Danni entered her apartment taking off her jacket and threw it on the couch, sighing heavily and deeply, leaning her back against the closed door and she buried her face in her hands.
"How am I gonna get the money?" she asked herself as she went to bed but couldn't sleep, thoughts roamed her mind and she kept tossing and turning all night until it was 5:00 Am when her eyes gave up to sleep.
Avery woke up early and she knew she had to do something on her own, luckily for her, her parents were on their business trips. She hopped out of the bed and got dressed in her white dress shirt and blue jeans with her white sneakers, something causal.
When she headed downstairs, she only saw Robert and Abigail in the kitchen and she guessed that they will start preparing her breakfast.
"Morning" she said and they raised their heads at her with a frown.
"M-morning, Miss Avery" said Abigail.
"Morning" said Robert.
"Would you like me to prepare the breakfast?" asked Abigail.
"No, actually I'm heading out now so..."
"Should we wait for you, miss?" asked Robert.
"No. Thank you" she said and left grabbing her bag with her.
Abigail turned to Robert with her brows knotted in confusion.
"Did I hear correctly?" she asked. "Did she say 'Morning' and 'Thank you'. Dear lord! What's going on in this house?" She threw her hands up in frustration.
"Point taken" said Robert rubbing his chin. "But it doesn't matter, she has always been a good kid. It's just the circumstances that changed her a little"
******************************
Avery went to the hospital with a wrapped box in her hands, she somehow avoided the nurse at the front desk and went to the elevator hitting the button 4 and arrived outside room 402. She made sure that Danni wasn't there or the man who came with her the other night and opened the door, seeing the little boy looking at her innocently with the remote in his hand.
"Who are you?" he asked and she closed the door behind her.
"I'm..." She composed herself. "I'm a friend of Danni. My name is Avery" she smiled.
"You are? But I've never seen you before"
"You can say I'm her new friend" She chuckled softly. "Can I sit with you?" He nodded and she sat on the edge of the bed and handed him the wrapped box. "This is for you... it's from Danni"
"For me?" He grinned.
"Mm-hmm" She nodded and couldn't help but smile at him when he opened the box.
He gasped when he saw the stuffed penguin toy, he looked at her with wide eyes but his eyes were smiling.
"Thank you" he said as he hugged the stuffed penguin then he reached for Avery's hand and she held his little hand. "Can I hug you?"
"Uh..." She looked at his pleaded eyes. "Sure" She smiled and he hugged her as she stroked his hair.
"I wanna see Danni" he said. "Can you call her?" He looked up at her and she didn't know what to say.
"I want her to come too, but she is working now..."
He pouted and pulled away from the hug. "Okay"
"But I promise you that you'll see her a lot, okay?"
"Okay, would you tell her that I love her?"
She smiled too sweetly at him. "Of course" She stood up. "I'm leaving now and I'm glad to see you"
"Me too" He smiled at her and she left afterwards.
******************************
In the afternoon, Avery returned from college and went to take a shower and her heart felt both, sadness and joy. She was so sad to see a little kid like Ben in a hospital bed fighting for his life and so was his sister, fighting for him, and she felt happy by seeing him smile and his eyes sparkle. She turned off the water and wrapped the towel around her body, looking at herself in the mirror as she was drying her hair and a question popped into her mind.
"Why am I doing this?" she asked herself.
That was a good question indeed, she hated Danni, she hated Danni's jokes, attitude, voice, looks, hair and everything about her, but maybe she never really hated her at all.
Danni arrived and went to the kitchen saying hello to Robert and Abigail but didn't change her clothes.
"You missed something this morning?" said Abigail.
"Oh yeah? What is it?"
"Miss Avery said her good morning to us today"
"That's new" She scoffed.
"And she said thank you too"
"The thank you, I heard it from her a couple of times but the morning is new to me"
Her phone rang in her pockets and she looked at the ID caller, it was uncle Josh, she excused herself and flipped open her phone, answering.
"Yeah?"
"I'm with Ben at the hospital and did you come today to visit him?"
"No, why?"
"He is playing with his new stuffed animal and I thought you were the one who brought it to him or one of the nurses"
She frowned. "No, I didn't buy him anything. I didn't even come to visit him today"
"One sec..."
"Okay"
"Hey Danni!" said Ben.
