Electric Love

Chapter 7

Before Nathan's soft lips meet mine, everything fades into darkness.

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"Reeesssss..." A morphed voice tries to break through the darkness. I fight back.

"Reese!" It shatters my unconsciousness. My eyes fly open and I sit straight up in a soft bed, not my own.

"Woah there, Reese! Calm down! You're okay, We're okay!" I can't register what I'm seeing yet. I feel soft hands pushing me gently back on the bed.

"Is she going to be okay, Mommy?" I hear a voice recognizable as Anna's.

"Sure she is, sweetheart. She's a fighter." I turn my head towards the voice and I see my mother slowly coming into focus with Anna right behind her.

My mother cups my cheek with her left hand. "Are you feeling well, sweetie?"

I feel a wave of nausea sweep me under and I grab a trash can from beside the bed. After I finish puking my guts out, my mother says, "I guess not." I look around the room and quickly recognize I'm in a hospital. A nurse comes bustling in, her blonde hair flying. She has an orange glass in her hand.

"You need to drink this now," she says handing me the glass. A black box the size of my finger is stuck to the side of it and I take a sip of the solution. Immediately, I drop the glass onto the floor, spilling its contents all over the floor. My mom leaps back and Anna jumps up from her chair. The nurse whips out a rag from her pocket and starts dabbing the liquid.

"What the hell?" Anna squeals.

"Language!" My mother scolds.

"She just got shocked by the electrons in the liquid, it happens all the time here," the nurse says. "Even though she shouldn't be hurt by them since she is a natural negative, her body isn't producing the electrons she needs, so she is less powerful. That's why she was shocked when the electrons entered her body. She's gaining strength, though, and she will probably be able to go home this afternoon."

My mother smiles at me. I hear a soft knock at the half open door. Standing, the nurse opens it and I see Nathan enter the room. The nurse hurries off and shuts the door behind her.

"Um, hello?" my mother says to Nathan.

"Excuse me, I'm a friend from school. Like, the friend from school that this happened with," Nathan replies.

My mother, being briefed, says a quick "I'll wait in the hall," and ushers Anna and herself out of the room with a wink. Nathan takes my mother's previous seat by the bed. He grabs my hand and I jerk back, expecting pain and unconsciousness, but none comes. Just the feeling of his soft, tender hand caressing mine.

"H-how?" I ask him. I'm wary that this may be a dream.

"You're weak right now. Your body can't produce the electrons needed to keep your charge negative. It's rapidly producing them, but you keep using them to stay awake, so you have a temporary lack in electrons." He sends me a small grin.

I go over what this really means in my mind. "I'm...positive?"

"Yes," His grin spreads wider. "And I think this is the best time to tell you."

"Tell me what?" I ask.

"Reese, I-" he shifts in his seat.

"Yesss?"

"I like you."

I feel a weight lift off my chest, a weight I didn't know was there, a weight that began suffocating me when I found that letter... The letter!