beep.
beep.
beep.
An unwavering, constant beeping. A dull, persistent and ever-more-painful throbbing. The fucking brightest light poorly hidden behind the weak curtain of my eyelids.
Opened eyes. A too white ceiling. Brighter lights.
A black head of shaggy hair in a nearby bed shooting up.
I blinked once. Twice.
"Finally!" a piercing high-pitched voice chirped. "I've been stuck in this bed, all on my own, for years. Years! You sure took your sweet time."
I blinked again, trying to bring my eyes into focus. Who is this girl, and why is she talking to me as if we were friends? I was more than 100% sure I'd never met her, or even seen her, in my life. And why is she here? Where is here?
I focused hard on the ceiling, trying to pick out patterns... colors... My vision rapidly grew sharper, as did the stupid, irritating throbbing on my temple.
"Hellooo? Sleeping Beauty? You are up, right? Because if you're doing some sleep-talking shit or whatever, just let me know now."
The girl's shrill voice faded into the background as I focused on my surroundings. Toes working, check. Ten fingers? I lifted my hands up to my eyesight, examining each minute detail I found. My fingernails were unnaturally clean, but there were ten of them, for sure. Hadn't I painted them before I left?
Before I left...
My mind was hit so suddenly with a blurry barrage of memories, colors, and feelings. Slipping Charlie's credit card out of his wallet, the slam of the door resounding loudly as I darted down the apartment stairwell. Panic. His face, his name. Urgency. Exhilaration. Fear? A crosswalk, a streak of silver, and a crash. Pain. The blackness of concrete combined with night, with sleep.
My eyes drifted in to focus on the white ceiling. The hospital ceiling.
"Oh my God..." I breathed, the pain in my head momentarily forgotten. I sat up as quickly as possible, only to find myself mere inches away from a pair of curious clear blue eyes.
The girl was perched carefully on the edge of my hospital bed. She was small, and very, very thin, with a petite sharp face and the same sharp air about her. She was quick, hyper, excited. Her eyes- those huge round eyes that could miss nothing and see so much, I could already tell- darted everywhere that was me, examining and taking in every little detail. Her hair was jet black and hung loosely about an inch shorter than her chin. She was intensely, mindbogglingly beautiful. Every part of her- her sharp little features, her night black hair, her milky white skin, and those eyes- all of it was like different pieces from different puzzles fitting together to create a picture you could never have dreamed on your own yet was the prettiest picture you'd ever seen.
I fucking loathed it.
My immediate feelings of extreme distaste upon examining her made me forget, just for a second, my situation. All I knew at that moment was that this girl was everything I was not. Her unique, intriguing features contrasted sharply from my disgustingly plain ones: brown hair, brown eyes, light skin. I was average height and average weight. To put it shortly, I was unbelievably boring.
"Do I know you?" I spit out at the girl. I couldn't help it. She was so damn irritating, I wanted to get her out of my sight as soon as possible.
I needed to find Charlie.
Unluckily, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the girl looked unperturbed and simply smiled brightly at me. "Now you do. I'm Alice. I'm your hospital roomy!"
"Fuck off."
She smiled sweetly at me. She fucking gave me this honey-sweet smile that made me feel just a tiny twinge of remorse.
"So your name?" Alice pestered.
"None of your business."
The little pixie just cocked her head to the side, like she just didn't quite understand. Of course everyone must have been treating her like she was a little princess since she was born. She's probably never had anyone deny her like that before. I smiled slightly.
The silence stretched on, but she didn't budge from my bed. Still, she sat there, looking at me like she didn't quite understand. What was there to fucking understand? She needs to leave me alone.
As the seconds ticked by, I began to recall my predicament. Where was my father? How badly was I hurt? What happened to James? My annoyance, as well as my anxiety, grew. Alice needed to get up and leave me be now.
Instead of snapping at her as planned, my mouth acted of his own accord. "Where's Charlie?" I blurted out unintentionally. I wanted to slap a hand over my mouth as soon as I said it. This girl didn't know or need to know, anything about my life.
She smiled a full, beautiful, annoying smile at me. "Oh, your dad just left. He said something about a phone call he had to take. He'll be back in a few. And he'll be thrilled to see you awake." If possible, her smile grew even wider.
I narrowed my eyes at her. "How do you know he's my dad?"
Her expression turned slightly incredulous, like she couldn't believe I asked that. Like I was some sort of child or something. Please. "Well, let's see. He's constantly here, asking me how you've been and he's kissed you on the forehead, so... he's either your dad or your really old sugar daddy, and I kind of figured I couldn't go wrong either way. Besides, you looked a little too innocent to have a sugar daddy, but I mean, so far your looks have lied. You could have been a stripper for all I know."
