17 - Who Is He?

I open my eyes and see a boy crying on my bed. I look down at my legs and arms which don't seem to follow my command. I notice I'm in a hospital room and tubes are running through me. I turn to my side again. 

"Babe?" The boy says, her cheeks wet with tears as he looks at me. 

I furrow my brows. "Who are you?" I ask, feeling my head aching as I try to think where I've met him. He looks really familiar. But, as to where or how I know him, I'm not quite sure. Although, something inside me warms up and tears are threatening to come out of my eyes. 

"Cris?" He creases his brows, too, taking my hand in his and putting it to his lips. 

How does he know my name? What am I doing here? What happened to me?

"I said, who are you?" My voice is still weak. I feel a pain on my chest and I wince. 

"Babe."

Babe?

"Don't stress yourself. You need to rest." He is saying. He kisses the back of my hand and leans forward to give me another on my forehead. "I'm sorry baby. I'm really sorry." His tears are still flowing as I try to wriggle my fingers to free them from his grasp. "I love you. You should know that. I'm really sorry."

Ignoring my curiosity on who this boy is, I ask, "What am I doing here?"

But, my question goes unanswered when the doctor and nurses come in the room. "I see you're up." The doctor says, "How are you feeling?"

I just stare at her, not sure what to say. I turn to the boy again who's also staring at me. I notice his mesmerizing eyes, even if they're puffy and blood shot. I have to look somewhere else. Who is he, exactly?

After checking everything and changing my bandages as well as some tubes, the boy talks to the doctor outside. Just then that I realize, he's on a wheelchair. I look to my side and see another bed there. 

Wait a minute .... did the doctor just talked to me in a foreign language? And I understood it? What the fuck! Is it Korean?

The pill the doctor gave earlier makes me drowsy and I close my eyes just when I hear the door opening and closing. 

"Cristina." It's a voice I'm very familiar with. Uncle Ed. 

"Uhm..." I answer, wanting to open my eyes, but they're too heavy. My mouth won't move, too. "Mmmm...."

"Don't worry, honey. I'll take you home."

I smile at that.

________

When I open my eyes, I'm in a different room. I feel a weight on my left arm and I turn my head to look at it. "Mom!?!" I exclaim, trying to sit up, but couldn't. 

"Hey, Sweetie." Her head shoots up and I see tears already coming out her eyes. She quickly gets up and hugs me. But, instantly lets go when I wince and almost scream at the pain. "I'm sorry." She says, sitting back down, but not letting go of my hand. 

"Mom. What happened?" My tears fall down, too. 

"It doesn't matter honey. You're safe!" 

We both look towards the door when it opens. "Ma'am, we need to transfer her now." Four men dressed in suits enter the room and they walk straight to my bed. 

"Mom!??!" I turn to her again, getting nervous. "What's going on? Where are they taking me?" 

She gives me a weak smile despite her tears. "Home, baby."

Before I can say anything, one of the men inserts a needle on my IV. In a few seconds, I fall into deep slumber. 

____

"Cris!" Lita's soft voice wakes me up. "Get up. Someone's here to see you?"

I lazily open my eyes and, at first, get confused at the room I'm in. Then I realize, I'm in my new bedroom. Instead of taking me to LA, they fly me all the way to a big house in the coastal area of North Carolina - at the other side of the country. Why? She said it would be good for my recovery. If that were really the reason. Cause, from what I see, there's something more to it. I mean.... there are more beautiful places we could go to. Why here? I know we have a place in Alaska ... but that would be too cold, wouldn't it?

"Who?" I wonder who it could be. I don't think my friends would know. Where's Lara by the way? I haven't seen her visit me since I came back. And, what was I doing in Korea in the first place? These are just questions my mom and the others would only answer with a "You don't have to worry about that yet, Cris." Well ... they're making me even more worried by not answering them. 

I support my aching head as I try to get up from the bed. I roll my eyes when I see the psychologist entering the door, and lay my head back on the pillow. 

Ok.... It's not that I don't like her. It's just that ... I'm not comfortable with her. Because, instead of helping me remember, she's feeding information into my brain. And I don't know if I would trust her to be giving me the whole truth or not. 

It's been weeks and it's all the same. She tells me that the same old stuff the whole time. I even fuckin' dream about it sometimes. 

"There are many things you wanted to do. Like dancing and singing for instance. But, you still chose to follow the path of your dad and entered Law school." These, I already know. "You only stopped because you got sick. You had to stay at home so you could get better. There was something  wrong with your heart, and your parents tried so hard to get you a cure."

But today, she starts differently. "Do you have questions you want to ask?"

Of course I have a lot. "Why was I in Korea?"

