Acid +rap

Six

The lights in here are way too bright.

They sting my eyes as I flutter to consciousness, and right now my throat feels like it's been acid peeled.
Suddenly the scent of baby powder and mint fills my nostrils as a pair of brown eyes peered down at me through round glasses. The owner of them is pursing her lips. I shifted under her gaze, rustling the perfectly starched white sheets. It smells like an underage hospital in here - filled with a mix of antiseptic, Lysol and teenage sweat.

I'm in the nurse's office.

I tried to ignore this and focus on how nice the body above me smells. I always liked the smell of baby powder - it reminded me of how mother and the twins used to smell - like cleanliness and infancy.

Nothing screams innocence like the smell of Johnson and Johnsons.

"You wake up, Baby?" Nurse Lavier asked with a voice that warbled like an old Caribbean hymn.
That's also what she looked like - an ancient, coffee coloured wonder that was taller than me and twice as thick. Everything about her was solid and ample - from her meaty arms to the double chin that sat under her face.
I heard that she was at least 70 years old, but she looked 20 years younger. She should have retired years ago, but no one could convince her to leave - no one would risk being verbally decapitated in rapid-fire Dominican Creole. Students feared her, teachers respected her (while fearing her in secret), but I liked her. She was one of the few adults I knew that treated me like I was normal. She was a Host by nature, a nurse by profession, and a grandmother I wouldn't mind having.

"What-" I croaked, unsure of what I wanted to ask, "What did I do?"
Nurse Lavier shrugged in her usual exuberant manner – eyebrows raised, hands open while frowning and pushing out her lower lip. I tried to remember what had happened this morning before I got here. I dove into my mind but came up empty-handed.
Disbelief sounded through me as I realised that I had no memory of this morning. Hell, I didn't even know how I got here. I stretched my brain, growing alarmed when I realized that all I remembered was Naveed and that kiss from last night.

"How did I get here?" I asked, trying to hide the wobble in my voice.
Nurse Lavier turned to me and I suddenly felt like it was a stupid question.

But then, it was now 9:43 am on a school day - where else was I supposed to be?

My head is pounding and my eyes sting like mad. My tongue itches like an allergic reaction and my shin feels like it's been bruised. Something must have happened between last night and now. I looked at the Nurse for answers but she offered none. She just shrugged and tilted her head in the direction of the door.

"They brought you in here an hour ago, dahlin'," she explained, her accent giving each of her words a melodic lilt. "They never say what they bring you for."
"But that's odd," I began sceptically, "I don't even know why I'm here – did I pass out or something?"

A chorus of sighs behind me told me that Nurse Lavier wasn't the only person in the room with me.
I craned my neck to see who else was here and immediately regretted it.

I locked eyes with my science teacher, the principal and Erma. They all gazed at me with concern and poorly veiled fear. None of them spoke – they just kept staring at me and fidgeting and I could feel annoyance bubbling in the back of my scattered mind. Their nervousness didn't make me feel any safer. I silently reached for the glass of water next to me and revelled in the soothing cool that coated my insides.
My gaze darted from one corner of the room to the next, seeking something that could reveal even a snippet of what had happened. All I met was a medicine cupboard stocked with rolls of bandages and bottles of iodine and whatever else people put on wounds. Bottles of painkillers lined the shelves in the glass cupboard and foil packages of drugs I didn't recognize were stacked beside them. The floor in here was white too, for whatever reason, and marred with dirty shoeprints that twisted and meandered to and from my bed, crossing over the lines that divided the flat plastic tiles. I followed them until they led right back to the sorry trio that stood near the door.