Salient Secret

Chapter 2

The next day, I woke up to the sound of my mom's voice, she sounded anxious, upset.

"How could I forget? She can't go to school today without those pills, I have a meeting in 10 minutes, I will never make it to the hospital and be back on time," she must have been talking to my dad on the phone. After a few seconds, I heard her saying goodbye and walking upstairs towards me.

She knocked on the door twice before I said, "Come in."

"Honey, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot to pick up those pills the doctor prescribed yesterday, I got so distracted when we were leaving, work called, and I can't get them before you go to school because I have a meeting in 7 minutes," she rambled on as she looked at her watch frantically. She was so stressed. I hated seeing her like this.

"Okay so go, you're going to be late, I will uber to the hospital, pick up the pills, and uber to school, it's not a big deal mom, I'm almost 18, I'm capable of doing this on my own," I said to her with a comforting smile.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" she asked with concern in her eyes. I knew she hated me ubering anywhere, it wasn't safe, but the hospital was nearby and so was school.

"Yes, I'm sure mom, it's right here, and you need to go," I said.

She hesitated before saying, "Yeah okay, you're right, I'm overthinking this, I will leave the prescription on the kitchen counter," she kissed me on the head and made her way out of my room, "Love you, bye," she added.

I walked into the bathroom, brushed my teeth, tied my curly hair into a bun, slipped on a pair of jeans, a hoodie, and sneakers, ate a banana, grabbed the prescription, and called an uber.

On my way to the hospital I shot Maya a message letting her know I'd be a little late for school today with a brief explanation of why.

Thankfully I stood in a short line at the pharmacy inside the hospital. The lady behind the counter seemed so tired, and it was only 7am. I handed her my prescription and she slowly put everything together before handing me the brown bag with everything inside.

I started heading out and pulled out my phone to let my mom know I got everything and was headed to school now. As I sent the message, I noticed a middle aged man staring at me from across the parking lot, I still needed to call an uber and wait for it to get here. Standing outside the way I was, didn't seem smart.

He was making me very uncomfortable, I couldn't let him know I was alone for the next 10 minutes, that's all it would take for him to sling me over his shoulder and into what would probably be a white van with no windows. I didn't even make eye contact before I hooked arms with a stranger that was walking into the hospital.

"Please play along, there's a man staring at me outside, and I'm alone," I murmured softly to the stranger whose face I hadn't even paid attention to. I could tell by the clothes the stranger wore that he was a guy. I glanced up as my plan started to seem dangerous and the stranger was staring back at the man with a look that would make me cower if I was on the receiving end of it.

We entered the hospital, and I unhooked my arm and took a step back from the stranger.

"Thank y-"

"That wasn't very smart, what if I knew him, you didn't even look at me, those type of guys usually work in pairs or groups, and they don't watch you like that to take you to Disneyland, they do it to kidnap you and use you for human trafficking or worse..." he trailed off, but he didn't need to go on for me to understand what he was saying. He was genuinely angry with me.

"You're angry," I said to myself more than him. "You're angry with me but you don't even know me."

"I don't need to know you to know what you just did was stupid," he spat back.