Chapter 46

Caitlin's point of view. ;)

When I wake up in the morning in Sidneys arms I feel like a very lucky girl. I'm always waking up before him, giving me the perfect opportunity to reflect on last night. If there's anything I'm sure of, it's that I've got it good being Sidney Crosby's girlfriend.
Sidney begins to mumble in his sleep. "Caitlin, no!" he groans and scoots closer to me and stops talking. He's really warm and in my skimpy pajamas I'm happy he is providing me with some body heat.
After a few minutes, Sidney blinks a couple of times and wakes up. "I hate it when you watch me sleep," he mumbles and smiles at the same time.
"I love you," I stretch towards his face to give him a kiss.
"mmmm," Sidney groans, "I love you too baby." He wraps his arms around me and we cuddle and kiss for a little while like we sometimes do. Then we realize that we aren't back at home and we should probably be moving out to the living room by now to visit Sidney's family.
I dress in something comfy. We aren't leaving the house at all today. I put on a pair of jeans and a cute band t-shirt that I picked up from some sidewalk vendor person back in Pittsburgh.
As soon as Taylor sees me walk out into the living room she squeals, "You like All Time Low too!?" she jumps up and walks towards me. "I have an all time low shirt. I should wear it today we could match." I smile at her and say sure. Because all time low is awesome and we aren't leaving the house. Normally I couldn't stand to match someone.
Sidney laughs at my bewildered expression. I'm still not totally awake and taylor's little outburst kind of scared me a little bit so early in the morning.
She comes waltzing out in her lovely shirt, which is cooler than mine I must admit. "so who's your favorite!?" she asks excitedly and looks at me expectantly.
"um. I like Alex," I say, referring to the lead singer, mostly because I'm not that huge of a fan of theirs. Even if they were my favorite I probably wouldn't know anyone but the lead singer.
"me too!" Taylor squeals again. "how cool. Have you ever gone to a concert!?" I can tell she's dying to know so I keep the conversation going.
"yeah I saw them at warped tour one time" I smile halfheartedly. Warped Tour was great when I went. But like 2 days after it, my boyfriend dumped me. I can't help but associate warped tour and sadness now. But that's the past, I remind myself. No use getting all sad about it now. I've got Sidney.
We start a game of monopoly with all five of us playing and I have a feeling that I'm going to lose. Surprisingly though I start out good and am able to buy both park place and the boardwalk in the first couple of times around the board. Everyone thinks I'm going to dominate after that but my bad luck takes a step in and I go broke because I keep landing on everyone's hotel spaces.
The rest of the day is spent hanging out and having fun. It seems like Taylor really likes me and Sidney's parents are more pleasant today. Maybe it was just me. Maybe I was thinking that things were aimed at me that weren't because I was having a hard time dealing with the fact the Ruthanne was seriously injured. I was probably being very oversensitive.
I decide to forget yesterday, except the part where I gave Sidney his present. That will be a good memory.
When it's nearly time for Trina to start dinner Sidney takes a quick field trip to his room to get something. We had all just been hanging out after they agreed to quit the monopoly game. To my great surprise, Sidney comes back with the box of 23 things I gave him.
"Sid, no," I look at him pleadingly. I really don't want his family to know how mushy some of that stuff is.
"Come on, they asked." Sidney winks at me and I out my head down in embarrassment. "it doesn't matter what they think. I loved it."
"fine," I say, still unhappy that he's going to show them some of that stuff.
"look!" he calls his family over and they all sit around the living room to see what he pulls out of the box. The first thing he pulls out is the slinky. His family laughs and he quickly explains, "I really did want a slinky," he laughs with them and I blush some more. Next is the movie ticket from a chick flick we went and saw one night. Taylor finds that especially hilarious and laughs a lot. My trinket from our cruise, a picture of us from the photo booth at the mall, a key chain with our names on it.
All of this means something to me and Sidney but now that I look at it all again, it looks really girly. His parents found my gift to him kind of hilarious but Taylor thought it was cute and kept saying things like "aww."
It makes me laugh too but I'm still embarrassed and I just keep my head down until Sidney is done. "I love you," he laughs again and gives me a hug. I put my nose into his shoulder and hide my face. I don't want to try and say something right now.
When our little hug is over I lift my head and his family is staring at us.  "you guys are too cute," Taylor says, smiling really wide. I'm not sure why she enjoys her brother having a girlfriend so much or why she likes me, but I can deal with it.
I smile back and lean on Sidney's shoulder again. He grabs my hand and we wait for someone to start talking.
"Sidney never told me how you two met," Trina starts, trailing off at the end, a questioning tone in her voice.
I blush again, suddenly remembering that day. I almost fell on the ice right in front of him. Twice.
"well, " I start. "Ruthanne, my friend, somehow met him before me and invited him to the skating rink which she and my family rented for my birthday." I attempt to explain.
"so you had no clue the whole time? And he just showed up for your birthday not even knowing who you were?!" Taylor exclaims excitedly.
"prett much. " I say, shrugging my shoulders.
 "that's so perfect!" I've come to a conclusion. Taylor is a hopeless romantic and she creepily finds everything I do awesome.
"for the record I'm not showing up at random girls birthdays. I had heard so much about her from Ruthanne, and I don't know, Caitlin sounded pretty cool." Sidney teases me and laughs.
"thanks," I say dryly. He gives my hand a squeeze and I smile.
"you're the best." he whispers in my ear. Now I'm starting to feel awkward because he doesn't mind that his parents are right in front of us. I glance up to see Troy nodding off and Sidney's mom reading a magazine. They've totally lost interest. Taylor on the other hand is staring intently.
"you're going to need to start getting packed up," Sidney says to me after an awkward moment.
"I know. Will you help me?" I ask him, a puppy dog expression on my face.
"of course," he chuckles and stands up, holding his hand out to help me up. I take it and smile and we head to his bedroom.
We don't really pack. It's more cuddling and such. I can't remember another time when we've been able to just get away and do this kind of thing. In any case, I really like it.
We are in sidneys room for a long time before Trina calls us out for dinner. She was probably too afraid to come in after the amount of time we've spent in here.


