The last 24 hours...

10:56

Time crawls into the later hours. The clock climbs to 7:30PM and Connie sits with Claudia in the Relatives Room. Claudia looked drained and exhausted and had streaks of black smudged under her eyelids.
"How have you been?" Connie asked, piercing the silence.
"Fine." Claudia replied bluntly not even having the audacity to look Connie in the eye when she was speaking.
'Fine' was probably the most overrated word in the Oxford Dictionary - Connie knew that.
Connie gave Claudia Sam's routine blood results and told her what the specialist had said. Claudia stayed silent and nodded quietly.
"What if Sam dies?" Claudia asked concerningly. Connie sighed.
"That could be possible, it's too early to say where he will be in a months time or so."
Claudia gasped,"a month? What is that supposed to mean?"
"We have to sustain Sam in a coma to help him recover. Sam had a severe brain injury and the right ventricle of his heart had fluid-"
"But he will be okay?"
"Let's just hope for now." Connie said placing her hand on Claudia's for support. Claudia flinched at Connie's touch and folded her arms across her chest.
Suddenly the doors swung open and a petite, olive skinned girl bursts into the room. She hugs Claudia and Claudia hugs her back.
"Alice! I'm so glad to see you!" Claudia said smiling, holding Alice's hand.
"How ya'll doing? Is Sammy okay?" Spoke Alice is a smooth American accent. The slang and nicknames made Connie roll her eyes in disgust.
"Ima go see him." Alice said, with slightly less enthusiasm.l and left the room. The florescent pink suitcase had been left by the door for anyone to trip over if they entered the room too quickly and an iPod with its earphones outstretched on the coffee table bleeding out One Direction. Alice entered the room 20 minutes later with tear stained eyes and a sniffely nose which was red.
"How did it all happen so fast?" Alice cried but it was hard to understand through multiple sniffles. Connie offered Alice a tissue.
The three of them sat in silence on the sofa with the regular "tick-tock" of the wall clock annoyingly hung in the air. Connie thought of Grace, surely she would be in bed by now, she checked her phone for the time and it was crawling up to 9:30.
"Do excuse me, I just have to make a call." Connie said, breaking the silence and slipping just outside the room. She dialled a number on her phone and awaited a response.
"Hello." Replied the voice on the other side.
"Hello, I'm just checking-"
"You've reached Jacobs mail box. Leave a message after the tone-"
Connie cut off the voice and groaned to herself. She waited on a bench by the wall opposite the 'Relatives room' door and listened to the mustled voices of Alive and Claudia arguing. Intrigued, Connie leant up against the door and carefully listened.
"Tell Connie or I will!"
"Why? It won't change anything."
"Claudia! Wake up of course it does!"