If you reviewed, I thank you. :) I know, not much interaction in this chapter. It's more of a turning point.
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Angie sat up wearily. Her mind was racing, her little heart went like a rabbit's, and painfully thudded against her chest. She sucked in a breath of overwhelming air. It was tense air. An air thick with the smell of medicine and medical equipment…the too clean smell that Angie always associated with hospitals. She hated any place by that name.
Angie was sure the bright lights that killed her eyes weren't Heavenly beams of lightning, no, it was sunlight pouring through a window some stupid nurse had neglected to close the blinds over. She groaned and tried to relax her tense muscles, to no avail.
How dare they save her! How dare they take her sister's life and preserve her useless one!
It all came rushing back. The boys, the basement, the fight at school, Sodapop's face plastered all around her room…and the fact that he would never love her.
Angie was so accustomed to not caring that when her throat choked out a sickening noise, she could hardly understand what the guttering sound was. Then she realized it was a cry, a sob.
How horrible it was that it wasn't over! She would have to follow through with everything! The jail time, the hatred of those who surrounded her, being out casted once she was finally free, and the baby. The baby. If it was just his, it wouldn't matter so much. She could bind him to her with the excuse of a child, but to Angie's misfortune, she was carrying a mistake, and its father was a drunken idiot. Maybe I've killed it, she hoped vainly.
Her hopes were vanquished when the doctor strode in. After an initial check up, he began to explain everything.
"A group of campers found you in a field. You were lucky." Lucky? She almost groaned. Her head ached, her body was sore, and she felt broken.
He went on to say a few tests had been run and that, though she may be at risk for miscarriage, it was unlikely. How he knew she was pregnant, she didn't question. She was too sick of it all to question things anymore.
"We found no identification."
Angie hadn't spoken yet, she'd only stared dully at the doctor and he tinkered around with various medical equipment.
"My name's Madeline, Madeline Rose." Her voice was too clear and too sure to be hers, she thought.
"Who are your parents?"
"They're dead. I've been living mostly to myself."
Oh, the lies just came too easily. She wasn't going to regret a single one of them. She had little, or rather, nothing to live for, but she'd rather live freely than pregnant and in a jail cell.
He didn't seem to buy the story, but she kept pursuing. She went deeper and deeper into it.
"We lived in the woods, a bit away from here. I never went to much school; my mother taught me a lot. I burned down the house a few days ago and hiked out."
No, there was no Madeline Rose on record, but then again, she'd never been far from home, thought the doctor. She had been born in the woods and had never been ill. Of course there would be no record of her.
"My daddy was a drinker, and I always thought it would just be the way to go, like my old gramps. It looked so easy."
When he left a few moments later, after her lengthy narrative of lies, a bit teary eyed, Angie smiled crookedly. She was so quick witted it was astounding.
Madeline…that's my name. Maddie for short. She thought again and again, and eventually, it was easy to discard Angie for Maddie.
It suited her better anyway.
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When Sodapop arrived home, a parade of friends and acquaintances flooded the Curtis home. Some cried, some laughed, all smiled and silently thanked whatever force it was that brought beloved Soda back home. He had nothing to say of his experience, and instead changed the subject whenever someone tried to speak of it.
When the crowd dispersed and everyone had fallen asleep, Darry went outside and found Sodapop on the porch, his head in his hands.
"Something bothering you?" He didn't want to press his younger sibling. He knew all too well the stress he was under. Let him sort it out himself, he can talk later, Darry thought.
"Ang..." He cringed as the name came from his mouth. Darry noticed but said nothing. He waited for a moment, and then Sodapop resumed.
"She was…going to have a kid Dar. I think she's killed herself. She's been through a lot of…I just don't know what to think anymore."
"Don't put any of the blame on yourself kid, it's not your fault." Darry stated before turning and going back inside. There was nothing anyone could do but be patient with Sodapop.
Soda looked gloomily out into the night. He had been so glad to be home only a few hours before, but now he hated it. Why was it that the cruel people like Angie had nice homes and all the good boys he knew didn't? His brain racked itself with questions that he'd never even considered before all of the traumatic events that had occurred recently.
And to think, it hadn't even been that long. Tomorrow he would be up and working again, and he would do it gladly, but something about it all just didn't seem right.