They Could Care Less

26: The Act of Pretending

The rest of the Christmas Eve evening went in a blur, and when Thea's mind had finally started to record things and process things again, she found herself in the emergency room with her hand pressing a cold kitchen towel from Christina's apartment against her own forehead.

The wound stung as she pressed the towel with added force. She looked around and saw all kinds of people. Young college boys and girls that had gotten injured in car accidents after one too many drinks, elderly people in wheelchairs being rolled around and little kids who all looked like they were on the verge of vomiting. Not many accidents had happened on this Christmas Eve surprisingly, unlike last year where a new record was made of how many people got driven to the emergency room.

"What is taking so long?!" Thea's mother suddenly burst out next to her, which made Thea realize that everyone else was there too. Christina, Thea's mother, Thea's grandparents and Rebecca.

"Don't worry, dorogaya, they're doing their best," grandma Irina broke out in Russian and calmly patted her daughter's knee.

Suddenly a group of people loudly walking and shouting things to each other turned around the corner and their voices and steps got louder. 

"Hold on, ma'am! You're gonna get help!" one of the nurses said after he rushed forward to one of the bloody, injured and struggling patients. They looked to be in pain, and even Thea knew the chance of them making it were small. One by one, they all got rolled into different rooms with different doctors and nurses waiting inside. One of them, being a young boy with tears silently rolling down his face as he tried his best to stay strong. The sight of him made Thea's heart ache and she only clutched onto the towel harder.

"It's only a few stitches, but you'll be okay. It will leave a scar unfortunately, Ms. Smith," the kind doctor said and smiled at her behind his glasses.

"Thank you, Dr. Derryck," Christina said and opened the door quickly before she dragged Thea's mother out of there. Thea's mother looked like she was going to sue the entire hospital, but before she could open her mouth, Christina had already dragged her out.

"Thank you," Thea mumbled and stood up, she walked out and saw her mother and Christina argue quietly in a corner with upset voices.

"Don't worry, young one, I'll handle the paperwork. You just wait here," Rebecca said and gave her a reassuring smile, but Thea noticed how her aunt's eyes unconsciously traveled up to her eyebrow. Rebecca quickly looked back into her eyes gave her a kiss on her head before she walked away.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom," Thea said to her grandparents and walked away too. She needed to see for herself and how bad the damage was.

She locked the bathroom door behind herself and turned to the mirror. There it was. A scar half an inch long starting from Thea's eyebrow, it was thin, red and swollen. Thea grabbed onto the sink to not scream out loud, she hated it. She hated the tiny flaw on her face. What was she supposed to do now? Ethan's gonna break up with me. Heather's gonna hate me and Novelle too. Jackson will go back to bullying me. My perfect world is gonna come crashing down! Thea caught herself thinking. How dare you think like that of your friends and boyfriend? You know that they're better people than that! She knew they were amazing people, but she couldn't get rid of the hand that was grabbing onto her insides and twisting them with anxiety.

Thea tore her eyes away from the mirror and washed her hands clean of the dry blood before she walked back out, full of self-hatred.

"How are you feeling, ma chère?" grandpa Alan asked when she returned.