CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
Dylan Kamp
I opened my eyes and sat up, scratching the back of my bed in a tired manner. Allison was fast asleep in the chair at the side of the bed, her head lolling every now and then as she tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in. My eyes scanned the bare hospital room, I looked down at the sleeping Rose beside me. I fixed her hair by tucking her bangs behind her ears and lifting her head a little to put her hair over her right shoulder. I slid off of the bed, then turned around to look at her, using my thumb to gently trace the outline of her upper lip. I held onto her hand, squeezing it lightly. I gazed down at our hands embedded in each other.
I could've sworn that I saw her thumb slightly move across mine, I gasped inwardly, looking up at her. Her head jostled a bit before she settled down, and continued her still fashion. I frowned, setting her hand back down on the bed. 'When are you going to wake up?' I muttered in a questioning tone, leaning forward to kiss her forehead.
There was a low knock at the door, my gaze quickly shifted from Rose to the door. Cassie stuck her head through, smiling reassuringly at me. 'Hey there...' She whispered, noticing that Allison was sleeping as she came in with Kevin following cautiously behind her. 'How are you guys doing?' she added, looking at Rose.
'I'm better than I was yesterday, and Rose is...' My voice trailed off as I glanced back down at Rose. 'what if she doesn't remember me?'
'I don't thing anyone could ever forget you Dylan, and even if she was to forget you-you'd probably go out of your way to make her remember again, right?' Kevin scoffed, lightly slapping my arm. I nodded, 'Exactly, so stop saying stupid stuff, man' I smirked at him, grateful for his humor.
'Is she your sister?' Cassie asked, jerking her thumb at Allison. I nodded. 'She looks nothing like you..'
'Yeah,' I muttered, the only identical features that Allison and I had was our nose shapes, which no one would realize unless we were to point it out. Rose appeared at the edge of the bed, she was sitting cross legged, looking down at her hands. 'Rose...' I added in a whisper, eying her suspiciously, she raised her head her face stained with tears, she smiled at me. I prodded a sleeping Allison in the shoulder she opened her eyes and I told her to come with me she groaned then reluctantly got out of her seat. 'I'll be back in a minute' I told Cassie and Kevin as I left the room.
'What's the matter?' I murmured to Rose, as we walked through the busy corridor back to my room. I looked over to Rose, who was looking down at her feet as people walked right through her. 'You seem upset about something...'
'My Mom...' Rose began, sniffling as her face crumpled up. I went into my room, closing the door behind me, then shutting the blinds so the nurses won't assume I'm speaking to myself and put me in the psychiatric ward. Rose climbed on the bed, and I sat on the chair opposite her, leaning forward, Allison sat on the table by the bed. 'She's not my mother, Dylan...' she added, finally looking at me. 'She's just some stranger who-' she paused to sniffle and wipe her face.
'What do you mean?' I asked, trying to make sense of what she was talking out. 'Is she your stepmother...?'
Rose sniffled as more tears streamed down her face. 'No, she isn't related to me at all and my father...they kidnapped me when I was a baby'
My eyes widened in shock, I didn't know how to respond to that, all I could say was 'I...I'm sorry,' but I knew that it would never be enough, it could never stop Rose from feeling so upset and angry.
Rose slowly raised her head to look at me, a mixture of gratitude and confusion on her face. 'I don't know who my parents are, I don't know how to get back in my body, I don't know how to do anything!' she broke out in another sob, putting her head in her hands as her body shook with fits of cries. 'What am I going to do, Dylan, what if I'm stuck like this forever?' she added, looking back at me then putting her head in her hands again.
I chewed on my bottom lip, I didn't know what to do. I tapped my index finger to the side of my head, then suddenly came up with an idea. 'Were you born in this hospital?' I asked, breaking the silence. Rose looked at me questioningly then shrugged, I leaned back into my seat as I attempted to think some more.
'Why, what are you thinking about?' Rose arched her eyebrow at me suspiciously, a small smile on her face.
'If you were born in this hospital, then we could ask for a print out of your birth certificate to see if your real parent's names are on it' I explained, coming up with the idea as I spoke.
Rose wiped her face and beamed at me. 'You'd really do that for me, Dylan..?' She looked surprised as the smile on her face grew larger-into a grin.
'Well, yeah..' I muttered, looking up at her.
'Woah, hold up,' Allison intervened, hopping off of the table. 'I don't mean to eavesdrop or anything but you do know that in order to retrieve Rose's birth certificate from the hospital, you have to be the next of kin...patient confidentiality-also they lock the door so people like you can't succeed with their stupid ideas'
The smile on Rose's face fell into a straight line, I frowned, I was enjoying watching Rose smile. 'Who said we're going to get it from the hospital?' I asked my sister with an incredulous tone, 'It seems that you don't know me at all...'
Allison frowned. 'For some reason, I'm willing to help' She added in a sigh. 'I took a random tour of the place, seeing as Mom will be working here soon-they keep all patient documents in a small room by the cleaner's closet, on the ground floor'
'I'll go in and look for my certificate...but I need someone to keep watch while I do it' Rose suggested, nibbling on her bottom lip.
'I'll keep watch, I'll have to get Cassie and Kevin to cause some sort of distraction-Ally, you'll be in that too' I instructed, looking over at Allison.
