Infected

Chapter 10

Quin didn't return to the hospital for the rest of the week, a thing that Galen assured me wasn't my fault and had to do instead with his preparation for the approaching semester.

I was subjected to physical therapy, a grueling experience that I'm sure is just a way to legally torture patients. I would end every session out of breath, aching from head to toe and showered in affirmations from the therapist. I figured I could get to know my torturer if I had to go through with her demands. Her name was Alexandra, she had two dogs and wasn't sure if her longtime girlfriend was going to propose to her in the coming weeks. I wished her luck at my last session after she officially cleared me of being a fall risk. 

My time with Alexandra only reminded me of how much my life paled in comparison to others my age. While many people were beginning their lives with marriages and children, buying their first homes or traveling the world, I was in the background, reading my books and getting lost in the lands of fiction, too scared to face reality.

I wasn't always like this, hiding and isolated. My behavior started soon after my father passed away, but was on a minuscule level when my mother was hospitalized. You wouldn't have to worry about probing questions about your life if you spent most of it indoors or in the company of those who knew not to step over the line. It was one of the many reasons I enjoyed Mel's company, she never pushed to know facts about me, and instead spent her time quizzing me about flippant things like dating. 

I suppose that my reliance on secluding myself must now come to an end. Something out there had given me a second chance, and I couldn't take it for granted. I made a silent promise to myself that I would change that, turn away from the wall I'd built against socializing. Maybe this change will help me understand why it's important to use my tiny support system. 

My last evening in the hospital my aunt and uncle decide to make an appearance though they'd been in a hotel two cities over for over four days. They enter Liv's room in the middle of my reading of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a book that I knew she couldn't create nightmares out of, if she could even hear me. The ventilator was removed but her neck brace still remains, supporting her fragile spine.

A shrill, familiar voice interrupts me, "Oh, Jesus please be with me. Look at our little girl Al."

My Aunt Sally cries into a used tissue, taking her daughter's limp hand. She doesn't even glance at me from my spot on the other side of the bed. 

My uncle, a tall, brutish man who's spent most of his life either drinking or preaching false hope, stands behind his wife, looking over his daughter like she wasn't the person he'd expected to see in the bed. I can't understand why, Liv hadn't changed much since we'd moved away, except for a few tattoos and piercings to mark her emancipated body. The stem of the rose tattoo that she had on her shoulder peaks out from under her gown, a detail I'm sure my uncle sees and is already orchestrating a way to blame me for it.

Aunt Sally dabs her eyes, disrupting the excessive eyeshadow that painted her lids and spreading black mascara into a comical stamp. Even after all the years she still maintains an outrageous mass of teased curls on top of her head, adding five inches to her stout height. She dressed like she's just come from church, a long sleeve blouse and a floor length floral skirt. She looks at me for the first time, a scowl quickly replacing the anguish she'd been perfectly displaying to the otherwise empty room.

"Hello Lorelei." Her tone is flat. She's not excited to see me. But the way she sneers with the syllables of my name sends a tingle down my spine and leaves a bitter taste on my tongue. Only she could make my name sound like a curse. "You're looking well."

"Hi Aunt Sally. Uncle Al." I nod towards him, even though he's still looking over his daughter. God, take a photo why don't you?

"It's nice to see you're up and about, last we heard you were in a coma." Aunt Sally says it like she's upset to find me here, next to her comatose daughter. She knows we're more like sisters than cousins and hates it.