AN: Just a warning, the POV will change throughout the story. I'll tell you when it does, so hopefully that will make it less confusing.
Chapter 2
Elena
The next day was a Saturday, mom and Jeremy were out, and Caroline and Matt were dragging me to a concert for some band nobody's ever heard of. Caroline showed up at 4:00 to make sure I wouldn't ditch her. She barged into my room and headed straight for my closet. She looked at me sitting on the window seat, as she passed and stopped in her tracks.
"Holy shit Elena, you're a fucking twig. You need to eat more." Caroline swore more than anyone I knew. If you could get through a conversation without her swearing at you, something was wrong.
"Look Caroline, I'm just going to stay home tonight, I don't feel well." It wasn't a lie; I had been dizzy and achy all day. Caroline walked over to me and put her hand to my forehead.
"Well you don't have a fever and you're not projectile vomiting, so as far as I'm concerned you're fine." She flopped down onto my bed.
"Oh hey, by the way, can I borrow your eyeliner? I lost mine." I shrugged and let my head fall back against the white wood paneling of the window seat.
"Sure, why not." She leapt off my bed and ran into the bathroom to put it on, throwing thanks over her shoulder. A second later, I felt something warm trickling down from my nose to my lip. I lifted my hand to my nose to see if I was bleeding. I pulled it away from my face to see the back of my hand covered in blood. I tilted my head back, pinching the bridge of my nose, as I ran to the bathroom where Caroline was giving herself Cleopatra eyes. She turned her head as I entered.
"Holy fuck Lena! What the hell happened?" She handed me a towel as I desperately tried to stop the bleeding. My nose was gushing blood, and nothing was helping. Caroline started to panic after the towel became fully soaked in blood. I was becoming light headed from the blood loss. Caroline grabbed me another towel, and put the blood-drenched towel in the sink, running the water.
"I need to get you to a hospital. I don't have my car though, my mom dropped me off, oh god. What do I do?"
"Call Matt, he has a car. He can get here quicker than an ambulance. Tell him it's an emergency." It was though. I had almost gone through another towel as Caroline whipped out her cell phone and dialed Matt.
"Matt, get your ass over here now. Something happened to Elena, we couldn't stop the bleeding. We need to get her to the hospital and soon. She's losing a lot of blood." I heard Matt's muffled reply, and Caroline nodded quickly as if he could see her.
"Just get here quickly. Break as many laws as needed." She flipped her cell phone back shut and stuffed it into her pocket.
"He's coming, just stay calm. Take nice deep breaths" The problem was, I couldn't breathe. The blood was blocking off my nasal passages, and I could feel it dripping down my throat, making it hard to breathe through my mouth too. I probably sounded like a dying fish, bubbling and gurgling as I tried to breathe through the blood. I heard the front door slam, as Matt got here. He lived only a couple blocks away, so it wasn't too far a drive.
"WE'RE UP HERE!" Caroline called down to him. He ran through the downstairs of my house reaching the stairs in record time. He flew up them, probably taking them 3 at a time, before skidding down the hallway and into my bathroom, where Caroline was frantically getting me a third towel. I heard him gasp, and saw him run his hands through his hair, as he always did when he was nervous or stressed.
"Okay, I'll get her in the car. It's running out front. Elena, listen to me, where do you keep your insurance info?" I nodded towards the bag lying against my bed.
"Caroline, grab that and a pair of shoes and come on" He guided me down the stairs and out the door to his blue pickup truck, opening the door for me to get in the front seat. Caroline followed soon after, flinging herself into the back. Matt ran around to the driver's side, and got in. His hands were shaking so badly it took a few tries to get the key into the ignition. When he finally got the car running, he flew out of my driveway at 40 miles per hour. He took the roads about 60, blowing through stop signs and red lights. After a bit a cop started following us, lights flashing. Matt looked in his rearview mirror once and never looked back. He skidded into the hospital parking lot, screeching to a stop right outside the emergency doors. Several police cruisers pulled in after us, surrounding the car. Matt glanced at the cops then back at me.
"Care, take her inside. I'll deal with the police." Caroline nodded once, and got me out of the car, running with me into the hospital. The last thing I saw before blacking out was Matt surrounded by police officers, a look of sheer terror on his face.
Matt
After explaining to the police the situation with Elena, they let me go without any hassle. I ran into the hospital emergency entrance, where a circular desk sat right inside the doorway. I got to the desk, and grabbed the attention of the nurse sitting there.
"A girl came in her a couple minutes ago with a severe nosebleed. Where is she?" The woman checked her computer, and spoke.
"Are you family?" I thought for a millisecond.
"I'm her boyfriend" she nodded slightly and pointed down a hallway.
"Room 114" I thanked her quickly, before darting down the hall and into room 114. Caroline was talking to a doctor, and Elena was unconscious on a bed in the center of the room with an IV in her arm. I joined into Caroline's conversation with the doctor. She was explaining what happened at Elena's house.
"I don't know what happened, she just ran into the bathroom with a bloody nose, and it wouldn't stop bleeding, so I called Matt and he drove us to the hospital." The doctor nodded, while scribbling on her clipboard.
"What's your relationship with the patient?" I spoke up before Caroline could answer.
"I'm her boyfriend, and this is her cousin." The doctor eyed me doubtfully, but nodded again.
"Okay I'm going to go run some tests. You can stay in here with the patient. I'll get back to you as soon as I have some answers. Do you know her parent's number?" Caroline and I shared a glance, before answering.
"She's at work. We can't reach her until later." She nodded a third time, and walked out of the room. I walked over to the bed, and sat down next to it. Caroline came up behind me, and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Boyfriend and cousin?" I shrugged.
"Yeah, well you don't look enough alike to pass for her sister, and they wouldn't let you stay if I said you were her friend." Caroline dragged another chair to be next to mine.
"That makes sense, but why didn't you say you were her brother or something?" I had thought of this earlier, but knew it wouldn't work.
"Three reasons. One. Jeremy has been in here before. Two. We have different last names, and lastly, we're the same age, and look nothing alike." Caroline nodded in understanding, her blonde curls bouncing. Her hair was always in perfect ringlets, and silky smooth. It had been that way her whole life. Caroline, Elena and I had been friends since preschool. It was too weird to think that just few years ago we were in my tree house playing go fish, and now we were in a hospital with Elena unconscious, and Caroline and I worried out of our minds.