Eat!

7 ~ (No) Artificial Flavours

Alice

Sam’s face dropped like a stone.

“It’s Mom.” Is all he said. It’s all he had to say.

He grabbed my hand and we raced for the car, leaving behind the gormless and confused faces of Sam’s friends. I waved slightly before slamming the car door shut, but they still stared at us out of the window. For some reason, it made Sam’s car cold; colder than it had been before we came.

That’s when Sam started making the weird noises. Horrible, strangled, frustrated noises in the back of his throat. I watched as he tried to get the key into the ignition time and time again, trying and failing. His hands were shaking and pressing against the general direction of the ignition, but not actually getting it in. His eyes were all shiny. I grabbed his hand, snatched the keys away from him and jammed them into the ignition.

Immediately, the engine roared to life.

“Thanks.” Sam breathed.

I nodded. “Just go.”  

He slammed his foot against the pedal.

Immediately, we were lurched forwards. Before I would have complained about the lack of safety and the recklessness of Sam’s driving, but right now I couldn’t think of anything else accept the dead look in his eyes. We rounded the final corner and Sam pulled up in the car park. Barely. I’m pretty sure we would be getting a ticket or something but…

He snatched my hand and dragged me out of the car before I had time to catch my breath. Above me, the sign read ‘Pennsylvania mental hospital’. I didn’t have time to think about that. Sam pushed open the double doors and sprinted to the reception desk, where the nurse immediately told him to come with her. She didn’t look like a particularly nice nurse, with her pursed lips and wrinkled frown, so the situation only seemed worse.

“She started having seizures.” said the nurse breathlessly as we passed doors with numbers on them. “They’re admitting her to the hospital.”

“Crap.” was all Sam replied with.

Then, as if being proven, a stretcher burst out of one of the rooms. A smallish, mousy and very ill looking woman lay on top, murmuring and convulsing violently. It was awful, but the look on Sam’s face was worse.

“Mom!” he gasped, running to her side. She reached out an arm towards her son as soon as her body relaxed.

Her mouth moved slightly. “Sam… I love you.”

“Shut up, Mom. You’re going to be fine.”

“I’m not. But you are.” She turned to me. “Please tell me you’re a girlfriend.”

Sam looked at me, face red despite the situation. I was probably blushing too. I nodded so he would know what to say. “Sure, Mom. She’s a girlfriend.”

Her face burst into one last smile before the sirens of the ambulance came outside. The nurses shouted something I couldn’t understand before wheeling her away on the stretcher, her life dripping away with every convulsion. I looked at Sam. He looked at me.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m okay.” He replied, not because he was, but because that was what he was supposed to say.

I took his hand. “Shall we get out of here?”

He nodded at that. I led him to the door, distracting him ad trying to keep his eyelids from drooping shut. The nurse told him that she would call his Dad, but I don’t think Sam heard her. He looked so sad, my heart broke. That bothered me… a lot, actually. I didn’t expect to care so much when I looked the way I did. Was that bad?

“Alice?” He asked.

“Yeah?” I answered.

“Please don’t make me go home.”

And his voice was so impossibly broken that I nodded.

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what do you think? I got bored and wrote more of this. I know I haven't been updating regularly, and I honestly have no excuse other than *cough* procrastinating *cough*. But I'll try harder. I pwomise :P

Aaaaanyway now that I have covered my ass- uh, I mean apologised, I would like to say that I KNOW THIS CHAPTER IS SHORT! I have plans for the next chapter and I don't want to fuse it with this one.

Also, thanks if you are STILL keeping with this. I have let you all down, and for that, I am sorry *sniffle*