem?" I asked him, wondering yet again why I hadn't brought up the issue of his 'girlfriend' Ali Hyland yet.  Maybe they weren't even really dating, they were just doing it for publicity.

He hadn't brought it up and I wasn't about to bring it up again, especially not after what had happened the last time I did that.  Nope, never ever again.

"You're no fun.  I'm breaking you out of parent jail.  Set up your bed for a sneak out protocol."

"Sneak out protocol?" I asked him, confused as to what the hell he was referring to.

"You know, put pillows underneath your blankets to make it look like you're actually there and asleep, when you're really not there and you're out with me having the best night of your life?"

"Hah.  And how exactly am I supposed to have the 'best night of my life' with cracked ribs and a concussion?" I asked him, wondering where he was going with this.

"You'll just have to wait and see, now won't you?"

I contemplated it for a moment.  Did I really want to?

"Shut up, you're the one who cheated on me you whore!" I heard my father's voice carry upstairs and then the sound of shattering glass made my decision for me.

"I'll be ready in fifteen minutes."

"That's what I like to hear."

"Yeah, yeah, just get here."

"For you, anything."

Author's Note:

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-Kristen :)