Square One

Chapter 3

Hailey still isn't awake, and I think the doctors are about to lose hope.

Patient privacy laws suck. They're needed, but in this case, they suck. I'm horribly curious about what's happening to Hailey, and I still don't know how she fell into this coma in the first place.

There's rumors flying around at school. Some say she's really sick. Some say she got in an accident of some sort. Some are saying wild, wacky things that shouldn't even be possible, yet people believe them. It's ridiculous what high schoolers will believe.

The one good thing that's coming out of this is that people know my name now. Not people at school, they don't know I visit Hailey every single day, but people in the hospital. The doctors, nurses, Hailey's parents...they all know my name. It's a weird feeling. People that I thought I would never meet, people I never thought to kiss up to and become friends with, they've become some of the only people that acknowledge my existence as a human. 

Every day after school, it's the same routine. Go home, drop my stuff off, go to the hospital, do homework, and repeat it all again the next day. 

Just like today. 

I'm sitting in the hospital waiting room, with the same index card I was given my first time here clutched between my fingers. I'm not sure why I'm so scared to go in that room- there's no one else in there and the receptionist told me I was free to go in there. 

I stood up, my knees knocking and my stomach doing cartwheels. 

"Come on, Aria. Stop being such a wuss, you're here for a reason." I said to myself, slowly gaining the motivation to take myself down the hallway. With every passing step, I started to get more and more confident, and I was getting happier and happier. 

And then came the alarm.

Everyone started running every which way and I'm getting swept up in the chaos, getting pushed back into the waiting room. I don't know what's happening, I don't know where to go or what to do...

"Sorry, kid, you have to wait." a doctor says to me as he passes by. I run to catch up with him and I tap his shoulder. 

"Wait, what's going on, is everything okay?" The doctor snarles "HIPAA, kid. I can't tell you."

Oh right. Patient privacy laws...

"I'm here to see my friend. Can you at least tell me if she's okay? Her name is Hailey Driscoll."

The doctor looks to one of his colleagues and then turns back to me. I know in an instant that this isn't gonna be good, whatever is about to happen.

"Code blue." someone says. "Driscoll, room 208."

Crap.