Second Chance

Chapter 9

Demi's P.O.V.

Most of the night consisted of me pretending to be asleep while nurses checked in on me every five minutes. All I could think about was her. The idea of her. The perfect mythical existence of her. The way her arms felt around me. It was a feeling is only ever felt with Wilmer. Protected.

Maybe she gave into the vulnerability, rather than actually caring. Pity. Even the word stung my tongue with a bile taste.

When I finally fell asleep, I dreamt of her, of her touch, of her Shakespearean language curling from her lips, of her icy blue eyes gazing into mine, of her soft blonde hair tickling my arm. But I couldn't remember the dream. There was only the vague image of her smiling at me, her fingers intertwined with mine. My heart leapt. Louder. Quicker. It was either from her touch or from Sarah waking me up.

"Demi. Wake up." Sarah shook my arm.

My cheeks went hot. I felt the need to cover up my body with the bed sheets. Could she tell I'd been dreaming of Roxanne? What was she thinking?

"Are you alright?" she asked, her voice softer than before. "You're awfully pale."

I ran my fingers through my hair and nodded. "I'm fine." My fingers twisted around the bed sheets, tighter, though my body was already drenched in sweat. "What time is it?"

She glanced at her watch and adjusted her glasses. "About six forty-five." She paused, then answered the question I'd been silently wondering about. "You were rolling around in your sleep and making odd noises, like you were scared. What happened?"

Staring down at my lap and releasing the sheets, I shook my head. "Just a dream. I don't even remember it." Lie. How could I ever forget her smile, her fingers brushing mine?

She nodded, even though I knew she didn't believe me. "Well, it's almost time to get up, anyway, so come with me. You get first dibs on the showers."

The shower room was a long, narrow building, about as long as one and a half school buses and about twice as wide as one, each wall lined with somewhere between thirty and forty showers, about seventy total. All of us were assigned to a shower so they could keep things like shampoo, conditioner, and soap in the showers for when we needed them. Every other day, patients would take a shower, whether it be in the morning or at nine. It was mandatory. Some people even took showers every day. I never had the motivation to take them more often than every other day. My bones and muscles were still so weak.

I found my shower. Number sixty-seven. Same as my room number. All of us had the same as our room number. There were five wings total, each with seventy rooms, though not all were being used. It was just...easier for everyone.

There was a curtain at each shower, but they were so clear, they only left a slightly blurred image when people stared through them. Sarah reached her hand behind the curtain of my shower and twisted the squeaky faucet handle, causing water to spill from the spout seven feet above the drain that was in the floor.

I undressed, ignoring her eyes that I knew were daggers in my bare back.

"While you're in there, let me explain something to you." Her voice echoed through the mostly empty area.

The second my naked, exposed body slipped halfway behind the curtain, I realized how cold it was. Outside, it was in the lower forties. The heater inside the shower room wasn't a miracle worker; it could be much better if the staff made it.

"Demi, I have to ask you a question, and I need you to be completely honest, alright?" She began, her eyes trained on me through the translucent curtain. "This is something I asked you a little while ago, but I have a feeling the answer you gave me wasn't the truth." My heart slammed in my chest. What could I have lied about? "When was the last time you had your period?"