The Journey That Is Life; A Teenage Perspective

Chapter 5- Knowing is Growing

    To know is to grow. To grow is to know. And now I know not to get lost in Luke's eyes while walking. I didn't have enough energy to open my eyes now. I was tired, I was embarrassed, and I don't even recall what happened at the moment. My head was spinning, my ears were ringing, I was over thinking, and I felt as if I was having an anxiety attack, but I didn't know where I was. But someone's voice took my attention away from my inner thoughts, "Ms. Smith." I didn't know who it was, I don't know who calls me Ms. Smith other than my drama teacher once in an improvisation game, but I was sure wherever I was he wasn't here. "Matilda, you're okay, you're in the hospital, your family is here." same voice again spoke, but it was quite obvious the unknown voice came from someone in the field of doctors or nurses, now.

"Is she okay? Is she awake?" An eager voice asked out; my mother. I’m surprised she wasn’t with Troy, yet I rolled my eyes, although my eye lids were still closed, now I'm not sure if I want to even open my eyes now, but I attempted to sigh, it came out more as a harsh sound though, and I felt eyes on me. "Maddi, Maddi, open your eyes." my mom continued, my chest felt heavy.

"Please sit down Mrs.Smith, the last thing this poor girl needs is loud voices." The doctor nurse person said, almost whispering, but I could tell it was a women doctor nurse. Gosh, so many women in here, for all I know, she was watching me sleep closer than they usually do. I thought to myself, struggling a smile. I think it worked, but I felt a warm hand on the side of my face, then it slid off and there were foot steps leaving from where I was to a few feet away.

I knew it was my mom touching my face; she stretches my face when she does that, and she thinks it's a 'Sweet Human Touch' but I clearly beg to differ, I hate it. And I'm not sure if doctors or nurses really have the need to caress the side of my face either. Well maybe they do that, I wouldn't know, the worse injury I've gotten before was a black eye and I didn't need to get hospitalized for that, in fact I put a frozen dinner over my eye and it worked like a charm. Charm. That one word I thought of immediately made me think of Luke, so the ambition to open my eyes skyrocketed. So I tried, it took me a few seconds to adjust to the light, but with squinting, I managed to search across the room.

Straight ahead of my hospital bed sat my mom on her phone probably texting my dad who was either at home, work, or in the lobby, with Troy. Beside me where all the gadgets sat, stood the unknown doctor nurse, whom I assumed was a nurse, as all she was writing down my statistics of how I was doing. Her hair was up in a clean bun, and her skin was tan. Maybe she just came back from holidays, because she didn't look too amused to be here. I heard a knock on the door, and I turned my eyes from the nurse to the door, where the first thing I saw was green emerald eyes. Not as open as I'm used to seeing, but they were there, which means Luke is here. I felt relieved, but as soon as that feeling left I realized how bad I must look, and I closed my eyes. And tried to move my neck but it was stiff and it hurt. The knock on the door happened again, this time the nurse sighed and went to answer it.

"I was with Matilda Smith when the crash occurred, I wanted to see if she was alright." His voice seemed down, but I felt his eyes on me. The nurse let him in, probably singling him to be quiet as I almost didn't hear him walk over to me, but I did feel him caress my wrist, the wrist I now remember he was holding to try to pull me away, "I'm sorry." he whispered. His voice was quiet, I'm not sure if anyone else in the room heard, but I know I did but it soothed me more than the painkillers. He crouched down to get my height laying down, and I opened my eyes when I felt him closer, and he smiled without teeth, and so did I. And the two others in room must have noticed because suddenly Luke got told to wait by my eager mom and the nurse started asking me questions, and telling me what happened. She talked very slowly, I'm used to teachers talking to me slow but this time I appreciated it. I found out I could possibly have a concussion, and my right arm was broken, and a few minor scrapes and bruises all over from impact.

"I must look horrible." I struggled to say, it sounded shaky but understandable. Everyone in the room chuckled at that statement but little do they know it wasn't a joke, but that's fine. I was released from the hospital a week later, where every day Zoë, my family and Luke, visited me. And I left with my bag of medications, and a cast that would be taken off soon.

Soon. Before our winter Vacation