I slowly opened my eyes and found myself in a strange car that I'd never been in before. I quickly closed them again before the driver noticed that I was awake. My right elbow was in a lot of pain and I had a horrible headache. Why am I in some random car in a ton of pain? There could only be only one explanation (or so I thought), so I made up a plan of attack. A few minutes later when I thought it was the perfect moment, I started kicking my kidnapper's arms, hoping to do some sort of damage so I would have time to get out of the car at least.

"WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME? WHY DID YOU KIDNAP ME?" I was looking down because I was afraid to look my kidnapper in the eyes, afraid of what kind of hard-looking criminal I might find myself in the car with.

"Will you stop it? You're going to make me run us off the road!" The voice was familiar, but I couldn't quite place it with a face so I fought my fear and looked up. That was enough to get me to stop kicking right then.

"JAMES NEAL? WHY DID YOU KIDNAP ME? DO YOU WANT THE MONEY FOR A NEW SUIT? I TOLD YOU I'D GIVE IT TO YOU, YOU DIDN'T NEED TO KIDNAP ME!" My arms were flying animatedly as I spoke like they always did, until I felt the excruciating pain in my elbow getting
worse every time I moved it I gave a grunt of pain and stopped, grabbing a hold of my arm. He started laughing, I didn't know if it was because of my confusion or my pain but apparently he found this hilarious.

"I'm not kidnapping you, I'm taking you to the hospital." He said between his obnoxious laughter. Well at least someone was entertained.

"What happened to me?" I started to get somewhat frustrated now. Couldn't he have just started off with what happened so I wouldn't think he was a mentally unstable kidnapper?

"Well you were running, again.. which might I add is definitely a bad idea based on today's events.." he said laughing again. Did he ever stop laughing?! It's like everything that happened to me amused him. "..and you tripped over my hockey bag that I layed down while I was talking to Pauly. I'm so sorry I didn't think anything like that would happen." He said the last part with a mix of guilt and concern on his face and I could tell that he was genuinely sorry.

"Oh my god..." I said as I buried my head in my arms, full of embarrassment. I tripped over his fucking hockey bag, how much more embarrassing could this get? If he didn't already think I was an idiot for drenching him in coffee, he for sure thought I was one now.

"How did I end up passed out in your car?"

"When you fell you hit your head off the ground pretty hard and passed out. I heard the smack and when I turned around and saw you lying there, the way you landed on your arm didn't look too good. So since it was my fault, I put you in my car to take you to the hospital and now here we are." He said just as we pulled up in the hospital parking lot.

"That would explain the splitting headache and the deathly pain in my elbow then." I paused. "Thanks for bringing me here." I got out of the car and started walking when I noticed that he was coming too.

"You don't have to come in with me I'll be fine, you've already done enough." We were stopped outside the doors of the hospital now.

"No, it's my fault you're here so I'm going to stay with you until I know that you're alright. Again, I'm really sorry about all this." He said, gesturing his arms towards the hospital.

"It's okay I should've seen your bag on the ground, I was just... distracted I guess." We stood there for another minute, it looked like he wanted to say something but he didn't so I spoke again.

"Let's go, I'd like to see a doctor before tomorrow." And with that, we went in.

It wasn't a long wait thankfully, usually the hospital had a longer waiting time than a ride at Disney World. Tonight though, it was pretty empty. There were only 2 other people there waiting and I was more of a priority.

Once the Nurse brought me in she told me that the doctor would be in soon and that James had to leave if he wasn't family. As soon as she said that James stepped up and said that I was his half sister. My last name clearly wasn't Neal, so he did a good job coming up with half sister so quickly, that way it wouldn't spike any suspicion. I don't get why he wanted to stay with me, he could've just waited outside and still found out all the same things once I came out of the room.

Once we were alone again, a look of concern washed over his face. "How's your head?"

"Not great." I grimaced.

"I'll go get you some water" He got up and stood by the door with his hand on the knob. "If you need anything else let me know."

