It wasn't long until we made it to the bus stop. We were right on time, because the bus was about the leave and if we'd missed it we had to wait another 15 minutes for the next one.
Mia hadn't said a lot to me since we had started walking towards the bus stop. I blamed it on the situation she was in. She must be worried sick, even though the doctors had told her that Nora would be okay.
I didn't know how I would have responded if my mom got into a bad car accident. I'd still have my dad though, Mia had to go through this by herself.
I hoped that my presence would give her some kind of comfort. We weren't really on good terms yet, but that wasn't something to bring up right now.
The bus ride to the hospital took forever. Mia and I were sitting in silence, but it wasn't one of those really awkward silences. Not that it was the most comfortable silences I had been in. Mia avoided eye contact with me as much as she possibly could.
When she did look at me, I could see tears bottling up in her eyes. She tried her best to keep them from falling.
The look on her face broke my heart. It was obvious she was in a lot of pain and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.
I could have put my hand on hers, just to tell her that everything would be alright without using words. But I was afraid, afraid to push her away.
The bus finally stopped at the bus stop near the hospital. I had never seen somebody standing up that quick as Mia did when she realised we were there. She practically sprinted out of the bus towards the hospital. I was quick to follow and caught up to her soon after.
I had never liked the hospital. There was just so much gloom. People were sick, families had to say their last goodbyes and the doctors and nurses had to work late hours.
Mia walked up to the information desk to ask about her mother. The woman behind the desk told her where she could find Nora. Mia gave me a sign and together we walked towards the ICU.
Walking through all of that chagrin caused my heart to twinge. I could almost feel the grieve from everybody. It became worse as we came closer and closer to the ICU.
A door was open and I could see a little girl crying next to the hospital bed where a man was lying. It was probably her father.
I had always been one of those types that had to cry when they saw other people crying. But I refused to be the one crying in this situation so I fought my tears and tried to hold them back.
The closer we got to Nora's room, the paler Mia turned. Every kind of color just vanished from her face. Her skin got kind of a gray tone.
Eventually we stood in front of the room where Nora was in. Mia's hand reached to the door handle. When her hand almost touched the handle, ready to open the door, she hesitated.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
Mia sighed.
"It is a bit embarrassing, but I'm kinda afraid of what I would see when I open this door," she said.
That did not even occur to me. The image of the little girl sitting next to her father's hospital bed flashed through my mind. Seeing one of your parents in this state must be traumatizing.
I put my hand on Mia's back as a way of comfort. I was surprised when she didn't step away from me.
"There is nothing to be embarrassed about. If you want to, I can come in with you. I understand it though if you prefer to be alone with your mom right now."
I didn't know if I would prefer being alone or having someone with me, so I wanted to give Mia the choice.
"Thanks for the offer, but I think I want to be alone with my mom right now," Mia answered the question.
"Alright, I'll be sitting in the waiting room we passed on our way here."
A sad smile made its way on Mia's face.
"Thanks again," was the only thing she said.
She might have said little, but the look on her face told me more than any words could. She looked worried, grateful, sad and heartbroken all at the same time.
"You're welcome," I responded.
With those words I gave her a small smile and turned around to walk away. I heard Mia sighing and a door opening. I really hoped seeing her mom like this wouldn't be too much for her.
I made my way towards the waiting room. The visiting hour was from four 'till five. I looked up to the clock that was hanging on the wall in front of me. The hands of the clock told me it was a little over four.
I was glad I was able to help Mia visit her mom. We had made it to the hospital right on time and Mia was able to see her mother for a full hour.
We were lucky that the janitor, who was in charge of the absences, let us go without being difficult. Normally when you went home if you were sick or had an appointment, your parents had to call the janitor as a confirmation.
I had called my mom, explained everything to her and she called the janitor for Mia and I. Nora was obviously not able to call school to confirm the reason we told the janitor to ditch class.
He would be a huge ass if he hadn't let us go though.
I wondered what had happened if I hadn't seen Mia crying. She probably had never told me about what had happened with her mom. She might not even had visited Nora, at least not today.
I know it sounded cheesy, but it kind of felt like it was meant to be that I ran into Mia. Maybe, just maybe, this would bring us closer again. Maybe, things would be like they were before this huge mess.
But I knew that things would never be exactly like they were before. The kiss unlocked something in me, Mia unlocked something in me. Feelings I didn't know I had.
Maybe those feelings started to develop because of the kiss, maybe they just came to the surface and I had them for a longer time.
I really wanted to stop thinking about it, so I tried to come up with other stuff to ponder about.
There was still some time left before Mia would come back. Christmas was coming and that meant that it was time for me to start planning the Christmas dance at school. Luckily I had charged my phone in the bus, so I could start with finding some inspiration.
Last year the theme was 'Winter Wonderland' and I really wanted to come up with something new and creative. But I was having a hard time finding the right theme for the dance.
Themes such as 'White Christmas' came to mind, but I thought it looked too much like 'Winter Wonderland'.
And then it hit me. It might sound crazy, but seeing nurses wearing their masks gave me an idea. Maybe a 'Christmas Masquerade' could be a nice theme!
I started googling for some decorations and made a Pinterest board so I could have something to present at the next meeting with the rest of the party committee.
After a few minutes I noticed that I had been really enthusiastic and smiling a lot, which might not be the most tactic thing to do while being in a hospital.
The moment I came to my senses and remembered why I was in the hospital, all of my happy thoughts flew away.
I looked back up to the lonely clock on the wall to see that it was almost five o' clock, which meant Mia would be here any minute.
Indeed, a couple of minutes later, Mia showed up. The worried look on her face was gone, only to be replaced by a look of grief.
"How is she doing?" I asked hesitantly.
"Not that great," was all Mia answered.
She probably didn't feel like talking about it right now and I had to respect that. So I did.
Even though I really wanted to know some more details about Nora's condition - Mia wasn't the only one that was worried about her - I stayed quiet.
We walked our way out of the hospital without saying anything to one another. Something about this silence felt wrong. Not that we were that talkative on our way to the hospital, but something was different about this particular silence.
At first Mia was just silent because she was worried and afraid of what she might see when visiting her mom. Now it looked like she was silent because she decided to ignore me again or something. Like visiting her mom reminded her of why she hadn't really talked to me in a long time.
Where her face was full of worry and grief at first, it looked a bit cold now. Not that she didn't look sad anymore, but it was like the softness in her face had disappeared.
The bus ride home was not any different from the walk to the bus. Mia sat at the window side and had leaned her head on the glass.
I couldn't see her face, but something inside of me told me that she was resisting her tears. The only logical thing to do I could think of was putting my hand on hers.
Her hand rested on her leg. I felt nervous about the move I was going to make, but I just had to let her know that I was there for her somehow.
I lifted my hand and shook it like I shook away my worries with it too. I reached for Mia's hand and grabbed it.
Her soft skin touched mine and butterflies started to develop in my stomach. I got it bad, really bad. I tried to suppress those feelings and focus on my attempt of comfort instead.
I hadn't even touched Mia's hand for a minute when she released her hand from my grip, which caused my hand to fall on her leg. She roughly picked up my hand, put it back on my own and turned away from me completely.
It felt like I was stabbed in the heart. I thought I did the right thing by trying to comfort Mia.
Guess I was wrong.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
Sorry guys that this update was a little late. I had zero inspiration and I don't know if I even like this chapter but okay.
What did you guys think about it?
I hope the next chapter will come faster than this one!