Life Through a Lense

Chapter Twenty Three

"Watch out!" 

My mom always nagged me about being so absent-minded and completely unaware of my surrounding whenever I put on my headphones. And on the busy streets of L.A, that could be especially dangerous. In my defense, I never put them in while I was driving. Besides, I usually never walked more than a couple blocks from where I parked. Ivy had taken the car to go visit Charlotte and Michelle had picked me up from my apartment to go out to lunch. But since Michelle was running late for class, I told her it was fine if I walked home since it was only like twenty minutes from where we were eating. So I put in my headphones and started watching Youtube (definitely NOT a Taylor Swift music video) to entertain myself on the way home. 

Then stepped right in front of a car. 

Before I could even look over to see the car, I was already knocked to the ground with all the air sucked out of my lungs. My earphones were ripped from my ears and my phone out of my hand. A tornado of discombobulated thoughts swirled around in my head, none of them really related and unable to string any of them together. All the muscles in my body are tensed up like they're trying to turn my body into a rock. 

A crowd of people gathered in a circle above me peers down at my face. Some of them seem genuinely concerned but mostly its expressions of morbid curiosity. Man, this will be a story they can tell tonight when they get home. Some almost look disappointed when I open my eyes and seem to not be dying. 

"Don't move, dear," a woman that looked to be in her mid-thirties in a nurse's uniform (who looked eerily like my elementary school nurse). 

Against her better judgment, I sat up, my head spinning with the motion. Someone was patting me down for some unknown reason but I was way too out of it to say anything. 

"It doesn't look like she has any broken bones," a man said as soon as the patting stopped. Okay, at least it was for a reason. 

"She could still have a concussion," the nurse said.

A car horn blared behind the car that hit me, making me wince. 

"I feel fine," I assured. 

"Honey, don't move anymore," the nurse insisted. 

I couldn't move anyway. My tensed muscles were now turning to jelly as I struggled to stay sitting up. The nurse saw my struggle and kneeled down behind me. 

"Here, put your head on my lap," she offered. 

Too weak to object, I put my head on her lap and shut my eyes, all the commotion around me much too stimulating for my brain right now. For just a moment I felt like a little kid again, laying my head on my mom's lap at a restaurant when I was too tired.

"I called 911," someone said. 

Another spike of adrenaline shot through me at the sound of that. A trip to the hospital was the last thing I wanted to do today. 

"I'm fine," I insisted, sitting up again.

"You were just hit by a car, you're not fine," the nurse objected. 

Sitting up hurt like a mother fucker, but it wasn't nearly as bad as last time now that I could finally breathe easier. Uneasy, but stable, I stood up on my own, using someone's random shoulder to balance myself. Sirens were blaring in the distance. 

"I'm good!" I assured. 

Hands were grabbing at me, trying to get me to sit back down, but I shook them off and kept walking away. I didn't have time to deal with a police report or a trip to the ER. 

There was someone I had to see. 

*** 

"What do you mean he's not here?" I demanded.