The doctor said that Jay's leg wouldn't take too long to heal and I used to visit him everyday after school and stay with him doing my homework until my parents arrived. Sometimes I used to fall asleep in the armchair next to Jay's bed while he was left sullenly flipping through the boring channels of the hospital tv. Jay barely talked to me after the accident itself. Karan would come and Jay would talk animatedly to the boring wall. I mean Karan was drab. Karan always came earlier than I did and left just before I came to visit Jay and we would take turns looking after him before his parents came from work and took over. His parents always thanked me and the only words I ever managed to choke out were, 'there's no need to thank me,' before I silently held back tears by breathing in three times. Jay would not even look at me. He would sit there like a rock staring at the basketball game on tv. One day, I came to visit Jay, when I saw Karan playing cards with Jay and talking to him. I didn't bother to knock and just walked in but my armchair was taken by Karan, so I stood in a corner of the room, scrolling through Instagram on my phone, even though I had had seen Michaela and Mia smiling through the millions of stupid selfies they took ten times already. That was one of the reasons I visited Jay everyday. Sometimes, I just needed a break from my ex best friend and that new bestie of hers, Mis, the best friend stealer. But today, I stood in the corner of the room for ten minutes and that's when Karan finally looked at me.
'Oh hey Alia, so you finally came to visit Jay after all this time!' He said innocently.
At first, I thought he was just joking around but then I realised that Jay didn't tell him that I was the one who found him at the accident and cared for him all this time. I was so hurt. How could Jay do this to me? First Michaela leaves me for that beauty obsessed girl and now Jay would rather have Karan than me.
'Really Jay?' I asked, but he stared blankly at the cards he had in his hand. I waited the ten to twenty seconds any normal human being would, but Jay kept his mouth shut and I had had enough of the pain he had caused me, so I turned on my heel and walked only to find Rhea.
'Hey babe, how are you,' she asked hugging me tightly. 'I know you found him, and you were here everyday,' she said whispering while still holding onto me. I didn't know what to do, so I just hugged her back because I was so glad she was here and she understood. Then the tears started to flow, without me even giving them permission to run.
'He hates me, Rhea,' I sobbed into her hundred dollar jacket, but I knew she didn't care because she didn't let me go.
I realised what I was using as a hanky just then because that material felt so soft on my nose when I suddenly let her go, and she guided me to a seat.
'No he doesn't Alia,' she just said looking at me. I saw a flash of worry cross her face, and I knew it was because she was worried I would self harm again. She was the only one who knew about that and I just shook my head.
'No Rhea,' I said 'I have to go,' I just mumbled.
'Let me take you home then,' she said firmly but I just shook her hand off off my wrist and shook my head.
'You have to be here for him, Ri,' I said smiling through my tears, 'but I can't!I don't think I ever can anymore,' I said silently in my head. She just smiled at me through her own tears and waved goodbye, while I slowly made my way out of the hospital dragging my feet slowly across the cold tiled floor.
I hardly ever cried. But Jay was seriously testing me. Suddenly, my phone beeped and I automatically rolled my eyes as I knew it was just a stupid Instagram notification, but I opened it anyway, mentally hoping it was one of those life posts that could possibly cheer me up. I clicked on the app as I had done seconds ago, but what greeted me was awful. Michaela and Mia grinning their huge grins with another girl Amanda, and Michaela's boyfriend Matthew (that everyone actually thought was Mia's boyfriend, because even though they didn't know each other existed before me, they hung out 24/7, with a modest two cm gap between them.) I couldn't believe it. I asked Michaela last week, if she would come and get ice cream with me because I needed to clear my head and she had told me that she was busy with netball, but looks like 'netball' meant a whole lot more to her than I ever did. I wouldn't have cried over that stupid picture if I was alright, but right now I was faced with major rejection from two of my closest friends and I was just a teenage girl, so I collapsed on the closest bench and just cried. People wouldn't judge, because obviously it was a hospital and so I just let it out.