"Hey Ben, how are you bud?"
"I'm okay. Your friend came today and gave me a new toy. She said you bought it for me"
"Was it Steve?"
"No, she was a girl and she was pretty"
"What's her name?"
"I-I don't remember" he said sadly.
She frowned and her clutch tightened on the phone. "What does she look like?"
"She had blue eyes and a red hair"
"Avery!" Her eyes went wide.
"Yes that was her name I think"
"Ben could you give me your uncle for a sec?"
"Okay" he said and handed the phone to his uncle. "So you know who she is?"
"Yeah and I have to go and see how she knew about that!" she said with a tone of anger.
"Okay, good luck" He hung up and so did Danni.
Avery went downstairs to the living room with her laptop with her on her lap and she started typing and doing her assignments. Danni came to the view in front of her and Avery knew it was time to tell her about her unexpected visit.
"Can I talk to you?" she asked but she didn't seem angry.
"... Yeah" She patted the spot next to her and Danni sat.
"I'm gonna ask you something and please answer me truthfully" She gave her a nod.
Danni sighed before speaking. "How did you know about my brother? And don't you dare and lie to me because he told me that a red hair girl with blue eyes and her name was Avery came and paid him a visit"
Avery placed her laptop on the coffee table and looked at Danni getting ready to tell her that she followed her to the hospital.
"Remember when I thanked you about saving me from my craziness?"
"Yeah"
"When you answered your phone I suspected that you were from some sort of gang" Danni gave her a dry look and Avery sat properly on the couch. "I know it's stupid but hear me out I followed you to Steve's house then to where you picked up that man and to the hospital where your brother is and that's when I saw you with him and I knew he was your relative but when I sneaked behind the nurse to get information about him, it turns out that he is your brother" She paused for a minute trying to decode Danni's facial expression.
"But that is none of your business! He is my brother! Mine! What is it with you?!" she said as she was mad.
"I know it isn't my business and I'm really sorry but I couldn't help but visit him. Call me crazy but I'm willing to help you"
"Look Avery, he is my brother" She stood up and talked sternly. "And he needs help... real help"
"Exactly" She stood up as well. "And I'm going to help you to get him out of the hospital. Healthy"
"I appreciate your help but I can't accept that"
"Danni..." She sighed and held her hand, making her look down at their hands. "Your brother has a weak heart and you need the money to save his life... let me help you before it's too late. I know that he wants to spend his time with you and not in hospital bed and the same thing for you. You want your brother to be happy and healthy and you need the money... I'm willing to help"
Danni looked at her determined eyes and saw that Avery wasn't playing her. She was really offering her help but she knew she can't accept to take money from her and at the same time she was right, she needs to save her brother before it's too late.
"... Okay" She looked down feeling helpless. "I guess I have no other choice"
Avery gave her a nod and held the eye contact as Danni looked at her again. "I'll get the money the first thing in the morning to start the operation"
"Money?"
"Yeah, that's what I'm doing right now. You need 80,000 dollars and that's a lot of money it will be hard to get the money before the time but I can and I will do it"
"Avery, I can't... the 80,000 is too much, that's a lot to ask from you"
"You aren't asking, I'm offering and helping you" She smiled and rubbed her arms gently.
Danni shook her head slowly then rubbed her forehead. "Why are you doing this? Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden. I thought you hated me. Why do you want to do something nice like that?"
"... I never hated you even though you could be annoying sometimes but I wanna help because I'm actually a nice person and it's the right thing to do"
"I'm gonna pay you back, I promise" she said truly as she gave her a small smile.
"No need" She smiled again but this time they gazed at each other's eyes like when they did before, on her bed, and Avery broke the gaze. "Now please go make me something to eat because I'm hungry" She joked and Danni was still looking at her with a small smile.
"Thank you" she said softly, locking her eyes on Avery's.
"Yeah" she whispered.
Danni went to the kitchen and started dialing her uncle.
"Yeah?"
"I've got the money"
"You do!"
"Yeah, Avery is going to the bank tomorrow then we will be at the hospital to start the surgery"
"Wow! That's... that's so generous of her, I can't believe what I'm hearing but how are you gonna pay her back? That's a lot of money"
"I don't know but I'll figure it out that later. Now what matters is Ben"
"Danni... I told you to be hopeful"
"And you were right" She smiled.