Ruthanne's point of view. <3

Kris had stayed  with me at my house all night. He didn't want to leave my side and I'm thankful for that. In the morning I wake up and his arms are around me so gently I can hardly feel them except their comforting warmth. He's watching me and I can feel his eyes moving over my face.
"good morning," I mumble and blink a couple of times. The light from the sun burns my eyes and I feel the headache that I had in the hospital last night return. I immediately shut my eyes and ask Kris if he can bring me some pain meds.
"of course," he whispers, already trying to ease out of my tiny bed without moving me. I immediately miss the warmth of his presence. It might be summer but that doesn't change the fact that another persons body heat is comforting.
Kris is back almost instantly and my eyes are still shut. I don't want to open them. At all. I've never had a very high pain threshold.
"Ruthanne," he comes back and laughs at me squeezing my eyes shut. "I've got your medicine." I hold up my hand in the general direction of the window and open my eyes again. My head hurts, but I'm able to take the pill and the glass of water he got for me and take the medicine.
"are you feeling any better this morning?" Kris asks me. I can't remember what happened last night before I went to bed. But I sure did sleep soundly.
"I'm ok," I say. "I've still got a headache. And as soon as I move I'll be able to tell you more. "
"you'll have that headache for a while. Believe me. " I believe him. He's a freaking hockey player and has probably had 200 concussions by now.
"ehhh," I groan and pull the covers up on me. I don't want to get out of bed and have to move and feel pain and stuff. I bury my face in the pillow and I stay there until I can't breathe properly anymore. I turn my head again and Kris is sitting on the edge of my bed.
"you're going to have to get up sometime," he says quietly, obviously knowing the feeling I have right now. I decide that I will get up and he stretches out a hand to help me.
"Thank you," I say as I get up slowly. My legs hurt, and my knees and ankles crackle as I straighten out. Kris thinks it's gross that that happens to me in the mornings.
Now to get down the stairs. I didn't realize how traumatic something like this could be until last night when I had to go back downstairs to get something.
My heart starts pounding and I can feel the pulse of it in my ears. Kris has to help me down the stairs with his arm around me and taking a lot of my weight. We make it to the bottom after a long time of taking it really slow. I figured Kris would get impatient, but he's so good to me. It's hard to believe how amazing he is sometimes.
"Thanks so much," I wrap my arms around Kris and give him a huge hug.
 He hugs me back as gently as possible and says, "anytime babe." I smile at that. It sounds funny to me when he calls me "babe." I don't feel like a "babe."
We get ourselves some breakfast, but I don't eat much. As soon as the first couple bites hit my stomach it was upset. I don't want to get sick again, I groan inwardly.
Kris finishes his bowl of cereal and then eats the rest of mine for me. After that we're not sure what to do with ourselves so we spend the rest of the day watching movies together in the living room. My mom is busy with work but she checks up on us, mostly me, every once and a while. She also made Kris's day by promising to make us lunch. Kris loves my mom's cooking.. well, who doesn't? She's really great.

