International Love

Chapter 8

The next morning I was woken up around 5:30 am to a nurse messing with her materials needed for a blood draw.

“Good morning, Ivy.” She smiled, “I’m just going to get some blood from you. Dr. Zenoni wants to check some levels before you’re discharged later on today.”

I nodded and gave her a light smile.

“Oh! I brought you something to take home with you.” She said handing me a small dry erase board and a black marker.

Thank you! I wrote and erased after she saw it. I need to use the restroom. I wrote next.

“You must have had your catheter removed last night.” She answered poking my arm with the needle, “Let’s get your blood drawn and I’ll help you to the bathroom.”

The nurse took 4 tubes of blood in different color topped tubes. Once she was done and wrapped a small piece of gauze and medical tape on the spot she just took blood from. She pushed the tray away from bed and threw back the blankets from my bed. I threw my legs over the side and stood up. I felt like I was learning to walk again. I stumbled a bit but was soon on my way to the bathroom.

Once I got walking I nodded letting her know I was okay to do it by myself. She was hesitant to leave but I assured her I was okay. When she left I did my business and then stood in front of the mirror looking at myself as I washed my hands. I looked horrible.

My hair was piled on top of my head in a messy bun. The brace around my neck was bulky. But what scared me most was the busted vessels in my eyes. My eyes had these red specks in them. I think I heard Dr. Zenoni say something about that getting worse before it gets better. How did things get to this point? Over some money.

I decided that I was not going to throw a pity party for myself. This was just another bump in the road. I’d heal from this and be good to go before the tour started, at least I hoped I would.

I walked out from the bathroom and walked over to the couch where Derek was sleeping. I lifted up the blankets and crawled in right next to him.

“Hey baby.” He whispered throwing his arm around my waist, “Are you okay?”

I nodded my head and put my arm over his. Being close to him made me feel much safer. Before I knew it I was drifting back to sleep.

I woke up some time later to Derek twirling a piece of hair that fell out of my bun around his finger. My eyes opened and he was just staring at the ceiling. I sat up and looked at him.

“I’m just thinking about some things.” He smiled, “I can sense those gears turning in that pretty little head of yours.”

I smiled and got off the couch and went back to my bed.

“Alright, Ivy, let’s get that brace off and we can send you home.” Dr. Zenoni said, “Your labs came back normal and your follow up CT scan showed no further damage or brain damage. Which would have presented itself by now.”

I smiled and the doctor took the brace off. Derek gasped and I knew it was bad. My hand flew up to my neck to cover it but Dr. Zenoni pulled my hands down immediately telling me it was very tender.

After I changed and signed my discharge papers the nurse came in with a wheelchair. The exit is what I was dreading. I knew there were still reporters and paparazzi downstairs. They were going to swarm us to get the first glimpse of me leaving the hospital. They would have a field day with this. Especially once they learned there was physical evidence.

It was like Derek could read my mind because he handed me his hoodie to put on. He helped me pull it over my head and smiled, “That helps hide the bruising a bit.”

I gave him a small smile and moved from the bed to the wheelchair. Derek grabbed my bag and lead us out the door.

As we were walking down the hall there was visitor, nurses, hospital personnel, and even patients staring at me. In my head I knew if I weren’t famous I wouldn’t be stared at. If I weren’t famous I wouldn’t be in this position at all. I can’t help but wonder where I’d really be if I didn’t have the band.

When we got downstairs the scene was just as I suspected. Paparazzi all over the place. I pressed my fingertips to my temple and sighed. This was exhausting. I couldn’t even leave a hospital without being surrounded. But this is what I knew I was getting into the day I signed that contract.

Derek pulled up in his Range Rover and the nurse wheeled me out. Thankfully there were barriers and I was able to get into the car without any more injuries.

As we were driving my phone started to ring. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was my contractor. I handed the phone to Derek and he answered putting it on speaker.

“Hey Bill.” Derek said, “I’m sure you’ve heard by now what’s happened. Ivy can’t talk but she’s here.”

“Yes, I’ve heard.” Bill responded, “Ivy I wanted to give you call and let you know we’ve done everything we could but the damage to your home isn’t all fixable. There are many parts that just aren’t able to be fixed. Specifically the kitchen sector leading into the garage. The living room is pretty badly charred. I would suggest scraping your house.”

“So wait let me get this straight. You’ve been working at her house for damn near two months and you’re just now discovering that it’s not all fixable. What have you been doing all this time?” Derek said angrily.

