Beep beep beep beep beep
Beeping and mumbling voices was all I could hear, my mind was awake but I couldn't see anything other than darkness. I tried really hard to open my eyes but I had no energy to; my body ached and it felt like I had a ton of weight lying on top of me.
"What happened? Is she going to be okay?" I heard a panicked woman's voice.
"Mrs Edwards please calm down." I heard a male voice say.
The woman's voice was my mom's but why did she sound so panicky and disintegrated.
"How did this happen?" I heard my mom ask.
After hearing a few footsteps move, the room finally fell silent and I felt a little more at ease; I eventually stopped fighting the urge to open my eyes knowing it would be futile. I let myself fall into a deep sleep, after a long time I felt my body relax.
"Carly, can you hear me?" I heard a gruff voice ask.
"Carly, you need to get up."
"Hmm." I moaned.
"Come on Carly, get up."
"Hmm."
After a long struggle I eventually was able to open my eyes, my vision was blurred so I couldn't see very clearly.
"Here." I heard the voice say.
I looked up to see a blurry vision of a boy, I could only make out he had blonde hair. He handed me my glasses. After putting them on I saw a smiling Nate looking at me.
I grimaced at first then managed returning a small smile. I took in my surroundings; I was in a white room with the outside lights shining through the blue plain cotton curtains; I could make out it was dark outside already. There was a little television set mounted on the wall directly from of where I was laying and a little wooden table at the far end of my bed. I sat up and felt something pull at my wrist, I looked and saw a drip on my hand.
"Easy Carly." Nate said cautiously.
"Do you want me to call the nurse?" he asked.
My head felt really heavy, it was as if a mountain of bricks were placed on it.
"Where am I?" I asked my voice sounding foreign to my ears.
I looked around more now that I was sitting up; I took more of my surroundings in and realized where I was.
"Why am I in the hospital?" I asked with a slight panic edging my voice.
Nate frowned. "Don't you remember?"
I shook my head. My head hurt so much that I couldn't think properly.
"You passed out at school." Nate answered.
"I don't know what happened and when, but I was leaving school and noticed a mob of
people standing in the car park, I then noticed you standing in the middle looking scared and distraught. The next thing I knew you passed out, luckily I was there otherwise you would've hit your head pretty hard." He chuckled at the last bit of his sentence.
Everything was coming back to me now, the taunts and insults, all of what happened at school flashed through my mind. I could still see Mason's triumphant smirk as everyone insulted and taunted me. I could feel myself getting angry and at the same time I felt pathetic knowing that a lot of the things that were said were partially true.
They were right; I wasn't as rich as all the other students, I wasn't pretty at all, I hid behind baggy clothes and hideous glasses and maybe just maybe I did slightly overreact at Mason's party. I could feel tears threatening to escape from my eyes thinking back to this afternoon's horrible incident.
"Hey Carly, you okay?" Nate asked concerned stopping my thoughts.
I swallowed and nodded.
Nate was about to take a seat besides my bed but the room door opened and in walked a middle aged man with black hair.
"Ah Miss Edwards you finally decided to wake up." He smiled.
"I'm Dr Singh, I hope you're feeling better?" he asked flashing a little torch under my eyes and checking my blood pressure.
I nodded while he did some routine checks.
"Well Miss Edwards you look much better than when you came in." Dr Singh teased.
"I can go get your discharge papers ready and you'll be good to go."
"Um Dr Singh, what caused me to faint?" I asked.
"You had an anxiety attack, from what I heard you were pretty stressed out for the past few weeks and I also heard you skipped all your meals today. It seemed to all catch up causing you to blackout." He replied.
"Don't worry, its normal when you're stressed and even more normal for a senior high school student. You look a lot better after your much needed long sleep and you'll feel even better after you eat something." He added walking out.
After Dr Singh walked out Nate took the seat next to me and smiled. I returned a half smile back.
"Carly don't worry about what those brainless assholes said at school. Don't take it to heart none of it was true." Nate smiled.
"Thanks Nate." I smiled sweetly.
"Oh and Amber said she's so sorry she's not here, she had to go out of town for some gymnastics thing." Nate shrugged.
