Maya's Point Of View

The car ride was only a few minutes, but each second felt like an eternity. Squashed in the back seat in between Lucas and Farkle, I was finding it hard to breathe- way harder than it should have been.

"Maya, are you okay?" Lucas asked me. I glared at him.

"Of course I' okay, why wouldn't I be?" I snapped.

I knew the answer to that. I was most certainly not okay. My best friend could have been dying. But Lucas must have known the answer too, because he didn't ask any more questions.

My chest was tight, and with every breath, it felt like someone was stabbing me, over and over again. Almost as if I were still in the middle of the flames. At first, I shrugged it off, thinking I was just imagining things. But when I started wheezing, I knew this was for real.

"Maya, you're not okay," Farkle told me.

"You don't think I know that?" I asked, surpised at how low and raspy my voice sounded. I was going to say something else, but before I could, a fit of coughing wracked my body.

"Maya," Mrs. Matthews said, sounding worried. "Maya... How could I have been so stupid?"

My foggy mind couldn't understand what made her so worried. I could see her face in the rear view mirror, and she looked... dead. Her eyelids were surrounded by dark circles, and her eyes themselves were bloodshot from crying. Her skin was deathly pale. It was then that i realized that after a long day at work, she had come home to find her house on fire and her daughter half dead. Now I was just adding onto her stress.

I tried to say something, I really did, but before I could even open my mouth, another coughing fit took over my body, and this bout was worse.

"Oh, shit," Farkle cried. I flinched, not used to hearing those words come out of his mouth. "Mrs. Matthews, she inhaled too much smoke!"

"We have to get her help, now!" Lucas added.

At first, I didn't know who 'she' was. Everything was just happening so fast. By the time I could grasp the fact that 'she' was 'me,' Mrs. Matthews had already begun speeding into the traffic, swerving in and out like a crazy person and jostling me around even more than the coughing.

Before I knew it, we were pulling into the emergency parking lot of the hospital. The ambulance that Riley had been in was already there; Riley was being treated.

The next things that happened are a blur to me. I vaguely remember being lifted up and out of the car by... Lucas.. or was it Farkle? No, he couldn't have lifted me up if he tried... I think he might have tried, but I don't really know... It must have been Lucas.

Then I remember hearing voices... and being placed onto a stretcher. There were people in masks- doctors -and they whisked me away from my friends and my friend's mother. I remember being brought into a room where they placed me on a bed and put something- I don't know what- over my nose and mouth. I think they gave me some medication, but I'm not quite sure. At any rate, it was the second scariest thing that had ever happened to me, next to the fire itself.

I've never been a vry religious person. My mom is always working, so I've only ever gone to church with Riley and her family. I don't pray a lot, and sometimes I feel bad for it. But one of the clearest things I remember about those few minutes- or eternities, I dunno- is how much I prayed.

I prayed that I would be okay, that my mom would come when she got off of work. I prayed that Mr. Matthews wouldn't freak out when he found out that both me and Riley were in the hospital.

But most of all. I prayed for Riley. That she would live and recover. That she would go on to live her life, and change the world, with her bright eyes and wide, ever-present smile. That if I didn't make it, she would.

And then the medication that they may or may not have given me set in. All of my pain, both physical and emotional, began to ebb away, until I slipped into unconsciousness.

This chapter was short. I know it was. But the next chapter will be up later tonight, I promise. I was going to combine the chapters, but I decided that it would ruin the flow of this chapter. I hope you enjoy!