The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window (39 page)

“
Hey
,” I croaked, trying to smile
and ignore the pain in my head.

“
Thank God.
You scared me
.” He bent his head and
kissed my forehead softly, seeming to breathe a sigh of
relief.

“
OK.
I
f I could just get in and have a look,”
a female voice said sternly.

I
glanced
around and had no idea where I
was. I was on a little bed, all strapped in. This was a little room
of some sort with shelves and cupboards all along the walls -
except we were moving; I could feel the vibrations from the
road.

Liam moved to
the side and a lady in
a green jumpsuit
leaned over me. “Hi, Amber. How are you feeling?” she asked,
shining a little light in my eyes.

I pushed her
hand off
of me, looking for Liam again.
“Where am I?” I asked, panicking slightly. How the hell did I get
here? I was in the kitchen, then I felt a little sick….

“
You’re in an
ambulance, sweetie. Y
ou passed out and
hit your head pretty hard on the kitchen counter,” she explained,
taking my hands and putting them down on my chest. “I just need to
check you over. You’ve been unconscious for about twenty minutes.”
She flicked the light into my eyes again, nodding, seeming
satisfied. “Does your head hurt?” she asked, touching behind my ear
lightly. Pain shot through my head and I hissed through my teeth.
“I think you’ll need a couple of stitches here,” she stated,
nodding to the side of my head.

I reached out
a hand to Liam
. He immediately took it,
and kissed my fingers, his eyes not leaving my face. He looked
really stressed. After another couple of minutes we pulled into the
hospital and they started to wheel me out on the little
bed.

“
I can
walk
,” I protested, feeling stupid for
being wheeled into the hospital on a bed.

“
S
orry, sweetie, it’s standard
practice. You arrive with lights, you go in on a bed,” she
countered, winking at me. I smiled weakly and Liam laughed, but it
wasn’t his usual laugh, it was tight and humourless.

We were
wheeled into a little cubical and left on our own. “What
happened
, Angel?” Liam asked, bending
over me and brushing his hand over the side of my face
softly.

I shrugged
and then winced as the m
ovement made my
head hurt again. “I don’t know. I just felt a little dizzy, then I
woke up to you in the ambulance,” I explained. That was all I could
remember.

“
You scared
the shit out of me.
Don’t ever do that to
me again. Promise me,” he instructed, making me giggle at just how
serious he was. He wanted me to promise him that I’d never pass out
again?

“
Liam, I
can’t promise something
that I have no
control over,” I teased, still laughing. He sighed and bent
forward, kissing me lightly, setting my body on fire. He pulled
back when the curtain opened and a doctor walked in.

“
Oops, sorry.
S
hall I come back later?” the doctor
asked, grinning. I laughed, embarrassed to have been caught making
out in a hospital.

“
Yeah
, could you give us five
minutes?” Liam joked, making the guy laugh. He held my hand tightly
as the Doctor looked in my eyes and checked my head, scribbling on
his pad.

“
So
, you passed out, Amber, have
you been feeling alright today? Have you taken anything that you
shouldn’t have?” he asked, watching me a little
suspiciously.

“
Like drugs
or something?” I asked
, shocked. Did I
look like a damn drug addict? He nodded, looking at me expectantly.
“No, I haven’t taken anything. I’ve been feeling a little off
today, a bit queasy,” I admitted.

He scribbled
ag
ain. “Have you eaten?”

I thought
about it -
had I eaten? I had some toast
for breakfast, but I didn’t eat lunch because I felt sick. “Um, not
really. I felt sick at lunch.”

“
Hmm
, that’s probably your problem
right there. Are you under any sort of stress or anything at the
moment? Doing exams, that kind of thing?” he asked, scribbling
again.

Stress.
W
ow, that’s an understatement. My abusive
father moved back to town, bringing with him a whole new family. A
week ago I saw him again for the first time since he tried to force
himself on me. I found out just now that he’s been abusing his new
family and they’re now moving in with us for a while. Actually, how
long were they staying with us? Did someone mention that? I’d have
to get Johnny in with Jake, and Ruby and Matt can share my mom’s
room, then when my mom comes home I could….

“
Amber?” the
doctor said
, snapping me out of my own
little world.

“
Oh right.
U
m, yeah, life’s been kind of stressful
lately,” I stated, biting my lip at just how much of an
understatement that really was.

“
Well
, stress can do funny things
to you. You really need to eat properly. I’m going to run some
bloods to make sure there’s nothing else going on. I’ll get someone
to come in and stitch your head and I’ll keep you in for a couple
of hours just to check everything’s alright after that bump,” he
stated, smiling kindly.

He went to
the c
upboard and pulled out a needle. I
looked at Liam with wide eyes. I hated needles. When the doctor
came over to me, Liam bent his head and kissed me.

I closed my
eyes and melted my lips against his. Jeez, he tasted so damn
good!

“
OK, all
done.
I’ll get these sent up they should
be back in an hour or so,” the doctor announced, throwing the
needle in the trash and writing on a little vial. I glanced down at
my arm to see a little piece of white tape holding a cotton wool
ball to the inside of my elbow.

“
D
id you do it?” I asked, shocked.
Wow, I didn’t even feel it!

The doctor
and Liam laughed.
“Yep, all done. Ah, the
power of distraction,” the doctor mused, grinning. I smiled at
Liam; I’d have to take him with me for every shot I ever get from
now on.

“
O
K, so a nurse will be in to
stitch your head in a few minutes. You’ll probably be here for two
or three hours,” he said, heading over to the curtain.

