Faking It

29:Faking It:29

Chapter 29

Alina

The first thing that I see as I open my eyes is a blurriness. Inhaling sharply as my vision and focus come back to me slowly, I see people, all around the room (it's not even my room; it's a hospital room). Mom and dad sleeping awkwardly in the two hospital chairs on my side. River lying on the ground on my other side with his head by my hand. Sorita, Jeremy, Tyler, all lying in awkward positions on the ground, by the door. And Aiden. At the foot of my hospital bed, curled up on it, by my feet, while he's grabbing onto my leg.

Dad's arm suddenly falls on mom's face, making her jerk awake. She stares at me for a moment, as I stare back.

Then she realizes that I'm awake.

"I-you, oh my god. Oh my god! Get up! Wake up! She's awake! Alina's awake! Get a doctor! Where's the doctor? My baby's awake!" Mom runs to me, hugging me tightly, but not too tightly. She even starts crying.

By now, everyone's awake. Tyler had been the last one awake-Jeremy slapped his face four or five times, to Tyler's annoyance.

Sorita runs out the door to grab a doctor, and everyone else crowds around me, looking either relived or ready to cry.

The doc rushes in suddenly and starts to check me all up, seeing if anything is wrong. She pokes and prods my body all over, waiting for a reaction, but when I don't freak out, she assumes that nothing else of me is broken other than what already is.

The doctor says that she'll be back in a few hours to check up on me. Mom kisses my horsehead when the doc leaves. "We were so, so worried," she whispers.

...

"Hi," Aiden mumbles, sounding out of breath. He looks nervous, too. "I know it probably doesn't mean much. But I'm sorry."

The doctor looks up at him, surprised. Then she realizes that he's speaking to me.

"Just, please say something. Speak. I need to...I need to hear your voice."

The doctor, whose name I've learned is Doctor Maria, looks at him again. "Are you being serious?" she asks him, studying his face with what looks like concern for his sanity.

Aiden looks at Doctor Maria with a surprised expression. "I...um, well, yeah."

She throws him a pointed look. "Boy, don't you know Miss Raft is mute?"

We both give her a confused look. I'm about to tell her that, no, I really can speak, but Aiden talks before I can say anything.

"Um, no. She actually is able to speak. She's just been pretending to be mute," he replies back.

Doctor Maria looks at Aiden like he's lost his mind. "There is no possible way that she can be able to talk. Her inferior frontal gyrus has been damaged, and I can tell you that it wasn't from this accident. I'm almost positive that it's from the car accident that she was in, some few months back. In that accident, she'd damaged a specific part of her brain, that controlled her ability to speak, and because of the damage, she won't be able to speak." She then turns to me. "Go ahead. Try and say something."

I frown. This lady is crazy. Of course I can talk. I would have noticed if I wasn't able to talk. So I calmly tell her, "No, ma'am, I certainly can speak."

Aiden stares at me, while Doc looks satisfied. It's then that I realize:

Nothing.