Child (Ish) Dreams

Chapter Twelve

Sapphire woke up with a groan. Her head was banging away similar to a jackhammer. She felt slow and stupid. She tried to get up and couldn't. Instead, she assessed her situation. She was lying on the floor. She felt sick, dry in the mouth and badly needed a wee (usual signs of a hangover). She also felt quite cold which was new. Maybe the heating hadn't been switched on? She couldn't remember last night very well. She glanced at the couch. No person was there, thankfully. She heard a bang and jumped. That must have been what woke her so early as she could tell from the living room window lighting that it was still early and she didn't normally wake up past twelve.

"Sapphire?" The door opened. Had she left it unlocked? Had she had sex with a guy? Maybe he had left it unlocked? She groaned because her stomach hurt and she recognised the voice. Her older sister, Crystal.

"Sapphire? Oh my God, you're a freaking mess... Sam was right." Crystal groaned. Sapphire looked up at Crystal, the girl who looked so alike to Sapphire. Crystal was two years older than Sapphire and had spent the past year in Greece on holiday. It showed as she looked quite tanned especially with the white flowing knee-length skirt and blouse ensemble plus white pumps. Sapphire opened her mouth to talk and instead threw up on the carpet.

"Oh Christ, Sapphire! Ew!" Sapphire's stomach was heaving but there was nothing more to throw up apart from the booze, she wasn't eating properly and hadn't for weeks. Her vision went all tunnel-like and she blacked out but not before Sapphire heard Crystal call her name in alarm.

Sapphire drifted in and out.

"How long has she been binge drinking?" An unfamiliar male asked.

"Three weeks according to her ex-girlfriend." Definitely Crystal.

But what had Sammie SAID? She opened her mouth to demand an answer but never got out with one as the darkness closed in again.

"She was quite lucky but we'll have to keep her under observation. The fact she hasn't woken up yet is a reason to be concerned."

"It's alcohol poisoning, isn't it? Is it bad?"

"We won't really know until we get the results back."

"I should call our parents..."

No... No... Not them!

Sapphire's senses slowly came back one by one. She felt crisp sheets first and a lumpy mattress plus a thin blanket. She heard the sounds of beeping from a machine close by, soft breathing and movement from people around her. She opened her eyes and saw the ceiling. The strips of light attached to the ceiling were off but light was coming from somewhere. She turned her head. She definitely was in a hospital, in a hospital bed and surrounded by hospital. She was in her own private room with a full glass wall and door opposite her and normal walls behind and either side of her. Outside the glass was a corridor where nurses and doctors were walking back and forth in pale blue scrubs. Inside the room, the room was lit with a single lamp in the corner by an armchair where her sister was. Crystal looked unwashed as if she had been there a little while. She was sleeping currently, a book closed in her lap. Sapphire turned her head a bit more to see her mother on the left side of her in another armchair. She had her head resting on her folded arms which was resting on the bed. Another armchair was in the other corner, opposite Crystal's. It was unoccupied. Sapphire glanced down. She was wearing a hospital gown with sticky tags attached here and there to her chest, a needle in her left hand and a tube in her nose. She winced at the needle and looked away. She heard footsteps and looked up to see the glass door being slid aside. Her father walked in and shut the door behind him. He saw her as he sat in his armchair.