She smiles weakly. "You had a surgery there. You know your mom is from there, don't you? The only doctor that could help you at that time was from there."

Okay... that answers one. That explains the cut on my chest. So, I had an open heart surgery. 

"Am I going to live then?"

She giggles softly, "Of course you are. You're the strongest person I know."

"What do I need to do to help me remember everything?" I ask. 

She sighs, leaning forward and putting her arms on my bed. "Just ask, and I'll tell you what you want to know."

My mom trusts her. I should, too, right?

"Look!" She says, "I know you're confused right now. I just want you to know that you can ask me anything. I'm not really sure why, but it happens to a few people. You've forgotten quite a lot because of the surgery."

"What could be the reason? What made me forget? I mean ... this is your line of expertise, right? You should know. Did something happen?" I throw my questions at her. 

She chuckles. "Yes, it is. I think it's the trauma of the surgery. I don't think anything really bad happened."

____

As soon as I start walking, I look for something to connect me to the internet. I'm wondering where my phone went. But, the computer in the study would do. I immediately log in to all my social media accounts, including Skype. 

But, I can't get in. They all come out as errors. I go to my email .... that doesn't go in either. 

"Lita!" I shout her name twice before she comes in, wiping her hands on the apron. 

"What?" I don't fail to notice the very brief look of panic in her eyes before she goes back to smiling. "You need anything?"

"I can't log in."

"You deleted all your accounts." She says simply, shrugging her shoulders. 

"Why would I do that?" I look at her suspiciously. 

"I don't know. You just did. Is there anything else? The food's gonna burn." She seems to be in a hurry. 

I shake my head as I wave her away.

I make a new account on Facebook and try to look for my friends, adding them. I wait for a whole thirty minutes, researching about my illness and more. But, I get bored when I don't get any confirmation on my friend requests. 

A maid runs to my side when she sees me at the top of the stairs. I take the hand she offers and let her help me take one step at a time until we get to the kitchen where the aroma of Lita's cooking is coming from. 

"When's dad coming to visit?" I ask Lita as I take one of the high stools on the counter. "He hasn't even called yet."

She doesn't answer for a while, nor does she turn to face me. "Maybe he's just busy. Don't worry about him."

I sigh, leaning my head on the counter with my arm stretched to the other side. "Until when are we gonna stay here?" I'm bored .... freakin' super duper to the max BORED. I miss my friends. I want to go back to school, too. Although it's the last place I would want to be, still having other people around me would be nice. I've been locked up in this house for almost a month. I only get to go to the beach with my dad's men once in a while. And they'd quickly take me in when it gets crowded. My mom said that I'm still vulnerable and that I have to be away from people cause I can get infected with the littlest of diseases easily. I don't even go to the hospital to see the doctor. The doctor comes to the house. 

Lame. ... That's what my life has been for the past weeks. Just ... LAME!

"When you're all better." She answers, still not turning around. 

"And when would that be?"

"That depends on you, sweetie. But, I think your mom is starting to like it here. She's opened a new restaurant in the city."

I roll my eyes. How about me? What if I don't like it here? Why the fuck would I want to stay here when my friends are more than two thousand miles away? 

_____

"I love you Cristina." I hear someone whispering on my ear. I turn around and see that boy. The boy I saw in the hospital back in Korea. 

"I love you more, Mark."  I'm surprised that came out my mouth. Even more when I kiss him on the lips. "Happy birthday, babe."

"It's the best birthday ever." He kisses me back. "Because you're here."

My body starts to tremble as it warms up. "Not just because of that amazing sex?" I ask with a sly smile.

"Not just that," he answers and something inside me melts. "That's just the cherry on top. You're all I wanted, rascal. You should know that by now. You're all I need." 

"Do you get cheesier as you get older, Twain?" 

Twain? Mark? Did he just call me 'Rascal'? That's what Lara calls me ... well, most of the time. 

I open my eyes and adjust them in the dark as I cringe at my dream. Am I crushing on someone I barely know? Shit ... But, really.... Who could resist those eyes? And those fuckin' perfect lips? 

Damn it! 

But ... he called me baby in the hospital, didn't he? He also called me by my name? But, then again ... maybe he's just crushing on me. I want to laugh and hit myself for even thinking that. Wait ... Did he not say he loves me back in the hospital? I don't really remember. Everything's still hazy. 

FUCK! Can he not come in my dreams every single night? 

He's halfway around the world, Cris. Get a hold of yourself. He's just a cute boy. Don't even think you'd see him again. 

___________________________________________________________________________

YEY!!!!

Sorry for the long wait though. Thanks for being patient ... as always. 

Lav y'all lovelies.