18 Days ➳ Riley McDonough/ Before You Exit Fanfic

7.

March 8th

R I L E Y

I stared at my reflection on the automatic hospital doors. The one-way glass making a perfect mirror for me to see the wreck that I had become.

My hair was no longer neat and slicked back like it usually would be on an ordinary day. Instead, all of it rested on my forehead just like bangs. I looked like I was seventeen again.

I could also see the reflection of everyone else behind me, giving me expectant looks and I could see it in their eyes that they wanted me to go in already.

It must've been weird for the people inside to see a nineteen year old boy standing outside and just staring blankly into the hospital, but that's what they could see. All I saw was everything outside, like there was some kind of force forbidding me to see in.

"We don't have all day, Ri." Braiden groaned, and I could hear his foot tapping on the pavement, impatiently.

I shot him a look, before taking a deep breath and going inside, stepping on the metal plate that would make the doors give way. And just like that, I was out of sight. I looked back and saw all five of them staring at the door, wondering how far I've gotten, but I really hadn't really distanced myself from the doors yet.

"Uh, hi," I said, awkwardly, to the lady behind the desk. She didn't look very friendly. "Ms. Days, please."

She nodded her head and began tapping her fingers on some type of screen, before she looked at me again. "She's in the room 367. You can't see her yet."

"Why not?"

"Because she just got in and the doctors are still trying to figure out what's wrong with her. So you can't see her yet."

I nodded slowly, then began making my way to the stairs, because the line for the elevators were too long.

Sixty steps later, I was exhausted, but I'd managed to get to the third floor alive, and to my convenience, room 367 just happened to be right beside the stairs.

I knocked on the door, ignoring the receptionists words, anxious to know what was happening in there.

"Come– in," I heard Jade croak, and there was a slightly long pause in between the two words that she had just spoken, like she didn't have enough breath to say both of them as a normal person would.

I walked inside and as soon as she saw me, a huge smile made its way onto her face, but it was hard to see it due to the fog that had just formed inside her oxygen mask.

"Riley." She whispered, creating more fog.

There was a nurse standing next to her, adjusting the dials on some sort of medical device, then she saw me standing in the corner. "I'll be outside if anything goes wrong," she said, before scurrying off outside, and into the hall.

I approached Jade slowly and took a seat about a foot away from her hospital bed.

"Are you mad– at me?" She asked, still whispering, because using her voice seemed like so much effort for her.

"Kind of. I'm just upset that you didn't tell me sooner. Heck, I still don't know what you're supposed to tell me!"

"I guess it's story time." She replied, letting out a breathy laugh, but when she saw the look on my face, it immediately faded and she cleared her throat. "I was six. I was playing with a couple of my friends in the park, then suddenly I couldn't breathe, my lips turned blue, and my heart began to beat in a dangerously slow and irregular pattern. Everyone thought I was going to die, but I didn't, and they just shook it off, thinking that I was just overworked myself."