Realizing who it was, Mia tried to move her hands but found that they were tied behind her chair. She continued trying but as she wrestled with it, she could feel her hands start to get rope-burned.
"Mia, darling, why are you trying to get away?" she asked in her falsely sweet voice.
Mia tried to scream that she hated her mother. She tried to tell her how much she'd hurt her but all that out was three simple words. "Because I'm scared." The voice was hers but from a long time ago. It was high-pitched and sounded like a child's. Mia hadn't even said the words, they just came out of her mouth. What is happening!? she wondered.
"It's okay, sweetie. I'm not going to hurt you," she promised. Mia mentally scoffed but physically, she just nodded. Nodded!? Why the heck am I nodding!? she asked herself. "I just need to run some tests."
Mia tensed up at the idea of tests. She watched as her mom pulled out several large needles. "What are those?" her child-like voice asked.
"These?" she asked, pointing to the needles. "These are just things we need for the tests." Mia watched as her mother filled up the needles with some sort of liquid before walking over. "This might hurt a little," she warned before sticking the needle into Mia's arm.
The pain was unbearable. Mia thought that she was dying and the more she meditated on it, she realized that would be better than dealing with this. She tried to stay still but was unable to prevent the thrashing that was caused by the liquid. Her mother tried to calm her down but nothing worked and soon enough, everything was empty.
Mia woke up in a small bed. She didn't know where she was and could feel the panic rising from deep inside her. As she looked around, she saw that the room smelled like old medicine. The bed she was lying on was disorderly as if she'd been thrashing around like a maniac.
Mia was surprised when she looked around the room and found that she was alone. Normally, after life-threatening situations, she woke up to Blake sitting in a chair right next to her. Mia could feel the stress of being alone start to build up inside her chest.
She tasted blood in her mouth as she searched for somewhere Blake could be hiding.
Eventually, she figured out that he actually wasn't there and felt a pang in her chest when she realized just how much she wished he was.
Suddenly, she caught on to the sound of arguing outside her door. If she had the ability to walk she would have gotten up to see what was going on but in her current state all she could do was sit there and wait for one of them to walk in and explain what the heck was going on. She assumed that she'd passed out in her class and that was why she was there but that didn't explain her dream or memory or whatever it was.
The wooden, thin door cracked open and Mia saw her dad's light straight hair, pale complexion, and familiar worried frown as he walked inside the small room. Mia felt a pang of guilt at his expression. She had been seeing the worry in the eyes of her friends and family so often lately it felt like all that she could do was cause pain and worry. Normally, her dad was the friendliest and funniest guy she knew, always welcoming people with his cheery smile.
Mia tried to sit up but stopped when a stab of pain flew across her whole body. Her dad seemed to notice and rushed over to her. He sat down on the bed beside her and ushered her to lie down again, holding her hand tightly as if it were an anchor to something important to him. When he saw that the pain had subsided, he sat down in the plastic chair that sat next to her bed. "What the heck happened?" she asked. Her voice came out scratchy and rough.
"I don't know, sweetie." Mia grimaced at the name, remembering her mother calling her the same name. She had to remind herself that her mother and her father were two very different people.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"You're in the hospital," he told her.
"Why am I not at Blake's house?" she asked.
"You needed more doctors. Even the last few times, you were at the hospital before we took you to Blake's house with Dr. Clarkson," he explained, his eyebrows scrunched together. As she looked at his face she could see that wrinkles were forming and knew that it was because of her. A new pang of guilt hit her chest like a dart hitting a bullseye.
"Oh," she whispered. This was news to her and she was used to knowing everything. "I still don't understand why I'm here." She decided to ignore her feelings. They wouldn't do her any good.
"Apparently, you passed out during your class, and then you started thrashing around and screaming. That's all I know," he told her.
"Oh." Although there were probably better things to say at that moment, nothing came to mind as everything sunk in.
She wished that Blake was there. She wished she could just crawl up next to him and cry into his chest until no more tears would come. "Where's Blake?" she asked shakily, her voice still rough.
"His dad wouldn't let him leave school but he promised he'd be here as soon as he possibly could."
"What time is it?"
"It's around 2:30."
"So, thirty minutes?" Mia already knew the answer to the question but it was nice to get reassurance.
"Yeah."
"How did you get out of work?" she asked after a surprisingly long silence.
"I explained to my boss and she let me go," he told his now shocked daughter.
"Wow, she seems really cool," she said.
He nodded. Mia started to realize how tired she was but she didn't want to sleep. She couldn't. If she slept, would the nightmares come back? But she couldn't do anything as the light faded and her eyes shut out the rest of the world.
Mia woke up to someone shaking her shoulders roughly. She looked around to see Blake looking at her with the same expression she had seen on his face so often these days. Worry.
She must have been moving around a lot during her nightmare if Blake had to shake her awake.
"You need to stop worrying me like this," he told her. She could tell he was trying to be stern but he wasn't doing a very good job at it.
"I'm sorry," she apologized.
"Just... try to stay safe," he begged. "I care about you. You know that I care about you."
She did know. "At least it wasn't my fault this time?" It was meant to be a statement but came out as more of a question.
"What happened back there?" he asked.
"I don't know. Blake, I'm so confused," she confided.
"Why don't you try?" he asked. She sighed. Mia knew it would help but she just did not want to talk about it. She decided that if she had to tell him she would at least do it while being comfortable.
