Chapter 11: I Told You So.
Ugh. I think as my alarm almost puts me into cardiac arrest on this fine Tuesday morning. I jump out of bed but immediately regret it when I feel all the food from yesterday come back for a second appearance. I make it to my bathroom just in time, luckily.
This is the fourth day in a row and I'm starting to think I'm sick. Obviously I haven't told Jon yet, he would get even more worried than he already is. Then again, I haven't told Jace yet either. I feel like after what happened at max's re- funeral two weeks ago we've gotten a lot closer. When I met him at school the next day he seemed happier but just… something made me feel even happier whenever I'm around him. Luckily, there have been no sightings of Sebastian after the party either which is a relief.
After I finish brushing my teeth I get dressed in a black skirt and a mint green sweater that goes off one shoulder to see the black tank top under it. I decide to keep my hair down since I don't feel like trying to tame it. As I finish applying some mascara and a touch of lip-gloss I hear Jon yell from downstairs.
"CLARY! BREAKFAST!"
"YOU MEAN THE BAGELS I BOUGHT YESTERDAY" I yell back down, there's a moment of silence until Jon yells back
"YEAH, PRETTY MUCH!"
Grabbing my backpack, I take the stairs two at a time, almost tripping a couple of times. When I make it to the bottom step I feel myself being swept off of my feet by Jace picking my up by my waist and twirling me a couple of times making me dizzy. If I hadn't thrown up already this morning, it would've been all over him.
"Hey." He says smiling as he sets me down.
"Whoa." I say holding onto him for another second as the room stops spinning. "Hi!" I say finally.
We walk back into the kitchen pouring himself a glass of orange juice. I take out a glass myself and pour some for myself. I'm not hungry at all, but I take a bagel anyway knowing Jon would flip if I skipped another meal so I take small bites as Jace and Jon talk about sports and cars. Guys.
I start to tune out of their conversation; daydreaming while picking at my bagel. That is, until I'm pushed out of my daydream by the food I just ate rushing back up. I push Jon who was putting away the orange juice out of the way so I can run through the kitchen toward the bathroom in our living room. I make it there just in time as I start to puke out everything I just ate. Jace and Jon aren't far behind me, I feel their presence behind me but I don't bother to look at them through my teary eyes as I'm still dry heaving over the toilet. I feel Jace come over to me holding up my hair and rubbing my back soothingly, as my body starts to calm itself down, I sit down on the tiled floor leaning my head back on the wall. Jace leaves the room for a second and comes back with a glass of water, I taking it gratefully draining the whole cup.
" How are you feeling?" Jon asks concerned looking at my pale face.
"I'm fine." I say back to him reassuringly, my head still resting on the wall.
"You're right," Jon says trying to convince himself. " I mean, it could just be like a stomach flu or something, it's only the first time you've thrown up in weeks."
"Not exactly…" I say, causing his head to snap back toward me. Jace is leaning on the door, with an eyebrow raised.
"What do you mean not exactly?" He asks trying hard to stay calm.
"Clary, how many times has this happened?" Jace asks from the door anxiously waiting for my answer.
I look at both of their faces for a second before I answer.
"Four times." I say, they both go rigid with the same slightly frustrated but worried look on their faces. "In four days." I finish.
"Clary, why didn't you tell me?!" Jon asks, half yelling which makes me jump a little which, in turn causes me to be overcome in a fit of coughing. This makes both Jon and Jace move closer to me looking equally concerned.
As my fit of coughing seizes, I look down at the hand I was coughing into to see a small amount of blood left there. I feel a tiny moan escape through my lips and I let my head fall back onto the wall feeling slightly dazed.
Jace, though, gets to me before my head can make contact with the wall scooping me up into his arms and walking me over to one of our couches in the living room. He gently lays me down on it and then sits down to put my head on his lap.
"Clary," He says more gently this time "You need to tell me these things. You can't just hide them and think they're going to go away. Deal?" He says holding out his pinky like we would to when we were little kids.
"Deal." I say interlocking our pinkies.
"Okay then," He says giving me a half smile.
"Well I think you should stay home today?" He says after a second.
I feel my eyes widen.
"What? No! I'm perfectly fine see?" I say going to stand up but swaying on my feet a little bit.
"Still, you need to rest."
"Pshaw!" I say, "I get all the rest I need during math class. Jon I can make it seven hours. Right Jace?" I say to my boyfriend for backup.
"He's right Clary." He says behind me.
"See! He says you're ri- wait!" I say looking back at Jace; he only gives an innocent shrug before I turn back toward Jon.
"Sorry Clare, but I think you really do need to rest." He pulls me gently back down onto the couch on his lap and gives me quick peck on the lips before going upstairs with Jon to get their football bags.
