All the Wrong Reasons

Hospital Visit

Chapter 3: Hospital Visit

Five minutes later, I straightened my clothes and emerged from the stall. Leaning over the sink, I spun the tap and splashed cold water on my face and neck, trying to cool my flushed skin. I felt slightly calmer, my racing heartbeat slowly returning to normal. I stared at my reflection and took a deep breath. I squared my shoulders and glared defiantly at the girl in the mirror.

“You can do this, Annabeth” I said out loud. I gazed at my reflection in the cracked, foxed mirror. A girl with wide, frightened blue eyes looked back at me. She was very pale, the bruise under her left eye standing out starkly. “You can so do this”

A friend of mine once said “pretence is everything. It doesn’t matter if inside you’re falling apart, as long as you pretend all is well, people will believe you”. My friend had been a very disturbed young man, but he did speak sense on occasion. I couldn’t keep going crazy like that. I needed to get myself under control.

Ashley pounced on me the moment I stepped out of the ladies.

“What the hell is wrong with you today?” she hissed, grabbing my arm and dragging me down the corridor.

“Nothing’s wrong” I said, pulling free.

“I mean, first you go all weird in English this morning, then you freak out in the middle of lunch. No wonder most people think you’re strange.”

“People don’t think I’m strange” I protested. Did they?

“That’s only because most of them don’t know who you are, that’s all. Otherwise, everyone would know you’re a weirdo”

That was comforting.

“You always say the nicest things, Ashley” I said coldly.

“You make it really difficult to be your friend sometimes. Do you try to embarrass me, or does it come naturally?”     

I let that comment slide.

“I’m just having a bit of a bad day, that’s all”

“You’re always having bad days” Ashley said derisively. “In fact, I don’t think you very have any good ones”

I plastered a huge smile on my face. I was so lucky to have such understanding friends.  

“I feel better now”

Ashley narrowed her eyes at me and pursed her lips.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Quite sure” I replied, turning the wattage up another notch.

“You’re not going to have another one of your little episodes?” Ashley stared at me suspiciously.

“Let’s go and see Charlotte and the others” I said, gripping Ashley’s arm and letting out what I hoped was a girlish giggle.

Of course, once Ashley knew, the rumour mill started spinning at full tilt. The news about Connor West had spread throughout the entire school by the end of the afternoon. As I walked down the corridor, I heard people talking about it, their faces all wearing identical “that’s too bad” expressions. Well, they all knew he had been in a car accident. On the specifics of said accident, they were a little hazy. I heard that he was fine; I heard he was hanging between life and death. I hadn’t heard my name mentioned yet, but it was surely only a matter of time.

By the end of the afternoon, my face was hurting from smiling so much and I was exhausted from keeping up the “happy happy” pretence. It seemed to have done the trick.  For once I was grateful Jennifer was coming to pick me up and I didn’t have to take the bus home.