Zora

Chapter Thirty-Three

Sitting in the waiting room was agonizing. No one heard a word from any doctor. They were left to suffer in the unknown. The ticking clock on the wall ceased to a halt, and a small flicker came from a lamp on a table near the front desk. A child cried next to their mother, and another person played a video game on their phone. Everyone in the Macintyre party was silent.

Spencer held on tightly to his sister as she cried muted sobs. Tyler locked his hand in Terrance's, his arm slung around his shoulder. All barren faces sat in front of one another, most far too shocked to cry or make any sort of sound. Terrance was the stillest of them all. The memories from the past hour crashed against the walls surrounding his memory.

He refused to shut his car off. There was no time. He left the door wide open, keys in the ignition. If someone were to pass by and steal his car, he wouldn't have cared as long as Zora was alright.

Climbing up the stairs, he stormed into Zora's room. Her body flailed across her bed at an awkward angle with an empty pill bottle beside her and her phone on the ground. Her eyelids flickered, the only sign of life left in her.

Screaming, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, dialing an ambulance. Yelling at Zora, he heard the faintest hum from her chest. She seemed to stir from the commotion, whimpering in pain and confusion before her eyes began to cloud over.

"No, no, no," he cried, running his fingers over her cheeks. He could not let her fall asleep. "Come on, Zora."

"Who?"

"You."

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

"What?"

"Don't fall asleep on me. The ambulance will be here any minute," he said as her heard the roar from outside. "Everything will be fine. I promise."

Zora's eyes slowly began to droop shut. The more sleep pulled her into its trance, the more he shook her awake, causing her to talk as the paramedics ran into the house. He called out for help, but sound refused to leave him. He kept gently patting Zora's cheek, hoping to wake her up as tears broke free from his eyes.

The paramedics burst into Zora's room, and shoved a tube into her mouth as they lifted her onto the gurney. She was wheeled out of the house and placed on the back of the ambulance. Chasing after her, he claimed he was her brother, and demanded to sit in the back with her. Agreeing to his demand, he was rushed away to the hospital, holding onto Zora's hand as the paramedics did their best to revive her.

The moment they arrived at the hospital, Terrance was held back from following her to the emergency room. "Please, I'm her brother. I have to stay with her," he rambled, unable to remain silent as the nurses led him into the waiting room.

"I'm sorry, sir, but you cannot go in there," the nurse claimed.

"Please! I'm her brother. I need to be with her." He attempted to push through the nurses holding him back, but he refused to quit struggling against them. He screamed and cried as he begged to be by Zora's side.

Something pricked his neck, and he felt his body begin to give up fighting. He fell back in a nurse's arms, who coddled his head and shushed him. "It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay."

He felt his body relax, and he was moved to sit in a chair in the waiting area. He slumped his head into his hands, his head feeling foggy. "Is there someone we can call for you?"

Terrance couldn't remember when Tyler arrived, but he soon woke up in his arms, his friends and Helen all sitting beside him as they waited for news on Zora.

"To think she would overdose," Spencer mumbled, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I thought we were doing enough to keep her happy, but I guess not." Standing up from his seat, he began to pace the floors. "It's my fault. I should have kept a better eye on her."

"She didn't need a babysitter," Kendall stated. "She needed friends to be by her side. If it weren't for us not going to the bathroom with her anymore, this matter would have been resolved a long time ago."

"It wasn't the bathroom that was the problem," Cassidy stated. "She didn't always want to wait for us. And she shouldn't have needed to."

"We still should have gone with her," Kendall retorted. "We go to the bathroom together, even if one of us doesn't have to go."

"In a sense, we are all to blame." Denise sighed. "We were all neglectful. I knew about the bullying for the past week, and yet I wasn't there to protect her. I let her wander around the halls where anyone could hurt her. We missed all the warning signs. She was depressed and hiding things. She acted like everything was fine yesterday and this morning. We didn't realize deep down that she had been hurting these past months. We all knew how bad things were in Georgia, yet we didn't say anything. We kept acting like nothing was wrong."

"Kids, it's not your fault," Helen sniffled as she pulled Spencer back into the seat beside her. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Even before her father and I divorced, she was still quiet and reserved. She didn't want for anyone to notice her feelings or if she was hurting to prevent others from seeing her in pain. She hides herself well, and I'm not surprised you all didn't realize it. It's just who she is."

"Still," Denise whispered. A warm hand placed itself over hers, and she looked up into Helen's eyes. "We should have asked her how she was doing more. Then she wouldn't have tried to kill herself."

"I don't think she tried to kill herself," Terrance managed to muster up. Facing his friends, he said, "After all the harassment she received in Georgia, don't you think she would have killed herself back then? Why would now be the tipping point?

"I bet that if anything, she took one too many pills and overdosed by mistake. She seemed scared and worried on the phone. She knew she made a mistake, and she was scared that she was going to die. I know Zora well enough to know that she wouldn't let some bratty teenagers get her to that point. They may have brainwashed her to believe she isn't worth anything, but I know now wouldn't be the time for her to kill herself. I just know she didn't mean to."

"Jeremy Macintyre," a doctor called out.

"Zora," everyone corrected in sync. Both Terrance and Helen stood up and approached the doctor. Everyone else sat on the edge of their seat.

Reading off her clipboard, the doctor nodded softly. "Is the boy trans?"

"Trans female," Helen stated with a firm nod.

Speaking with a nurse on standby, she asked for new papers to be filled out. "Alright, so..."

"Zora."

"Yes, she will be fine. We had to pump her stomach rid of all the Ambien inside. She admitted to having subconsciously taken more than two pills like she planned to," she explained.

"So, Zora is alive and well?" Terrance asked.

The doctor smiled. "Most certainly. You are allowed to see her, but only a few at a time, please."

Everyone looked at one another.

"For goodness sakes, people. Helen and Terrance should obviously go first. Zora can see us if she's feeling up to it," Kendall stated.

"Spencer should come with us," Terrance said, and Helen nodded.

Jerking his head up, he stared at them in concern.

"She'll probably want to see you the most," she added.

With a firm nod, Spencer stood up and followed the three down the hall to Zora's hospital room.