Yesterday

Chapter 33

PAUL'S POV

My eyes slowly fluttered open to the sound of loud banging, almost like the deep sound of footsteps, but a little different.

I sat up on the couch a little bit. At first I was confused, because I remembered falling asleep sitting up and having Charlotte on my lap.

Charlotte. Did she set me up on the couch like this? Where was she, anyway?

Gazing ahead of me, I got my answer. I saw her on her hands and knees, slowly crawling towards me as her bright green eyes pierced my own hazel ones. Immediately I could tell that something was wrong. She looked very out of it. I knit my eyebrows in concern, but before I could speak she collapsed onto the floor. I jumped up in alarm. 

"Charlotte!"

I ran over to her, lifting her head up and examining her. Her eyes were still open, but they were glazed over. Her arms were limp as they dangled loosely by her sides. Putting my open hand over her chest, I could feel her heartbeat pounding at a mile a minute. My mind instantly jumped to the worst conclusion possible, and I could feel the tears well up in my eyes.

Before I had any more time to react, the door to our hotel room burst open and paramedics came flying into the room. So much was going on all at once. A gurney was quickly wheeled into the room, and I was shoved away from Charlotte as the paramedics began to do their job. John followed closely behind them, and I rushed over to him.

"John, what the hell is going on?" I asked, my voice wavering. He looked at me solemnly, but he didn't answer.

Tears began to well up in his eyes too, and seeing John get so emotional made the tears in my eyes finally spill over. He put his hand on my shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze, letting his hand linger there. He may not of answered, but he didn't have to. We both knew.

We watched as Charlotte, firmly strapped into the gurney now and hooked up to an oxygen tank, was rushed out of the room. Her eyes had now drifted shut and her face was paler than ever.

I can honestly say I had never been more scared in my life.

John turned to me before we walked out the door and whispered something to me, barely audible.

"It's going to be okay."

I dropped my head as I quickly wiped my eyes, embarrassed. My mind was frantic as I thought of every worst-case scenario I could possibly think of. We followed the last paramedic out and quickly ran to John's car, but I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw Charlotte getting loaded into the back of an ambulance. I turned around to face John, but I didn't need to say anything. He nodded his head in her direction.

"Go."

I ran over as fast as I could and began to climb up into the back of the ambulance with her. Some of the paramedics tried to push me away, but I fought them off with strength that I didn't know I had.

"Please, she's my girlfriend. Let me stay." The hopelessness that I heard in my own voice took me by surprise. I sat down on the bench beside her before they had a chance to answer me, but the sympathetic looks that I was  receiving said it all.

I sat there, absentmindedly staring down at Charlotte. I couldn't believe that this was happening. It was like a dream, except this was one that I couldn't just wake up from. This one was real. I was frozen in thought, and I tried my hardest not to cry in front of all the paramedics.

The rest of the ride was a blur to me, and once we arrived at the hospital it got even worse. I was in a complete daze. I could hear two of the nurses whispering up in the front.

"I'd be surprised if this girl even made it," one said to another. "Although since she's going to need her stomach pumped, I don't know which one is worse."

I suddenly felt sick to my stomach as I attempted to imagine my life without Charlotte in it. I gazed down at her again. What if those eyes never opened again? What if I could never hear that voice, or hear that laugh? What if this was the last time I was ever going to see her alive? My mind went numb from the thought.

Before the ambulance had even stopped completely, the doors were thrown open and the paramedics were instantly back in motion. They wheeled Charlotte out as quickly as possible, and she was rushed into the emergency room. I was the last one out, and I turned to see John jumping out of his car, which was parked right behind the ambulance. He ran inside, and I followed right behind him.

Barging through the doors, I saw Charlotte only for a second before she was wheeled around the corridor. John and I ran for only another second before we were stopped at the front desk.

"I'm sorry, boys, but you can't go back there. Medical personnel only," the woman at the desk said. My patience had run short. I slammed my hands down on the desk, and the poor woman sitting there looked up at me in shock.

"I demand you let me back there!!!" I screamed. Even John looked embarrassed to be seen with me.

Lets just say I drove myself absolutely insane as I waited to hear an update on Charlotte as I sat on the bench outside the hospital that security had ever-so-nicely carried me to.