After a long day of laziness, Kris and I are still just hanging out and eating dinner. We are having really good grilled chicken salad. He still doesn't want to leave me alone. I feel bad, because he doesn't have any clothes, so last night he slept in his boxers and then wore his dirty clothes today. It's not like he could wear my clothes like I can wear his. That'd be entirely too tight.. and hilarious.
We come to the decision that Kris can spend the night again and he's going to go home and get some stuff to stay here. Meanwhile, I'll be attempting to take a shower and dress my arm wound. I don't want him to feel like he needs to help me with that stuff.
I send him off from the front doorway and he smiles as he goes. I already miss him when I turn around to realize that I have to go back up the stairs to get to the shower. "Mom!?" I shout across the house. There's no way I can go up those alone.
My mom comes running, concerned because of the alarm in my voice.
"Can you help me up the stairs?" I ask her slowly, feeling like a wimp, yet so helpless at the same time. I silently vow to myself that tomorrow I will be going up and down stairs all by myself.
"Of course. Nobody expects you to be running up and down them all by yourself right away," my mom smiles and walks with me up the stairs. What bothers me the most is that it's all in my head. I'm physically capable of climbing these stairs. But I can't even approach them without sheer terror coursing through my veins.

I'm hardly out of the shower and Kris is back. He knocks on the door. "Yeah?" I ask, not knowing who it is yet.
"It's Kris," he replies. I quickly finish dressing by putting a t-shirt on and open the door just as he says, "is it alright if I come in?"
"yeah," I say, happy to see him again.
He immediately looks at the gash on my arm. "Do you want help dressing that?" He asks, still staring at it. Yes it looks disgusting and it stung like hell when I accidentally got shampoo in it.
"Ok," I say, lifting my arm and shoving it towards him. "I don't want to do anything wrong."
"Just watch me, so you can do it next time," Kris says, always being helpful. He grabs the stuff I had already laid out and he gently takes care of everything. It's a lot easier than I expected it to be and I know that I can do it right next time it needs done.
"Thanks," I say. I feel like I'm always thanking him. Like he never has to thank me, because he's the one always giving in this relationship. I can't wait til I can show him how much I really do care.
He responds by giving me a kiss on my forehead and leading me to my room.
"Are you ready for bed?" He asks, looking at the clock as I yawn.
"Not really.. I mean, it's only 9:00," I say, "Wanna watch another movie up here?" I ask him, just wanting to relax some more. The bruises and things hurt the least when I'm sitting still.
"Whatever," he says. He doesn't really like being inactive for so long, but it's obvious that he'd do whatever I want to do.
"We don't have to," I say, "We could go for a walk or something."
"No, believe me you're not going to like that in the morning if we do. Let's just watch a movie." He laughs at me and we go to my movie shelf.
We pick Obsessed and it's like my third time watching it, but in all the scary scenes I'm like holding onto Kris's arm for dear life. I can see a smile playing on his lips everytime I do this but he doesn't say anything, and he just wraps his arm around me and holds me tight.
After the movie we lay down for bed. Just laying there, Kris and I have a pretty good conversation. We talk about how the summer was really bittersweet and how we're both not ready for it to be over.
"goodnight," I whisper,"I love you," as we're both struggling to keep our eyes open.
"goodnight," Kris breathes, and we both fall asleep within the next few seconds.

Chapter 45

Ruthanne's Point of View <3


On the way home Kris and I talk a little bit. My head is still pounding and I'm tired again.
After a long period of silence Kris sniffles then says, "You know Ruthanne, I've seen a million injuries, concussions, you name it, in hockey, but I haven't ever seen somebody fall as hard as you seemed to. I can only imagine the pain you're in." He lifts a hand to his eye. I instantly feel bad. I can't handle it when people cry, especially not Kris. I reach my bruised left hand over and put it on his leg. He glances down and notices the bruise and he frowns.
"I feel ok," I lie to him. I am in excruciating pain. All over my body I am sore. That's why they sent some pain meds home with me. I don't know why my mom thought it was necessary to go get more.
 I ask Kris where my phone is suddenly thinking of Caitlin. "Where's Caitlin!?" It bothers me more that I can't remember where she is than the pain does.
"She's in Canada, with Sidney," Kris says, wearing a halfhearted smile as he looks at me. "I have your phone in my pocket," he says, trying to reach it. I stop him and try to wiggle my hand into his jeans pocket. The spot where it's bruised hurts a little and I gasp.
"got it," I say. I need to text Caitlin. She's gotta know I'm ok.