I
nodded
. “Can my boyfriend stay with me?”
I asked hopefully as I clung to Liam’s hand. I didn’t want to be in
this sterile little place on my own.

“
Sure, that’s
fine. J
ust one visitor though, so you
might want to tell the crowd asking about you, to go home,” he
suggested, chuckling as he left and pulled the curtain back
around.

Crowd
, what’s that about? I
looked at Liam, he smiled. “They all came. I literally had to push
Jake out of the ambulance when they said only one person could ride
with you,” he said, looking a little guilty about it.

I smiled and
squeezed his hand. “Well I’m glad I woke up to you instead of Jake.
So thanks.”

He
bent
his head and kissed me lightly. “I’m
glad too.” He sighed. “I’d better go and tell them you’re fine, and
that they should go home,” he said, standing up.

“
Hurry up
though
, OK?” I asked, giving him my
begging face.

He
smiled
. “I’ll be as quick as I can,” he
promised, kissing my forehead and leaving quickly. I closed my eyes
and listened to the noisy ward and waited for him to come
back.

Liam was back
within five minutes with a pre-packed s
andwich and a drink. “Hey, I’m not sure if you’re allowed
these yet, so you’ll have to wait until the nurse comes to stitch
your head. I didn’t miss that, did I?” he asked
worriedly.

“
No
, you didn’t miss it.” I smiled
at how thoughtful he was all the time.

He sat down
on th
e little chair and held my hand. The
nurse came in a few minutes later and stitched up my head,
apparently, I needed six stitches. I made Liam distract me the
whole time, he was actually the best painkiller known to man. Maybe
I should try to bottle him somehow, and then sell it. I’d be
rich!

Finally, after an hour and a half, the doctor came
back. “Hey, so I’ve got your blood test results back and it appears
it wasn’t the lack of food that made you pass out,” he said,
looking at me seriously. Liam tensed next to me, squeezing my hand,
leaning so far forward in his chair that it wouldn’t surprise me if
he fell off any second.

“
OK,
so what was it?” I asked curiously. It couldn’t
be anything bad. I was only sixteen for goodness sake, I didn’t
smoke, didn’t drink very much, I wasn’t overweight, I exercised
regularly. I mean, I shouldn’t be able to get ill, should
I?

“
You’re
pregnant
,” he stated.

I burst out
laughing. Damn
, that was funny, he almost
had me there. I shook my head, still chuckling. “Seriously, what
was it?”

He looked
from me to Liam.
“You’re pregnant,” he
repeated.

I stopped
laughing imme
diately. I couldn’t be
pregnant. No, this was a mistake. “I can’t be, I’m on the pill.
I’ve taken it every day; I’ve not missed a single one. I take them
at exactly eight o’clock every morning,” I protested, shaking my
head, it had to be something else. I looked at Liam; he was looking
at the doctor, his mouth hanging open.

“Well, when was your last period?” the doctor
asked.

I looked at
Liam again. “Two weeks ago.
I’m on the
pill where you stop taking it for a week, so it was definitely two
weeks ago. I’m due to have my next one the week after next,” I said
positively.

“
And your
period, what was it like? As heavy as normal?” the doctor
asked
, scribbling on his pad
again.

As
heav
y as normal? I thought about it.
Actually, it was really light, but that was because I was on the
pill, Kate said it made your periods lighter. “It was light but I
definitely had one, two weeks ago. I can’t be pregnant,” I said
sternly.

“
Sometimes
you can still have very light periods through
pregnancy. It’s called spotting. How long have you been on
the pill?” he asked curiously.

“
Six
weeks
,” I replied, quietly.

This couldn’t
be right. P
lease tell me this is some
kind of huge mistake, or even one of those hidden camera shows and
people are going to jump out and shout ‘Gotcha’ any
minute.

“
And when you
started taking it, did you take it o
n the
first day of your period?” he asked.

I shook my
head.
“It was a couple of weeks after my
period. What difference does that make?” I asked, starting to get
nervous.

“
Right,
well
, when you start taking the pill you
need to start on the first day of your period and then it will be
effective straight away. If you take it within five days, it will
be effective after two weeks, but if you start on any other day
then you need to start your second packet before it takes effect,”
he explained softly.

So that means
it didn’t even start to work until two weeks ago when I started my
second pack and we had been having unprotected sex the whole
time
! Liam was still staring at him. He
hadn’t said anything at all, I wasn’t even sure if he was
breathing. He was sitting so still that it was like he was a
statue.

“
I’m going to
get a portable ultrasound machine
and
we’ll have a little look, OK?” the doctor suggested, smiling kindly
as he disappeared out of the curtain.

“
Liam
?” I whispered. He was
honestly scaring me a little, I’d never seen anyone be so still in
my life, it wasn’t natural. He didn’t answer. The doctor came back
and I watched as he squirted some gel on my stomach and pressed a
little thing that looked like a small microphone to my stomach,
rolling it around.

Oh
crap
, please let this be a
mistake.

He
stopped
, holding it still and nodded.
“Yep, definitely pregnant. I’d say from the sizes here, you’re
about four, maybe five weeks. You want to see?” he offered, holding
the little handset out to me.

“
No
,” I refused, pushing it away
quickly.

I didn’t want
to see because then I wouldn’t be able to do what
needed to be done. I couldn’t have a baby, we
were too young, it would ruin everything. We’d only just got
together; there was too much going on. Liam would be leaving me for
college soon, we couldn’t have a baby. I wouldn’t ruin Liam’s
dreams, he’d always wanted to play hockey and I wouldn’t take that
away from him. I couldn’t look at the little handset; I couldn’t
see the little baby in there because I needed to stay
strong.