FLY BOY - Completed

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

River felt like she was floating on a cloud. Every so often she would surface enough to hear snatches of garbled conversation, but then she would feel a pull and gently drift away.

She surfaced once to feel someone hovering over her; if the white lab coat and stethoscope around his neck were any indication, he was probably a doctor. He kept calling her name and when she finally focused on him, he beamed a small instrument with a bright light into her eyes. She was so tired though, that he was gone in the blink of an eye.

Another time she surfaced and a very worried Dayden was holding her arms down on either side of her, begging her to calm down. He kept telling her she was safe now, and no one would hurt her. River would have been upset about the fact that he was physically restraining her, if she had not been so shocked to see tears in his eyes and such a worried look on his face. Before she could ask him what was wrong though, she was sucked back into the black void where nothing mattered.

One time she woke to total silence. It was so quiet that she almost wondered if everyone had given up on her and left. Worried, she slowly turned her head and searched the room. She recognized the room - it was hers. The only difference was, now it had some new age medical equipment surrounding her bed. As she slowly scanned the different machines, she was surprised to find Dayden slumped over asleep in the corner. He was sitting stretched out on her very uncomfortable wooden desk chair.

He looked rough, she thought, which was a look she had never seen on Dayden before. He had a bandage wrapped around his right hand and there were bags under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept in a long time. His cheeks were sunken in and he was extremely pale. It also looked like he had not shaved in a couple of days and his hair was dull and messier than normal. His clothes too, were a rumpled mess, but what stood out the most, were the dark reddish brown stains that covered his shirt and jeans. She watched him in silence until she could no longer keep her eyes open.

An angry sounding voice woke her the next time. Randomly enough it was Master Sergeant Richards. He was standing at the foot of her bed. He had his hands crossed in front of his chest and he was glaring at Dayden. "If you weren't here and you weren't at the gym with the other Fly Boys and clearly you weren't studying with Scotty Adams as your note indicated, then where were you?"

Instead of being in his usual seat next to River's bed, Dayden was standing stiffly in front of it. He was frowning back at Sergeant Richards as he nervously ran one hand through his messy dark curls; a telltale sign that he was agitated. He stammered over his words, "Ahh... well I came back from class... ah... then intended to study with Scotty, ahh... but instead..."

"He was with me," a female voice cut in.

River's eyes followed the sound to the opposite side of her bed and standing there, looking simply gorgeous as usual, was Hailey McTague, Dayden's ex-girlfriend. What the heck was she doing here, River wondered. Hailey with her flawless complexion and long blonde, sun kissed hair, River couldn't help but feel resentment. She noticed Hailey had one of those sickeningly sweet heart shaped smiles too. How unfair was it that Hailey got to look so great when River felt so awful? Just as River was taking note of Hailey's beautiful catlike eyes, she spoke again.

"We met up at the library, then went for a walk together." Hailey's voice was soft yet confident. She almost sounded proud to have been the one who had been with Dayden.

River suddenly wanted to claw her beautiful eyes right out of her head.

"What about the two evenings prior to that?" Sergeant Richards asked keeping his eyes locked on Dayden. "Your alibi didn't hold up for those two nights either, according to Scotty Adams."