Chapter Four: You Know Who I Am
"Hazel. Hazel." Ms. Aden tried to wake her daughter who had been tossing around in a restless sleep. She had been like that for almost two months, unable to get past the fact that Jimmy had been shot and that he might never come out of the coma he had been in for a while. "Wake up honey." Hazel's eyes fluttered slowly as she realized that it was her mother leaning over her.
"What is it mom?" Hazel grumbled, as feelings of depression overwhelmed her and filled her every bone.
"I've got good news." Her daughter rolled over, turning her back to her mother.
"I don't want to hear it. Nothing can be good when everything I have is falling apart."
"Hazel, don't be so dramatic." Ms. Aden began. "You aren't even listening to what I'm trying to say."
"That's because I know you're going to say it whether I listen or not." She mumbled under her breath, trying to return back to her sleep, which was not better than this, but at least she could imagine that Jimmy was okay and that, well … he would survive the coma.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm sorry mom." Hazel sighed. "Good morning! Do you have something you want to tell me?" She put on a fake face of happiness, not believing that her mother was about to bother her with something so trivial, so unimportant, so not about Jimmy. How could she—
"It's about Jimmy." Ms. Aden began as Hazel turned her full attention to her mother. "He's come out of his coma."
"What do you think?" Manny held up a sleek black dress with a cutting detail that revealed the sides of her torso. "Cute or too much?"
"What's option two?" Marco asked, checking on his hair once again. That was the one thing that he obsessed about more than anything else.
"This." She pulled out a Spanish-flavored red dress that had a rough edge to it with torn chiffon material on the bottom.
"Either would work." Marco admitted, shrugging his shoulders.
"Come on. This means a lot to me … pick one. I can't decide." Manny declared with growing excitement in her voice.
"Why are you so happy to have round two with Craig? You want him to tear you apart again?"
"No. I want to give him a piece of my mind. I don't want him to think that he won something by making me cry … I'm fine with it now." She lied, pulling off her orange spaghetti strapped top and white capris and slipping into the black dress.
"I should've known." Marco smiled, noting that Manny was putting on the dress that revealed more of her body. "Slut."
"Fag." She shot back, as Gianni waltzed into the room. No one had told him that Marco was gay and Marco was hoping that he hadn't heard anything, so things wouldn't be any worse than they already were for him.
"Bro. How'd you get her in your room like that?" Manny quickly pulled on the rest of the dress, trying to ignore the stare that Gianni was giving her.
"I've got it like that." Marco joked as Manny held in a laugh. Marco a playa? Yeah right.
"If you ever wanna share her…" Gianni's voice trailed off.
"I am standing here you know."
"And?"
"And you're insulting me. Get out." Manny demanded as Gianni shrugged, knowing that he was defeated, for now, but nothing worth getting came easily.
"He doesn't quit, does he?" She rolled her eyes.
"Not until he's gotten what he wants." Manny walked over to the mirror, noticing how thick and frizzy her hair had gotten since he had done it this morning. Only a flat iron could save her.
This was it, the moment he had been waiting for for months. No one had any idea that he was going to be there except for Hazel who had been completely out of it since the whole Jimmy thing happened. He wondered how they would react … he didn't even know how he'd react if he was in their position. Were they going to greet him? Would anyone even remember him … high school relationships were fickle like that. People were in and out of your lives like that and instantly, were replaced by someone else. Maybe his existence didn't even matter. Suddenly, he was thinking about turning around and going back home.
(A/N: Review, review!! It gets better in the next chapter … Hazel and Jimmy drama, someone's return, and more so stay tuned!! –NL)
