Trust Me Again

30: Only Family

Muscles stiff, back tense, and heart beating erratically, I pushed the door of the room open and let it swing behind me when I walked passed the threshold. I gulped when I heard the beeps of the heart monitor; it sounded just like I had imagined it, steady and at a slower-than-normal pace. The deep breathing from the face mask around her nose and mouth was the second thing I heard after the beeps.

I took a deep breath before standing behind the chair that was positioned next to her bed that she lay on and taking in her appearance.

The feeling was worse than what I had imagined.

I didn't know exactly what to say, so I just grabbed her hand and sat down on the chair.

Taking in her state, I sighed. "Why didn't you tell me?" I asked her, hoping to hear a reply come from her but the only one I got was her heavy breaths.

I had known Mikayla since the fifth grade, best friends until we were sophomores, so it wasn't a surprise when I felt my eyes begin to water so I blinked to block them from coming out just as the door opened.

I turned and saw it was a nurse coming to clear things up.

She smiled at me in greeting and began collecting some things and putting them away, or throwing them in the trash, sometimes pushing it into the big pocket of her white coat.

I started at Mikayla's hand that was still in my grasp. "Can I ask you a question?"

She continued organizing the things around, glanced at me once, then went back to what she was doing. "Sure," she agreed, still not turning from what was occupying her.

"What are the signs of anemia?" I let go of her hand and lay back in the chair, feeling like I could explode from everything. Instead I let out a long awaited sigh.

She sighed also and put the things in her hands on the counter as she thought it over. "Fatigue," Mikayla always complained of how sleepy she was at lunch, "cold hands," she always had that, "usually strange cravings for things that aren't nutritional, in most cases it's ice, paper, and maybe even dirt. Those are the most usual signs if someone's anemic."

How could I not have noticed?

After a couple minutes the nurse left, I followed and was met with three new friendly faces other than my friends. They were vaguely remembered as the couple that used to live in Max's house and Mikayla used to be close with them before they moved, and the other was the man from across the street of Mikayla's house.

"Mr. and Mrs. Wright," I greeted them both and hugged Mrs. Wright when she made the surprisingly motion with her arms, "What are you doing here?"

Mr. Wright shrugged. "The hospital called us—which must mean she has us under emergency contact—so we drove here from the city."

I turned to Mr. Rydel, the man who lived across the street. "And you, sir?"

He looked up from the spot he was staring at on the floor. "Well, I was the one that called the police when I heard her screaming."

I weakly smiled at him when I remembered that someone had told me that.

Alyssa came up from her seat and turned to Max when he looked up at her. "I have to go to the restroom," she stated quietly.

"Do you need me to come with you?" he asked already getting up.

She shook her head and held out a hand before turning and walking the in direction the arrows on a sign pointed to.

I took the now unoccupied seat by Max when he sighed with a look of distress, dropping his head in his hands and messing his hair up a bit.

"Hey," I greeted when I sat beside him.

His eyes flickered to me and he grumbled in reply before he opened his mouth. "Why didn't I do anything?" he asked more to himself than me. "I live close to her and . . .." he trailed off, sighing.

"I'm sure you didn't hear her scream," I said so quietly that you could barely hear the emotion I was feeling.

"Of course not." Max sighed again and stayed silent.

To finish the book was too tempting, so I grabbed it from the cover and pulled it out.

***

I was in Mikayla's room again because the same nurse let me in when she saw I was alone and she felt bad that I was worrying so much, reading the last couple of sentences, alone because everyone had left. I called my parents a while ago to let them know where I was at and why. They said they would be there in a while.

'I do, Augustus.
I do.'

And that was the end.

I surprised myself when water dropped onto the page I just finished reading and then hastily wiped at my eye to clear the tears out.

I wasn't crying because of the book. I was crying because that could be Mikayla. Life doesn't always get the happy ending and there was the proof right in my hands grasp.

There was a knock at the door and my head snapped to the direction of it, pulling me out of my melancholy thoughts. I saw it was the same nurse that let me in when the door opened and she peeked through. "Hun, visiting hours are over, I'm sorry." She smiled sadly.

I nodded silently, still not ready to leave but getting up anyway. "Okay." I nodded again.

When in the hall, I heard hurried footsteps. "Jacob!" Arms wrapped around my neck from the side, almost knocking me down.

It was Mom, Dad right beside her and Bryan and Dylan running up behind them.

"What's wrong?"

"What happened to her?"

Bryan and Dylan asked at the same time when they reached me.

"M—Mr. Winter, he—he . . . " I swallowed, not able to get the words out.

My mom rubbed my shoulder in a comforting way and gave me look with such sympathy. And they didn't even know Mikayla and I were a couple; well, I hadn't told them.

"You don't have to tell us right now," she said. "Now, come lets go home."

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