18 Days ➳ Riley McDonough/ Before You Exit Fanfic

11.

March 12th // 4th day

R I L E Y

Connor and I did end up sleeping on the cold hospital benches overnight. Although, as soon as I woke up the next morning, I had a terrible ache in my back, there was something stuck to my face, and Connor was gone.

I took off whatever was stuck to my face as it clung to my skin,  before reading the scribbled letters on the yellow sticky note.

Hey, Ri.

Sorry I had to leave.

I'll make up for it, I promise.

There was no doubt Connor had written the note, since it was in his handwriting. Punctuation marks and all.

"Good morning, sir!" the receptionist lady said from behind her clean desk. She was a cheery one. She had dark brown hair and an eye color that I couldn't quite put a name to. Mostly because I was at least three meters away from her and couldn't see that well. She was also wearing white like every other damn person who works here.

"Uh, hi?" I replied, not really sure how to greet her back.

"A blonde boy bought this and told me to give it to you when you woke up," she said, getting a Starbucks cup from some secret compartment under her desk. "It's gone quite cold, but... here you go."

I stood up and cautiously got the cup from her. Blonde boy obviously referred to Connor, but my mom always said to never trust strangers. What if it wasn't Connor? There should be at least a couple thousand blonde boys in America. Maybe you could narrow it down to a couple hundred in Orlando.

Despite my hesitation, I wouldn't dare deny a perfectly good cup of Starbucks. Poisoned or not. I really needed a pick me up and I can't remember the last time I've had a Starbucks.

"Oh, and you're here for Ms. Days, right?" the lady asked as I took a sip of my coffee and tried to not show how happy I was to taste one again. That would be pretty inappropriate.

"Yes, why?"

"She woke up a few hours ago," she informed me and I had to choke some coffee down to keep myself from screaming. "The blonde boy you were with went in and visited her, then he left."

I wonder why Connor felt the need to leave just like that. I mean, he could've at least woken me up.

I've literally only been awake for about five minutes and I already wasn't looking forward to the rest of the day. It started as crap, so it'll most likely end as crap.

Also, my phone had died overnight and I didn't have time to grab my watch yesterday, which meant I was completely oblivious to the time. And it was one of those hospitals with no windows inside so it could be 2 AM or 2 PM, or it could already be Sunday for all I knew. Sleeping for one whole day didn't sound so bad to me, but at this point, time is very important. Down to the very last second.

"Excuse me," I said to the receptionist lady. I've been communicating with her way too much today, but she looked up at me anyways with her eyebrows raised — which weren't really on fleek. "May I know the time, please?"

"It's currently..." she trailed off, squinting down at the tiny silver watch latched onto her wrist. "7:51 AM."

Not bad.

"C-can I see her?" I asked quietly, stuttering a bit at the beginning, scared that she wouldn't let me.

"I don't see why not," she replied, taking a clipboard full of names from the farthest corner of her desk. I don't know how she was able to reach that far without moving from her spot, but, at the same time, I didn't really care. "She's in room 4J. So, take the elevator until the fourth floor, go straight down the hallway, then first door on your left."

"Thanks."

She nodded in reply with a big smile on her face. It was pretty creepy, but at least she was happy, right?

I quickly jogged to the elevator and pressed the up button a couple hundred times before it opened and I rushed inside, tapping the close doors button for another couple hundred times because every appliance in the hospital moved so damn slow.

Once I finally reached the 4th floor, I was too impatient to wait for the doors to open completely, so I just wiggled out through the — barely big enough — crack. Then I ran straight and turned left, following the receptionist's instructions until I was standing in front of a room with a silver plaque that had 4J engraved on it.

I took a deep breath before knocking on the door three times, and when no one opened it, I simply let myself in, dreading what I'd see on the other side. And I was right to dread, because as soon as I pushed the door open, I saw her. And she barely looked alive.

Her lids were closed, letting her thick lashes rest on the bags of her eyes that had grown darker since I'd last looked at her this closely. Her hands looked clammy and cold, and her body was still. It was almost like she wasn't breathing, but there was a heart monitor in the farthest corner of the hospital room, beside her bed, and the slow, steady, beeping of the machine was enough to give me reassurance that there were still signs of some life in her. That she hadn't gone yet.

"Jade?" I said quietly before holding her hand, flinching a little from how cold it felt against my warm palms. It wasn't a dead kind of cold, but it was close.

I didn't receive a reply, so I tried again.

"Jade? Please wake up. Jade, please."

Nothing.

The air was still. The only thing cutting through the silence were my heavy breaths and the constant rhythm that the heart monitor gave off. I felt like it was broken, because there was no life in her at all. Sure, her chest was rising and falling, but everything else was cold and dead.

I decided to try one more time.

"Jade, please wake up. I need you, please. Jade!" I said a little louder, this time shaking her a little, but I still didn't get a response.

I let my upper body collapse onto one side of the bed, still holding onto her hand which was trembling because of mine as I felt a bead of sweat roll down my forehead and drop onto the white sheets.

"I need you," I whispered one final time.

Then, the line went flat.

~

a/n: ohhhhh cliffhanger!

and can we appreciate that i published the march 12 chapter on march 12 bc im really proud of that. it's march 12 here atm. timezones suck man.

anyways, hope i didn't kill you and thanks so much for ur patience and support for this story ily all so much mwah mwah bye for now.