The Dead Of Night

Revelations

I was still uncomfortable about having told Sophie about Janson, but knowing she'd go to the hospital after school made me relax a little bit more for the rest of my shopping trip with my mom. We'd wound up going to three other stores and had a whole bunch of fun. It was five thirty when I told her I had to get back, I'd told her our school paper wanted to do an interview with me and Andrew O'Donnell. She was really understanding because she hadn't found all of what she was looking for anyways, apparently she just really wanted to spend a lot of time with me. Which is something I guess I could understand, I couldn't imagine the fear she must have felt when she found out I was in the hospital. And just like that I felt guilty for lying to her.

"It's such a coincidence that you went to check out the fundraiser just before he woke up!" My mom gushed as we walked into the parking lot.

"I know," I replied with as much disbelief as I could feign, heading straight for the passenger side of our vehicle.

My mom leaned over the top of the car with a conspiratorial grin as she stage whispered, "You know, some people around town are saying it's destiny. That he woke up just to see his future bride." She wiggled her eyebrows at the suggestion.

"Mom!" I whined, and pulled at the door handle impatiently. "That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard." The doors clicked and I quickly slithered in. To be honest though, I had been thinking about that but I figured it had more to do with Janson than me. He actually did have a connection, the fact I'd been there too was a coincidence.

"But wouldn't that just be the sweetest? It would be uber romantic!" She replied climbing in as well.

"More like weird, he's been out cold for years. He probably still has the maturity of a five year old." I rolled my eyes, but felt my gut tieing itself in a knot. Since I'd called Sophie I'd been having such a good day with my mom and I didn't want to ruin it by suddenly going into a bad mood I couldn't explain to her, so I changed the subject. "Why don't we stop for dinner on the way home?"

"Ooh, good idea. Does ice cream for dinner sound like a good idea to you?" She looked at me with a grin as she brought the engine to life. "I feel like being naughty."

"Ew," I whined. "As long as ice cream is as naughty as you're planning to get then I'm okay with that, else-wise I'm going to go stay over at someone's house."

My mother chuckled as we drove off, "Only ice cream." 

We were just getting back into town when my phone buzzed. I shouldn't have been surprised to see that it was Sophie. Okay, as much fun as I'm having talking to this Andrew kids - where the hell are you? We have stuff to talk about!  It read.

I glanced out the window, we were close enough I didn't bother with a response. It'd be a few minutes. Suddenly I was really worried about what I'd do when I got there. Janson would probably be there, I didn't really think Sophie would actually chase him off but that meant I'd have to talk to him and I didn't know what to say. I felt guilty, angry, and just so stressed out.

"Do you need me to pick you up when you're done?" Mom asked as she pulled up outside of the hospital. I blinked and shook my head, where had those minutes gone? I'd wanted to prepare something to say so I wasn't just awkwardly mumbling my way through a conversation.

"Uhm, sure that'd be....actually you know what I think I wanna walk home. I'll see you later!" I forced a smile as I hoped out of the car and hurried to the door. I guess I had to talk to Janson at some point. I signed in with the receptionist who warned me that visiting hours were over in about an half hour.

I took the elevator and dragged my feet all the way to the room. I didn't know what I was dreading more: telling Sophie about Janson, and possibly Zack, or talking to Janson about why Sophie was there at all and how I'd changed my mind and didn't want him to move on.