Pretty Little Liars: the next generation

Something's Not Right

31

Something's Not Right

Troian started tearing up, and that was pretty rare. She usually stayed cool about things, but not today. "What's going on?" Troian asked Ashley. "Why did she faint?"

"I... don't know," Ashley said in reply.

Sirens screamed up to the front porch. Lucy opened the door for the paramedics. They carefully lifted Shay up, and placed her on a stretcher.

"Only two can ride with us," said one of the paramedics, the fat one with brown curly hair.

Everyone looked at one another.

"You guys go ahead," Troian said. "I'll drive up there in my car."

"I'll take my car too," Ashley volunteered.

The other girls all gathered into the back of the ambulance. Troian grabbed her keys, and went out to her car. She sped to the hospital, using the quickest route she knew. Troian ended up getting there in no time. She went to the emergency room waiting room, and saw Lucy and Sasha sitting in the blue, plastic chairs. "What's going on?" Troian asked, breathlessly.

"They won't let us in," Lucy explained, tearfully. "I hope she's okay."

"This is all my fault!" Sasha moaned.

"Of course it's not your fault," Lucy said, stroking Sasha's long blonde curls.

Sasha pulled away. "Yes. It is. If only I hadn't stupidly brought up Tim, and then showed you guys that stupid picture."

"Sasha," Troian said, empathetically. "You didn't know this was going to happen."

Sasha took a deep breath. "Yeah, maybe not. But I just had this feeling that something bad was going to happen."

"C'mon, Sasha. You know good and well it wasn't your fault," Lucy comforted.

Sasha just shrugged in reply. A cute male nurse entered the waiting room, holding a clipboard. He walked over to the girls.

"What's going on with Shay?" Sasha asked eagerly.

"We've got her on an oxygen mask," the nurse answered promptly. "We think she's going to be okay."

Troian let out a breath of relief. "Good."

"What was the cause of this?" Lucy wondered.

"We don't know yet, ma'am," the nurse replied. "But we think it was a panic attack."

"A... panic attack?" Sasha says, obviously confused. "What do you mean?"

He just shrugged. "It could have been random, or something could have triggered it. We're doing tests to see if she has a disorder."

"A... Disorder?" Troian gasped.

"You know," he said lowering his voice down to a whisper. "A mental disorder. This kind of stuff doesn't happen to just anyone."

"Oh," Lucy said.

Then, he simply walked away.

"Shay? A mental disorder?" Troian whispered loudly.

"That can't be right," Sasha said shaking her head, making her blonde curls fly everywhere. "It was that picture of Tim. We all saw her collapse the minute she saw it."

"Not to get off topic, but where's Ashley?" Lucy asked.

Troian checked the time. "It's been twenty minutes. She should be here by now."

"Try calling her cell," Sasha urged.

Troian dialed in the digits of Ashley's phone number. It rang, and rang, and rang, not even going to voicemail. Troian finally just hung up. "That's weird," she said. "It just kept ringing, without even going to voicemail."

"Something must be really wrong," Lucy said worriedly. "Ashley knows she's supposed to be with us, so she would have answered her cell."

"Well, what should we do?" Sasha asked nervously.

"I'll go out on the road to look for her. Maybe she had a car accident," Troian says. "You guys wait here to see if there's anymore news about Shay."

Both of them nodded in agreement, and Troian set off for a ride around Rosewood.