I stifled a groan as I placed a hand on my forehead. "Please don't tell me you told Amber what happened."
Nate looked apologetic and mumbled, "I'm sorry I had to tell her you're in the hospital and well, I'm not the best liar under the sun, I told her about the incident at school, you know your friend if I didn't and she found out about it when she got back, I'll be pretty much dead."
"Great, I will deal with Amber when she gets back. When is she getting back?" I asked raising a brow hoping it would be at least after the weekend.
"On Monday." Nate replied.
I nodded a little relieved the last thing I needed was to deal with Amber and her over reacting personality. I sighed and asked, "Does my mom know I'm here? And how long have I been out for?"
"Yes Mrs Edwards knows you're here and you've been out for about ten hours or so."
I raised my eyebrows. "Wow ten hours!"
"So where's my mom?"
Nate looked down and replied softly, "She left; after Dr Singh said you'd be alright and there was nothing to worry about she said she'd meet you at home."
I smiled and nodded. I shouldn't be surprised; my parents never really had time for me so this was expected. The urge to cry once again surfaced.
"But Liam, your brother, will be here any minute; he said he doesn't want you eating hospital food when you're awake so he went out to get you something to eat." Nate added after he saw the disappointed expression on my face.
I couldn't help but genuinely smile this time, Liam obviously postponed his trip to college by a day, he was supposed to leave this afternoon. Just at that moment Liam walked in the room, his hands full with bags of food.
"Carly!" he exclaimed and grabbed me in a tight hug after placing the food on the side table.
I hugged my brother back in an equally tight hug; I couldn't help but let all those tears that were threatening to escape eventually fall.
"Are you okay?" he asked gently running his hands through my hair.
I nodded slowly.
After we broke away from the hug, my brother handed me a tissue to wipe my tears away. I was glad he didn't ask me anything, I also hoped Nate didn't tell him anything about what happened at school; Liam would be raging if he knew what Mason did.
"Okay enough with the emotional sibling drama thing; you need to eat before I give you a long lecture concerning your health." Liam said grinning.
I smiled at him and dug into my burger.
"How did this happen?" Liam eventually asked after I finished eating.
I looked at Nate asking him if he said anything to my brother, Nate shook his head answering my unasked question. I let out a little breath of relief, the last thing I wanted to hear was Carly Edwards needs her big brother to stand up for her.
"Well...the doctor said it was an anxiety attack." I answered softly looking down at my hands.
"I know what the doctor said Carly, what I want to know is how all of a sudden you got an anxiety attack, why weren't you eating properly?" Liam asked with his voice rising slightly.
"I don't know, I just had so much to deal with over the last two months, knowing I was moving again, being the new girl at school, going away from all my friends, the memories of gramps earlier on this week... just everything seemed to catch up on me, I didn't have the mind or heart to eat, I've been struggling to sleep over the past few days and-" I said with fresh tears sliding down my cheeks as this afternoons events played back in my mind.
"Hey, I'm sorry I shouldn't have raised my voice, I was just so worried for you. I'm glad you're alright now." Liam said giving me a small hug again.
"I think I um, should give you guys a little space." Nate said sounding a little out of place. I even forgot he was there.
"No Nate you stay with my sister, I got to go sign the discharge papers." Liam said before he walked out.
"Thank you Nate, for everything. You've been more than a friend to me. I'm really glad to have bumped into you and I'm even gladder you're dating my best friend." I smiled at Nate after controlling myself.
"No worries Carly, friends always have each other's backs right? So no need for any thank you's." Nate said.
I was about to open my moth to reply but the door slammed open and in walked a paranoid looking Mason's gramps. He rushed in and before I could even say anything he engulfed me in a tight hug.
"Carly, what happened honey?" he asked after breaking away from the hug.
I chuckled, he was so much like my gramps it wasn't even funny. "Hi grandpa Mitchell."
"Nothing major to be worried about, it was just an anxiety attack."
"How is it nothing to worry about, you fainted and only regained conscience after almost eleven hours." Grandpa Mitch said with worry edging his voice.
