Love Me (Normani)

Chapter 22

"You can't do this!" Normani screamed as her mother literally dragged her towards the entrance doors of their local hospital. "Oh can't I? Watch me." She bit back bitterly. "I thought this was what you wanted? For me to care." Andrea continued. "No! Well yes but not like this!" Normani cried. "And look at how you're doing this now! You don't really care!" "Stop it child you're embarrassing me!" Andrea hissed in the face of her terrified daughter. Normani whimpered and tried desperately to break free from her mother's tight hold on her. "Let me go Mom!" She begged. "Please!" "Stop, making a scene. Get in there!" Andrea jerked the girl in and pushed her towards the reception of A&E. "Here. You can take her. She's crazy, I don't want to look at her." Andrea said coldly to the receptionist before she abandoned Normani at the hospital. Several nurses took one look at the skinny girl and hurriedly grabbed a gurney, heart machines and blood pressure cuffs. Get the hell out of there! You can just go! "Get away from me! I'm sixteen, I'm going." "Uh no, you're not going anywhere. We can't let you leave like this." A nurse said as she helped her onto the bed. Normani was the epitome of terrified, and she really wanted to escape this situation and run away, but she had no energy to fight back. "What's your name?" Don't tell them. "Oh I've seen her in school! Her name is Normani Kordei!" Normani whipped around to see a fellow student in A&E with what looked like a broken arm. "You bitch! I hope your arm fucking hurts!" Normani sneered. "Here." A nurse said in a worried voice making Normani turn around curiously. "See there? Look at these handprints." Mom, what have you done? "I'll call social." "No!" Normani protested the idea quickly. "No, no my..sister, my sister will come for me!" "What's her name?" "Lauren Jauregui." "What? But you and Lauren-" the student from before interrupted. "Are totally related! Haha-shut your mouth!" She hissed. The student was intimidated now and just shut up. "I'll give her a call." No, you do it! You want to get out of this, right?? "I'll do it, please. She'll overreact if one of you do it." The three nurses all shared an uncertain and hesitant look between them. "Please." Normani begged. "Okay." The male nurse agreed and Normani was wheeled down a mysterious, long corridor. "W-Where are we going?" Normani asked shakily. "You'll find out soon. Give your sister a call." She's Hispanic. You'll never get away with it. Normani got out her phone with shaking hands and scrolled down her contacts to Lauren's number, ringing it quickly. There were four rings, and Normani feared the girl wouldn't pick up before she heard a familiar voice, "Hello?" "Taylor! Taylor hurry, where's Lauren??" She asked the girl's sibling in an extremely panicky voice. "She's in the bathroom." Taylor answered slowly, clearly confused. "Why?" "I really need her to come to the general hospital now!" "Uh-okay, are you okay? What's happening?" "Please just get her down here!" "Okay okay I'm on it!" She could hear the younger girl racing up the stairs. "I'll get her there as soon as possible." Taylor said before she hung up. Please God let her come, and fucking fast. "Lauren!!" Taylor shouted at the bathroom door. "What, Taylor? I'm kinda busy!" "Normani called!" Lauren froze, got up, flushed the toilet and went to wash her hands hurriedly. "What-wait did you answer my phone?" "Yes but it doesn't matter!" "Taylor for-" "Lauren she's in the hospital!" "What? Well what's wrong? What happened?" "I have no idea but it sounded important. She needs you to get there now." "Fuck, okay, okay thanks." She hurried towards her bedroom and Taylor followed. "Okay Taylor your job is done now you can go!" Lauren shouted over her shoulder. "I have your phone!" Taylor shouted back and threw it on her bed before shutting the bedroom door behind her. Honestly you do someone a favour and they just yell at you. Taylor thought to herself. Meanwhile Lauren was grabbing her bag, phone and her car keys and racing downstairs to her car. "Thanks Tay! Love you!" Taylor smiled. That's better. "Wait Lauren where are you-" Clara called out before the front door shut. "going." She sighed with a small chuckle. Lauren darted to her car, called Camila, put her phone on the next seat and sped down the road. "Laurennnn, I was having a nap!" Camila whined. "Normani's in the hospital!" "What? I'm on my way!" Camila shouted before the call ended and Lauren sighed, worriedly running a hand through her disheveled hair, of course there'd be traffic. "Fuck." She sighed, on the verge of tears from worry. Her leg bounced and she decided to go another way, even