Deep Asleep

Chapter 4 : Surgery

The gurgling was unbearable; the redhead was feeling like if she was dying inside. She wasn't allowed to eat before her surgery, the day would be long! It was so loud that she was sure it could wake up Jane from her deep sleep. Damn, hunger was painful. She took her button and called again and again her nurse.

- "What is it, Ms. Mayfield?"

- "I'm starving to death!"

- "Stop exaggerating, you will be operated in one hour."

- "It's loooong! I haven't eaten for days!"

- "Your last meal was yesterday, just be patient, everything will be alright."

- "I'll be dead before being operated," Max said with a serious tone.

The nurse chuckled before checking Max's bandages and leaving the room. The redhead knew she wouldn't have something to eat before the operation, so she switched on the TV and prayed to find something interesting. Nothing.

- "Pfff, what's the point to have a TV if it's as boring as life! Right Jane? You don't care, you're sleeping again and again. Maybe you are in hibernation and nobody understood you. It would be cool, you would be like a bear or any other animal which hibernate, you could be like a mutant or a superhero and your power would be to sleep for months!...Yeah, that sounds like a stupid and useless super-power. But I'm hungry, I say stupid things when I'm hungry. I sound like a fucking alcoholic, I sound like my stepfather, whouhou. Anyway, I'm sure your parents were not as problematic as mine, if they were, you're free now!"

Max sighed loudly with her mouth before closing her eyes. If she had to wait, she would wait by sleeping.

Her nurse woke her up. When Max opened her eyes, the doctor was here with some interns. He explained the procedure before letting the nurses preparing her for the operation.

Her body was empty, flying over the world; her head was blurry, lost in a thick fog; she could barely feel her members. People were talking around her, but she couldn't understand what they were saying, they were talking weird.

- "She is moving!" Lucas stated.

- "God, she must be high as fuck," Mike mocked.

- "Of course, the dose for an operation like that must be high," Dustin told.

- "Ssssssh," Max said.

- "She is awake," Will smiled.

- "Hey Max, how is it to be completely high?" Dustin asked.

Max growled as an answer, which made laugh her friends. Max opened one eye before laughing uncontrollably with her friends, which made them laugh more. After a few minutes, the group of friends managed to calm down.

- "I'm tired," Max mumbled, her eyes still closed.

- "You slept all day! You're not hungry?" Lucas frowned.

- "No. Tired. Wanna sleep."

- "If you eat, you'll have energy, and your stomach would stop begging for help," Will joked.

- "Mmmh, 'k."

The redhead took support on her right arm, the one without a plaster cast, and tried to sit on her bed, but she had no control of her body, and the sensations were weird.

- "I'm falling!"

- "No, you're not," Mike chuckled.

- "Stop moving, we'll move your bed," Will said.

Lucas and Dustin helped Max to lay down correctly on her bed, then, Mike took the remote of the bed before pushing a button. The bed began to slowly raise up.

- "I want a bed like that!" Max told.

- "I guess we can find a plan to steal it," Will joked with a serious tone.

- "Hey! Jane is a nerd, like you!"

- "Jane? Who is Jane?" Mike frowned.

The redhead weakly raised her arm and pointed at the bed in front of her. Will placed the tray that the nurse brought her earlier on the girl.

- "How do you know her name?" Mike frowned.

- "Her sister told me."

- "Oh, okay, and why is she a nerd?"

- "She plays chess."

While the drugs in Max's organism were decreasing, Lucas, Dustin, and Mike quickly walked to the sleeping girl and leaned above her.

- "Guys, what are you doing?" Will frowned.

- "We wanna know what she looks like," Lucas answered.

- "And? How is she?" Max asked, grabbing her plastic cutleries and trying to cut her steak.

- "She is...pretty," Mike smiled.

- "Cool, now leave her alone, I don't want her to have nightmares because of your stupid faces, being in a coma is complicated enough."

- "I preferred when you were high, at least you were not talking!" Dustin grumbled.

Max answered him with a fake smile and her middle finger raised in his direction.

- "Do you need a hand?" Will asked.

- "Why do you ask that? Because I can't hold my plastic fork with my broken arm?"

- "Let me help you."

Will took her cutleries and began to cut the steak in small pieces. Max thanked him before enjoying her meal, trying to wake up at the same time.

- "Oh, by the way, we brought you some things," Lucas said, putting his back on her bed.

- "You're my hero!"

- "So, your laptop, headphones, a phone charger, Super-bunny, and some cereals bars, in case they don't feed you enough."

- "Perfect, thank you! You saw my mother?"

- "Um, yeah, barely."

- "I hope she is not worrying too much!" Max said with a bitter irony.

- "She told me she would come, maybe next week."

- "Yeah, maybe! I'm not important enough to have an appointment, I'm just a maybe! I don't care anyway, if she doesn't wanna come, she shouldn't force herself."

- "Max, don't be mad at her, she is doing her best," Mike intervened.

- "No, she is not, and that's the problem! I'm her daughter, her fucking daughter! She should be worried, come to see me everyday to see how I am, to stress because I'm operated! I could have died because of this car, she almost told me it was my fault! She is my mother, she is supposed to be on my side, but she has never been on my side! Why am I not allowed to be treated like her daughter!? What did I do!? She doesn't care, and that's fine, she can go fuck herself."

The four boys pouted to each other, not really knowing what to answer. They couldn't tell her she was wrong and all, but she wasn't, her mother barely cared about her, they noticed that too.

- "Witnesses said you had the right of way," Will told. "The car ran a red light and hit you."

- "Then, I'm innocent?"

- "Yep, and the guy is supposed to pay for your health care."

- "Oh, that's cool! A good thing in the day!"

- "You'll have re-education?" Dustin asked.

- "Yep, for a few days before my next operation."

- "And then?"

- "Then, more reeducation, and, maybe, one day, I'll be out!"

- "We hope, we wanna spend our last summer here with you! At least August," Lucas smiled.

- "Not me, I'm good without her," Mike joked.

- "Liar, I know you miss me," Max mocked.

Mike pouted, which made them laugh. The visits were finishing so the boys left the room. Max was now alone with her mysterious pretty roommates, wondering what she was looking like.