Little Things

I'm Off To A Good Start.

“Where do you want to go when you die?” Myriam looks up at me with curious eyes. I shrug my shoulders in return. “How can you not know where you want to go when you die?”

 “I don’t know, I guess I haven’t really put that much thought into it.” I answer truthfully, if anything I’ve been avoiding death at all costs. “What about you, where do you want to go?”

 “I want to be a bird, I don’t want to feel imprisoned to our society or these four white walls, I want to feel free, daring, and brilliantly beautiful.” She speaks with a passion I’d never seen before, it seems like she’d rather be anywhere else but earth.

 “Like an owl?” I look up at her with a smile plastered on my face and notice a twinkle in her eye when I mention the bird. You see, here at the hospital we all refer to Mimi as an owl because she sleeps all day and is awake all night. Since most of her sessions are during the day they tire her out and she doesn’t have the strength to stay up for much longer after.

 “Exactly!” She exclaims. We’re sitting down on the windowsill in her room looking at a panoramic of the whole city, the sun’s setting, illuminating everything almost iridescently.

Once Mimi lost her hair we got closer for some odd reason, I feel like fate pulled us together because at the time we both needed someone to be there for us. Katie’s too busy with Aiden and Mimi’s been in the hospital too long to really have many friends left. Even though she’s terminal the doctor said she might be able to go home because they’d manage to get a firm grip on the situation. She looks healthier, her cheeks are rosy in contrast with her pale skin and she’s always smiling.

 “I got to go, my mum should be waiting outside to pick me up.” We hug for a long time before pulling apart, as if it’d be the last time we’d ever see each other.

 “Bye.” She chirps as I make my way to the door, I wave good-bye in return.

2 Weeks Later

 So here I am face to face with the big intimidating doors that lead to nothing but chaos. Here I am face to face with McKinley High. My palms become clammy as I fidget with the hem of my shirt, debating whether I should walk inside or just run away. I turn around ready to run back to the car that my mother lent me, realizing that I’d forgotten the most important thing to have at high school. Hand sanitizer.

 I notice some people making funny hand gestures towards me making me giggle. Someone points up causing me to follow their finger which immediately alarms me as I’m greeted to my first day of high school to the sight of a football moving at an alarmingly fast rate towards my face. And in one split second I become the casualty of one of McKinley High’s very own jocks.

I fall back over the guardrail and crush a flower bed, at least the flowers softened the blow a little bit. I hear shouts, some collective snickers, and blink a few times, my vision becoming blurry. Everything around me is spinning.

I notice a face peek over the railing and jump over it to help me up. I can’t quite make out his face, but from his broad shoulders and firm grip, he was probably the football player that hit me in the first place. There was a strange aura of comfort and familiarity that came with his touch, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on who it was. I’m being dragged through the office and set onto what I’d assume is the bed in the nurse’s room. The person takes a seat and my vision closes in on me.  

 I slowly blink my eyes taking in my surroundings, for a minute I got scared I was in the hospital, but to my relief it was just the nurse’s office. My eyes scan the room and land on Cole. OH MY GOD. It’s Cole. He’s running his hands through his hair and occasionally over his face, something he tends to do whenever he’s nervous. I shrink back under the covers and pretend to sleep.