“Sir, we started in the areas we knew were going to be easy fixes. We’re just now getting to the real damage and it’s just not fixable.” Bill continued.

“Alright, well, I’ll talk with Ivy when we get home and we’ll let you know from there.” Derek said disconnecting the call.

As if this could get any worse. Not only was I injured and not able to speak or sing, but now I didn’t have a home. I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, but this. This is excessive. When would I catch some kind of break?

Fucking awesome. What now? I wrote on my dry erase board.

“What do you mean what now?” He asked confused, “We leave for New York in 2 weeks. We’ll get the rest of your things and you can stay with me until then.”

What about people finding out? I wrote.

“At some point this is going to have to come public.” He responded grabbing my hand.

Derek wasn’t wrong. We couldn’t hide this forever. But I just was not ready to let this out into the open. There’s no telling what Lacey would do. There’s no telling what paparazzi would do. There’s just so much unknown and I’m terrified.

I sighed and Derek squeezed my hand letting me know things were going to get better.

When we got home we went through our usual maneuvering through the paparazzi to get into the gates. When we finally got inside I saw that Katie, Steven, and Lacey were all already there. Thankfully, Katie had ordered dinner for us while we talked about how we were going to move forward with the Grammys.

Once we were all settled and started eating we started talking about all the things we were going to do while on tour. Even though it was mainly about touring and charity work, we already had scheduled days off in Australia, London, Paris, Brazil, Panama, and my personal favorite the Bahamas.

Growing up in California, I’ve always loved the beach. I grew up in San Diego so I was always found at the beach. It was my safe space. The beach was soothing. The crashing of the waves against the rocks. The smell of salt in the air. It was where I’d go to think. To this day whenever I need some time to think I’d sneak away to the beach.

“So let’s get down to business.” Katie said, “I think it’s best if we pull out of the Grammys performance and completely axe you all going.”

“What?!” Lacey yelled, “Why?!”

“Ivy is in no shape to be walking red carpets. She can’t sing which means you’re missing a part of your band.”

I got my trusty marker and dry erase board and went to town.

It’s not fair they have to back out because of what happened to me. I’m perfectly capable of walking a red carpet. This is my win, too. I wrote.

“She’s right. Without our fourth member we would have never made it to where we are.” Steven said, “She needs to be there with us if we win any awards.”

“I agree. She doesn’t have to partake in any interviews.” Lacey responded, “It’s not like the press doesn’t know about the accident.”

Please. I need to be there. Plus, I’ve already gotten my dress picked out. This is incredibly important to me. I wrote.

“And what about the performance?” She asked.

“Hologram.” Derek said.

We all looked at Derek like he had 12 heads. A hologram of me performing is something that would take a lot of time and we had exactly 1 week to get it together.

“Derek, I don’t think that’s a reasonable request.” Katie said.

“I think it’s very reasonable. It can be done. We take the clips of her from the video for “Promises” since that’s the song we’re performing and turn them into a hologram to perform along side us.” He said.

“This could be groundbreaking.” Steven said, “This could be one for the Grammy history books.”

Katie sat back in her chair and looked at all of us intently. She was really thinking about this. This was something that we could absolutely pull off with just a little bit of work. It could be done.

“Alright, fine.” She smiled, “But you’re all putting in the work since it was your idea. Ronald will be around to pick you losers up at 7:30 tomorrow morning to go to the studio.”

Katie was able to speak to us like that because she’s been there for us through everything. She was our manager and publicist from the day we signed contracts until now. She knew when she needed to be serious but also knew when she could joke around with us and be silly.

We all smiled and high-fived. I wish I could talk. I wish I could express my excitement with more than just a dry erase board.

Later on that night I was lying in my bedroom looking at the ceiling. I couldn’t sleep. I was scared to close my eyes. Any normal girl in my position would go crawl into her boyfriends bed, but we haven’t slept in the same bed. We’ve only taken naps on the couch. Cuddled on the couch. We’ve never even had s*x. I’ve never had s*x with anyone. So I guess I was more scared that I was inexperienced.

But I also wanted to cherish my relationship with Derek. I didn’t want our relationship to be rushed. I didn’t want to lose him. I wanted to take things slow with him. I enjoyed spending time with Derek and there were times that I wanted to be a little more affectionate in public. But I didn’t because I wasn’t ready for our relationship to go public. I liked our little bubble relationship.