How Could You Want Me?

Chapter 4

As Mike drives us to the hospital, him and I keep making awkward eye contact through the rear-view mirror.  He glances at Carrie and she gives him a worried look.

Do they know its rude to not let someone in on your secret language conversation, ya girl has eyes.

"So are you from around here?" Mike asks me looking in the mirror at me.

"About 30 minutes away. Why are you in West Virginia anyways?" I ask.

Seriously though, why are they in West Virginia?

"I had a radio interview this morning in Morgantown. We didn't feel like driving back tonight." Carrie says nonchalantly, like she comes to this State all the time.

"Oh okay. That makes sense." I laugh.

"How old are you, Abi?" Carrie asks.

"I'm 11, almost 12." I answer looking out the window.

I watch her look at Mike out of the corner of my eye.

"Do you live with your mom and Dad?" Mike asks me.

"I live with my mom. I was a one nightstand so he was never really in the picture." I answer truthfully.

With another sideways glance towards Carrie, they both stayed quiet for the rest of the ride.

**

Finally we pull into the parking lot of the hospital and get out. I watch Ashley and Lindsay pull up beside Carrie and Mike.

"What's happening?" Lindsay whispers to me as her gets out of the car.

"I don't know." I shrug

"If I would've known all this was going to happen, I would have tried a little harder getting ready." Ashley says making me laugh.

We follow Carrie and Mike inside and go to the desk. They sign me in and go sit down. A few minutes later a woman walks out into the room and says my name. Carrie and I follow the woman to a room where she gets us settled and tells us a doctor should be there shortly.

"Has your mom done this before?" Carrie asks looking at me.

"Not in a while. This was an accident, but yes, she's hit me before." I answer looking at my hands.

"What else has she done?"

"She's just verbally abusive for the most part. I've gotten slapped for nonsense things and they've left bruises." I tell her.

Suddenly there's a knock at the door and a man walks through the door.

"So what's going on today?" He asks.

" I um," Carrie saved me," She fell in a restaurant and hit her shoulder off of a sharp corner. I offered to bring her here and get it stitched up." She said quickly.

"Well okay, let me get a look." He said. I pulled off my jacket so he could see.

"Ouch, yeah you're going to need stitches or skin glue. Which would you prefer?" He asks.

"Skin glue, please." I say with relief.

 I hate needles with a burning passion.

"Okay, I'll be right back." He says and leaves.

"Thanks." I say giving her a small smile.

She gives me a small smile back. I wish we could've met under different circumstances, I don't think she's handing this well.

"Abi... Can I ask you a question?" Carrie said looking at me very intently.

"Yeah, what is it?" I say

"Have you ever mentioned this to anyone before?" She asked suspiciously.

"I have a counselor at my school that I've talked too, but I'm too scared to ask her to do anything. There's not a guarantee that it'll make things better." I sigh

The doctor comes back with a tube of skin glue and other things.

"Okay, let me clean this up a little bit first," he states putting some alcohol stuff on a pieces of gauze, "then I'll put the skin glue on."

"Okay." I say.

He wipes the stuff over the gash and it stings a lot more than I thought it was going too. I close my eyes and try to remain calm. After he's done he starts applying the skin glue to my shoulder.

"If this peels off, here's a bottle so you can re-apply it." He says as he hands me a small bottle.

"Okay, thank you." I say

After the glue dries, I hop off the bed and Carrie and I leave the room.

I follow her back to the waiting room where Mike and my friends are sitting

"Well, thank you for bringing. I should probably get going, Lindsay's parent will wonder where we are." I say and start walking towards the doors.

"Hey, wait. Can I talk t Mike for a minute outside? We'll be right back." She asks looking at Mike and they walk towards the doors.

"Okay." I say and they walk out, "I'll be right here."

Lindsay and Ashley both give me a weird look that I return.