Jag Älskar Dig (I Love You)

Someone hovered over her. "Eli, buddy," she wheezed tried to push him off. However he, was a she and an older girl at that.
"You are such a little brat! You text me back like everything's ok then later on I get asked by a client if I'd seen the volcano erupting in the Philippines!"
Giana peeped open an eye. "I think they heard you screaming in Japan Emma," she grumbled to her former college roommate.

Emma's mother Linda gently scolded her daughter and then gently squeezed her hand. "Giana honey. You were airlifted to Colorado. Everyone at the school's safe. I made sure to ask."
"The town? Were there deaths?" Giana asked.
Emma's father Frank cleared his voice. "I haven't heard of any deaths in your town but the school's wiped out. The whole town is unfortunately."
Her heart ached for the town and school she had such great memories of, but at least everyone was safe. "This thing's annoying," she said and tried to pull off the oxygen mask.
"I think the doctor wants that on you still," Frank said. "I'll go get him. Tell him you're awake."

The doctor? Giana felt for her arms and legs, finding them still there. "Your arm and shoulder are burned jerkface, not amputated."
Emma giggled as her mom swatted her. Giana was about to retort something back but instead started coughing hard. Frank came in quick with a male doctor. "There's the kid. Good to see you awake," the doctor said. "I'm Dr Hirsh, I've been overseeing your case since you came mainland. You got some pretty nasty injuries, luckily nothing that can't be fixed."

"Can I take this off?" Giana asked, gesturing at the oxygen mask.
"I'd prefer it to be on for now unfortunately. We've been scanning your chest and testing your blood count. As for your burns, they were second degree. Nothing that you'll need a skin graft for and certainly nothing that a little TLC can't heal so don't worry about being. Now I'm not quite satisfied for a release just now," Dr Hirsh said and peered over his glasses. "Though I think you'll be good to be released tomorrow."

"Hey. No mountains around here are gonna erupt here are they?" Giana asked.
Dr Hirsh made a face. "No earthquakes and most certainly no eruptions, but I can only imagine what sights you saw. Poor kid."
"Ash," she remembered. "Smoke, muddy rain. I sort of remember hot red streaks falling down. I guess that's volcanic bombs. I think I saw the lava."
He cringed and took out a prescription pad. "Ash and smoke are what's getting you an inhaler. And a nebulizer. Of course creams for your burns and some pain medication for everything."
Once everything was settled, Emma's father went outside to briefly call their family's bakery to make sure everything was alright and Emma's mother went to get food for everyone.

"So. I take it I'm staying here to heal up?" Giana asked.
Emma smiled weakly. "I would've liked us to become roommates on different terms."
Giana lifted her good shoulder. "Speaking of roommates, what about our other two roomskis."
She quickly fumbled for her own phone. "I'll call Leo and Trang." Lastly, she remembered, "And the family."

Emma's parents mumbled as they nodded. Giana was technically considered the black sheep considering her major was an unambitious anthropology, her extra curricular in college was cheering, her job during college was as a makeup artist and then she went to teach English in the Philippines to children. No debate, political after school activities, no class elections, nothing ambitious. However her father was in business, her mother was a political science college professor, while her siblings were in business and law.

"Seth's coming by with your phone. Its working but just in case we let it sit in a bag of rice," Emma said, voice a little cooler. Some siblings and Gianna's father were the ones that Emma didn't mind, it was the twins and her mother that could be bratty.
Struggling to sit up, Emma helped Giana so she could be more comfortable. "Seth still working at your family's bakery?" Just at the thought of something from Sweet Treats made her mouth water.
"Yup. Still is a dentist but he can't give up his bread baking. My bro said he'd bring you something," Emma smiled knowingly as Giana raised a fist in the air.

"It'll be weird having American food again," she admitted and glanced over as the nurse brought in some machine. Back in high school, Giana remembered a kid that occasionally had asthma issues so she guessed this thing was a nebulizer.
As Giana was doing her nebulizer treatment, she could hear a male voice call over the hum of her machine, "Where's the knucklehead?"

Keeping her mouth on the mouthpiece, Giana made a face at Emma's brother Seth. The nurse giggled and then gasped when Seth offered out the pastry box to her. "Gi probably has something chocolate seat checked, but feel free to take something."
Once her nebulizer treatment was done, Giana snagged a chocolate macaroon. "Aw so good," she moaned as her nurse moaned over a raspberry macaroon.
"Your phone m'lady," Seth presented it to her and then gently hugged her. "Glad to see you in one piece knucklehead."

