The Art of Courting

The Art of Courting- Chapter Eighteen

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

 

That there, that’s not me

I go where I please

I walk through walls

I float down the Liffey

I’m not here

This isn’t happening

I’m not here; I’m not here- How To Disappear Completely, Radiohead

WHEN CHELSEA WOKE UP ALL she felt was a slight pressure on her hand and someone breathing against her arm. Her whole body felt light and weightless- probably because of the pain medication they had her on.

“Just wake up Sissy,” someone whispered beside her. “Please wake up.”

Not wanting to keep the voice waiting, Chelsea forced her eyes to open and groaned at the bright light. “Sadie?” she croaked.

“Oh, Sissy!” her sister sobbed. “You’re awake! You’re awake!”

“Where am I? What happened?”

“You don’t remember?” a different voice replied. It took her a minute to realize that it was Allison’s.

“I…” she trailed off. “I remember breaking up with J-Jay and then… I left his house?”

“You did, but-”

Sadie cut in. “Maybe we should call the doctor first and get him to explain it. Keep your eyes open, Sissy.”

Chelsea’s eyelids fluttered and she wildly looked around the room, taking in the typical decorations of a hospital suite. There was a tiny TV hanging in the right hand corner, but it was tilted towards her so she could see it properly. A beside table was also to her right with a beige-colored phone sitting on it, assumingly for her to contact her friends. But who would she call? Jay wanted nothing to do with her last time she checked and May had run away when she tried to approach her the other day. There was no one else.

Allison was sitting on an armchair near the window and she had a grim look on her face, her eyes not leaving the IV placed next to her housemate’s bed. A sinking feeling pooled in Chelsea’s stomach when she noticed it and the machine beeping continuously to her left. The beeping spiked.

“Was I in an accident?” she asked, scared of the answer. She wasn’t used to feeling so weak and helpless, but not having Jay by her side almost made her feel naked. “Ally? Answer me. Please.”

Allison shook her head. “Sadie’s right, Chelsea. Wait for the doctor to explain everything.”

Sighing in defeat, she settled back into the lumpy pillows and waited impatiently for her sister to come back. Five minutes later her dad barged into the room with his arms full of scented candles. They had weird symbols painted on them.

God… Not Wicca magic, anything but that. His rituals last forever!

She looked over at Allison and saw that she had a similar uneasy expression on her face. Henry O’Hara dumped all of the candles on the portable table at his daughter’s feet before shifting through them thoughtfully; chucking the ones he didn’t want in the bin. Her brother and sister followed him into the room and ignored his strange behavior. They were all used to his psychotic tendencies.

Sadie sat down on the chair next to their ward while Will settled down on the floor next to his sister’s bed. They sat in silence for a few more minutes until the doctor entered and smiled at them sadly. He turned to Chelsea.