"Death pays all debts."
—William Shakespeare
Shakespeare and I have a touchy relationship... he doesn't know I exist, and I wish I didn't know he exists. Ugh!
Great... This was Great.
How the hell was I going to explain to 35 people that I can't die. It was merely impossible to explain it to Steve; so imagine a bunch of awkward teens.
I'm sure I broke my neck? I don't know? I can't tell when I'm unconscious. If only I fainted with my eyes open.
I felt the breeze of people running towards me. And after a while, I started to hear the panicked voices.
I did my usual count from 10, then opened my eyes.
The bright lights of the gym burned my eyes, but the view was soon replaced with a bunch of concerned faces. From what I could make out, they weren't focusing on my face—they were focusing on my lower body.
A girl from my math class screamed, making my sensitive eardrums ring.
"SOMEONE CALL 911!" Another student screamed.
"Everyone calm down!" I recognized Mr. Zip's voice.
I blinked a few times and tried to move my legs. I could flick my right with ease, but my left leg was a whole other story. It felt hollow... empty like it wasn't there. I tried to get up on my arm to see, but someone held me down.
"Don't move Evelyn!" I've never seen Felix so petrified before.
"Why?" I finally pushed past his arms and glanced at my legs. My eyes bulged as I realized why people were staring and freaking out.
My left leg was bent—but not the right way.
Holding in my scream, I shut my eyes and counted backward from ten again.
10
People were talking pictures and freaking out.
9
8
7
Felix and Darren were telling me it was ok, but their voices passed through my ears. Darren was especially freaking out because this the second time he's seen me hurt.
6
5
4
Mrs. Zip was calling the ambulance while other teachers from neighbouring classrooms rushed to the gym.
3
2
1
I opened my eyes, expecting my leg to start healing, but it didn't.
It's been over 15 seconds.
I shut my eyes again, this time blocking out the commotion unfolding.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Once again the light hit my eyes, but the mega realization hit my stomach.
I wasn't healing.
"W-no!!!" I freaked and thrashed but Felix held me down.
"It's ok Evelyn!" He hushed. "Stay with us Evelyn, It's ok."
"It's not ok!!!!" I pushed his arms away and got up to grab at my leg. This wasn't happening, was it? This must have been a dream... a bad dream that I wasn't waking up from. Why wasn't I healing????
Bile was rising up my throat as my entire lower body turned numb. "THIS IS NOT NORMAL!!!" I screamed.
"Of course this isn't anything but normal!!" Darren yelled back.
"No! You — you don't understand!!" My head felt dizzy again as pins and needles travelled through my cold skin. From the new pills to my lack of nutrition, I could see why. Both that combined with my leg flexing, I could feel pain taking over. Instead of fighting the darkness, I let it consume me. My eyes shut as my body fell limp against Felix.
* *<%) * *
"I don't know why everyone was freaking out." Dr. Gupta lifted his glasses, "You just dislocated your ankle, nothing but a few weeks in a cast will do the trick." He held his black clipboard against his chest and slipped his pen into his doctor's coat. "Now I'll be back in a bit with your medication."
I nodded my head, ignoring his diagnosis. I know it wasn't just my ankle; it was my entire leg that shattered. I also know I broke my neck since it cramped me when I woke up. I probably even hurt more since I fell from the ceiling. But what I didn't know, was why did it take my leg so long to piece itself back together?
When I became conscious, I found myself in the back of an ambulance with Felix. He refused to leave me alone because he knew I would panic. That made me eternally grateful that he was my friend. Darren was also there—panicking—but at least he was there to comfort me in spirit.
Even before we arrived at the hospital, I regained feeling in my left leg. It took my body a good 10 minutes to fully heal. For the first time in my life, I felt a good 10 minutes of knowing that the fall left my leg completely broken.
By the time we got into the hospital and into the x-ray room, the regeneration process was practically done. Luckily, the x-ray caught a still image of my ankle, which was not fully attached to my leg yet. The doctors were able to produce a diagnosis and now my fully healed ankle was wrapped up in plaster—It felt extremely uncomfortable.
When the doctor slipped out of the room, Steve rushed to my side to hug me.
Darren and Felix left moments ago, and my mom was halfway to Ohio now.
Steve was all I got.
"I'm so glad you're ok, Evelyn!" He squeezed me hard.
I was glad for the embrace—I needed it. I hugged him tightly and shut my eyes. My head was pounding and the constant beeping of the monitor and the bright lights were not helping.
Steve ruined the beautiful moment by flicking me in the face, "What the heck were you doing!?" He stepped back.
"Rope climbing for gym," I answered lazily.
That flick hurt.
"R—rope climbing?" He stumbled, "Why the heck were you climbing a rope?"
I rolled my neck side to side and looked down at my dirty gym uniform. "Umm the gym education curriculum?"
Steve sighed and sat down at the edge of my hospital bed. He slowly took a deep breath as his legs were rapidly tapping—He was nervous. He looked like he was in the middle of something important when he received the call from the school. His pink button-up was slightly open and his long blonde hair was slicked back with some sort of gel.
His black dress shoes were making a lot of noise, "Evelyn..." he glanced over his shoulder and looked at me, "What happened? You usually put yourself back together?" He cringed, "the last time I saw you hurt, your body healed almost instantly?"
I rolled my eyes at his awkwardness, "yeah well I didn't want to explain to 35 people that I can reattach and rebuild my body parts like a starfish." I crossed my arms.
Steve's eyes widened, "Wait? Can you control it?" His body stopped shaking.
I slumped my head back against the awkwardly placed pillow and glanced up at the white ceiling. "No, dude!" I huffed, "I can't control it. You've known me for like 6 years, you should know this by now."
"Oh, I just thought—"
"You thought, what? Steve?" I cut him off.
Steve sighed, "I thought maybe it was the stronger pills?"
My heart sank. It wouldn't be the pills, I've been taking them my entire life. A higher dosage of them never seemed to be a problem.
Before I could speak, Dr. Gupta waltzed back in the room with a smile on his face. "Here," He handed me a bottle of pills. "I prescribed you some painkillers. They shouldn't be that strong, and they'll help with the pain and headaches."
I looked at the pills in the bottle. They were huge compared to my other pills, and there was no way I could swallow them.
"Now, the paperwork for her release is at the front desk, and we just need her mother's signature."
Steve gave her a sorrowful look. "Umm her mother's in Ohio." He stood up, "I'm Evelyn's stepfather."
I cringed at that. There were always moments where I consider Steve to be my dad, but it never crossed my mind that one day he was going to propose to my asshole mother. When he does I wish him luck.
"Ok, that's the next best thing." The doctor looked between Steve and I, "please follow me."
Before Steve left the room, he looked down at the bottle of pills in my hand, "don't take those," he stressed, "We'll talk after."
"Ok?" I nodded my head and watched as he walked away. "I wasn't even thinking of taking them, anyways."