Keeping up with my promise! Keep an eye out for the <>!

Shopping malls and a lot of social activities here in Brazil have shut down because of the virus so I am thinking I will have more time to finish this book up.

Darla

As I slept there was no moment that was special, or memorable. People always write about having this 'draw nearer to God' moment. But for me, there was nothing, it felt like I was just having a dreamless sleep through the night.

While I did sleep, however, I felt like my sleep wore off at times. It allowed me to hear bits of conversation, moments of laughing, crying, and silence until a deeper sleep pulled me under again. This happened multiple times until finally at one moment, the silence and peace of sleep stopped. I heard laughing, it was joyful, it sounded like Paulo with the sound of a TV in the background.

There was excitement that buzzed around me. I felt it through my body, causing me to wake more than I had since I was put under for surgery. I felt my grip of sleep slip again, but this time, I was more aware. Sleep wearing off and this time there was no lingering feeling to pull me back under.

The TV turned off and the laughing was replaced by a steady sound of beeping as the room grew quiet.

I felt something up my nose and instantly I wanted off of my face. I tried to move my hand but it was too heavy.

I heard voices ring out clearly. "Ssshhh... she's waking," I heard a voice call out.

There was more silence. I wanted to nod and say that I was here and that I heard them. There was so much that I wanted to say to them but my body didn't want to move.

<>

After what felt like minutes, sleep wore off enough that I was able to crack my eyes open. I squinted at the bright room and blurry peach blobs around me. Light was everywhere and it hurt my eyes. I tried to rub them but my arms wouldn't move. My fuzzy eyes were struggling to see anything right.

"There she is," Dad said with excitement as he grabbed a hold of my hand.

I tried to smile at him but it quickly turned into a grimace. I laced my fingers with him and tried to squeeze his hand. Every movement seemed impossible for me to do. However, I felt my eyes slowly fall into focus as I looked at him. He smiled at me with joy but his eyes showed a different story. They were worn, tired, bloodshot. It looked like he hadn't slept in days.

Mom walked out of the bathroom and beamed at me. She wiped her wet hands on her pants as her eyes welled up with tears. It was as if she hadn't seen me in forever. "El, look at that, even you're punctual in your sleep," she said with a small chuckle. She sat at the foot of the bed as she pulled on her shirt to straighten it. Her T-shirt was stained and wrinkled like she had been wearing it for too long.

Jaimie moved to the side of me and smiled at me. His eyes wanted to say so much more but he remained silent as Paulo walked up to hold onto my other hand.

I smiled lightly at them. After all that had happened, after all the bad, I felt like one thing made all of this worth it. It brought us together. For the first time in years, dad wasn't gone every other week. Paulo was actually talking to me. And Jaimie, he was focusing on us instead of his studies. Mom, she never changed. But then again, she didn't need to. She was already perfect in my eyes. We were a family again and for that I was grateful.

For the first time in weeks, I actually could feel the love they had for me bursting through this room. They had loved me from the beginning. But since this all started, I had been so against them, more interested in starting fights, so much so that I was blinded from the love they had for me. My smile grew. I loved them too, so much.

"El, we missed you. So much," mom said as she cupped my cheek with her thin warm hand.

I leaned into her hand, craving human touch as if I hadn't had it in far too long. I was the luckiest girl in the world with a family like mine.

After a few minutes of silence, I looked around the room. There was almost everything I wanted right in this room. I was only waiting for one person. Callum. He promised me he would be here. "Where's Callum?" I asked with a soft and horse voice. It was hard for me to force those two words out of my mouth. My throat was screaming in pain.

Everyone was silent as they looked at Paulo. He frowned at me but I frowned back at him. He scared him off. Why did he have to hate him so much? Couldn't he see that Callum made me happy? "What did you do Paulo," I demanded an answer, though my voice didn't show much conviction. It wasn't fair to shoo him off while I was recovering when I didn't have a voice.

