One Day at a Time

“Joe, was it?” Jenn giggled and then it hit her. “Oh my god, Joe?” Her eyes became wide as she stared at him. “Joe Jonas? Like, as in, the Jonas Brothers?”

“Oh my gosh, you know more about them than I do?” I asked. “How is that possible? You listen to crazy rap music.”

“Come on, Alexa. You’ve never heard of them? My little cousins absolutely love you guys,” She directed towards Joe.

“Thanks,” He smiled. Jenn suddenly jumped when she felt her phone go off in her pocket.

“Crap,” She said as she read her text message. “I’ve gotta go. It’s a family thing. Is it okay with you if I run out to see what’s wrong? I’ll come back for you.”

“I don’t mind staying with her and bringing her home if you can’t make it back,” Joe offered. Jenn looked over to me, as did Joe. I felt stuck in the middle.

“If that’s okay with you, Alexa,” She said. “I mean, you know my family and their problems. This could take all day if it has anything to do with my aunt and mom. And, knowing my family, it probably is.”

I looked back up at Jenn and nodded my head and waved her away.

“Go ahead, I’ll be fine,” I replied. “I know your family and they can be pretty crazy. So, good luck with that. Stop by later, please? I don’t really want to be by myself tonight.”

“Sure, hun,” She said as she leaned down and hugged me lightly. “I’ll bring some instant mashed ‘tatoes and apple sauce so you can actually eat something, okay? I’ll see you later. Thanks a bunch, Joe.”

“Yeah, no problem,” He said and waved goodbye to her as she rushed through the automatic doors of the hospital.

“Thanks so much for staying with me. I was kind of worried for a moment that she might bring me with her,” I made a scared face. “Her family is so out of control sometimes, but their like my family too.” Joe laughed at my comment.

“They sound like a riot,” He said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “You have no idea.”

“So, I’m still very curious,” He began. I looked at him nervously, knowing what he meant and he continued. “How did you manage to get all beat up like this? I don’t think gravity is that much of a fighter.”

Nerves kicked in again and I hesitated to give an answer. What was I supposed to say to him? That my boyfriend beat me up for going out to a club and was found talking to you? No, I couldn’t say that. Think, Alexa! I thought to myself.

“Yeah, uh, I actually don’t really wanna talk about it if you don’t mind,” I finally said. He nodded his head, understanding that I wasn’t comfortable talking about it. “Jenn doesn’t even know what really happened.”

“So, something bad actually happened, huh?” He asked, trying to get as much information as he could without asking too much. I just nodded my head. “Okay, fair enough. I’m prying.”

“It’s fine,” I replied. “It’d actually be nice to tell someone and hope they wouldn’t go completely crazy about it. And I know, for a fact, that Jenn would do exactly that.”

“At least she fits in with the rest of her family, right?”

“This is true,” I agreed. The nurse who was taking care of me then returned with my results. I hadn’t realized I had been waiting for an hour already.

“I’ve got your results back,” She began and looked at the chart she was holding. “If you would follow me, Dr. Monroe would like to talk to you about it. Will you be okay walking to his office? It’s a bit crowded today and our wheelchairs are all occupied at the moment.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said as I tried to stand up, but failed and fell hard back into my chair.

“Whoa,” Joe said as he wrapped his arm behind my back for support. “Maybe I should help you out with the whole walking thing here. Ready?” He looked into my eyes and I stared back, a bit mesmerized. “Alexa?”

I shook myself out of the daze I was in.

“Sorry. Yeah, I’m ready,” I answered. Joe supported me as I stood to my feet. We followed behind the nurse into Dr. Monroe’s office. Joe sat me down in the chair across from the desk.

“I’ll just wait outside for you,” He said as he walked towards the door.

“No, wait,” I stopped him. He turned around to face me. “Stay. I mean, I’m pretty sure I’ll forget everything he says to me with this stupid head injury, so I need a back-up listener.”

“Hah! Uh, sure, I’ll stay,” he said and sat down in the chair next to me.

“And thanks again. It means a lot,” I told him. “We’re practically strangers and you’re willing to take a beat up girl back to her home and make sure she’s okay. If only the friends I have now, besides Jenn, were like you.”

“Well thanks,” he grinned. “By the way, can you write down your address? Just in case you’re knocked out before we get to your house; I wanna know where I’m going.” As I was about to grab a pen and piece of paper from the desk, Dr. Monroe walked in.

“Hello again, Alexa. Feeling better or worse?” He asked.

“Ugh, I’d have to say worse. I can’t even stand up by myself without falling back down,” I said as I gently fixed my ponytail, careful not to hit the bump on my head.

“Hmm, yes. Well, it turns out it is a concussion. And it happens to be a Grade 3 concussion, so what I’m going to do is let you go home, but you’ll need to be watched after. And, if your headaches don’t seem to get any better or don’t stop at all during the next week, I’d like for you to come back and get another scan to make sure it’s nothing serious,” He pulled out a pad and pen to write something down. “I’m going to prescribe this medication for your headaches. Sometimes Advil or Tylenol just won’t cut it. I’m sure you’ve already taken something, so wait another three or four hours to take this one. You’ll only need to take it once or maybe twice a day.”

He ripped the paper from the pad and handed it to me. I looked at it for a moment before my vision went blurry and decided to shove it into my jean pockets, which were the jeans I was wearing from the day before. I tried to stand up slowly and nearly failed again, when I saw Joe jump up from his chair to help me to my feet. I extended my hand towards Dr. Monroe to shake his hand.

“Thanks so much, Dr. Monroe,” I said before leaving.

“No problem,” He replied. Before I was able to leave, he stopped me real quick. “Oh, and if your headaches seem to get better during the week, I would like you to come back in a week from today. Better safe than sorry.”

I nodded in agreement and continued through the door with Joe holding me up. We walked out to his car and opened the passenger door for me to get in.

“I figure you can buckle your own seat belt,” He joked.

“Yeah, I think I can still do that,” I laughed.

“Well, first things first; we need to get your medication,” He remembered as her got into the driver’s seat and started the car.

“I’m in complete agreement with you. My head is throbbing worse than before,” I put my hand to my head.

We were out of the parking lot in a matter of two minutes and traveled around town to pick up my medication. This is nice, I thought to myself. Even if I didn’t really know him, I think I felt very safe with Joe.