~Monique~
When I woke the next day I was in good mood. Then sun was shining through the slightly dusty window. I jumped out of bed before everyone else was awake but as soon as I stepped on the floor a wrenching pain ripped through my stomach and I had to grip the side of the bunk to steady myself. It only lasted a millisecond but its intensity sucked the breath right out of me. There was not a trace of pain after it left, this puzzled me but I ignored it. I felt slightly dizzy but not enough to worry about, I was used to it by now. I slipped into a pair of jeans and my favorite "I'm with stupid" sweatshirt that Scott had bought me for my fourteenth birthday. He thought it would be a great joke but my mom never allowed me to wear it outside. Now it really didn't matter what she thought, or anyone else actually. I swept my curly hair up into a messy ponytail and walked out of the door into the sunlight. Not many people were outside but I wasn't looking for just anyone. I strained my eyes to search the heads for a particular dark haired one but my efforts were futile and I stopped. There was plenty of time to look for him and I had promised Scott to help him with his early morning clean up. I found him lugging around a huge plastic bag that was only partly filled with trash. He was walking past cans and paper in a sort of daze. I snuck up behind him.
"Boo!"
He jumped out of his skin and nearly spilled the bag. When he turned the look of horror, embarrassment and then slight annoyance made me laugh hysterically.
"Real mature, Mo." He said running a hand through his head. I tried to contain myself but I couldn't.
"I'm sorry. Your such an easy target."
"Fine but you better watch your back. When you least expect it…" He said slyly. I knew he would try and get me back but he wasn't much of a person for revenge unless it involved fists, then you better watch it. I laughed again and then began helping him pick up some of the stuff he had missed.
"Hey isn't this quality time you could be spending with your girlfriend?" I commented while gingerly picking up a particularly nasty looking coke can.
"I'm sure Shelby's dream date is helping me pick up trash besides she's still asleep."
I gave him a sideways glance. "I would be too if I snuck out at three o'clock in the morning to meet my boyfriend at the docks."
His eyes widened but he chose to ignore me. We use to joke that he had selective hearing because he easily ignored anything anyone had to say that didn't interest him. It annoyed me all the time and he knew it. I was about to continue my observation of he and Shelby's relationship when I felt someone behind me. I turned and was face to face with the gorgeous stranger, Hank.
"Uh, Hi." He said with his hands dug deep into his pockets. He looked extremely sexy this morning and I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. I just kept moving my mouth up and down like a fish. He chuckled and I blushed.
"Hi." I sighed after I finally managed to get that out.
"I know it's still early." He said in an effort to redeem me. I smiled and he smiled, we stood like this for a few moments before he said he had to go. I dreamily waved good- bye at his retreating form but was interrupted by Scott.
"Whoa. How come I suddenly feel like I missed something." He said throwing his blue eyes from me to Hank and then back at me.
I quickly looked down to try and hide my smile. "What are you talking about?"
"You both just stood there grinning at each other for a full minute and neither of you had any idea that I was standing there the whole time."
"We did not."
"Did too."
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Did not."
"Did too-…wait this isn't getting us anywhere." He dropped the bag for a second and looked straight into my eyes.
"I don't think it's a good idea for you to jump into anything."
"You make it sound like we're getting married or something. Relax." I said
tossing a wrapper into the bag.
"I just don't want you to get hurt or anything. You know with Kyle and…"
That's when another pain tore through my body, wrenching my insides and sending me into a painful downward spiral. I tried to grab for something, anything, the air, a body, the darkness. I felt my self fall and hit something hard, the ground and I could hear voices around me. Scott's and then Sophie's and then Shelby's. I struggled to understand what they were saying but I could sense that they were calling to me. I tried to get to them but I was so far away. I was falling, they were trying to help me but they couldn't break my fall, not this time.
~Scott~
I sat next to Shelby in the waiting room of the hospital but I couldn't sit still and for the fifth time that night I began to pace back and forth. She watched me from the bench with a pained expression.