He looked uncomfortable as he looked at the ground. He did something wrong. He didn't want to face me. But I wanted his brown eyes to look at me and tell me what he did.

I felt myself shake in anger as mom stood up from the bed. She didn't want to be in my line of fire when I attacked Paulo. Why did he have to be like this? I was about to try to yell at him until a voice made me stop.

"He did nothing," Callum said as he walked in with four coffees in his hands.

I looked at Callum and smiled. Relief washed over me. He was still here. He kept his promise.

"I only asked if he would get some Starbucks for us," Paulo said with a shrug as he took a cup of coffee from Callum.

"And I went, willingly," he said and sat down at the foot of the bed. He smiled lightly as his eyes took in everything about me.

As I looked at Callum, my smile slid off my face. He looked thinner. He looked like he hadn't slept much either. His shaved sides of his hair were starting to grow out, making them stick out on end. I had been asleep for more than just one night. It had been days. "You got to get that fixed," I said with a hoarse voice as I rubbed the side of his head.

He chuckled as he reached for my hand. "I had been a bit too busy to focus on my hair," he said and held my hand against his cheek, soaking me in.

I knew I was the one that was the cause of this. But his hair growth showed that he hadn't taken care of it for a while. "How long?" I asked softly, not sure if I wanted to even know the answer to this.

Everyone looked around the room at each other. None of them wanted to say anything.

Finally, Callum spoke up. "This past week has been hell without you, Ellis," he said honestly.

A week? I was asleep for a week? "A week?" I asked as I sank into the bed. Why?

Mom shot a look at Callum as if he was one of her sons. She didn't want him to say that. But I was grateful that he did. "Hun, you have to know that there were complications," mom said as she sat on the bed again. She wrapped her arm around Callum supportively and rubbed his back. They had gotten close, that was apparent.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I forced the words out of my mouth. It was hard as I found myself slightly breathless as I spoke.

"We just needed you to heal a little more before you woke up," dad said.

"But let's not talk about this right now. Let's just talk about other things," mom said as she looked at my father. I saw her eyes well up with tears as she thought about this past week. She didn't want to be reminded, for her own sake.

Dad nodded. He was silent, not knowing what to say next. In fact, no one knew. It was clear that they had been practically living here and I was the only news they had.

Finally, breaking the silence was Paulo. "It snowed like a butt-ton while you slept," Paulo said as he showed me photos on his phone.

"Beautiful," I said as I looked at the photos of the mountains of snow on the side of the roads.

He smiled brightly at me. "I knew you would like it."

There was more silence. It was awkward as no one knew what to say to me. And I couldn't really say anything. My throat hurt a little too much.

Minutes ticked by in silence that was until Jaimie turned the tv on. He propped his feet up on the window ledge as he got comfortable. His position looked relaxed as if he had held it countless times.

The sound started to lull me to sleep again. I snuggled into the bed and pulled a blanket around my shoulders. I closed my eyes, feeling sleep take a hold of me again.

Breaking me from my somewhat sleeping slumber was Paulo's voice. I opened my eyes to see Paulo looking at Callum. "I am going to get food, want to come, Callum?" Paulo asked as he stood up from the seat he was sitting at.

Callum put his phone back into his pocket and nodded without a pause. "Sure."

I watched with my mouth open as the two walked out of the room in silence. I rubbed my eyes to clear my vision. Was I really seeing things correctly? I looked at Jaimie as if to make sure I wasn't seeing things. "Did they?" I asked him.

A smile played across his face. "Yes they did." He found amusement in this.

I sunk in my bed as I looked out the door, half expecting that one would return too soon. So much happened in the week that I slept. I missed too much. "What happened? Why?" I asked, begging for an answer.

"You don't know what Callum did for you. Paulo may have hated him but now, he tolerates him. And I think he is actually trying to know him so maybe one day he will like him." Jaimie said as he laid at the foot of my bed. He stretched then turned to his side to look at me with a smile. He was more relaxed than the last time I saw him. Seeing him here, it was clear that Paulo wasn't the only one that had changed so much.