'Wait a second, I'm not taking any physical part in this' Allison blurted out, waving her arms about. 'If you get caught, you're going to be grounded until you're sixty'
'I'm willing to take the risk, c'mon Allison, I need your help' I pleaded as I stood up and casted my eyes over to Rose then back at her. 'Rose doesn't know who her parents are, what if that was us?-wouldn't you want to know about Mom and Dad?'
'Fine, I'll do it!' Allison scowled, crossing her arms. 'You owe me'
I nodded at her, clapping my hands in a confirming way. 'Could you go and get Cassie and Kevin?' I asked Allison who muttered something under her breath and left the room, I turned to Rose, smiling. 'I'm going to make it all better, I promise' I said to her, she smiled faintly at me.
'I know' She whispered, looking down at her hands. 'I just don't think I can handle the truth just yet'
'I'll help you' I told her, wishing I could put my hands on hers without falling right through her.
Allison returned with Cassie and Kevin, who was muttering more crappy pick-up lines to Cassie as she rolled her eyes and fanned him away. 'Okay, what about...' Kevin paused to think then said 'You may fall from a mountain, you may fall from a tree, but the best way to fall, is to fall in love with me.'
Cassie gaped at Kevin. 'Nope, that one was worse than the one about the toilet' and then walked ahead of him, secretly beaming. 'Okay, so what's going on?' She added, heaving herself up onto the bed.
I explained everything that Rose told me, then what we were going to do for her also what Allison mentioned about patient confidentiality. 'We're going to get her birth certificate to find out who her real parents are' Cassie and Kevin looked at each other then back at me with concerned looks on their faces. 'What?' I asked them.
'What the alternative, you know, in case we get caught?' Kevin implied, making the last word sound like the keyword of the day.
'Getting caught isn't going to an option-trust me' I assured them.
'I'm in,' Cassie blurted out, stepping forward. 'Rose seems like a nice girl, if I was her I'd want to know who my parents were'
Kevin sighed and said 'I'm in, even though I think this is insane'
We all came up with the idea that we'd go down to the ground floor, where the documentation room was. Kevin, Cassie and Allison would cause some sort of distraction so that Rose and I could go to the room, then I keep watch while Rose goes in. Rose seemed relieved at the idea, smiling right through the talk. 'Any questions?' I asked, shifting my gaze from Rose to all the others faces in the room.
'She's in here, isn't she?' Allison breathed, frantically looking around the room. 'I can feel her'
I arched my eyebrow. 'What?' I gasped, looking from Rose to Allison.
'I saw her, yesterday, when Mom took you to the hospital, she was standing there with some guy' Allison spoke, nervously crossing her arms and chewing on her bottom lip. 'I spoke her, Dylan'
'You spoke to her?' I repeated, looking at Rose who slowly nodded. I didn't know what to make of it, If I could see Rose and Allison could see Rose, that meant that my parents might be able see spirits too. I dived deep into this theory then frowned, if my mother could see Rose, I'd probably be double grounded for having a girl in my room-with the door closed.
'Can we deal with this later, I have curfew' Kevin interrupted my thoughts in a polite tone. We all hurried out of the room and down to the ground floor, Paul and Eliza were at the main desk speaking with one of the nurses that I recognized as Rose's nurse.They looked deep in conversation so I made sure that I wasn't seen when we passed them, Rose seemed a little tense as we did so but relaxed a little when I smiled at her.
Allison, Cassie and Kevin departed from us to go cause a distraction. Rose and I rounded the corner to where the cleaner's closet was, we stopped in front of the door. 'You go in, and I'll keep watch' Rose nodded and smiled appriciatively at me. 'It's going to be alright Rose, just you watch'
'Thank you Dylan, seriously, I don't know what I'd do..' Rose stretched her arms out. 'I'm air hugging you' then wrapped them around her waist, I laughed and did the same thing. She beamed at me then went through the door. I sighed waiting, I slid down the door and sat down on the floor seeing as she'd probably be in there for a while.
A couple of minutes later, Allison and Cassie came walking down the corridor. 'She still in there?' Cassie asked, joining me on the ground. I nodded, letting my head fall back onto the wall. 'Kevin's creating a pretty good distraction that'll give us some extra time...'
'What is he doing?' I asked her, wondering if he's faking a fit or something because then if he got caught, he'd be in deep trouble.
'He's out there with a bible, preaching random sections-massive crowd' Allison told me sitting on the floor by the opposite wall.
'We need a bible!' A voice coming from around the corner yelled. 'Without it, shit's gonna start to get fucked' There was a low reply of gasps and murmurs. The three of us burst out laughing, Kevin continued speaking. 'Look at the world, what have we done?' His voice started to turn into a wailing tone, which made us laugh even harder. 'Why can't we all just love each other, don't we have mothers anymore!?'
Rose stepped out of the room, her head hung low. I stood up, the smile falling right off of my face. 'Rose...what happened?' I asked, stepping towards her. Allison and Cassie stopped laughing and stood up.
Rose lifted her head, her face tear stained again. She opened her mouth to talk but it was cut-off by a chuckle, her head turned down the corridor to where Paul and Eliza stood. 'They're my real parents..'
DUN, DUN DUNNN
Hey there beautiful person!-Thanks for reading this, please comment, your opinion is appriciated, constructive criticism only please! <3
Daisie x