"She's going to be alright, Scott." I knew she was trying to comfort me but I kept replaying what had happened in my mind. Talking to her one second, the next she's on the ground convulsing in pain. I shut my eyes tight hoping that somehow I could move back in time and stop it but when I opened them again I was still surrounded by the white tile and antiseptic smell of the hospital. Shelby stood up and placed a hand on my arm. I watched the door of Mo's room for a minute and then I went into her arms. She wrapped them around me and I felt like a child again, in the arms of my mother, getting comfort, drawing strength but this time it was different, we were sharing it.
"I know you're scared. I'm scared too." She whispered into my hair. I held her tighter and this is how we were mother and child, friends, lovers, souls when the doctor came out of Monique's room. He first went to Peter and Sophie who were talking in hushed tones at the end of the blinding white hallway. They conversed with heads low, Sophie kept nodding and Peter listened intently. When they were done Peter was holding Sophie to his chest. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach and I wanted to vomit badly. Shelby saw all this and her eyes began to well up with unshed tears. The doctor, a short balding man, introduced him self as Dr. Kramer.
"You must be Scott," He said and I nodded. "You can go in and see her. She asked specifically for you."
I began to walk to the door but I stopped when I reached it. "Is she alright?"
Dr. Kramer's face remained impassive. "She wanted me to let her talk to you."
I nodded again and pushed open the thick wooden door that led to her room. The first thing I noticed when I entered was the whir of machines. I couldn't exactly place which ones were making the sounds but it sounded like an off key band. Then I saw Monique lying in the bed that seemed to swallow her frail form up. Her hair was fanned out around her and her in the few hours she had been here it looked as if she had aged ten years but what surprised me was that she looked even more beautiful. When she saw me entered she tried to sit up but fell back down into the hungry bed. I rushed to her side and propped it up for her and she thanked me with her brown eyes while I sat down in the chair beside the bed.
"Hi." She said trying to hold a smile on her face.
"Mo." Was all that I could say and her smile faded.
"It's not as bad as it looks, Scott. I'm not in any pain."
I was relieved but I wasn't convinced.
"What happened? What's wrong?"
She furrowed her brow and then turned away from me, staring into the white wall on the other side of her. I could hear her whimpering softly and I put a finger under her chin and turned her eyes towards me. They were red and swollen.
"Are you in pain?"
She shook her head fervently. "No. It's just that…you wouldn't understand"
"What? What is it?"
She kept her eyes cast down and fingered the edge of her blanket. "They said…they said…My body is eating itself inside out because…because…I'm not."
I didn't understand, she was crying again and I didn't know what to do.
"What are you saying, Mo. That you're starving yourself?"
Now she was crying and sobbing uncontrollably. I got up and paced again, around the room. I had no idea what to say. I ran a hand through my hair and tried hard not to pick up something and throw it.
"Why, Monique. Why! I don't understand."
"I knew you wouldn't." She said through the torrent of tears.
I stood at the edge of her bed with my hands gripping the cold plastic bar at the end.
"How can you blame me? My best friend is killing herself! Damn it, Mo! I…I…I just don't know." I wearily though myself into the chair and buried my head in her blanket. All I knew to do at that moment was cry and I did. I felt her slim hand touch the back of my neck softly and move to my hair.
"I'm sorry, Scott. I tried, I did. For a while I was getting better but it's so hard…I tried for you and me, I wanted to fight but I got so tired of fighting."
I lifted my head and looked into her eyes.
"They are going to force feed you."
"I know."
"Is that what you want."
"No but I can't control it."
There was silence again.
"I love you, Monique."
"I know that too."
"I'm going to fight for you. Shelby and I aren't letting you go. Not yet."
"I love you both, so much."
I gathered her small body into my arms and she fell asleep with her head on my chest. The only sound was the soft whir of the machines and the tapping of the rain outside of the window.
I can make it through the rain
I can stand up once again
On my own
And I know I am strong enough to mend
And every time I feel afraid
I hold tighter to my faith
And I live one more day
I can make it through the rain
A/N: I really hoped you enjoyed this chapter. I cried a little when I wrote it. The song "Through The Rain" is property of Mariah Carey. Review. Thank you.