Heathers Requests/One Shots

Stormy Nights

Writing Heather M angst all night long? Okay! I don't know why, but I really identify with Heather M. Might not be a good thing, tbh... TW//Questionable suicide attempt, suicidal thoughts, blood and injuries, cursing

Wrecking her car might not have been the best idea. Well, it wasn't necessarily a conscious thought. Did anyone wake up thinking, I'm gonna go crash my car and walk 15 minutes to a hospital in the rain? It didn't sound fun, and was even less fun than it sounded.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed, only that she could see the warm lights of Sherwood County Regional Hospital glowing in the not-so-far distance, turning the heavy raindrops into millions of little lanterns.

She had lost her shoes in the wreck, which was now far behind her, so her feet were bleeding and covered in mud. The cool grass felt good, if not itchy, and the asphalt of the parking lot was like an unpleasant wakeup call. Suddenly, her feet spiked in pain. Heather was semi-grateful for it- after all, it was taking attention away from the stabbing in her arm. Was it broken? Maybe.

The quartz - or whatever kind of tile they used - was blissfully cold against her skin. Hospitals always were cold, at least from her experience. When her little brother (she never saw him, as her mom had gotten custody and she lived with her dad) was born, her Aunt Susanna had to take her to a cute boutique a couple blocks down to get a sweater.

Her thoughts were blurring and her vision was fading in and out, but her hearing seemed to be stronger. So she heard the gasp of the pretty nurse before she felt her large hands guiding her to a cheap plastic chair.

Her voice clearly filtered through her brain perfectly, but it was difficult to string the words into sentences with meanings. "Dear? Dear, what happened? Do you have anyone to call?" There were more questions, all of the same nature. She finally mustered up the strength to meet the nurse's eyes, but she quickly dropped them down.

"I, uh... car wreck," she managed to get up. She registered noises if sympathy, and managed to keep going, "I... j-just got m-my license, and I... uh, I, guess I w-wasn't as g-g-good as I t-thought, and well..." Heather couldn't get any more out, and settled for slumping down, hissing a little as her arm brushed the arm of the chair.

"Okay, up ya' get, dear," she said, her voice more hushed now. Her arms wrapped around her, helping her through the hallways and up an elevator. It seemed to flicker in and out; one moment, they were just there in the lobby and the next, she was listening to elevator music as the nurse (who looked a tad like Ms. Fleming, but right in the head), and the next, she was sitting on the hospital bed, her legs swinging with her toes brushing the tiles.

"Can you call someone? To sign off on your cast, an adult." That question wasn't what it was. Or, to be put in terms sane people can understand, she was asking a different question than what she asked. She really meant, Who are you going to call? But for Heather, the question really was if she could call someone.

Her dad was a no go. He was on some business trip, which was the first in a while. She told him she could handle herself. She wasn't going to make him come up from Vermont. Heather Duke was her girlfriend, a solid option. But no, she wasn't disappointing her... again. Veronica? Maybe she was her best choice. She was the only one of the friend group to be an actual adult, with Heather Duke turning 18 in... God, what was it? 2 weeks? Her brain was foggy. She slowly nodded her pounding head in the general direction of the nurse, digging out her thankfully still working phone. She scrolled through her contacts, her wet finger causing streaks on the cracked screen as she scrolled all the way down to 'V'.

Heather raised the phone to her ear as it rang. Maybe she wouldn't pick up. Part of her was hoping she wouldn't. The other half just wanted some comfort from her best friend. "Hello? Heather, you there?" She sounded frustrated. "Heather, I was in a movie with Heather because you didn't show up. Where are you?" Oh right, that's where she had been driving. At this point, she had forgotten about it. It was some shitty live action thing, but they had all been excited.

"H-Hi, Ronnie," she tentatively said. "Well, I just, my, uh, my car- oh, this was stupid, I-I'll call you back-" Her finger moved to the red disconnect button.

"No, wait, Heather, your car? Heather, is something seriously wrong?" Was she nervous, or just pretending? Was everyone just pretending to like her, like the voices in her head claimed they were? "Heather?" Oh yeah, Veronica was on the phone with her, still. Her finger moved to the speaker button and she dropped her phone. She waved at the nurse, who was in the corner of the room, to come over.

"Hello? Yes, she's here, but we need someone to sign off on her broken arm. Are you family?" The nurse asked while grabbing her legs, swinging them up onto the bed.

"No- but I'm with her girlfriend. Will that work?" There were noises on the other end, but Heather couldn't be bothered to pay attention. The black that had been bordering her vision seemed so inviting. It promised silence unlike the one she had when she was left alone; it was silence from her thoughts as well, so she let herself tip into blackness.

(I considered leaving it here... I'm not that mean)

When Heather opened her eyes again, it was to two pairs of large brown eyes. She could immediately tell which was which. Veronica had flecks of gray hidden under her dark brown eyes, so dark you could see your reflection in them most of the time. Heather's were more of a cinnamon brown - she knew them well by now, having gotten lost in them too many times to count - and were currently shining in an otherworldly way. Oh, no, those were tears. Heather was crying.

"Oh my God, Heather," she choked out, before both girls practically fell into her. Her arm felt better, and when she peeked over their shoulders, it was in a sunny yellow cast, with two signatures on it. Was it even legal to get her cast done while she was unconscious (legitimate question)?

"Well hi there," she told them breathlessly, wrapping her arms around them as much as she could. She could feel their combined tears staining the stupid hospital gown she was in, but as her tears were dropping into both of their hair, she felt it was even.

Maybe she wasn't okay. Okay, scratch that- she definitely wasn't okay. And maybe she wasn't ever going to be. She knew that being okay was going to be hard, especially because she didn't know what in the hell 'okay' actually was.

But with her best and girlfriend with her, she had hope, for the first time in... well, in a long time.

(1175 words)