Behind The Scenes(ON HOLD)

chapter 5 - Cori

I never expected to see the guy from the library again, but there he was. Standing in front of my desk, asking for a pen.

"By the way, I'm Tyler," he said as he hastily brushed a lock of brown hair away from his face. Freckles covered the top of his nose and his cheekbones. I could sit there and look at him all day.

"I'm Cori," I replied, coming back to reality. "Hang on, I'll find you a pen," I stammered as I once again began to rummage through my bag.

There was an awkward silence while I searched.

"So, I hope we get to hang out soon," he said as I gave him the pen.

"Yeah, I hope so too," I answered, feeling my intestines turning into jelly.

His green eyes lit up as he smiled. He then walked to a desk near the back of the class and started talking to someone, probably a friend of his. My heart was still pounding.

 I couldn't remember exactly what I had said to him. I just hoped I hadn't embarrassed myself.

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Finally arriving home after a long day at school, I couldn't help but notice that the house was awfully quiet. I went to check up on my dad, but he wasn't in his room, nor was he anywhere else in the house. I sat on his bed, feeling worried and began to ring his phone. That was when I noticed that there was a note on his pillow. 

It said:"I had to take your dad to the hospital, because while I was here he passed out due to the alcohol.- aunt Julie"

"Cori, lunch is ready," my sister called from the bottom of the stairs. 

"Pack it up in a container, we'll eat it on the bus," I answered, hurridly putting my school books and pens in a bag so I could do my homework once we'd get to the hospital.

I rushed down the stairs and started to put my shoes on. 

"Where are we going?" she asked looking puzzled, holding a food container in her hand.

"Aunt Julie left a message saying that she had to take dad to the hospital." I explained.

She looked away, trying to hold back her tears. 

"He'll be alright, I promise," I added, softening my tone.

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We rushed up the hospital's steps and through a narrow corridor. We asked a nurse where we could find our dad and after having searched for a while, we reached the ward he was in.

Dad was lying on a hospital bed, an intravenous drip attatched to his arm. He seemed unconscious. The whole hospital felt cold and gloomy. My sister and i silently sat by the bed. I noticed that there were large, dark circles underneath dad's eyes as he lay still, looking paler than ever. I tried to shake the worrying thoughts out of my head but they kept coming back.

A few minutes later a doctor walked into the room. 

"You must be Mr Ashworth's daughters. Your aunt mentioned that you would come." she said and smiled while shaking my hand.

"Is dad okay?" Charlotte asked.

"Well, we're doing our very best to help him. " she replied grimly.  "Right now he is in a coma that has been caused by the alcohol." she added.

My heart skipped a beat.

 "A lot of people have had the same thing and recovered in a little over a week. It's not something rare." she tried to reassure us. "I've given all the details to your aunt." she finished by saying.

It was too much for me to grasp.

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I set all my books and notebooks out on my bed and tried to focus on my homework. I had always hated history. In 6th grade I kept falling asleep while ms Ackerson recited the lesson.Biology was definitely more interesting. 

I stared blankly at the unfinished work in front of me and sighed. Instead of studying, I picked up "Gone with the Wind".

I skimmed through the first few pages and got to the part in which the heroine, Scarlet O'Hara, talks about her connection with her father and how a lot of times, he would get drunk and ride around the house's gardens on horseback, while singing. 

I felt my muscles clench and a tear trickled down my cheek. It was all too familiar to me. Except for the fact that dad didn't own a horse. 

I couldn't put an act on any longer. I closed the book and put it next to me as I lay down on my pillow, trying to let go of all the weight on my shoulders. A tear dropped on the book's cover and as I tried to wipe it away with my sleeve, the room began to instantly twirl. 

A few moments later I found myself on the hard floor-boards of a room that looked nothing like my own.