Unpredictable (A Dance Story)

Chapter 4

I looked over to the other side and saw Mimi holding the hand that was all wrapped up. That was strange, I hadn't even realized that she'd taken my hand.

"Ells, darling, can you feel this?" she asked.

"Feel what?" I was confused. She wasn't doing anything...And then I realized that she was squeezing the bandaged hand, and I couldn't feel a bit of pressure. I cried out, ripping my left hand out of dad's grip, and pinched my right arm. Nothing.

***

After realizing that my right arm was completely useless, I couldn't help the tears running down my face. The nurse explained that it was paralyzed, likely from the impact of this mysterious car accident that I didn't even remember, and I had sensory loss so that I had no feeling whatsoever.

I asked for a mirror. I wanted to see my face. After looking in the mirror, I found myself making a gurgling noise of disgust. My face, especially the right side, was a bloody mess. Literally. I had scrapes and cuts twice as bad as my mother's, and a long stitched-up gash going down my cheek.

They told me that I was lucky. I had an arm. A stupid, useless, freaking arm. But an arm nonetheless. I was disgusted with myself, the mess I was at the moment. Deep breaths couldn't stop the salty tears from pouring down my ruined cheeks. My family left the little section I was in, letting me wallow in pity all by myself for a while. The little bubbly noise on the stand beside my bed surprised me. There was my iPhone in its pink Otterbox, nothing but a little spidery crack in the corner of the screen. Well, then. One good thing gleaned from this experience: Otterboxes really did work.

I reached over and grabbed it. Luckily the stand was on my left side. I looked at the screen and saw:

28 NEW MESSAGES

The latest ones popped up. 19 of the messages were from Abbie, 7 from Holden, and 2 from Logan.

"Ella! Please respond!"

Abbie's messages started with "How's vacation going?" and ended with, "You always reply. Is something wrong?" and "Please respond!"

Holden's messages followed the same pattern, only there were less of them. Logan's said "Hope u have fun on vacation" and "Don't 4get 2 send beach pictures."

I set the phone on my lap and poked at it hesitantly with my good arm.

"Abbie everything is wrong plz call when yu get this."

I couldn't fix some of the words I messed up, so I just sent it as it was. No more than a minute later, my phone vibrated, saying "Call from Abbie."

I hit the speaker button and Abbie's voice rang out.

"Ells, what's wrong?"

"I'm in the hospital," I replied.

"Oh God, what happened!?"

"Just come."

"Be there in twenty."

Her voice disconnected and I started to cry again.

***

It wasn't long before my two best friends walked in. Abbie held a Starbucks frappuccino for me and Holden had a little flower.

Abbie had obviously been scrambling. Her blonde hair, which was always carefully styled, was thrown up into the messiest of messy buns. She wore sweatpants and a shirt that didn't match with a pair of old flip flops. Holden had probably scrambled as well, but even when he messily put himself together, he looked good. The sad little flower had been picked out of his back garden. I knew because we had planted those flowers a couple years ago.

Abbie let out a cry, like my mother, and sat on the edge of the bed. "Ells, please, what happened?"

"They told me I got in a car accident," I replied calmly. I had tried to put myself together in the time before they showed up.

"You don't remember?" Holden asked, sitting in the chair beside the hospital bed.

I shook my head no. All I remembered was the Friday before.

"Are your parents okay?"

"Yeah. They're fine, just a little scratched up."

"And you're not?" Holden asked.

I glanced over at my right arm and Holden reached for it, trying to hold the limp hand.

"Oh God..."

"It's paralyzed," I choked out.

My calm facade melted away and I burst into tears again, wiping my eyes with my left hand. Abbie started to cry too, laying down beside me. Holden gripped the paralyzed hand and tried to calm us both down, but in the end we all ended up crying over something we couldn't change.

***

I know, long. And emotional. Ella doesn't say it, but you're all probably wondering about dance. We'll get to that soon enough.

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~HalleBallet