Rivals // Norminah

25

Beep...

Beep...

Beep...

Hmm? What's that noise? I try to slowly open my eyes but it's too bright. I immediately shut them tightly. I slowly try again and begin blinking to help my eyes adjust.

My blinking starts to slow down as I look down at my body. What the hell? Why am I in this bed? Why are there wires attached to my body going everywhere? What's going on??

I look around the room and as my vision slowly focuses, I notice someone sitting in the corner in a chair.

"Hello?" I croak. The person immediately looks at me and gets up quickly.

"You're awake? Oh my god, you're awake! Let me get the doctor" The person runs out and I'm left alone in the hospital room. How the hell did I get here?

I try to move my arms and pain shoots through my body. I hiss in pain. I shake my head and slowly sit up, pushing through every signal from my body telling me to stop. I puff out some air as I'm finally propped up.

The door opens and a man in a white coat comes in followed by the person who was in here before. The man walks up the computer and begins typing.

"It's currently 8:37 PM. How are you feeling Ms.Hamilton?"

"Like I got hit by a damn truck" I hiss. The doctor nods.

"Considering that's what happened, it does make sense" He states. Wait what? I got hit by a truck? Since when? "Do you have any serious pain anywhere? Obviously you should be hurting, but is there anything that's beyond painful?" I nod.

"My right arm is actually killing me" I states. He nods and types away on the computer. The girl next to him steps forward.

"I'm really happy you're awake" She says smiling. She grabs my left hand lightly before squeezing it. I slowly pull it back and look at her confused.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude but... do I know you?" I question. The girl looks shocked and the doctor whips his head and looks at me.

"It's me... Dinah..." I shrug.

"I'm sorry. I-I don't know who you are. Should I?" I question. The girl, well Dinah, looks hurt and it makes me feel bad. She's seems nice and gorgeous, but I honesty don't know who she is.

"You don't know this woman?" The doctor asks. I roll my eyes.

"I didn't stutter" I state.

"Excuse me" The girl, I mean Dinah, leaves and walks out of the room closing the door.

"We're going to have to do some more tests. Simple, just show you some pictures of people and objects" He goes to grab a folder and comes back and grabs a chair sitting down in it.

He scoots closer to me and opens the folder. He begins pulling out some pictures and laying them out across the bed.

"Do you know any of these people?" I shake my head and point to two people.

"They look familiar" I say pointing to a couple. "Are those my parents?" He nods and writes begins writing stuff down. I notice the picture of Dinah across the bed. I grab it and turn it towards the doctor. "Who is she?"

The doctor looks at me and shrugs.

"I'm not sure of your relation with her Ms. Hamilton. She came in with your mother when the accident happened so I assumed she's a family friend of yours" He begins typing away. "Your mother is in the cafeteria but she's been notified and on her way in"

There's a knock on the door and a woman, my mother, comes in. The doctor stands up and walks over to her.

"We should talk outside first about her condition" He leads her outside and shuts the door behind him. I notice a phone on the counter and grab it. I click the home button and the screen saver is a picture of me and some light skin girl. There's also a bunch of notifications.

This is probably my phone. I try to typing in a code and it says try again. I type in something else and it says try again. Well this sucks. I notice the finger ID on the home button and decide to try it and it unlocks.

I smile and begin going through the phone. Ohhh instagram! Lets go through that! I click through the app and head to my page, scrolling through my pictures. Hmm?

A Zendaya Coleman, Lauren Jauregui, Zayn Malik, Alessia Cara, and a Vanessa Morgan... I have a lot of pictures with them. I guess we're pretty close then.

I exit out of the app and decide to go through my camera roll. Damn... I have a lot of damn selfies. Conceited much? I keep scrolling and I start noticing pictures of me and that Dinah girl. We look pretty close from the pictures, but she wasn't anywhere on my Instagram feed..?

The door opens to the doctor and my mother coming in. She looks at me a barely smiles.

"Hi Normani, it's mom. The doctor told me what's going on. Are you ready to go home?" She asks. I look at the doctor unsure and he nods. I look back at my mother.

"Um, sure"

-

We walk into our house, which seems unnecessarily big, and a dog runs up to me barking and wagging its tail. I slowly bend down, ignoring the pain, and pet the dog.

"What's it's name?" I ask my mother.

"His name is Aspen" I smile at the dog.

"Hi Aspen. It's nice to meet you!" I say in a baby voice. I slowly stand up and grab my right arm due to the pain.

"I need to go to the bathroom real quick, but you can head up to your room to rest. I'll be there in a second" She walks away before I can even ask her where my room is. I sigh before slowly walking up the stairs with Aspen on my tail.

I finally get upstairs and begin opening the doors looking for something that looks like it'd be my room. I finally find a room with a bunch of pictures of me and what looks like my friends.

I enter the room and close the door once Aspen's inside. I walk around the room slowly taking things in. I open the closet door and shake my head. Why is there so many damn clothes?

I shut the door and lay on my bed with my back against the headboard. My back pocket buzzes and I remember I had my phone in there. I pull it out of my pocket with my right arm and unlock it.

Dinah Jane:
I know you don't know who I am or remember me, but I'm truly happy that you're okay...

This is the girl from earlier. So she's not a total stranger if her number is saved. I like her name though. Dinah Jane... it's pretty. I should probably respond to her.

Normani:
I'm very sorry I don't remember who you are, but I do appreciate you checking up on me. It's very thoughtful.

Dinah Jane:
It's not problem at all. Have a good night Normani.

Normani:
You too.

I place the phone down on the nightstand and close my eyes, letting myself drift of slowly.