Mia scooted over in the small bed and dragged Blake onto the new spot that she had created. Once in the bed, Mia laid her head down on his chest as she had done so many times before. His sweatshirt was so soft and it seemed to comfort her as she prepared herself. "You know about my mom so I don't have to explain that whole thing. Basically, I had a weird dream memory thing where my mom ran some 'tests' on me except it was weird because I was really young but I didn't remember anything like this happening before the dream," she explained.
"Are you sure it actually happened?" Blake asked after a pause, staring intensely into her hazel eyes.
"I'm pretty sure. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure it really happened."
"Do you think that this is going to happen more often?" he asked, concern etched into his sharp features. His eyebrows were creased in worry.
"I don't know. I hope not," she told him before taking a deep breath for the question she was about to ask. "When will I be able to walk around again?"
"I'm not entirely sure but I'm pretty sure the doctor said around a month or two," he sighed again. "But, on a better note, you can start using crutches in a week."
"That's awesome," she told him unenthusiastically.
Without her knowledge, Mia's head started spinning as her thoughts moved around her mind. She thought of all that had happened in the past week. She thought of all she'd been through. She thought of all her friends had been through and felt gratefulness and guilt well up in her chest. "Thank you."
"For what?" he laughed.
"I don't know." Mia let out a breath. "You've just been there even though having me as a friend is probably terrifying," she told him. "And this is going to probably sound really stupid or cheesy or something but you're the closest friend I've ever had. I don't know how I would've survived this whole thing without you," she admitted.
"You could've done it," he told her. "Sure it's been even more awesome with my hotness and fantastic sense of humor but I do think that you could've done it," he joked.
Mia smiled. She'd been missing this weird, adorable side of him. "Okay, a few things. Firstly, you are not that hot, sec-"
"You said not that hot! That means that you realize that I'm at least slightly hot!" he interrupted her with a triumphant voice.
"That's not what I said!"
"Suuuuure," he agreed, rolling his eyes at her, unconvinced.
"You are the most annoying human being in the entire world," she told him, trying to glare.
"How dare you!" He looked hurt with a hand on his chest. "I am the most annoying person in the universe!" he snapped. "I can't believe you'd downgrade my annoyance levels!" Blake shook his head at Mia disapprovingly.
"I humbly and metaphorically kneel before you, asking, no, begging, for your forgiveness," she joked.
"I do not accept!"
"Well, you're stupid so I don't really care!" They were both laughing at this point and Mia realized how much she needed this. Just a chance to laugh with her best friend instead of thinking of everything she had to deal with and sure the pain from moving was almost unbearable but she was getting better at ignoring it.
"You know, I'm really glad I met you," she confided.
"I'm glad I met you too," he agreed.
They looked at each other for a while before Mia yawned and felt her eyelids start to weigh down, trying to close on their own.
"I don't want to fall asleep," she told him.
"It's okay. If I see you have a nightmare, I'll wake up. You're safe," he promised.
"I..." she knew she could fight him on the matter but her energy had already dissipated and by the time she had thought of a rebuttal for his argument, she was already fast asleep, snuggled up in the arms of the only person she could trust.
Mia woke up the next day slowly. She wasn't jolted awake as she had been the past few days and it was a relief. She had gone the whole night without a single nightmare and really believed that it was because Blake was there.
Mia rolled her eyes when she saw that Blake was still asleep. Throughout the past week or so, Mia had begun to notice that he woke up unusually late. Mia looked over at her bedside table where she saw that her alarm clock read 6:30. Luckily for them, it was a Saturday so they didn't have to go to school but Mia had been told that she would leave the hospital on Saturday at 7:45 so she needed to wake up Blake as soon as possible.
"Blake," she whispered. When Blake was unresponsive to that tactic, Mia decided to go a different route. Mia crept through the sheets and stationed her head right above Blake's. "BLAKE!" she yelled. Blake jolted awake with wide eyes as he studied his surroundings, seeming to search for danger.
Mia burst out laughing. She just couldn't hold it in anymore. Blake turned to her. "You're face! That was so hilarious!" she said in between bursts of laughter. Blake's face turned down in a scowl as he glared at her with pure hatred in his eyes but she could see the smile peeking through.
Mia thought her laughter would have ceased at that point but it was still going as Blake continued to glare at her. He rolled his eyes in clear annoyance. "It's not that funny," he told her.
"It kind of is, though," she told him after her laughter had died down slightly. There were still random bursts but over-all her laughter had ceased.
"Well, I'm glad I amuse you," he said sarcastically.
"Yeah, me too. You have no idea how amusing you are, do you?" she asked. "If you don't, let me tell you. You are very amusing."
He scoffed. "I am not amusing in that way. Sure, I'm hilarious but not like that. People laugh with me, not at me."
Now it was Mia's turn to scoff. "Right. 'Cause you are just the funniest person I know," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at him.
"Thank you! You have no idea how long I have been waiting for someone to realize that."
"Whatever. Anyway, we need to leave in like an hour which is why I woke you up," she told him.
"I know," he breathed, sounding very annoyed. "But I just wanna lie here forever," he told her, grabbing her extremely gently and pulling her against his chest.
"Okay, I'm always up for that," she whispered against his chest, feeling safe in the only place she truly did.