“I’m very proud of you honey.”
Her mother’s soft and loving voice filled her train of thought, breaking her concentration from the little white sheet of paper that was pressed on the table, her eyes broke the papers and she looked at her mother, smiling at the woman. “Thanks mom, I never thought in a million years I’d actually get accepted, never.”
“Well you did, and you deserve it, you really do. I’m proud of you Leigh-Anna, I always am.” Christine said, the pride in her eldest daughter evident in her voice. “I’m going to go lay down for a bit, you take some time to relax honey, you deserve it.” Her mother added, gently pressing her lips against her daughters temple, before heading up stairs, over the past couple of days, the woman had fell ill, a very high temperature, headaches, all that nasty stuff, of course, she had her dizziness return, Leigh-Anna just hoped that her mother will be better in a week or so and then they could go back to normal, if life could ever be normal.
Life in normality, bullshit. Leigh-Anna thought to herself, breathing in deep, sighing long and hard as she made her way out into one of the lounge chairs outside, making herself comfortable on one, after she took off her top, relaxing in her bikini top, trying to get a natural tan, but her mind wasn’t on the beating warm sun that was shining on her stomach, but it was on someone else, Nick. He hasn’t even spoke to her since their last date, which, went horribly wrong at the end. It was now the end of May, about a month and two weeks since they last seen each together, last spoken to one another. And everything was changing, fast, it was almost, scary. Everything was happening so fast and there was nothing she could do to slow it down, life was taking it’s full out course, weather she liked it or not.
She sighed and eased into the chair even more, trying to clear her head, this decision was so big, this was her future they were talking about after all, all her aspirations were sealed when that little slip arrived in the mail this morning, but, even though she wanted to go, another part of her didn’t want to go, she didn’t want to away from her family, her friends, but, most of all, she didn’t want to be thousands of miles away from him, they wouldn’t even be in the same state. God fucking damnit, one part of me wants to stay, but, another part wants to leave, what the hell am I going to do? Jesus Christ, I promised myself I wouldn’t fall for anyone until I was like, 20, but now, I’m tied between love, and my future.
Then she heard a big thump, almost like a glass vase smashing into a million pieces, this made her jump, big time, she knew this couldn’t be good, not good at all, she changed into her shirt against like a lightning bolt, quickly hurrying into the house, sliding the doors open and ran out into the hall. Her entire body froze, she remained still, covering her mouth, trying to restrain the vomit from making its way into her throat. There was her mother, lying on the floor, and what looked like, barely breathing.
A natural scream of sheer panic and terror escaped her mouth, she bolted into the den and grabbed the phone, rushing over to her mother’s side as her shaky fingers stumbled over the phones digits. Dialling the hospital’s emergency number. Waiting for the operator to answer her desperate call.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“You need to come quick, my mom just passed out on the floor, she fell down the stairs or something, please, please come quick I don’t think she’s breathing!”
“Honey listen to me, you need to tell me your street address so I can send an ambulance your way okay?”
“Okay, um, my address is, 157 Ropewalk Avenue, house 197, the one with The Roberts sign in the front.”
“Okay then honey, I have an ambulance on the way, stay on the line with me until the paramedics arrive.”
“Alright, please, please, please, tell them to hurry!” Leigh-Anna sobbed over the phone, letting her tears hit the floor, staring at her mother’s lifeless body, it was only a fever, some dizziness and an abnormal mom for a couple of days, no big deal. Right?
Thankfully, the medical hospital in Florida is extremely quick to respond to a call, the paramedics did their magic strapping Christine to the gurney and trapping them both into the back of the ambulance, Leigh-Anna had a hold onto her mother’s hand that it could’ve locked their DNA together, she still had a river pouring down her face, a million different things running around in her head. What the hell is happening? First, in a way, I lose Nick, and now, there’s a possibility I could lose my own mother, why is this happening?!
Once they arrived at the hospital, the two paramedics whisked her mother away along with some nurses and a doctor, doing who knows what, she a mess, she didn’t need a mirror or anyone to tell her that, her heart was going so fast, faster than a speeding car or the autobahn, her hands were shaking, she could barely stand up, let alone think about anything. She looked up ahead at an approaching nurse that was walking her way over to her.
“Hello sweetie is there anything I could do to help you? Call someone, get you a drink of water?”
“Um, could you call my cousin, A.J? Here’s his number.” Leigh-Anna handed over a little piece of white paper, the nurse nodded sweetly and left her be, she ran her hands through her hair and brought her knees to her chest, rocking herself back and forth in those uncomfortable green hospital chairs. She rested her head against her kneecaps. Waiting.
