Waiting Room

One

"Where are you going, Courtney?" A middle aged blonde hair woman said in distress.

"I just want to walk around," her eyes rolled "...by myself." The young blonde snapped at her mother, pushing herself out of bed and storming past the worried woman by her bedside.

She didn't understand. Well, that's what Courtney believed anyway, like most teenagers do. Their parents will never understand their problems, with school, friends, boys... not that any of these were her worries at the moment.

Her time on the children's ward had opened her mind immensely. Though she was 16, almost 17, and almost an adult, she'd never felt more like a kid than she had for the last few months. Surrounded by her parents, being watched every moment of everyday and having little to no privacy. What child does?

"Why does she walk off like that?" Courtney's mother, distressed, said to the nearest sibling who was perched on another chair by the bed.

Courtney felt no guilt in walking out, in fact, she took happiness in leaving her family feeling upset while she roamed the hospital corridors. In her baggy old t-shirt, loose leggings and a beanie over her short blond hair she sulked down onto one of the waiting room chairs with a large sigh.

Out here she was just another relative waiting to see a patient. She was free to act like a normal human being, and no one who passed her or looked at her knew any different. Though she was sure that a few bald patches on the back of her head were fairly visible below her red beanie.

A voice interrupted her wallowing thoughts immediately. "That was a large sigh." A small chuckled followed.

Courtney thought she was hearing things, she paused a looked around, and when she turned to her right she saw where the voice was coming from.

A guy, about her age, was sitting one seat away from her, slumped back in the waiting room chair his head in his right hand resting on the arm of the chair.

"I have a large family." She quipped a response.

He seemed to enjoy that. His lips parted into a smile and then joined once again as he straightened his posture and took another glance at the girl, only one seat between them.

"Who are you visiting?" The guy asked.

What else is one doing sitting in a waiting room after all.

Courtney froze for a second. Visiting? Yes, well that is what a person does while sitting in the waiting room. He's right, you're either waiting to visit someone or... well there is no or.

"My uh... sister." She managed to utter in a struggled breath for air as she was so unsure of how to respond to a question like that.

How could she just say 'Oh no, my family are visiting me.' That was always a conversation ender. Nobody loves talking to the sick girl.

Amongst her various nerves she managed to keep herself cool. "How about you?" She asked rather tentatively.

"No one." The guy ran his hand through his dirty blonde hair briefly, turning in his seat, to get a better look at Courtney.

When Courtney didn't say anything and instead, just continued to stare at him in confusion, he realised that was quite a concerning statement.

Why would a random guy be sitting in a waiting room if they weren't waiting to see someone?

"That sounds weird, sorry... My mom works here." Then quickly he added, "She's a nurse, recently moved here actually."

Courtney nodded in response. Maybe she knew his mom. Interesting.

"I've been grounded for staying out too late and failing my last couple of tests so I have to come and sit in this waiting room and study until she finishes her shift." He explained with a small pained laugh. "Luckily it isn't everyday."

"Well... You're doing a good job so far." Courtney noticed pointing at his textbooks on the chair that lay in between them. They looked untouched, firmly closed with no notes or post-it's in sight.

"Chemistry is boring." He stated with a small smile towards her. "I'm Shayne, by the way... I never mentioned."

"Courtney." She nodded in his direction.

"So, Courtney, how's your sister?" Shayne asked her curiously.

She had to stop and pause for a second. Her sister? Why did he want to know about her sister? How did he know she even had a sister? Then it hit her, she had lied to him within a minute of even knowing him.

"Sorry, it's a dumb question. She wouldn't be here if she was fine." Shayne immediately covered up his stupid remark.

"I think you're just asking questions so you don't have to go back to studying." She avoided answering at all cost, the more she spoke on the lie, the worst it would become.

"No, I'm interested. You're a mysterious girl in this hospital waiting room who must have something interesting to say to me. That was a pretty big sigh back there." Shayne turned and lifted his feet up on the chair and rested his chin on his knees, like a kid around a campfire.

"She got diagnosed a year ago with a rare blood cancer, I won't go into the boring name. I- She was admitted to this ward a few weeks back when my parents couldn't cope at home anymore." Courtney almost slipped up, she had to keep up the facade of her sister being ill now.

"That's rough, you ok?" Shayne stopped joking around and laughing and took the time to check in on her feelings.

"Yeah, I mean, my parents recently divorced so it's been hard on them. My sister... has had to go back and forth to different houses through all this and their incessant arguing doesn't make matters any better!" Courtney began trailing off into the nightmares she had been experiencing these last few months.

Shayne hung on every word she said like it was gospel and carefully responded to her delicate backstory. "I'm sorry, seems like you've really been through it."

"You don't know the half of it." Courtney rolled her eyes. She felt incredible comfortable opening up to him and telling him all about herself, or well, her sister.

"Anyway, enough about me. Why are you grounded?" She changed the subject quickly.

"Oof, you want to get in to the bad side of me? Fine, I was at a party until quite late a few weeks back and the next day I had this big test and I failed, big time." Shayne explained almost with a guilty look on his face, he'd clearly been reprimanded for this.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise I was talking to a bad boy?" Courtney smirked trying to hold back her laughter.

"Oh yeah, real bad. Sometimes I leave the toilet seat up..." He leant close to her across the seat that lay between them and pretended to whisper into her ear.

Courtney lent in close pretending to be enthralled with his story. "Tell me more, please!" She quipped sarcastically.

"Courtney!" A shrill voice said from behind her, she lent away from Shayne and sat back in her chair, almost expecting what was about to happen. "You can't keep walking away like this." Courtney's mom was now stood over her, lecturing Courtney about storming off earlier.

Shayne pulled away and pretended he hadn't just been talking to her. In the corner of his eye he watched her closely.

"Come on, back to the room." Her mom sternly said while waiting for Courtney to move.

She let out a long sigh and eventually stood up and followed her mom back to the room down the corridor.

Before she left completely, Shayne made sure to call out 'See ya, Courtney.'

When she turned back a smile filled her face as she smirked at the kind stranger. "Bye, Shayne." She mouthed. He returned the smile, adding a small wink as he watched her disappear down the corridor.