VALERIE

Fifty One

Grace nervously bit on her bottom lip, she looked over at Valerie who was silently laying in the hospital bed reading Jane Eyre while her doctor was standing at the end of the bed writing on his tablet and occasionally speaking to Valerie who just continued to ignore him.

Grace who was sitting on the leather couch in the hospital room lifted her legs up onto the couch and rested her chin on her knees.

She shot a glance over at her duffel bag that was packed with clothes, shoes, and a large amount of cash money. She was leaving America forever and going back to France to be with her girlfriend for good. All she needed was one last trigger and excuse to leave town and this was it. Grace had grown tired of her problematic family, her workaholic father, her careless and carefree mother and her suicidal sociopath of a younger sister. She was sick of it, and as selfish as it sounded she realized she couldn't fix a crazy family like hers and there was no reason for her to stay.

And Valerie? Grace loves her more than she loves herself, but that was the problem. She was so angry when she found Valerie laying unconscious on the floor of her bedroom. This was the 3rd time she's ever tried killing herself by overdosing on pills and it was overall the 5th time she's tried killing herself. And Grace was sick of it. It was like Valerie never learned and now it had dire consequences.

One of Valerie's kidneys stopped working while the other one was becoming stagnant and was rapidly diminishing, it was currently at a 57% and still slowly declining. She would need a transplant soon.

"Grace, did you get into contact with your parents yet?" The doctor asked as he approached Grace, she stood up and shook her head, "My dad has been in Spain for a business conference the past week and my mom left home, she won't even answer her cellphone."

"We have to get a hold of them, we need a donor and you can't do it because you two have incompatible blood types."

Grace shook her head, "I know."

Mia got off the elevator and looked around the clinic on the top floor of the hospital, she mouthed the word wow as she wandered down the hall and into a residential area full of private rooms.

She looked down at her arm and memorized the room number before continuing.

Both Grace and the doctor stopped speaking when they saw Mia come in.

"Is this Valerie Laurent's room?" Mia asked as politely as she could.

Grace nodded, "Yeah," She was on the verge of tears, her nose was red and her eyes were glassed over, she couldn't help but bite on her bottom lip again just to stop it from quivering, "And who are you?" She asked kindly while the doctor shuffled out of the room.

"I'm a friend of Valerie's, we met at the behavioral clinic," Mia paused when she saw Grace let out a heartbroken sob, "I uh, is Valerie okay?"

Grace shook her head, "No, she needs a kidney, a fucking kidney." Grace repeated.

"I'm so sorr-"

Grace lifted her hand in front of Mia's face, "I'm leaving. Tell her I'll see her soon."

And when she slung her duffel bag over her shoulder she shot one last glance at Valerie who trembled as she was still reading, Grace then stared at Mia and then left.

Taking a deep breath in Mia slid open the glass door that separated Valerie's room from the guest area.

"Valerie." Mia grumbled, Valerie looked up from her book and almost had a heart attack.

"We need to talk." Mia continued while she sat down in a arm chair right beside the bed, "It's important."

Valerie's furrowed her brow, "I don't want to be rude but why are you here?"

"Because something happened to Nick."

Valerie's pulse dropped. The heart rate monitor became slower and they both noticed the line decrease.

Feeling a brick in her stomach Valerie managed to sit up a bit more without using a lot of her energy, she frowned, "And what's wrong with him?"

"He um," Mia scratched her neck, "He was arrested a few days ago."

Valerie shut her eyes in frustration, "What? What did he do?"

Mia smacked her lips together, "He was charged with underage drinking, domestic violence and possesion."

Valerie sighed, "Fucking Nick." She chuckled weakly then began to have a coughing fit.

Silence fell over the two girls as Valerie's nasty cough subsided slowly.

Mia examined the different IV'S in her arms. There were 3 in total, one for blood, another one for medicine and the other one for water, she also had an oxygen tube resting in her nostrils. She looked paler than usual and tired, to the side of the hospital equipment was a tray with fancy food upon it. Nothing normal people would get in a hospital.

"His bail is at $9,000." Mia mentioned suddenly, "Johnny's parents found a gold watch and they wanted to pawn it for bail money but they'd only give them $1,500 for it so they didn't and their trying to scrape money together but, they wouldn't have enough." Mia ended her rant, she stared at Valerie who didn't say or move instead she nodded her head without hesitation.

"I'll give you the money, I'll write a check, just promise me you won't tell him where you got it from and don't tell him where I am if he asks." Valerie stated weakly, she coughed a bit, specs of blood flew out along with it.

Mia stared at the blood that landed on the white sheets, "Thank you." She managed to say in a small voice.

//

*3 days later*

Nick furiously paced around Mia's small living room, he flung something onto the floor and cursed underneath his breath.

"I know you know where you got the money from so just say it." He urged stopping by the large window to look outside.

Mia rolled her eyes, "You already know who gave me the money, I don't know why you're playing stupid."

"I want to hear her fucking name." Nick sneered through gritted teeth, he dug around in his pockets until he pulled out a cigarette and a lighter.

"Because she doesn't want you to know anything about her." Mia replied truthfully,

"That's crazy," Nick said softly, "I love her." He mumbled so only he could hear but Mia heard it too.

"She's dying." She blurted out.

Nick raised an eyebrow at her, "That isn't funny."

"I'm not being funny. She's literally dying in the hospital Nick, I saw her a few days ago, she needs a kidney and the only reason I'm telling you this is because you're obviously still hurt and you need closure in order to move on."

Nick put back the cigarette and lighter in his pocket, he clenched his jaw tightly, "I um, where is she at?"

"St.Lukes Hospital, right around the corner of the behavioral clinic, room 12b."

Nick didn't even say goodbye because he was already out the door, he flung out and ran. Ran like he never ran before, he could feel his heart beating in his chest while he dashed through the streets of Olympia, the flannel he had on was flying in the wind behind him, inches away from his body.

The hospital stood tall, all too unfamiliar to him. He entered and went into the elevator ignoring both security and receptionist when they called out to him. The top floor was his destination and when he reached it he straight up went to room 12b.

The clipboard on the side of the door said her name, he touched it and then took in a deep breath before placing his hand on the cold door handle. Turning it. He opened the door and felt his heart drop when he saw the bed empty and made up.

Suddenly he felt a hand touch his shoulder, "We're you looking for Ms.Laurent?" The nurse asked him, wordlessly he nodded.

"I'm sorry but she's gone, you just missed her."

**A/N
Vote and comment please ♡
I'm mean hahahahaha, anyways, stay tuned for the next chapter, I'll upload it sometime Saturday 😎 **