The New Girl Next Door

•17•

The distant sounds of sirens send me into a state of panic. That's when I begin running...

Normani Kordei

4:17 a.m.

I watch Dinah's  still body in the hospital bed. The whole sight doesn't look right to me. She doesn't seem like the type of person who would get themselves in a situation that would lead to this.

And yet, here she is, IV's hooked to every place of her body, a cast on her arm, her face cut up to the point where you can't even tell if it's her.

Camila  rushes into the room,"Nor- oh my god."I turn my head and see that Camila's standing in the doorway, her hands covering her mouth.

For the second time in this long night, I can feel tears welling up in my eyes again. I let my head hang, watching through blurred vision as a tear falls into my lap.

"Mani, i-it's gonna be okay..." Camila says, accompanying the chair beside me."N-no it's not," I whisper, shaking my head."Have you got any news on Lo?" She asks, trying to change the subject.

I shake my head. When I first got here, she was being transferred to the Intensive Care Unit because of how severe her injuries were. I've been here for three hours and they just now let me visit Dinah.

Camila groans,"man, this sucks. Dinah doesn't have any family? Why is no one here?"I shrug,"they tried to get ahold of her friend, Ally, but they couldn't.

Her parents are back in Polynesia."It's silent for a while, the only sound that is heard is the constant beeping from Dinah's heart rate monitor.I sigh and sit back in my chair. She's been asleep for three hours with no type of response.

The more I'm hoping that she wakes up, the more I'm feeling like she's not going to."What happened?" Camila asks quietly beside me.I shake my head, lying it against the wall behind me,"Dinah and I were hanging out, then we heard this screaming. I told Dinah to go see what it was, so she did. Then after a couple of minutes, she didn't come back, so I decided to go see what was happening..." I pause, trying to swallow a lump in my throat.

I wait a second before I continue,"so I went outside and I didn't see anything. That's when I heard the sound of glass breaking and a man yelling... It was coming from Lo's house. So, I ran over to the house and the first thing I saw was Lo...""Man..." Camila  breathes out, shifting in her chair.

I nod, trying and failing to swallow the lump in my throat.A knock sounds at the door, causing both of our heads to whip to the right."Family of Lauren Jauregui?" A white doctor dressed in uniform blues asks.So she had no family either?"Y-yes," Camila answers."Are you girls even 18?" She asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," I lie.she pauses and glances at the clipboard in her arms, a solemn expression on her face."Well, to start off, she's currently in the Intensive Care Unit due to the condition of her injuries. All of which are major," he says."So, she's alive?" I ask, a flicker of hope igniting in me.

"As of right now, she is. Would you like to know her injuries and where she stands health-wise?"Camila and I nod.

She sighs,"she has three broken ribs, one of which has been broken for some time now. She's extremely lucky that it didn't puncture a lung or damage her internally. Due to a strong force of blow to the head, she has a Level 2 concussion. And the highest concussion is 3, so there's a possibility that if she does make it through, she will have a tendency to either forget things or she might not be able to remember the whole incident. Is that understood?"I nod, taking all of this information in.

The doctor continues,"she has been stabbed in her shoulder from an oblique angle, separating two of her bones, therefore she has to undergo surgery. She will most likely be here for a week at the least, but afterwards, she had to be on bed rest for at least two weeks to recuperate. She will need stitches of course, so she has to take it easy on her body to avoid reopening her cuts. And according to my evaluation papers, that seems to be about it..."I try to sink in as much as I can, but the whole process is overwhelming.