Renata

Chapter 2

"You were with her?" a voice said

"Yeah, I ran into her." someone answered

"Well she was lucky. She was having a very strange reaction to the stuff she took."

The conversation went on and on while Renata lay there listening. She could tell she was in hospital, the familiar smell, the second nature tubes stuck in her. She'd know it anywhere. Reluctantly she opened her eyes; she didn't want to be awake. The first she saw was a window, the curtains were still open and it was dark outside. The second thing she saw was George holding her mother's hand. Then she took it all in. Michael, her mother, George and the doctor. Perfect, she let out a groan. They all turned to her, her mother half smiled.

"Il mio, Bellina." She said softly, shaking her head.

"Non è qui, mama." She said softly, saying she didn't want her mom to do this now in front of the doctor or Michael. Her eyes shifted to him and she mouthed a thank you, hoping he would leave now that she'd acknowledged his good deed. He smiled in response and sat down at a hard looking chair near by.  The doctor asked them to step out and had a talk with her. She’d be out of the hospital the next day but he was stern in his lecture. Once that was done she listened to George's lecture before he left and finally her mother's, who left for her night job. She finally closed her eyes, feeling tired and hoping she had enough medicine to numb any unexplainable sadness that may come. She pulled the sheet around her and sighed. The door opened and Michael walked in. She was hoping he'd left already. She had nothing against him but she didn't want to meet any new people or make friends in any way. He smiled and stood next to the bed.

"You okay?" He asked shyly.

"Yeah, it was a  reaction." She said with her voice sounding groggy.

"Your mom seems really nice, she was worried about you."

"She’s always worried about me." Renata said turning to face him.

"With reason." She kept silent. "SO you're with George?" He asked changing the subject.

"No way, eww." SHe laughed suddenly at the thought of it. "Disgustoso"

He laughed with. "So you speak Italian at home?" He was curious about her.

"No, well yes. Not so much."

"You have a tiny bit of an accent, you know?"

"Not like my mom though." She said, wondering why he was still here. She didn't want anyone here. "So... why are you here?" She asked then realised how rude it was. "I mean, its already late and you don't even know me."

He laughed this time. "We've had the same classes for four years now."

She looked shocked. Every single class? Was she that antisocial?

"Yeah that doesn't mean you know me. You didn't even know my name at school today." She said sheepishly.

"I knew it, you didn't know mine and I didn't want to come off as a stalker."

She smiled at this, everyone was so pretentious. "SO what were you doing at the park?"

He ran his hand through his hair, settling into a chair, not a good sign she thought. "I live around there. I was driving home and I thought i saw you sitting there. I didn't think you were okay after today. Do you live around there too?"

"No I live near the inner city, North End." She had long since stopped being embarrassed about being kind of poor. It was just a fact about her, like how she had brown eyes. "Why did you bring me to the hospital? An epi pen would've worked just fine."