The Race Car that was Tyler Scott

Chapter Two

I looked to the other side of the ward, to the outside window. It was light. I hadn't noticed that my ugly white lights had been turned off and replaced with the natural light. It was refreshing. If it was light outside, how long had I been asleep for? The sun wasn't low, therefore it wasn't morning or evening. It was where I couldn't see it, up high in the sky. I turned my head back on my pillow to stare up at the bleak ceiling and then turned my head to the other side. I saw a clock out in the corridor through the window of my room. The minute hand was at about quarter past and the hour hand at five minutes to. It was 11:15. Toni had been in the hospital all that time. How has she been allowed to stay? Did her parents know where she was? Did they even care? "Toni, where did you sleep?" "Here", she was on her phone texting someone. "Where do your parents think you are", knowing Toni she wouldn't have told them where she really was, "At the Johnsons'", her cousins.
Three boys, we had all gone to the same junior school. I got on well with the elder two, Nick and James, Jack was much younger than us and always managed to get us into trouble when it was him who went around messing everything up. Toni and I would play 'Chase Me Charlie' with them out in the field with their horses. James was a year older than us and Nick a year older than that. Nick's best friend was Morty Wisher.
Morty was like a brother to me at school. Always there. He knew I hated my year group. He knew Toni and I were trouble makers and we were bored. So we joined their group. Two years above us, the kids in our year frowned on us. Toni got on alright with the people in our year but knew they hated me so she looked out for me. So did Morty, he always took the blame for when I got in trouble.
His parents were nice. His were the only parents I knew that were nice. They respected his decisions and were proud of him no matter what. They invited me over all the time and treated me like one of their own. They had five boys: Jago (aged five, at the time we met), Samuel (his twin), Billy (seven - he was in my year group at school, but I was technically a year older), Morton (nine) and Simon (thirteen). And so I grew up a tomboy. They couldn't keep me obviously, but I went there as much as I could before I was sent away.
I haven't seen Morty in years. We kept in touch a bit. But he left prep school two years before me and when I left we just lost touch. He's eighteen now and probably on some epic gap year around the states, that's where he said he always wanted to go. I missed him. I wonder if he even thought of me, maybe.
"Have you heard from Morty?" Toni didn't look up from her phone, it had been silent for perhaps ten minutes but I didn't take her by surprise, she answered casually. "Morty? Yeah he's gone to the states for his gap year. Last I heard he stopped at some ranch in Nevada, working as a pony boy", that was so like him, I thought to myself a little more.
My eyes started to water but I was smiling. I was happy but I wanted to see him more than anything. I wanted to see them all.
When they sent me away I lost touch with everyone, I only had Toni because she had a house on the isle of white and my school used to take us on sailing trips there. We bumped into each other and after that she made an effort to come and see me every now and then. She bought me my first phone. A bricky flip phone, but it was so much better than nothing. The kids at school thought it was funny, a few of the kids understood what it was like not to have much, they were the closest I had to friends there. I didn't like the school much, but it wasn't hell and I counted myself lucky.
"I have his number, I could give it to you?" She had been watching me, "Umm...", "Here", she took my phone and dialled in a number. She smiled and gave it back. "You miss him", not really said as a question, I nodded. "Come home Mimi, ditch your fancy school, holidays start in a week just come to mine and spend Easter with us" I looked down at my hands with a vacant stare. "Meem, people want to see you. They all want to see you, we miss you". I smiled and nodded as my eyes were welling up again. She smiled and it made me feel secure again. I was propped up in the hospital bed and she was sitting by my knees. She leant forward and hugged me, holding me tightly. Still weary of my wound, she left a gap between herself and my stomach.
Trudie came back in a while later. "Morning sweetie, how are we feeling", "Yeah it's not too bad, only hurts when I move and laugh", Toni chuckled softly and I slapped her hand. "Can you give me a pain score out of ten?". She went around the room checking things and asking and writing things down on a smart looking clipboard as she went.
"You're very lucky, the glass didn't go too deep so it didn't puncture anything although it's still going to be very sore for a few weeks" she handed me a piece of paper "Here's authorisation for a prescription..." I dazed, her words were too fancy and all I wanted to do was go home. To go home with Toni so I could see everybody. "...so you'll be discharged tomorrow morning", and she walked out with her clipboard against her breasts. I looked back to the clock in the corridor, 15:35. Where did Toni go? I could have sworn she was right here a second ago.
I was bored. I wanted to see Tyler again. He wasn't how I'd imagined. He was kind. Distant, he didn't look like he was comfortable. Almost as if he didn't like his fame. I'd seen him on mtv and he'd seemed so secure and confident. Like anything he said could go. That's what it was like with famous people. They all seem one thing in public when they lead a completely different life in private. Again, you cannot trust anyone. But Tyler seemed different.
I mean for starters...he had saved my life. And then he'd stayed with me for hours until Toni arrived. And then there was that thing at the concert when he pulled me away from the crazy fangirls and took me behind a huge notice board where no one could see us. Surely that would cause problems for him in the media and yet he did it anyway.
I wasn't mesmerised by the fact I'd met some famous singer. As I would imagine many girls would. Of course I loved his music. I went to that concert to see his talent and he is talented, but I didn't go there to just see someone famous. Fame doesn't make you into someone else, into another more superior being. Personally I think it makes your life more difficult - I'd never want to be famous. But really they're just humans like the rest of us and should be treated as Gods. We make fools out of ourselves by throwing ourselves at their feet and idolising them. I didn't know what I thought of Tyler just yet. He looked uneasy in the spotlight and yet for some reason he had interfered with me and my life. Why would he do that? Did he think I was one of those crazy fangirls?