It felt like an eternity, in that medium sized room, lone in the room for what seemed to be, forever, her eyes never left the spot she was staring at, the same four by four floor tile she kept staring hopelessly at, that is, until A.J burst through the door, her eyes snapped toward him, her feet slammed on the floor and raced over toward him, throwing her arms around her cousin, crying her eyes out into his shoulder, her sobs becoming hushed and quiet.
“Shh, Leigh-Anna what happened?” He asked, his voice soft, as he guided her into the same seat she had been sitting in for the last who knows how long.
“I heard a loud bang inside, I rushed in and seen mom lying on the floor unconscious, she’d been sick for the past few days, I guess she was coming down stairs for something and fell, I’ve been here for the last twenty minutes but no one has even said one word to me about her, oh god what if she doesn’t make it!”
A.J pulled her into arms tightly, embracing the crying teenager, Leigh-Anna hugged her arms around his shoulders, where the hell was everyone? Did her siblings even know what happened? “A.J, where’s my father? Does he even know what happened?”
“He’s at your house sweetie, the hospital called as soon as you called 911, he’s at the house right now with the younger ones, trying to calm them down, they want you to come home, but, I knew you’d want to stay.”
“Your damn right I do, I was there A.J, I seen her on the ground, I...I should’ve done more than call 911.” Leigh-Anna said, the tears glistening her face as she tried speaking without her voice cracking, but, her attempt was failed.
The next twenty minutes was spent calming the hysterical crying teenager down, A.J left about eighteen minutes later, in search for a nurse or a doctor, for answers, leaving Leigh-Anna alone in the, what seemed to be, decreasing room, even though there was nobody waiting there beside her, as the moments ticked on and on, the room seemed to be getting, smaller, smaller and smaller. The tears hadn’t come to a close either, she just stayed in there, in the same chair, same position, knees to her chest, forehead planted on the kneecaps, eyes slammed shut, praying this was all a sick, twisted dream.
Until Nick burst through the doors.
Leigh-Anna’s head went to the doors swinging widely, her eyes opening more to the man standing in the doorway, with a dark pair of jeans and a black wife beater, hair spiked and all sexy like he always was, Leigh-Anna automatically ran over toward him and collided herself into his arms, clinging onto his waist, Nick’s arms slammed onto her back and held her tight, his iron grip was what made her feel...better, warmer, more relaxed in an unmanageable situation.
Nick mingled with some strands of hair from behind. “Leigh-Anna, are you alright, A.J just called, he told me what happened, how are you holding up baby?”
A.J sent him? A.J, my overprotective cousin who is always hovering over me worse than a vulture, asked Nick, the one he knows I could possibly love, to come here to comfort me, of fuck, this must be bad! Leigh-Anna thought silently to herself, resting the side of her head onto his brown leather jacket. The tears still falling down her face, but, the river wasn’t a river since arrived, only a hard and fast sprinkler shooting down her cheeks. Until she looked down to the ground, and saw this, girl, looking as innocent as ever, standing behind him.
“Um, Nicky, is everything okay?” Her squeaky voice asked him from behind, she had a very, soft, high voice, very annoying. She wasn’t even that pretty, with red hair and awkward green eyes, she made a very strange model, only small, about 5’2, stick thin, not very attractive at all.
“Uh...give me a minute Jan.”
Leigh-Anna’s defences automatically shot up, they were already up from her mother, who was already in the hospital, for what all she knew, clinging onto her life, and now, this girl shows up behind Nick, jealously panged through her entire system. “Nick, who the fuck is she?” She mumbled into his chest, her tone agitated.
“Oh...um...Jan is my...”
“I know who she is Nick, I just want to know why the hell she has the guts showing her face here!” Leigh-Anna retorted, her crushed hearts toned screamed agony that he found another girl, but, the tone started rising as she stepped back from his soft, warm arms.
“Uh, I’m very, very sorry about the situation that you’re placed in, believe me honey, I know how hard it is, but you’ll get over it.” Jan said, her tone sounded sincere enough. But not to Leigh-Anna, her eyes started turning red and her blood started boiling.
“Uh, Jan, maybe you should head home and rest, I’ll see you later.” Nick stepped in, before Leigh-Anna could. Jan took her cue, she nodded and quietly walked out of the hospital doors, Leigh-Anna’s jealously washed away and the fear for her mother’s life automatically returned. “Can we talk about this later?”
“Please, let’s do, just please Nick, hold me.” She said, her tone sounded a lot more desperate than she had planned, but again the tears started spilling down her cheeks and the sobs started to get more increased. A.J joined them finally, rubbing his cousins back softly, the threesome all sitting on the seats.
Until the doctor walked into the room.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Another chap, okay, this has got to be one of the hardest chapters I have ever written, I hope it turned out okay! Please review. :)