I couldn't help the blush that crept into my cheeks. "Shut up," I snapped.
Alice's hand clapped over her mouth, eyes stretched in surprise. "Oh my God, you are, aren't you."
"No! No, I swear. I'm just- just shut up, okay?" I pointedly looked at the wall beside her, folding my arms over my chest in stubbornness.. Above anything else, I would not let her know how close to home her whole 'sugar daddy' spiel hit.
Again, I found silence overtaking us, but this time, both of us seemed to have fallen into deep thought. I was desperate to know what happened. I'd obviously gotten hit by a car- I remembered that part quite clearly. Terrifyingly clearly, in fact. But the real questions were still there. How did Charlie react? Did he know where I'd been going? Was he mad at me for leaving? Ah, he was probably furious- and still is. I just hoped he didn't know about James. I would really be dead if he found out about James.
My head began to throb even louder, conveniently reminding me of my injuries. Was it just my head? I began to flex my muscles again, lightly, one by one. My leg felt very, very heavy- I peeked under my blankets to find it wrapped in a cast. Awesome. What was the date? I really, really hoped I didn't miss James appointment; I don't even want to think what would happen if... ugh. And what was this girl doing here? Why wouldn't she leave? Against my will, my eyes drifted to her face, to find-surprise, surprise!-the excited, energetic expression she'd been wearing 100% of the time I'd seen her drifted into a dreary, lost one. She truly looked miserable, and I couldn't help but feel bad about how I'd treated her. Maybe there was something I could do or say to distract her...
"What's the date?" I blurted out once again, before I'd even had ample time to consider my distraction tactic. My mouth apparently fucking refused to listen to me today. Probably from all that time, who knows how much it was, of non-use.
"Nine days."
"What?"
"Nine days. You've been in here for nine days."
Because that's what I fucking asked, I thought, irritated that she knew what I really wanted to know. "Thanks," I mumbled.
"No problem." She still seemed a little out of it. Bored, I looked around the room. It was just a standard hospital room; little whiteboard with nurses' notes against the far wall, a curtain around the bed, white floor, white walls, white ceiling. I wondered if it would be rude to ask the next employee to walk in to pull the curtain around me for privacy. Every time I looked at Alice, she looked upset, and I felt like the world was waiting for me to comfort her. I felt like every moment I didn't, the world looked at me and said, "Wow, you really are a bitch." I wanted to flip them all off.
How do I have friends?
I snorted to myself. I really didn't. By my own fault.
I glanced at Alice again. She got up and meandered back into her own bed.
Just then, a nurse dressed in light blue scrubs bustled in. She looked kindly enough, and when she saw that I was awake, her eyes even sparkled like they found another little reason to be happy, I found myself smiling back. Fuck, why is that happening? I quickly forced it off my face and looked down.
"Hello, Bella! I'm Nurse Cope. I'm so glad to see you're up!" she informed me. I frowned. Normally, perky attitudes like this would drive me crazy, but she seemed genuine enough. "I'm just going to check your vitals for a moment. How do you feel?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Alice rustling around in a bag or something out of my view, on the other side of her bed, as I tried to answer the nurse. "I'm, um, pretty okay." Nurse Cope squinted at me. "No, like yeah, I mean, I don't feel in pain or anything. Just a little sore, maybe my leg."
The nurse nodded, still busily moving around me and tinkering with a bunch of machines. When she seemed just about finished, she turned to me once more. "Would you like some privacy?" the lady asked, one hand lingering on the curtain she was offering to pull around my bed. I deliberated for a moment. Come off more cold and hard than I already seemed, or offer an olive branch? Even if the olive branch just happened to be just not shunning the girl in the next bed.
I shook my head. "I think I'll be fine."
With a slight smile she called to Alice, "And you, Miss Brandon?"
Alice lifted her head from digging around out of my view to reveal a bright grin on her face. "Just peachy, Shelly!"
Shelly turned to head out the door with a wave, and I looked over at Alice Brandon. The girl sat there with a slight smirk, proudly displaying a box like she was Vanna White.
I did a double take when I saw the name on the box. She was not proposing to play me in fucking Connect Four.
She still had that shit-eating smile on her face. "Up for a game?"
I rolled my eyes, but I sensed it was pretty much an inevitability that I would give in. Something about Alice just told me that. "Why the fuck not," I sighed.
I met Alice when I was sixteen. Now, that day seems like forever ago. I was still... interacting, for lack of a better term, with James. Two of the most important people in my life had still been with me. I was still a bratty, insecure bitch trying to find a way in a fucked up world alone. But Alice was the beginning of the best of it all. I'm not saying it was easy. It probably wasn't ever easy, for any of us. But now I'm happier than I ever have been, and it all began with a car accident.
Ain't it funny how life works sometimes?