𝑩𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔

14|🖤

We've been in the waiting room for close to an hour now. Tess called her parents who are not yet here but they took the first flight coming to Princeton so they'll be here in no time.

The doors to the ER open and a doctor walks out and we walk over to him rashly.

"Are you the family to ms.montez?" The doctor asks, and we agree. "How long has ms.montez been abusing drugs for?"

The question comes as a shock, We all look between each other, wondering what he means by "How long" as though to say that this is not the first time she's abusing. Tess picks at her fingers and responds nervously, looking between kelly and I. "I-I think this was her first."

The doctor shakes his head "we found some traces of the same drug in her system and it's not a one time thing, ms. Montez has abused the said drug for at least several times." I look to Tess and I see that tears have started to build up in her eyes. I move close to her and clasp her hand in mine in an attempt to ease her. "However, we managed to pump out the drug from her system and her heart rate is back to normal." The Doc goes on and we all take out a breath of relief that we've been unknowingly keeping in. "You'll be able to see her once she's awake." The doctor let's us know and he walks away.

I walk to the cafeteria to get some water bottles for everyone. I head back to the waiting area where I left kelly and Tess at. Mr and Mrs montez walk into the waiting room at the same time as I do. They quickly rush to Tess and bombard her with questions. "What happened?" Is one of the questions that Mrs. Montez asks her. "Where were you when all this happened?" Mr. Montez questions her as well. She tries to respond but they cut in on her. "What did she do this time? Ain't you supposed to be your sister's keeper?" Mrs. Montez questions her again.

"She was at the cafeteria with Zoe and Myself while your other daughter was supposed to be God knows where." Kelly retorts. "You do realize that Torah is a grown-ass lady? Tess cannot be monitoring her every move as if she doesn't have her own things going on. Put your dau-" I pinch her hand for her to stop talking and she winces in pain."what? Let me talk since y'all ain't bold enough."

"Enough!" Mr Montez angrily says, "Who do you think you are talking to my wife like that?" He folds his hands over his chest and moves toward Kelly. "Have you no respect for elders?" he moves closer and points a finger at her while the other hand rests in his suit pocket.

Kelly has never gotten along with double T's parents. She never tolerates how they look down on others just because they have money. Tess and Torah might be twins quite okay. It is very evident that they like Torah more than they do Tess and she knows that. She's treated the same as Torah when it comes luxury and spending but then the love is just not there. According to her dad, she almost killed her mum when it was her turn to be born so for some reason he holds that against her.

"You know I can get you removed from the school with just one phone call?" He continues and Tess budges in.

Kelly seems to be bothered by his last words. She's here on an academic scholarship and one mistake can make them take it away from her.

"Come on dad, stop it. We are at a hospital for crying out loud." Tess lets him know and his wife holds his shoulder to calm him down. I let Tess know that we're leaving for us to give them some space and she agrees.

Leaving her is not what I wanted to do, but at this point, we have no choice but to leave. It's getting wild and our presence is definitely not helping. We say goodbye and head out.

The whole drive back, kelly is silent. She doesn't say a word whatsoever her eyes are on the road but her mind seems to be elsewhere.

"Kelly?" I call her, she doesn't respond. "Kelly!" I call her for the second time.

"Hmmm" she hums in response.

"Are you okay?" I question her because she looks like something is eating her up.

"Yeah, I'm good." She smiles at me and looks back to the road. I let it slide because I can't force her to talk to me about it if she doesn't want to.

We get back home and we both head to our respective rooms. The atmosphere is different, its bleak. I just hope that everything turns out to be fine with Torah.

****
Tess's p.o.v

I seat in the waiting room anticipating my parents return. They went to talk to Dr grey. The doctor assigned to Torah.

When I saw Torah lying on the living room floor looking limp and lifeless. I didn't know what to do. Even though we butt heads a lot of times and have different characters, she's still my twin who I love wholeheartedly. I don't think I can manage to live without her.

When the doctor told us that she had overdosed on opioids, the first thing that came to my mind was. She has relapsed.

She had an addiction for opioids back when we were 15 but she was taken to rehab for a year and we thought as though she was done using the drugs. Turns out we were wrong.

My parents come back, my mum has two cups of coffee in her hands and she hands Me one. "Thank you." I let her know and she just smiles at me. I can see that they're both worried about Torah, I can tell.

A few minutes later a nurse walks over to us "are you the family to ms. Montez?" She questions and we all agree. "Okay you can go in to see her, she's now awake." She lets us know.

Mum thanks her and then we all head to her room.

She's hooked to a tube thats connected to her hand, other tubes on her chest connected to the machine tracking her heartbeat.

Once she sees us, she sighs and looks in the other direction. "Whats the meaning of this? " our mother questions her. "Is thi-this why you wanted to come to Princeton so you can start abusing again?" she questions her while tearing up. "After all the things we've done for you? The first chance you get at independence you go right back into abusing? Have you no shame? What haven't we done for you Torah?"

"You haven't been our fucking parents. Whatever opportunity you get at being away from us, you grab it. Do you know what it feels like to have parents who are absent? Right, you don't know because yours never even existed."  Torah retorts.

Mum has her jaw on the floor and she exists the room. " We need to have a serious talk young lady". Dad says and then he exits the room and goes after mum.