Hey this is Ruthanne, Iam out of the hospitl and Iam ok. Love you.

I hit send as we pull into my driveway. Kris is still looking awfully sad. "Kris," I say. He ignores me for a moment. "Kris!" I say louder, getting his attention.
He snaps out of it and makes a little grunting noise. "It's not your fault. And anyways, I'm fine," I say.
"I know," Kris says, "but that doesn't change the fact that you got hurt, and I'm gonna feel terrible as long as you're in pain."
"Kris," I say again. I love the sound of his name on my lips, even though I'm saying it because I'm annoyed. I smile and lean my head against the headrest. "I'll be ok, it's fine, don't feel bad." I try to convince him more, a genuine smile on my face.
We pull into my driveway and I try to climb out of the car myself. I hit my head on the top of the car as I stumble out. I'm suddenly dizzy and I fall back against the car for support. Before I know it Kris is by my side holding me and hugging me. "are you ok?" Kris asks, kissing the top of my head gently.
"no," I finally give in. "Can you take me inside?"
I barely get the question out and Kris is handing me things.. All of a sudden I'm being cradled in his arms like a baby and he's carrying me to the door. I unlock the door for him and he carries me inside and sets me gently on the couch.
"thank you," I say, laughing. The laughing hurts my stomach so I just lean back on the couch and shut up. It doesn't seem like I'll be able to do anything for a few days yet.
Kris sits down next to me and gives me a kiss on the cheek. "Anytime," he says, a half smile playing on his lips.


Caitlin's Point of View

I spend most of the day worrying about my best friend. It's supposed to be a celebration for us up here in Canada and I'm struggling with blaming Ruthanne for ruining the experience for me. Because I'm anxious, Sidney's upset and on edge. I know it's not her fault, and I'm not really blaming her, I'm just upset.
Finally at like 7 pm I get the text saying Ruthanne's ok and out of the hospital. A wave of relief washes over me and it's suddenly easy to enjoy my time with Sidney.
"She's OK!" I announce to Sidney and his family. We're sitting around the dinner table eating his mother's special lasagna. Apparently nobody can make it better, but to me it tastes just like my mom's. That'll be a plus with Sidney when I get her to make it one day for us.
Sidney reaches his hand over underneath the table and squeezes my knee. "That's great," he smiles and we all go back to eating and talking about the subject we were on before I interrupted. I soon begin to realize that Sidney's parents are a little bit eccentric and they're not going to share my opinion on anything. I'm still relieved from Ruthanne's status update but after dinner I'm a little annoyed and I'm just ready for the night to be over. Sidney's parents are great but I don't see us getting along very well. And I don't feel like they like me very much.
After dinner, it's time for cake and ice cream. The nicest part about this is the fact that it's completely normal. Like any normal family's birthday celebration. Sidney's parents both give him something and Taylor got him some kind of nifty trinket from wherever they took their family vacation this year. I decide that I'll giver him mine after we go to bed. His family gives me funny looks and tries to convince me to give it to him now but I tell them it's not a big present and I don't know where it's packed in my luggage. Really, I'm starting to get nervous about what he'll think of it.

It's about 11 o'clock when we all head to our bedrooms. Sidney's excited for his present and I immediately have to get it out. I hand him the large-ish box full of 23 things. He makes a funny face when he opens it up and sees how much is in there. It took forever to wrap all 23 things.
He undoes them one by one and thanks me for every single one. We keep getting into discussions about how fun the moment was when we aquired that object and stuff, and it's 12:30 before we know it.
"There's still one more!" I say after he's done with all that.
"What!?" He exclaims, "Caitlin, you really didn't have to get me anything. A kiss would have done it for me." He smiles as I hand him the bottle.  "Holy crap, how did you do this?"
"it's a secret," I say, laughing. "Open it!"
He does and he reads the note, smiling at times and frowning at others. At the end I feel like he's going to cry. I run over and give him a hug and a kiss.
"I love you. Happy birthday." I say, happy now.
"Thanks," Sidney says, "I love you too."
And that was the amazing end to a long, stressful day. I'm happy to lay down and go to sleep next to Sidney Crosby.

