Me Versus Me

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

            I woke up to a bright room with white walls and the smell of disinfectant burning in my nose. I was surprised to see my best friend asleep in the chair next to the bed, her head thrown back on the top of the chair and her mouth open. Christie never did sleep like a normal girl. I shook my head and quickly realized that movement of my head of any kind would be painful. I tried to sit up, but I was gently pushed back.

            "Relax, you should take it easy."

            "Ivan? When did I get here?" I asked still a little grogy. I felt like I'd just woken up from a three year nap. He smiled down at me.

            "A while ago."

            "You're being vague. Vague scares me," I said, my eyes going wide.

            "You came in on Monday."

            "What's today?"

            “Tuesday," he mumbled.

            "Oh thank God."

            He stuffed his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "Tuesday, the seventeenth."

            "I've been in here for a week!" I shouted a little louder than I'd meant to.

            "Shh, but yeah. You scared us. The doctors were worried you weren't going to wake up."

            "I can't believe I was out for a week."

            "Doctors call it a 'mini-coma.'" He used air quotes around mini-coma. I tried to sit up again, but Ivan only pushed me down again. "Seriously, chill. You could hurt yourself if you move too much."

            I nodded my head towards my snoozing best friend. "How long has she been here?"

            "She comes in everyday after school. She does her homework and stays here pretty late. She stayed over the weekend though. She was really scared you were going to die." I smiled at his words eventhough it pained me to know Christie was spending so much time here on my account. She really was the greatest friend I could have asked for.

            "This is why I love her."

            "Yeah well I can't say the same. You think it'd be child abuse for a 21-year old guy to hit a 17-year old?"

            "Ivan." I gave him a straight face. He and Christie had never gotten along. I had tried to set them up on a blind date when Marco and I first got together. To say it didn't end well was an understatement. Christie had thrown a drink in his face and then he'd left her at the restaurant without a ride and Marco and I had to go get her. I was never quite sure what had happened that night since they both gave different stories. Christie had told me he was being a complete ass and wouldn't take his eyes off her cleavage. She said he'd made a really sexual comment so she threw the drink in his face and he left. Ivan, on the other hand had told a totally different story. Ivan had said that she was being really bitchy the whole night and she wouldn't stop talking about her ex. He said he made a joke about her ex-boyfriend and how he was  lucky she'd dumped him, something about dodging a bullet. Then she threw her drink on him and he left. To this day, I had no idea what had really happened.

            "Okay, okay." He held his hands up innocently and I couldn't help but think how cute it was when he did that. "I'd probably end up the victim of some police brutality thing anyway just because I'm black," he joked. I laughed and he stared at me with a weird look on his face.