"Okay thanks."

He came back a few minutes later with a bottle of water. He handed it to me and I chugged half of it, boy did I need that. He sat back down in the uncomfortable chair he had previously occupied by the window, just looking out at the night sky. I had to admit, looking at him there so calm and peaceful helped keep the bad memories at bay for that moment and I knew that no matter what I'd be okay in the end, but it would take awhile to get there.

"Hello, you must be Ms. Cassie Marini correct?" The doctor asked as he walked in. He was tall with blue eyes, dark hair and an amazing smile. He reminded me of Michael in many ways. The memories started flying back to me all at once. So much for keeping them away for a little while.

A look of pain crossed my face that I'm sure he noticed while he was waiting for my response. I quickly forced a smile and wiped away any tears that threatened to fall.

"Yup, that's me." I spoke quietly.

"Okay Ms. Marini, I'll have to take an MRI of your arm to see how bad the injury is but first I'd like to do a few quick tests to ensure that you don't have a concussion due to the blow to the head you received when you fell." I nodded my okay.

After the concussion tests and the MRI, James and I were left alone again to wait for the doctor to come back with my results. We were both silent for a couple minutes though every now and then I'd steal a glance at him and it looked like he was formulating what he wanted to say in his head but he just couldn't figure out how to say it or if he should say it. A few minutes later, he spoke.

"Why did you look so sad when you saw him?" There it was, just what I thought he was wondering. He saw my face when I realized who the doctor looked like but how was I supposed to explain it? I didn't want him to know how apparently undesirable I was that my boyfriend would resort to cheating on me with my best friend. If I told him then he would probably wish he hadn't asked in the first place so I decided to spare him the details and just go with the simple answer.

"He looks like one of my exes, that's all." I hoped that answer would suffice but I should've known that it wouldn't.

"Cassie, you almost started crying, there's more to it than what you're telling me."

"It's nothing I can't handle on my own... well I guess I don't really have a choice anyways." Uh-oh. I didn't mean to say that last part and now that I heard it said out loud I realized how alone I really was without them. The sadness washed over me again like a tidal wave and before I could control it, I was crying. I was a complete mess. He came over and wrapped his arms around me, he let me cry until I had no tears left and he stayed there holding me and rubbed my back the whole time.

"I...I'm s-s-sorry." I croaked. I felt bad for putting him in that awkward position where he had a girl that he just met today crying in his arms. I mean sure he's famous and he probably met weird random girls all the time but I'm pretty sure what he dealt with since he met me wasn't a common occurrence.

"It's okay. You don't need to be sorry, you've only ruined two of my shirts today, that's less than my last girlfriend ruined." I looked up at him with a small smile then I realized I was still in his arms so I made a quick move to get out of them not wanting it to get awkward but I'm pretty sure my hasty moves made him a bit confused.

"How did she ruin them?"

"She always wore them out like they were hers or something, I think she wanted to show off that she had a rich boyfriend..she was a gold digger.." He stopped for a second and I noticed a sad look in his eye. What a bitch to do that to someone as nice as him. "..anyways, she had a bad habit of being a really messy eater and her favourite food was spaghetti so all that went together well." I couldn't help the laugh that I tried so hard not to let escape from my lips. A second later he started laughing with me. At least I wasn't the only one to ruin a couple of his shirts.

He moved back to his seat by the window and we sat in comfortable silence for the next few minutes still waiting for the doctor to come back in with my results. When he finally he came in, he had a stoic expression on his face so it was impossible for me to figure out if he had good or bad news to give to me.

"Well Ms. Marini, there is some good news and some bad news. The good news is, no concussion and the bad news is you have a mildly bruised elbow."

"What do I have to do to recover? How long will it take?" A bruised elbow? That couldn't be too bad, I figured I'd be fine in a week but oh how wrong I was.