"Don't worry, I'm absolutely fine besides Liam has-" I stopped when Mason walked in the door.
"Hey old man, I've been looking for you all over, you just left after you saw Li-" Mason broke off when his eyes locked with mine.
We stood looking at each other for what seemed like forever, Mason's expression was blank while a lump was forming in my throat, my mind was rethinking today's events, I could see Masons smug expression as everyone at school humiliated me at his behest.
"Mason did you know Carly was in hospital?" Grandpa Mitch asked sternly.
"Gramps-" Mason started nervously.
"No he didn't, Mason wasn't around when I fainted, only Nate." I cut Mason off.
Mason looked quizzically at me for a split second. I didn't want everyone to pity me, thinking I was the petty new girl who was bullied and fainted at school. I didn't need or want any unwanted attention.
"Anyway Grandpa Mitch, what are you doing at the hospital? Is everything alright?" I asked with concern diverting the subject.
"Just a regular check-up honey; nothing to worry about." He replied with a smile.
I exhaled a breath of relief, I just sort of found my gramps again and I didn't plan on losing him anytime soon. "Good and I hope everything's fine?"
"I'm as fit as a fiddle. In fact I've being thinking of going on a hiking trip lately. Do you know any pretty grannies that would care to join me?" Grandpa Mitch teased wriggling his brows.
"Um I'm not sure, but I'll be certain to look out for you gramps." I winked.
"I'm going to go and check if Liam is doing alright with the paper work. I'll be right back." Grandpa Mitch said heading towards the door.
"Mason you stay here and make sure Carly has everything she needs." He added in an ordering tone.
Mason reluctantly nodded and stood awkwardly in a corner as his grandfather exited. After
we were alone in the room Nate said coldly, "Mason your grandfather is gone, you can leave now."
"I um... I wanted to talk to you Carly." Mason hesitated, ignoring Nate.
"Carly has nothing to say to you, so just leave!" Nate spat answering for me.
"Nate I actually do have something to say. Could you please give us a second?" I asked softly.
Without tearing his cold stare away from Mason, Nate reluctantly nodded and walked out of the room.
Mason took slow steps towards me. I rolled my eyes. "There's no need to walk on egg shells around me, I'm still Carly, not some mental patient from Neptune."
Mason chuckled lightly speeding up his stride. He took in a deep breath and eventually said,
"Carly, I...I didn't mean..."
Chuckling humourlessly I rolled my eyes, "Don't Mason; don't do something that's not within your capability."
Mason sighed, "Carly at least let me-"
I put up my hand stopping him. "I don't want to hear whatever you have to say. I only allowed you in here alone with me because I had something to say to you, I'm the only one who's going to do the talking." I said trying hard to keep my cool.
Mason clenched his jaw, he obviously wasn't used to being told what to do but for some reason he was quiet.
"Mason I don't want an apology or an 'I didn't mean for you to get hurt' or whatever lame token of repentance you've come to give me."
"You know why, because if you apologize, it would mean that I owe you something back, and as far as I can remember we're even now. I insulted you, you insulted me."
"We don't owe each other anything. I hurt your pride and you humiliated me in front of the entire school, we're even"
"I'm not complaining, just stating the facts." I added.
"I do however have one request or more of a suggestion. I think it would be best if you stayed out of my way and I out of yours. Let's pretend we never met." I stated.
"Carly-" Mason started but I once again cut him off.
"It's a pity though; I was beginning to think you were kinda okay to hang around. Oh well you just proved today what a jerk you really are."
"Well that's all I have to say to you, please leave, I need to change before my brother comes back." I said bitterly.
Mason wanted to once again say something but I stopped him, "Goodbye Mason."
Mason looked at me blankly for a while before he turned on his heel and walked out. I didn't know why but the look Mason had given, gave me a feeling that it wasn't the last I was going to see or hear of him and no it wasn't because we were in the same school or lived near each other, it was something else. Oh well that only time could tell I thought to myself.
A/N I know this was a sort of nothing chapter, but I wanted you guys to see a little of how her relationship is with her parents etc. next chapter will be much more interesting, I promise. Till next time.
*hugs*
Tina Xx