if it was a longer way she would still get there before she did stuck in this traffic. She picked Camila up too since it was on the way. It took them approximately fifteen minutes to get down to the hospital before she parked her car in the first space she saw. "Get out and go! I'll go pay for the ticket and shit." Camila said as she got out of the car. "Thanks Camz!" Lauren called as she ran to the hospital and slammed her hands at the reception desk, the action was mostly permitted to stop herself from collapsing from lack of air, but it probably didn't come across as such. "Normani Kordei, where is she?" "Right, who are you?" "Lauren, I'm her sister." "No you're not!" The same girl said from Normani's encounter. "Shut your mouth!" Lauren hissed the same way her best friend had. "Straight down the corridor, take the elevator up to the second floor, third door on your right." "Thank you!" Lauren called over her shoulder as she ran breathlessly to the end of the corridor. She pressed the button on the elevator several times quickly and then texted Camila where to go while the lift took her up to her desired floor. "Name?" "Lauren Jauregui, I'm here for Normani Kordei." "Sisters without the same surname and appearance-" "Look it's complicated okay, where is she?" "Room 304, just through there." Obviously the man didn't believe a word of it, but he sensed that the girls were very close and let it slide. "Mani!" Lauren shouted in pure relief when she caught sight of her best friend. "Lauren oh my god!" She cried out in a shaky voice and hugged her tightly. "It's okay, it's okay I'm here. What happened? Oh, Camila's coming too, she's just paying for the parking." "M-my Mom forced me into the car and literally dragged me in here and then she just left me." Lauren lifted her arm up and examined the harsh handprint marks on her forearms. "Oh shit." "Lauren please you have to get me out of here!" She begged. Lauren looked at the girl properly, she was hooked to a heart machine, the skinny girl had a child's blood pressure cuff around her upper arm and an IV needle in. It was the fourth one since Normani kept pulling them out. But of course Lauren didn't know that. Lauren took a deep breath and hesitantly shook her head. "No." "No?!" "Shh keep your voice down or I'll get kicked out of here." Lauren said in a low voice as a nurse passed by Normani's door. "Please Lauren you have to! Look what they're doing to me!" She begged tearfully. "But Mani this is the only way you're gonna get better!" "I'm fine!" Normani croaked. "No you're not! You're not "fine" Normani and it's doing you no good pretending everything is okay! It's not!" Lauren shouted as tears formed in her eyes. "Fine, I get it. Some best friend you are, some "sister", right?" Ooh, manipulation, well done for once. "Normani come on, you have to understand-" "No Lauren it's you who doesn't understand. If you were here you'd be begging and pleading me to do exactly the same. And I'd do it for you!" "Normani you're not thinking rationally-" "Fine. Just go." "Mani please-" "I said, go, Lauren." Lauren swallowed thickly and let out a shaky breath. "You don't mean that." "Yes I do. I do, I want you to go, just leave me alone." Lauren looked away from the girl and wiped at her eyes. "No, I'm not leaving you. What kind of best friend would that make me? A terrible one." "You're already a terrible one for not getting me out of this mess!" "This "mess" is going to get you better!" "I don't want to get better! I don't need to get better because I'm not fucking sick!" "Yes you are!" Lauren shouted back. "I'm not!" Normani ripped the IV out and pulled the blood pressure cuff off, getting out of the hospital bed. "I'm not sick! I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not-" suddenly a nurse had rushed in and jabbed a sharp needle into her neck and everything went blurry before it went black and she feel limp. "What-what did you just do to her?" Lauren asked in horror. "I had to give her a sedative." She answered as she placed the girl back in the bed. "She won't wake up for a long time, maybe you should go home and get her some clothes. She's likely to have a long stay." "Yeah," Lauren breathed as she wandered back down the halls. "not if she has anything to do with it." "Lauren! Where is she?" Camila asked hurriedly when she saw the girl heading to the exit. Lauren just collapsed to the floor in tears and Camila hurriedly caught her best friend, kneeling down with her and holding her as she cried her eyes out. "Shh, I've got you Laur." She soothed, stroking her hair as Lauren clutched her shirt so tightly her nails were digging into her back. Well, this couldn't be good.