Finding the Lost

Chapter Ten: Home

Chapter Ten

I am woken by the opening of a door, followed by quiet footsteps.

"Sshhh! Don't wake her up, Bigfoot!" a voice says.

"Not so quiet yourself, Twinkletoes." The next voice retorts.

I can only guess that Bigfoot is Cathy and Twinkletoes is Avery. Nicknames since preschool... long story.

"It's too dark in here!" Avery whines.

"If you turn on that light, I swear I will snap you like a twig." Cathy responds, almost seriously.

The footsteps get closer.

"Look at her, all... bruised." Avery says. I can almost hear the lightbulb flick on in her head. "I should give her a makeover when she wakes up!" she whispers/shouts.

"No way in hell, Avery." I groan. I open my eyes to see Cathy over by the table with food on it. "Really, Cathy? What about me?"

She turns to face me, smiles at me, waves and then... goes back to the food. Classic Cathy. I turn back to Avery.

"So... any news? Drama? Romance?" I pretend to be interested in her love life and gossip.

"Well, actually yes. But not me." She starts jumping in place. "It's you!" she's basically screaming.

"What?" I say, dumbfounded. I've never really liked a guy, and now there's drama about me and one?

"Miles! That hot guy in our classes!" She's squealing. Uugh! "I heard from Moira-"

"Moira? Moira! You know that she's hated me ever since... Ever! Why do believe anything she's said. She's probably trying to make me look like a fool." I mumble the last part.

"Let me finish." she says and I sigh. "Anyway... I heard from Moira- I was not actually talking to her, but she was talking to her friends; I overheard. Back to what I was saying... I overheard her telling a story to her friends: 'So, during Science, I tried to partner up with that cute guy, Miles. But, he said he already had an eye out for someone else!' So... I did some asking around to some of the Jocks on Miles' team. They said he kept talking about this one girl... BRYN KOLT!" at this, she's jumping up and down, squealing.

"So... recap. Miles likes me, but Moira also likes him. That's a bad combination." Moira is well known to do whatever possible to get what she wants.

"Yep!" She says, still insanely happy.

"Do you realize what this means?" I say, my voice rising in panic. "It means Moira has more of a reason to hate me!"

"Oh, darling. She doesn't hate you!" she pauses. "She just dislikes you. Very strongly."

"Yeah, what she said." I hear Cathy from the other side of the room. Her mouth full of food.

I notice my oxygen mask is still on. Wow. Five days with it on and I barely notice it.

"Hope I can leave here soon." I mumble.

"Don't worry! If you can't leave, we won't be entirely mad." Cathy says, now stuffing her face with a sandwich.

"Let me guess why..." I tap my chin. "You like the hospital food?"

She pretends to be taken aback by this. "I am so hurt that you think that!" she traces an imaginary tear.

Just then, my dad- I mean, Dr. Kolt, walks in with a grin plastered on his face. This must be good.

"Good news Bryn- hi Avery, Cathy" Cathy nods from over at the food table. I wave her over, reluctantly she does. "Well, today you can go home. Your oxygen levels are normal and you can now properly send oxygen through your body."

"Yay!" I hear Avery on my right.

"That's good!" Cathy says and slaps my back.

Ow!

"When can I leave?" I ask impatiently.

"As soon as you are discharged by your doctor-me-, and your parent or guardian-me- signs your release forms. So..." he checks his watch. "Now is good."

"Finally!" I say and start to unhook myself from the oxygen machine quickly. My dad rushes over.

"Woah! Hold on!" he says, panicked.

"What? You said I could go!" I say back, rather harshly.

"You still need to be very careful that you don't overwork your heart. This will be a new concern that you must now constantly think of." He says warningly.

"Got it." This time I carefully unhook myself from the machine. "Now can we go?" I ask.

"Yes." He smiles. "Cathy, Avery, do you two need a ride home?"

"Yes, please." Avery says.

"Do we have to leave?" Cathy whines. Her eyes drift to the food table, a look of list in her eyes.

"We will all turn around and pretend we don't know that you are taking doggie bags." I say while standing up. It feels nice to finally stretch my legs.

She smiles and we a turn around.

"Well guys, I think I need to go home now and... do homework." She says, obviously happy with her haul.

We all walk out of the room. As I turn around, I see the once filled 5-foot long table filled with food, is completely gone.

*******

Authors Note

I really wanted to bring Avery and Cathy back in the story, and you guys got to know them a bit better.

It's really akward for me writing these notes...

Anyway... leave comments and suggestions for future chapters!

Like:

Should Bryn and Miles get together?

Should Moira and Bryn become friends?

ANYTHING!

Roni