"You have to rest your hand on that arm completely for the first few weeks. This is because any kind of movement involving the hand can cause harm to the already damaged blood vessels of the elbow bones. Thus the healing process will get delayed unnecessarily. Try to keep the injured elbow at an elevated position. This can control accumulation of fluid in the area and thus reduce the swelling. It is also recommended that you apply ice to the elbow to help with the controlling of painful symptoms. As for the length of time it will take for it to heal, the recovery time for bruised bone in elbow largely depends on the severity of the injury. A mild to moderate bruise often gets healed up in a matter of few weeks."

"So I can't use my right hand at all?"

"That's right, and when you ice your elbow make sure not to do it for any longer than 15 minutes. Also, I have prescribed you some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to help with the pain. " He said as he handed me the pills.

"How am I supposed to do anything? I use my right hand for everything I do!" I said very
frustrated with myself for getting this stupid injury.

"I suggest that you get someone to stay with you for a little while until you're used to using one hand and you feel that you are able to get along on your own. I'm sure your half brother wouldn't mind right Mr. Neal?" I nearly choked. I completely forgot that he thought we were related! I was just about to open my mouth with some sort of excuse to help get James out of it when he spoke.

"Of course I wouldn't mind. I'd do anything for this sister of mine!" He said cheerfully as he pulled my into a sideways hug, careful not to hurt my arm. It actually seemed like he wanted to help. But I didn't think so, it was probably all an act for the doctor. He'd probably just drop me off at home once we got out of here and we'd never see each other again.

"Okay then it's settled. Cassie you can come back here in a couple of weeks and we'll check out that elbow and see how it's doing."

"Thank you doctor." I said as we walked out of the room, out into the lobby then left the hospital.

We were nearing the car when I wondered what time it was. We'd been in there a fairly long time and the game ended at 10:30 so it had to be late.

It was almost as if he read my mind when he hauled out his black IPhone 5 and hit the home button to light up the screen. "Whoa it's 12:30."

"Oh time flies when you're having fun." I said sarcastically as we continued walking amicably to his car.

"So you do everything with that hand eh?" He said with a smirk and a wink pointing to my right hand as we got into the car.

"Oh my god shut up you fool!" I said as a gave him a light smack on the arm with my left hand.

"It was a justifiable question!" He laughed.

"No it was a pervy question!" I started laughing too as he drove out of the parking lot and onto the street.

It didn't take long to reach my house, probably 15 minutes at the most. The drive was quiet save a couple of questions about which streets he needed to be on and which way he needed to turn. I liked it though, with him the quiet was surprisingly comfortable. I don't usually warm up to strangers so easily but something about him made me comfortable instantly, like I could just be myself and not have to worry about being judged
or criticized. Maybe I got over that though when I was already the most embarrassed I could ever possibly be in front of him. Yeah that was most likely it.

When we pulled up I thought that I'd just get out and he would drive away and we'd both pretend like this night didn't happen but I was wrong. When I got out of the car so did he.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked just making sure that this was the right decision for him to make and that he wanted to do it.

"I already promised that I would and you can't break a promise with a doctor, he might break your leg in all the most painful places." He said jokingly.

"Seriously, you don't have to stay and help me, you can go home and we can both pretend this night didn't happen." Though I found myself hoping that he would stay with me. I just wanted him to hold me one more time because in that hospital when I was in his arms, it was the safest I'd felt in a long time.

"Yeah I could go home right now, but what fun would that be?" He said and I shrugged my shoulders and let us both into my apartment.

I showed James around and told him where everything was that he might need. I told him that he could stay in the guest bedroom and he could bring any of his things that he wanted while he was staying and helping me out. I left him by himself to get acquainted with the apartment and I went to change and go to bed.

That day was probably the worst, most surreal day of my life. I got another headache just thinking about it all over again and everything that happened in such a short amount of time. I could argue with myself and say that it was a dream and that I'd wake up the next day and still be with Michael and have my best friend at my side, but I knew it would be a lie. And with all they'd put me through, I didn't even want to think about them anymore.