Chapter 44

Caitlin's Point of View ;)

 I'm officially freaking out and I excuse myself from our conversation in the living room because I am nearly in tears.
A few moments ago I got a text from Ruthanne's phone, probably from Kris that says

 Ruthanne fell down the stairs and got knocked unconcious. We're in the hospital.

I replied as soon as I made it to the bathroom, but Kris never replies.
I stay in the bathroom for a few minutes and all of a sudden Sidney is knocking at the door. "I know something's wrong," Sidney says after a few knocks and me not answering.
I open the door and let him in and just lean on his chest. "Ruthanne fell down the stairs and she was unconcious and she's in the hospital." I whimper into his chest and I try not to cry. I don't know that much about the situation.
"Oh my God," Sidney says. He holds my head to his chest and kisses the top of my hair. "It's gonna be alright," he says as he sways back and forth. It's comforting to have him say this to me and the rocking motion makes me close my eyes and relax. "It's gonna be alright," he says a few more times before letting me go. I'm nearly completely settled down. "hey, My parents are gonna worry," Sidney says after a minute and he squeezes my hand before he heads back to the living room.
 I follow him after a moment's hesitation to check my makeup in the mirror.
"Is everything all right?" I hear Trina ask as I'm walking out into the living room.
 "It could be better.." Sidney says slowly. "Our friend Ruthanne fell down the stairs, knocking herself unconscious and putting herself in the hospital." He explains after a moment.
 "Oh!" Trina says, surprised.
 "Yeah, it's Caitlin's best friend, sooo.." He trails off as I walk into the picture again. He pulls me into his side and gives me a squeeze.
Trina smiles but doesn't say anything, which makes me feel better. I like it when people know enough to just let it drop for the moment. I don't want to think about Ruthanne being in a coma or anything like that.

Ruthanne's point of view <3
 I blink my eyes and the bright white lights blind me for a moment. Suddenly there's movement around me and I hear kris's voice.
"Ruthanne!?" he says, sounding very worried. I open my eyes again, determined to see him and I'm stunned by the sudden pounding in my head. I am forced to close my eyes again. I can't handle the bright lights or something. Something is wrong.
 I try to talk. "kr. Kris?" I manage to squeak out.
"what?" I feel like Kris is moving towards my face and I flinch away. "can you turn the lights off?" I ask, trying to get used to the feel of words in my mouth again.
 I feel like it has been forever since I've talked, or even opened my eyes. It's like waking up in the morning except for the pounding in my head. And I don't remember falling asleep. I hear Kris moving away from me and I can tell that he has turned the lights out.
 "thank you," I say, yet again trying to open my eyes. This time I'm able to keep them open and see Kris. Then I look around. I'm in a hospital room? What the heck is going on?
"hey baby," Kris says, leaning down to my level beside where I'm laying. I look over and notice a bandage on my arm and an IV in it too. "I missed you," he smiles sweetly.
"what's going on? What happened?" I am so confused. "why am I here?"
"you fell down the stairs, and you have a concussion." he explains. I can't remember any of that at all. "and the bandage on your right arm is there because you cut your arm on something that was in the box you were carrying."
 "oh," I say. I trust him. It must have happened but I can't remember a thing.
 "I'm sorry." Kris says, his face suddenly looking sad and apologetic. "I should have carried the boxes down the stairs for you.
" "it's fine. It's my fault I'm just clumsy." I smile at him, trying to make it better even if I'm not sure how my fall went.
 "I feel guilty because I just watched it happen and I couldn't do anything about it and then you were knocked out on the floor and now you're all messed up and I could have stopped this from happening!" Kris goes on. He's really upset.
"it's ok, Kris," I say, "it's not your fault." I try to lift up my left arm to give him a hug but there's a shooting pain up my arm to accompany the motion. "owwww," I cry out in pain.
 Kris jumps up trying to think of something to do to help me. "just hug me, ok." I say, just wanting his body near mine.
"I love you Ruthanne," Kris says as he is embracing me.
 "I love you too," I say back, wincing in pain because he touched a spot that must be bruising. "when do I get out of here?"
 "whenever the doctor comes up and checks you out and gives you the ok. I can call a nurse now," he says helpfully.
"ok." I smile back weakly. "thank you."
The doctor comes up and asks me a series of questions which are hard to answer. I can't remember very much about anything. They tell me this is normal, I guess. I hated it. He writes down a bunch of stuff on his ugly brown clipboard  and tells me not to do a list of things and other stuff.
My head is pounding again and I'm not paying attention. Hopefully my mom or Kris is. My mom came in at about the same time as my nurse did. Finally, they give the ok for me to go home and Kris helps me walk out to his car. He's going to drive my home and my mom is going to stop at the grocery store to get some over the counter pain meds.
 It's dark by now and he loads me into the passenger seat, leaning over to buckle me in. I feel like it's been a long hard day, even though I wasn't awake for most of it.