"Shut up," she retorted playfully back to Seth. "I take it our other roomies have been shitting themselves."
Seth snorted. "You know damn well that's an understatement. Its Trang's family’s turn to call next."
Taking her phone, she noticed that text she had ignored from her mother. "Oh. Look. The Dragon's full of shit again," Emma called out.
Seth read the text. "I hope you're really teaching instead of playing with makeup. AKA jealous as hell you made money and she got arrested for protesting when she was in college and no one cared."
Giana waved it off and started to do an eenie meenie miney moe on which sibling to call. Alessandra was probably in a marketing meeting, Tony and Cecilia were probably doing business analyst things, which meant Chris was the free one.

To her astonishment, his legal aide Karla answered, "Oh! Giana! I'll pull your brother out of his meeting! We're all so glad you're okay! Your sister in-law keeps coming in for updates on you!"
That was surprising. Her brother usually made her wait for a bit until whatever client of his was done. She waited until she heard her brother huffing. "Giana! Jesus! Everyone here was scared shitless that you were trapped in that mudslide!"
So Raul was right, there was a mudslide. "Yeah it was raining mud after we got the last student out of the school."

"Shit," he swore. "You're okay? I mean, except for what Emma texted me. What about all your little ones? No one was hit by those asteroid things?"
"Safe. And they were volcanic bombs. Kinda unnerving watching them streak down," Giana said as he swore again. "But I'm staying in Colorado to heal up my lungs and the burns."
Chris sighed. "Okay kid. I'll send down your stuff from storage. You'll need a new license since you're out of state now."

Giana blinked and laughed. "Fuck that's right! My drivers license is expired! I totally would have borrowed Emma's car too!"
Her brother laughed. "Take it easy from driving. Take it easy from everything. No tumbling stuff either."
There was suddenly some sort of tussling sound and Giana quickly found herself talking to her sister in-law. "Gigi baby!" Leah cooed, making Giana giggle at her nickname. "Sweetie are you alright? Gawd I almost passed out during my client's meeting when I heard about that volcano!"
"I'm fine-,"

"And what about your itty bitty students? The poor babies were probably so scared!" Leah tutted.
Seth crossed his arms, laughing softly at Giana's sister in-law. "They were a bit shaken but didn't do too bad," she said as she raised a fist to threaten Seth. I'm gonna kill you if you laugh at my sissy! She mouthed at him.
There was a soft conversation going on over on Chris and Leah's end of the line. "Kid we're going back into the meeting. The clients need to leave soon. They hope you're okay. Oh, and so does our law firm," Chris said.

Giana couldn't help but laugh. "Bet that was an interesting conversation. Being like, oh hey! I have a call from my sister who dealt with quakes and a volcanic eruption. Like no big deal!"
Leah giggled, voice full of relief. "You must be getting better if you're your usual happy self. We'll call later honey."
After she said her goodbyes, Giana handed the phone over to Emma. "Do that three way thing with our phones. I don't know how to do it with this one." Emma laughed and took her phone as Giana polished off a pistachio macaroon.

"Oh my God gurlie! Thank God my boss let me off work cause I was crying so bad!" Leo wailed once Emma got the two of them on the phone.
"I had a million calls from my family making sure you were okay! Same with Leo!" Trang added in. Both Leo and Trang had a huge family so Giana could only imagine the number of phone calls and texts.
Giana sat up. "Tell them I'm okay. But, girls. The key thing to do this weekend is lay eyes on this Nathan MacKinnon guy," she said and immediately shielded herself.
"This is so not funny you brats!" Emma practically screamed over Leo and Trang laughing hard.

Changing the subject for poor Emma's sake, she continued on. "We'll go clothes shopping in the meantime, of course Sephora, junk food-,"
"Our guilty pleasure movies. Perfect Score, Bring It On, White Chicks, The Covenant..." Trang listed off.
"Ugh. I haven't had Taylor Kitsch in my life for awhile," Emma moaned.
Coughing as Giana laughed, she said, "I got all businesswoman Alessandra to like The Covenant. Did I ever tell you that?"
Trang giggled and said, "That Nathan MacKinnon will have to watch it Ems. Might get jelly of your actor crush."
"You girls suck," Emma said firmly. "Call me when you're coming this weekend."
"That's not nice!" Giana cried as Emma hit the end button.

"SETH MILLER WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT EATING BAKERY THINGS BEFORE DINNER!" Linda cried.
Before Linda could swipe the box away, Giana stuffed down a lemon macaroon. "What's for dinner?" She asked with a mouthful of macaroon.
Linda just shook her head and said, "Orange chicken. I couldn't decide if you wanted Mexican or Italian but both places were busy."

"I'm actually really hungry," Giana admitted and gladly took her food. "Like, don't get me wrong. Food from the Philippines is great...but I have been missing my usual American stuff."
Linda smiled, pleased with her appetite. "You must be feeling better if you're this hungry."

Everyone kept saying that so her getting released tomorrow seemed really promising. Which was good, because curiosity about this Nathan MacKinnon kid was really getting to her now.

Notes