Inside Out

1

EMMA CHAMBERLAIN

As much as I stared at the ceiling above me, it never seemed to get boring. The fan causing my eyes to bug out. I was in my own thoughts staring up at the ceiling when I heard a knock on my bedroom door.

"Good Morning Emma" My nurse Rita said with a cheeky smile. 

"Morning Rita." I said, a tired smile plastered across my face. 

Rita set her things down and walked over to me putting a hand on my shoulder. I was sitting on my bed. My feet dangling almost touching the cold white hardwood floor. 

"How are you feeling today... sorry I couldn't be here yesterday my daughter ended up getting suspended from school."

"oh..." I said surprisingly.

"16 year old's, am I right." She chuckled

I smiled thinking back to when I was and was a rebellious teenager. Now I was going to be 18 in a matter of weeks. I was excited but scared. Rita proceeded to grab her check board with my charts on it and a blood pressure meter. 

"Anyways... I'm good." I said, a fake smile playing on my lips.

"I'm glad to hear. Now hold still one second,"

I stood still as she wrapped the blood pressure meter around my arm continuously pumping air into it. I hated these because it felt like a snake was wrapping around your arm. I could feel my pulse against the wrap as it slowly deflated returning to its original form. Rita unwrapped the blood pressure meter from my arm and wrote on my charts. Rita did many other things throughout my checkup. She would continue to check on me, writing on my charts every hour. Rita wasn't just my nurse she was like a second mom to me. She was there when my mom wasn't. While she was at her job saving other people and not her daughter. She was outside exploring the world, while I was trapped in a huge house that continued to get smaller each day. 

And did I not mention that my life was only filled with the color white. My house, my clothes, everything. The only color I see is through my large glass window and the fake plants placed throughout the house. I have a rare disease. Which makes me basically isolated from the outside world. The only place that I'm safe is right where I am. My disease was very rare and my mom found out about it when I was only about 2 years old. If I were to come in contact with the outside world I could die. And so my mom has become very protective. She even had this house made specifically for me. Throughout there is a system for when people enter from the outside. It basically makes them "sanitized" so I can be around them. But the only person who comes from outside who isn't my mom, is Rita. So you could say I don't really have a lot of friends. I do home school while my mom is at work but I am very ahead of most kids my age would be at. 

I hadn't even realized Rita had left until I heard the familiar sound of my door click closed. I laid back down releasing a loud sigh. I have read every book I own more than twice so that obviously wouldn't work. I could draw, but then again art wasn't in my forte. So again I was stuck gazing up at the fan above my bed, imaging the bright blue sky was above me instead. It's like I could almost touch it. Even though it was in my imagination. 

All the sudden I heard a loud door bang. But it wasn't in my house. It was at the house next to ours. I sat up and walked over to my large bedroom window showing the outside. No one has lived in this house since I have lived here. So I was never used to seeing people or having neighbors. I watched as a older woman struggled to climb the stairs to the front door. She was carrying two huge cardboard boxes. Then a younger girl slowly followed behind her. She looked in her mid 20's. She was also carrying a cardboard box but with an annoyed look on her face. She rolled her eyes while watching her mom struggle searching for what I assumed was the keys to the house. Once she finally found them and unlocked the door, her and her daughter filed into the house. This is when I looked up to see a boy standing by the window of that house. His view was straight across from mine. Close enough that if we were to both open our windows we could touch each others hands. I continued to stare at him as he hadn't looked my way. His features being perfectly highlighted by the shining sun.

He seemed to be about my age or maybe a year older. He had dark brown hair that seemed to show some natural highlights throughout it. He had an unbelievably sharp jaw line. Every few minutes I noticed him clenching it. He had a firm built body that seemed to have gotten a tan over the summer. I watched as he un-boxed his things placing them throughout the room. Now I knew that this was his room. He finally looked up to the window noticing me staring. I was embarrassed and quickly ducked behind the curtains. After a few seconds I slowly and cautiously peeked my head over the curtains. Seeing his gaze still directed towards me. I stayed still now that I was able to see all of his face. His eyes, they were a perfect, beautiful shade of brown that could make me weak in the knees if I stared at them too long. We continued to stare at each other which seemed like hours. But was probably only about 5 seconds. 

A sudden wave of confidence came over me. I stepped all the way forward so I was no longer covered by the curtain. I gave him a light smile. He just continued to study me. Looking me up and down, This sent me chills throughout my body. I gave a slight wave to him smiling even wider, expecting him to give me a smile or wave back. But instead he grabbed the strings of the window blinds, letting them fall down so he was no longer being shown to me.