"What happened?" I begged him for the answer. He couldn't just tell me that bomb without giving me details.

He propped his head up with his thin but defined arm started to dive into details. "We all know that you and mom have the same blood type. But during the surgery, she went out to pick up food for us. You started to hemorrhaging and the doctors didn't have enough blood in their supply for you. They came out to ask for blood but mom was gone. Instantly Callum stood up. He has O blood and he volunteered."

"He did that?" I asked.

Jaimie nodded with a small smile, happy to be sharing this story with me. "He donated as much as he possibly could, enough that he almost passed out himself. And Paulo saw all of this. I think he got the clue that Callum loved you. It was clear that Callum would do anything for you."

I was speechless as I tried to imagine this scene that Jaimie told me.

"So since that moment, Paulo has been trying to get to know Callum better. He's trying to give him a second chance." Jaimie said as reached for the floor, pulling out his textbook from his backpack. He had to study for something but I wasn't about to let him study today. I had to know what else I missed.

"So tell me what else I have missed," I asked as I pulled his text book away from him. I looked at the chemistry book in my hand and remembered all the homework that I had waiting for me as well.

Without protesting, Jaimie nodded and pulled a blanket over his feet. "Paulo was going to go on a date with one of the hockey players on garret's team today," Jaimie explained.

"So he told mom and dad?" I asked, remembering the conversation I had with him not too long ago in this hospital.

Jaimie nodded. "He told us while we were here, a few days ago."

I smiled, happy that he actually listened to me. "I'm proud of him."

Jaimie chuckled. "He said you would be. That was why he shared. That night, you had a rough go and he thought we could all use some more you at that moment. So he shared."

"How did mom and dad take it?"

He paused and thought about it, carefully choosing his words before he said them. "I think they're trying to understand him. It's a lot to take in, you know?"

I nodded. I knew that it would take them some time to understand him but I knew they would. My parents were some of the most understanding people in the world. And they loved all of us so much. "Yeah, I know."

"But anyhow, he was running around the house today, trying to get ready. I swear, I saw him change his outfit like 3 different times," he said with a chuckle.

I smiled, I would have liked to see that. I chuckled lightly as I envisioned Paulo throwing his clothes around the house but it turned into a cough. My throat was still so rough and sore from the tubes that were down it for a week.

"Are you ok?" Jaimie asked with concern.

"Can you hand me that water?" I asked, begging him for help, as I pointed to a glass of water on a side table.

Jaimie moved so quickly that instantly a cup of water was in my hands. I drank it slowly hoping that it would ease the pain in my throat, but it didn't work. "How did his date go?" I asked as my voice started to get rougher.

He shrugged. "Never went. Things changed here with you. He stood him up I think."

I was disappointed. That wasn't the ending to the story that I wanted for him.

"Don't frown, El, he went here willingly. He said this was more important or something like that. Made a whole scene about it," Jaimie said with a chuckle.

"That sounds like Paulo," I said as I fought the pain starting in my head. I grimaced slightly just as Jaimie looked away from me. My headache was steadily growing to something more painful but I wanted to talk to Jaimie more so I pushed it to the back of my mind.

Jaimie chuckled again as he walked over to the window and looked out it. "It does, doesn't it?" There was silence as Jaimie worked up the nerve to talk about his life next. He was insecure, it was written all over his face as he looked back at me. "I think I found a girlfriend."

I raised my eyebrows at him in shock. "Wait, hold the press?! What?" I asked as the last few words came out choked and soft.

He laughed. "I knew you would say that."

I made a motion for him to continue as I took another drink of water.

He looked shy, not sure if he should actually say the name. He ran his hands through his dark hair and sighed. "Camila Lopez."

"Cami?" I asked, making sure I heard him correctly.

"That's ok, right?" He asked me.

I smiled again. I didn't think this would actually happen but I was happy it was. I think they would be good for each other. "Of course, as long as you don't break her heart, then I'll break your face."

He chuckled at me. "Deal."