Where Two Collide

Chapter Thirteen - Alice

Chapter Thirteen

Alice

            It had been six whole days. I'd even lost the whole of my weekend and not once did my visitors remember to bring me my mobile phone for entertainment and social purposes. Luckily for me, my favourite nurse was able to set me up with a screen and endless episodes of Friends dvd's. The re-runs were what got me through, as I wasn't sleeping at night. The quiet was horrific and being stuck in bed not by choice was literally my worst nightmare. The lady in the bed over from me was moved the same day I woke up in the hospital, and I'd been isolated in that room ever since. That boy didn't even come back, though if he was actually visiting that lady, obviously he wasn't going to come back.

I could finally eat again too, at least without immediately throwing it back up. Whatever they'd been pumping into me via my arm tubes had reversed the effects of the bacterial infection, so now I was being sent home with a whole bag of pills for the next two weeks.

"Can I leave now?" I asked my parents as they entered the room.

My mum nodded. "Yes, we just finished signing the paperwork."

"Oh thank god," I said in one breath, and hopped down from my bed, sliding on the trainers they'd brought for me. "Let's go right now, before they change their minds."

Once we're at home I immediately went in search of my phone. Cat raised her hand from the dining room as I passed, she had paints and huge amounts of paper sprawled across the table, holding a pen in one hand and a pencil in the other as she stared at the paper as if trying to find something amongst them. I don't ask questions, it's usually best not to with Cat, waving back as I headed to our bedroom.

I find my phone still on charge by my bed. My chat with Tia and Rachel has over five-hundred notifications, I scrolled right through to the most recent message regarding Tia's boy sending her a dodgy photo and typed off a response. My phone started to ring within seconds of the message sending. It's Rachel.

"Where the holy heck have you been!" She exclaimed. It's loud in the background, I could hear music and people laughing.

I flopped onto my bed, kicking my shoes off onto the carpet. "Hospital," I said vaguely. I wasn't sure how much she knew and wasn't keen to share too much information.

"And you're out now?"

"Home and healthy," I confirmed, stretching out my arm above my head. Well except for all the pills I'd be taking for a while.

"Good, we missed you," said Rachel, then paused. The music was still going in the background, but it gets quieter as if she was moving rooms. "Listen, I need you tonight. Dan's having the gang over and that slut Jess is going to be here. I need my girls in their best wingwoman outfits, and make sure Owen's there too. I know they are friends, but it's more empowering for me if he thinks everyone is on my side."

Rachel and Dan are our years famously on and off again couple. They'd broken up and gotten back together so many times during High School, even they had lost count. They were currently off.

"You mean his new girlfriend Jess?" I clarified. I crossed my legs and noticed how chipped my nail varnish had gotten. Did that happen during the crash too? Maybe when my shoes had come off. I wondered then if I'd ever see those shoes again.

"Girlfriend. Easy whore. What's the difference," she said venomously. "You'll come, right?"

"I'm not sure my parents will let me, Rach. I literally just got home from the hospital twenty minutes ago," I said. I didn't really want to go. Actually, I didn't want to go at all. Now that I was home, I would happily have just slept. I basically had a week of sleep to catch up on at that point.

Rachel made a tsk sound. "Of course they will, just tell them you're hanging out with us tonight. I'll send Tia to get you." I heard her muffle the receiver and talk to Tia. Tia was the only one of us, bar some of Owen's friends, who had their license, having recently turned seventeen. This basically made her the group taxi, at least that was the case when it came to Rachel. I wasn't sure if Tia minded or not, but she seemed to go along with it anyway. The line cleared again as Rachel removed her hand. "Tia's on her way, she'll be with you in fifteen minutes." She hung up the phone, not giving me a chance to deny her.

I sighed and went in search of one of my parents. Rachel was right, they were okay with me going, in fact they encouraged me to spend some time with my friends. They gave me a curfew though, which they'd never done before. I assumed this was their way of trying to regain control of my comings and goings, not that that had really been any sort of an issue before the accident.

I sent Owen a text to meet me at Dan's, then I threw my hair up into a ponytail and applied some of the speediest makeup I'd ever done. When Tia pulled up outside, I was just finishing dressing up my jeans with a cute top. I went outside to meet her, and she got out of the car, running at me full speed in the middle of the road. She squeezed me into a tight hug, and I squeaked in surprise.

"Oh god I didn't hurt you, did I?" she asked releasing me and stepping back to look at me. "I'm still just in so much shock that you were hit by that car."

"Hit by a car?" I repeated, my eyes going wide. "What are you talking about, Tia?"

She covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh my god, you don't have like amnesia from it do you?"

"No of course not," I said. "But I wasn't hit by a car, why would you think that?"

Tia looked confused. "That's what Owen said happened, he said he pushed you out the way but you both were hurt."

Oh. That made more sense. He changed the story so people wouldn't find out he was driving. I was glad I'd been vague on the phone to Rachel, I'd have to get the full story from Owen later, so I didn't put my foot in it again. "Ah yes, sorry my heads a bit fuzzy still from the accident," I said, backtracking as much as possible.

Tia nodded understandingly. "It must have been scary, I'm just so glad that Owen was there for you, I'd hate to think what would have happened if you were alone."

"Yep," I said, uncertain of what else to say at that point. Tia seemed to realize that I didn't want to talk about it, swiftly dropping the subject.

I climbed into the passenger seat of her car and clicked in my seatbelt. I suddenly became very aware of how dark it was outside, and that I had only been in my mum and dad's car since the accident. The first time I was passed out and the second it was daylight, and dad had driven slowly because of traffic.

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