Chapter 43

Caitlin's Point of View. ;)

I realize that I'm so obviously more excited about Sidney's birthday when he's not awake at 7:30 AM like I am. I never wake up early, and I feel so anxious and excited. But nervous at the same time. I poke Sidney in the face. I like to watch him wake up. It's so cute.
"huh?" He mumbles and rolls to his right, falling off the bed and ripping the covers off of me in the process. The cold air shocks me when it hits my body so I follow him to the ground.
"It's cold!" I shreik as quietly as possible trying to rip the covers off of him. He smiles and sits up, rubbing his head a little bit. But he knows what I want and he pulls the comforter around him more snugly. He smirks at me as I dance around. Finally I give up and run for the sweatshirt he wore last night. It's as cold as the room but at least it will warm up eventually.
I sit on the edge of Sidney's bed and look down at him in triumph. I may not have gotten the covers back but I did get his delicious smelling sweatshirt and warmth. "Happy birthday," I grin at him cheesily.
He smiles back. "Thanks Caitlin."
I lean over to kiss him and all of a sudden the door is opening. Sidney and I both sit up straight. He hits his head off of his bedstand and I get a crick in my neck from moving so quickly. Plus I'm blushing. His mom kind of makes a horrified face and backs out of the door, slowly closing it behind her.
"oops," I whisper, feeling extremely embarrassed and sorry.
"It's alright," Sidney says, "she's probably walked in on worse with Taylor," he laughs.
I'm kind of appalled at that thought. She's just a kid.
"I'm kidding, Caitlin." Sidney laughs at me. I blush again and sit there awkwardly.
"oh," I laugh.
"you're too cute," he smiles. "Come on lets go get some breakfast. My parents are obviously up."
I follow him out of his room awkwardly and continue to look down when I see Mrs. Crosby out of the corner of my eye. Sidney smirks at me when I look at him, obviously not as embarrassed as me.
We eat cereal even though Mrs. Crosby wants to make us something delicious. Everyone in the family takes their turn saying happy birthday through the course of breakfast.
After, his mother insists that we all get dressed and ready for the day because we're going somewhere to visit someone or other. I didn't really pay attention because I couldn't hear over the crunching of my Crunch Berries. I love Sidney's younger sister for liking the same ridiculously unhealthy sugary cereal that I do.
I wear a nice pink plaid shirt and capris. I throw my hair into a messy bun and  make my bangs look extra cute by teasing them a little bit.  I don't apply any makeup except mascara. '
"You look great," Sidney says as he's still getting ready. I don't know how that man can take so long but I swear it took him forever just to pick an outfit.
Finally, he decides on one and we head back out to the family room. Sidney's parents and sister are all waiting around. "You could have told us to hurry," I apologize.
"It's fine, we're not in a rush. Actually, we started a movie, but if we don't tell Sidney to get ready at least 2 hours before we're going somewhere, he's liable to make us late!" Sidney's mom laughs. "I've never met a boy who took so long to get ready until I had him in the house." This time everyone laughs and Sidney kind of gives his mom a death glare. I pat him on the shoulder and suppress another laugh as he looks at me.
We sit down on the love seat to watch the movie with his family and that's when I get the text.

