LOVE AND WAR: THE CORPORATE BATTLE

My eyelids felt heavy. I struggled to open them as I woke up from a deep sleep and the world came into view. It took a few seconds for my vision to clear and right before my eyes was...him.

It was Liam, staring at me intensely. A shiver ran down my spine, he always made me so nervous because I liked him so much. This has to be a dream, because me and him? We didn't make sense. He never liked me like that.

I could feel the heat on my cheeks from blushing. Because he was so close to my face it almost felt surreal. How can a dream be so realistic?

"JULIA? CAN YOU HEAR ME? STAY WITH ME JULIA, JUST BREATHE!" I heard the words coming out in a familiar voice, it was panicked and scared.

It was Liam's voice, he was looking at me with so much fear in his eyes. But I couldn't care less, the feeling of being so close to him made it hard to breathe for me. My face felt hot and i lifted my hands to hide my blushing cheeks. I didn't knew that someone can blush so hard that the color transfers to their hands, because when I pulled my hands back, they were red from the blush.

Wait. I wasn't blushing. There was blood on my hands. Someone's blood, maybe mine. As I tried to assess what was going on I heard a distant voice "the ambulance is here!" And I felt something shift beneath me. Liam stood up as he moved his lap from beneath me and shouted "please save her, please I beg you", to someone as they lifted me and put me on a stretcher and suddenly everything started to spin, my eyes became heavy again and fell shut. I tried to open them, but gave up. I fell unconscious.

-

"She needs bed rest for the next two weeks. Can you please provide me with any of her family member's contact number?"

"Her parents are not here, I am her roommate, you can consider me family", I glanced at the man sitting beside my hospital bed. He looked at me with his dark, pitch black eyes. His hair was messy, a dusty brown colour and his skin was pale. Muscular body and a sharp jawline. "Hello Lia, you feel better now?" he said with a smile.

He was talking to me, "Wh- what happened? Who are you?" I asked. "Julia it's me, Liam your friend. Do you remember me?" he said politely. I tried to think, it felt like I knew him but I couldn't remember anything about this guy. "I- I can't remember anything, where are my parents?" i asked. This was all so confusing and frustrating. It felt like i was familiar with this guy but my mind felt as empty as a new born baby's. I could barely even speak.

"It's ok, you've had a mild cerebral damage so it's normal to suffer with a bit of memory loss, but the doctor said you will recover soon, so that's good news", he said in a assuring tone. "How did I get this injury?" i asked. He opened his mouth to say something but got interrupted by a loud thud. The gate flung open and a girl with short blonde hair in a white tee and ripped blue jeans entered the room.

"Oh my god, is Julia okay?" said the girl in an almost pretentious tone. "Yes she's fine Rebecca you can go back, i'll call you later" Liam said. "Why should I leave? you should leave, she needs a female right now. She is on bed rest, she can't move, I'm sure you cannot take her to the bathroom", she fought back.

"There's nurses here to take care of that Rebecca", Liam said.

"Julia darling you tell me yourself, would you rather be with this unknown man right now or be with me, a trusted girl friend", said the girl ignoring what Liam said. "I would much rather be with a girl right now, and i don't remember anything clearly so I'm not sure if I can trust you....Liam", I said hoping I had made the right decision by trusting the girl, it was only natural.

"You heard her Liam you can go it's already late", she said. Liam left after insisting a few more times. As soon as he left Rebecca started filling me in with all that had happened. "Julia, listen carefully, this guy Liam is nothing but a jerk. He has completely ruined your life. He is your boyfriend- more like ex boyfriend. You broke up with him and you guys got into a huge fight. He followed you out of the house while fighting and you asked him to stop following you and you pushed him in rage. He snapped and pushed you to the ground so hard that you hit your head and suffered a head injury".

"what, really? but he seemed to behave very well with me", i was utterly confused. "That's just him pretending and taking advantage of this situation because you don't remember anything", she said. "um okay, so I should stay away from him", i replied in a low voice. Everything she said was so hard to process. "What about my family? and friends?" I asked.

"I am your bestfriend, Rebecca and your parents are not in LA, They live in Washington DC. You came here to look for a job. You don't have many friends other than me but we hang out together with some mutual friends sometimes. Nobody really knows about this incident other than me and Liam right now".

"Not even my parents? they should know what has happened", i said.

"I haven't told them yet, we just brought you to the hospital and i was so busy dealing with the doctors and stuff, you can talk to them once you feel better by tomorrow, they're probably asleep by now".

Whatever she told me was so hard to understand. It sounded like my life was a huge mess before I got into this accident, and the only person who really cared for me was Rebecca. Just then a nurse entered the room and injected some medicine into my IV tube and moments later my eyes felt heavy so I closed them. I could hear the conversation going on in the room. "......I just hope we don't get caught", I heard a woman's voice. "It's none of your business to worry about it, what did Darren say? can I take her away now-" Rebecca's voice faded as i fell asleep.