Chasing White [Draft 1]

Chapter 18: How to Throw the Perfect Punch, According to Science

Belmont Hospital. December 23, 2017.

Tori glances out the window, her jaw clenched so hard that she's frowning.

"Can you tell me why I'm driving to the hospital?"

"Headache." She replies coldly.

I glance at Tori, adjusting my grip on the wheel, "You don't want me to just give you some aspirin?"

"I'm fine." She growls, golden eyes blazing in anger. Focusing my attention back on the road, I bite my lip.

"Where do you want me to park?"

"I don't fucking care. Anywhere," She shakes her head violently.

I tap my fingers on the steering wheel, holding my tongue. It's best not to talk to Tori when she's like this. Just move on from the subject. Glancing at the rear view mirror, I make sure that Iz is okay. Pulling up in the front of the hospital, I find a parking spot in the empty night lot. Tori is out of the car before I have time to park.

I gasp, worried that the momentum off the car somehow hurt Tori. Parking the car, I hop out and look for the psychopathic that apparently wants to kill herself.

"Iz, baby, come on." I grab Iz's hand and shut the door.

"Mommy, is Tori okay?"

I look up to find her, already marching towards the hospital.

The hospital doors slide open just in time, narrowly missing the wrath of the fiery redhead. I'm sure that if they didn't open, Tori would have broken them.

Tori viciously slams her finger on the elevator button, clearly pissed off at something that isn't the elevator button.

"Can you tell me what's wrong? Because if we're going to do something illegal I'd like to know if I'm operating the getaway car."

"I thought you said illegal was bad." Iz looks up at me with wide eyes.

Tori doesn't answer, more pleased with the fact the elevator doors has opened and not my wit. She walks in and turns swiftly to face me.

"Are you coming?" Her voice is terribly harsh.

I quickly hop into the elevator before it has time to close. Tori presses the button for the second floor and takes a step back.

The elevator doors slide shut and the whole thing lurches as it moves up to the next floor but it seems to take hours. The doors finally open and Tori pushes her way through a gaggle of doctors and nurses. I squeeze my way through, trying my best to keep up with Tori. My jaw drops when I see a familiar redhead in a doctor's coat at the nurses station.

And that's who Tori's heading towards.

She stops next to her mom and glares up at the older woman.

"What's the date?"

"I don't have time for this." Meredith mumbles, looking through some sort of chart.

"Mom!"

Meredith's head rolls then she turns to Tori, her eyebrows raised in annoyance.

"Okay. I'll play. Was it a dance thing I missed?"

Tori gapes. "N-n-no. No!-"

"A school thing? A family thing? One of your many rants about my terrible mothering skills?"

"I just want you to tell me the date." Tori's voice is quiet but scary. Almost a warning.

Meredith rolls her eyes, clearly not hearing the warning, "Okay, you know what? How many times have I told not to bother me at work? And for something as stupid as the date."