Kris's Point of View =/

Ruthanne lays motionless at the bottom of the stairs and I yell again, not knowing what to do. "Ruthanne!" I say, alarmed. Ruthanne's mom comes rushing out of her office and we reach her body at the same time.
"Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God," Ruthanne's mom is saying. She rushes off to get the phone before I can suggest calling an ambulance. If Ruthanne's not woken up yet, something might be seriously wrong. I grab Ruthanne's hand and rub it, then put my head by her mouth to hear or feel her breath. This is insanely stressful. If she got hurt... "Ruthanne? Honey?" I say, right next to her face. Her eyelids fluttering is the only response I get.
I try and keep the crazy thoughts in my head to a minimum. What's best for Ruthanne right now. She's still lying motionless. She really took a wild fall, and there were a couple somersaults in there. Hopefully she didn't do anything to her neck.
After a few moments, I look away from her body and see the box that she was carrying. The contents are scattered and a stray trophy that was in it lays beneath her arm. There's a  large gash where the trophy sliced her soft upper arm open adn she's bleeding on the floor. I send Ruthanne's mom for something to clean it up a little bit.
I can feel tears in my eyes and I can't stop holding Ruthanne's hand. It's so soft, and fragile. What would I do if I could never hold her hand again? Suddenly I'm thinking about my summer and the loss of Luc and feeling bad for myself instead of her. I force myself to snap out of it and focus on the situation at hand. It's not about me. We have to get help for Ruthanne.

It feels like forever before the ambulance arrives and Ruthanne's mom and I took turns freaking out. Really, it's been about 15 minutes.  By the time they got here though, she would open her eyes and then close them again. It's something, right!? They allow me to ride in the ambulance with her because she really came alive when they put her on a stretcher and her hand lost contact with mine.
In the ambulance they're doing all sorts of things to her and asking her questions and all I can do is just hold her hand. I've never felt more helpless.

In the hospital, I have to wait in the waiting room for a while before they get her situated. I managed to steal her phone out of her pocket while we were in the ambulance.
I send Caitlin a quick text. I don't mean to freak her out, but I feel like she deserves to know. There's an instant reply asking if she's alright. To tell the truth, I don't know anything yet and I can't do anything about it and I'm sitting here with my elbows on my knees and my face in my hands. I don't reply after that. I know it's terrible, but I don't know anything at this point, and I'm already trying so hard not to cry.
The lady at the desk recognized me when I walked in. And she's been staring ever since. Normally I would be friendly and say hello or something, or even just smile, but I stand up and pace and run back to the desk to ask if I can go see Ruthanne yet.
"Yes, you can go see her," the nurse gives me a broken smile "She's in room 378" I'm too worried to respond to the smile. After looking at a map of the hospital for a couple of seconds I dash down the hall towards the elevator so I  can get to the fourth floor. I need to see Ruthanne, to make sure she's alright.

Chapter 42

Caitlin's Point of View ;)

Sidney picks me up and I'm only going for the weekend, but I had to pack a really large suitcase.. Mostly for his present. He laughs at me and asked if I could pack anymore for just a couple days. And yes, yes I could. I had to take some of my clothes out, to put his present in. I hope he likes it. He better.
We're boarding the plane and I'm thinking more about my birthday plan. I don't know if the scavenger hunt is a good idea. I'm thinking it'll be hard to pull off...
Sidney watches me as I sit in my plane seat. "You look beautiful," he says, a smile on his face. "I missed you today."
I smile back at him and then put my head down on his shoulder. "I missed you too." We both pause a moment before I say, "you know I've probably gone on more plane rides with you than in my entire life."
Sidney just laughs and kisses the top of my head. He rides planes all the time.
We arrive at the airport on time and Sidney's parents are waiting for us at a gift shop place. I guess that's where Sidney always meets his parents. They both hug him and his mother gives him a kiss and I hang back awkwardly. Then they turn to me.
"You must be Caitlin!!" His mom says, coming over to hug me. I stand up my suitcase and hug her back. "I've heard soo much about you!" She says smiling.
"Good things?" I smile, hoping I hadn't done anything too bad to Sidney.
"Always," she says. Sidney's dad comes over and shakes my hand and we all walk out and to their car where it's parked in the huge parking lot.
Sidney and I sit in the back. It makes me feel like such a kid. Sidney and his parents talk about what's going on this weekend and I get a feel for what I'll be doing. I'm definitely not going to have time for the scavenger hunt thing. I think it'd be weird anyways. Sidney's parents seem nice enough but I'm not brave enough to ask about it.
When we get to his house his little sister Taylor attacks him with a hug. Then I'm shown to Sidney's room. Apparently there's a guest room that's under renovation and I wouldn't normally be allowed to do this. Sidney kisses me when we walk in. "I'm so glad they're finally redoing that room," he whispers. "I'm so glad you could come."
"You just wanted me in your bed." I laugh at him and plop down on his bed. It's been such a long day and I'm feeling tired. Sidney gets down on the bed with me and kisses me again. "I love you," I say. We rest for a couple minutes then head back out to his living room to socialize with his parents and younger sister before his parents head to bed. It's already 9:00, and they don't usually stay up that late. I'm glad because I really just want to go lay down with Sidney. And I can't wait to give him my present tomorrow.
Sidney's parents ask me a lot of questions about myself and my family. I almost feel like I'm being interrogated, but they're cool about it, they're just curious. They live so far away, they're kind of detached from our whole life in Pittsburgh. So we visit until around 11:00 when they absolutely must turn in because they can't go 30 seconds without yawning. I admit I'm feeling pretty sleepy as well.
Sidney and I stay up for a long time in his bedroom before we actually go to sleep. His bed is small, and kind of awkward to try and fit two people into side by side, but I'm a cuddly kind of person so I'm fine with that.

