Hope (discontinued, sorry!)

Chapter Four

Shoving my key into the ignition, I revved up the engine. I had to get to the hospital, and fast.

In the small town of Waterbridge, there was only one hospital which was located in the center of town. But thanks to all the small roads and people just running out onto the street from nowhere, it took me a solid 40 minutes to get there.

I rushed into the doors and speed-walked to the front desk, since I saw the "No running allowed" sign. I rolled my eyes when I saw the sign. I mean come on, this isn't a grade school.

"Hi. Welcome to Waterbridge Local Hospital. How may we help you?" said a nice old lady with curly white hair. She gave me a smile.

"I'm here to see my friend Lexie...I mean Alexa Cross." 

"Okay, give me one second." She looked at the clipboard which had all the patients and their room number. "She is in room 302, which is down the hall to your right."

I smiled, "Thanks so much! Umm..is she okay?"

"Alexa is just fine, my dear, nothing too serious." There was a mischievous gleam in her eye.

"Oh...alright then, thanks again." I said. 

Why does she seem amused by the fact that Lexie almost DIED today?!

Shaking my head I looked down the hall for room 302, and I walked into her room.

"Aria!!" Lexie shrieked the minute she saw me walk in.

"Lexie!" I ran over to her to give her a huge hug, "I was so worried about you! Are you okay? What happened? Did they call your parents?"

Me hugging her made her wince a little and shift positions, "I'm fine, I'm fine! Trust me." She gave me a weak smile.

"Tell me what happened." I demanded.

"Okay, so while I was telling you about what my boyfriend got me for our anniversary on Saturday you started moaning and grabbing and your head and for a little bit I thought you were having a seizure! I was so scared! So I ran down the stairs to the nurse's office and...then I started to get those head pains and I fell down the stairs and hit the wall and blacked out..." She gingerly touched her head where she hit it on the wall.

"Oh man, I'm so sorry..." 

She looked at me with those wide, brown eyes. She has pretty eyes, which were large and round and had a fan of long eyelashes framing them. "Why are YOU sorry? You did nothing. Trust me you're fine, you did nothing wrong."

I looked down, "Hey...you promise you won't think I'm crazy if I tell you something that's...out of the norm?"

She gave me a puzzled look, "Okaaaay... Go on."

"Well after the nurse told me you were in the hospital I ran to my car, right? So when I got to my car I saw this guy....and...I thought I saw that guy in my dream! And then I rubbed my eyes cause I thought I was crazy, right? And then he was gone. He was GONE, Lexie. Poof. Gone!" I started waving my hands in the air frantically, my voice getting higher pitched.

What if I was going crazy...

"Calm down, Aria! It's okay! I understand! You've been through a lot lately and it's okay to feel stressed out."

I looked at her, unsure. But when I saw her face, I expected a strong, determined face that wasn't gonna let me believe I was crazy, but her face was turned down and she was suddenly interested in the hospital gown, playing with a stray string.

What is she hiding from me?

"Lexie...?" I asked, uncertain.

"You should go..." She murmured, barely audible.

"What?" I looked at her, uncertain whether or not I heard her correctly.

"You should leave now." She said, a little louder.

"Wait, but why?! What did I do? I just told you something really important to me, and you're telling me to leave?! What the hell, Lexie!" I could hear my voice raising, and I knew I was making a scene but I didn't care. I just needed some reassuring that I wasn't crazy, but noooo. Lexie told me to LEAVE.

"JUST GET OUT." shrieked Lexie, and I sat there with my mouth agape and stunned.

Lexie never shouted.

Not even when I spilled coffee all over her 5 page report that was due second block that day, and she had worked for weeks on it. Not when I accidentally crashed her car into her fence, and not even when there were rumors about me hooking up with her boyfriend. (Which wasn't true, by the way.)

I know I sound like a pretty crappy friend, but I've always loved Lexie, she was my best friend and we literally did everything together. And we never, ever got into fights. Why were we getting into this stupid fight now?!

A nurse popped her head in through the curtains, "Is everything alright here, ladies?"

I just shook my head, numbly. "No...I was just leaving..." I grabbed my purse and walked out the door like a zombie.

Man, what an awful day this is.

I drove my car slowly back to my house, tears slowly streaming down my face all the while. 

I hate getting into fights with my best friend, over absolutely nothing. And I hate crying. I hate the whole, you can feel your heart pounding in your head, with tears running down your cheeks and your breathing gets all patchy and everything you think about makes you cry harder...

The tears were coming down a lot faster now.

Looking in the rearview mirror, I shook my head.

Wow, I look like crap. My dark brown hair that was in a messy bun was falling apart, going from cute to absolutely horrific. My pale blue eyes were rimmed with dark circles, part bags part makeup. My pale skin was all red and splotchy from crying, and not to mention a little bloated. And I wonder why I'm single...

I walked into the door to see my mom, smoking and doing her nails.

She didn't even turn around to look at me, "Hi, honey how was school?" I guess she didn't even notice that school was supposed to end in about an hour?! She didn't notice my sniffling, or me throwing my purse on the floor.

Rage bubbled inside of me, I was her ONLY daughter for pete's sake. Shouldn't she at least pretend to care?! And since when does she smoke?!?!

"Go to hell, mom." I spat, injecting as much venom I could into my voice.

She looked surprised and looked up, "Is that any tone to be speaking to your mother in." She said this with a dead calm.

I looked at her dead in the eye, giving her the best evil eye I could manage. And I walked up to my room and calmly closed the door. 

I ran up to my bed and grabbed my teddy bear that my father gave me just before he disappeared 15 years ago. It was the only thing I had to remind me that he actually existed.

I cried and cried and cried into that teddy bear, soaking it with my tears, makeup, and snot.

I cried until I couldn't cry anymore, and I just shivered up into a ball, pulling the covers over me and the bear closer to me.

And with my head pounding, and blood roaring in my ears, I fell into a deep, uneasy sleep.