Ruthanne's Point of View <3

I wake up in the morning and lay in bed. All I can think about is how last night we almost got jumped by a bunch of gangsters. They must have been attracted by Kris's fancy car. And our loud music. I had a dream about that experience, only, we didn't get away and they were harrassing us and smashing up the car and whatnot. The dream was really unrealistic, but it was scary anyways.
I notice my phone buzzing and check the time, 11:00. Jeez, I think. I'm up late. I've got like a text from Kris. I'm always happy to wake up to a text from him.
Good morning baby, <3 I love you!
I text him back quickly.
Good morning, I love you too!!!! <3<3 Are you doing anything today?
I add on to the end of it so he'll have a reason to text me back. He's not huge on texting, but you can keep him going if there's a good conversation.  My phone buzzes almost immediately.
I'm not doing anything today. Do you want my help moving stuff?
It would be a great opportunity to hang out with Kris all day. I love being with him.
Yeah, I only have a few more boxes to pack and take over. <3 See you soon?
I really don't need that much help, I realize after I look at the mess that just needs to be organized and shoved into a box. But Kris would look for an excuse to come over here anyways. I can't wait to see him.
Yep, I'll be over in a few.
I sigh and hop out of bed. I need to shower and get some of my stuff organized before he gets here. I don't want him to see my room like this. I head to the bathroom and plug my iPod into the speakers. Cobra Starship comes on and I sing along as I bathe. It's going to be a good day, I keep telling myself even though I woke up feeling kind of sad and weird. Kris gets to my house in no time, like I figured he would and he's knocking at the bathroom door before I even have my hair brushed. Thankfully, I'm dressed and I open the door for him to come in.
"hey," he says, smiling instantly when he sees me. I look up at him, embarrassed. I'm sure I look like a drowned rat or something with my flat, wet hair and no makeup and sweats on. Oh well, I reassure myself. He's seen you at your worst. This isn't that bad.
"Hey," I say back, continuing to pick at the tangles in my hair with the comb. He walks around me so he can put is arms around my waist and further prevent me from getting anything done. I grumble and pull away from him and he gives me an insulted look in the mirror. I didn't mean it, but I want to get my hair combed out before it starts drying.
"My bed missed you last night," he says quietly. I smile and start laughing.
"Is that so?" I set down my comb and raise an eyebrow at him. His sense of humor is so odd sometimes. But I love it.
"It is," he grins, that cute crooked smile he has and leans down to kiss me. Kris can make me feel better no matter what mood I'm in. "You look cute today," he says, his eyes quickly moving up and down my body. I blush instantly. I can't tell if he's being serious, but I think he tends to like it better when my look is more natural. I hug him and we walk to my bedroom.
"wow," he chuckles at the mess.
"I know,  I didn't get a chance to finish organizing," I say. "I just woke up when we started talking," I smile.
"It's okay," Kris laughs, "I admit to cleaning extensively before you come over." We both chuckle and then we get to work on the last few boxes that need to go. I'm moving almost completely out of my parents' house.
"I think you're gonna like my room. I put my Letang jersey up already." I wink at him as I walk out of my room and towards the stairs with the box I'm carrying.
He chuckles then follows me down the hall with two of his own boxes.
All of a sudden I hear Kris yell and then everything goes black as I tumble down the stairs...