"Nope." I say not taking no for an answer. I grab my backpack from where it is next to me by the couch and walk to Jace's car sitting in the backseat with my arms crossed.
Jace and Jon follow me out, Jon looking exasperated; Jace with a small smile on his face.
"You're not getting out any time soon are you?"
I shake my head at him defiantly, putting on my seatbelt.
Jon sighs then gets into the front passenger seat. Jace gives a small laugh then walks over to the driver's side and gets in.
As we drive to school I'm constantly reprimanded by Jon saying "If you feel sick or anything, tell Izzy and she'll take you home." Or "Don't wear yourself out too much."
I roll my eyes the entire way to school.
Maybe going to school today wasn't my best idea. By the time I get through watching football practice, science and math class, I'm worn out and I feel sick to my stomach. I know, though, that I'm not going to go home and here all of Jon's 'I told you so!".
Yeah that's definitely not going to happen. Suffer in silence it is.
By the time math ends I don't realize the bell rings until Maia taps me on the shoulder pulling me out of my muggy state.
" It's time for second period." She says, looking at me concerned "Hey, are you okay?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, yeah. Thanks." I reply getting out of my chair, stumbling as I get up.
She looks unsure as I walk… stumble by her. I give her a small, reassuring smile she returns as I walk out of the room into the chaos of the hallways. I already know I can't make it through math class so I make my way to the restroom to stake out until lunch. As I make it in there I see Isabelle touching up her makeup. She does a double take when she sees me come in.
"Clary? You look terrible." She says walking past me to lock the bathroom door so no one can get in.
I walk toward one of the bathroom mirrors to see my pale, clammy face staring back at me, my red hair a stark difference to pale complexion. As I bring a hand up to my face I notice it shaking.
"Hey." I hear her say from behind me, it sounds further away though for some reason. "Are you okay?"
As I turn my head in her direction, the movement brings on another wave of dizziness causing me to almost fall over if it weren't for Izzy grabbing me quickly and gently helping me down to the ground. By now everything is spinning violently around me making my head hurt.
"Clary. Clary, look at me." She says somewhere in front of me. When I can't find where she is I start to freak out.
"I can't Iz." I say helplessly, close to tears.
When the headache becomes too much I feel myself lay down on the tile floor as the world swims around me with nothing I can do to control it. Hot tears start to roll down my face as I feel myself start to slip from consciousness.
" Clarissa Morgenstern," She says sternly yet gently "Focus on my voice okay?"
The only noise I can make out is a small moan.
"Here" She says, helping me sit up and then handing me a bottle. "Drink."
I bring the bottle to my lips and I start to slowly drink, as I swallow I burst into a fit of coughs. Through my fading vision I see the hand that was over my mouth speckled with blood. I know I shouldn't freak out but I feel my self start to hyperventilate.
"Do not go into shock Clary, breathe." Izzy says gently grabbing my shoulders.
I try to take slower breaths but it's no use, I'm already too far gone.
"Think of something happy. Remember that time we tricked Jace into eating my food when he thought it was chocolate pudding." She says, offering a small laugh.
As I start to fade even more into unconsciousness, I try to think of all the happy times, Like when Alec, Izzy, Jace, and I got in trouble for having a wheelchair race down the hospital hallways. Or the time Izzy and I decided to take a six hour detour home from school…
" You said you guys were coming home right after school. What kind of walk takes six hours?!" Jace had scolded us.
"A long one?" I had offered, making both Izzy and I crack up.
I feel my head hit the dirty tiling again as darkness takes over my vision. The last thing I hear over the screaming pain in my body is Izzy desperately yelling my name.
Then nothing.
Jace POV:
That's weird. It's almost time for history and Clary still hasn't met me at her locker.
I pretend to go through my backpack so I don't look like some freak just awkwardly waiting in the hall. Maybe she forgot.
I slowly start to walk to our history class as the bell rings signaling I'm late. As I meander through the hall get some dirty looks from those crazy PTO parents telling me to get to class. I start to walk a little faster until I reach the girls' bathroom. I almost pass it up until I hear someone screaming in there.
Girls and their periods I guess.
"Clary! Clary please wake up!"
I stop dead in my tracks as I hear those words. I run back to the girls bathroom frantically trying to open the door.
"We're busy!" I hear Izzy say through a choked sob on the other side.
"Iz it's me." I say quickly trying not to gather any unwanted attention.
There's a moment where I don't think she's going to open the door until I hear a soft click and the door swings open. As I'm pulled in I take in the horrifying scene. I see Clary laying on the ground unconscious looking scarily pale. As I run over to her she doesn't move a muscle, when I check for her pulse it's there; but very faint. I feel a small weight on my shoulders lift at the tiny accomplishment.
"Iz we need to get her to a hospital." Jace say frantically.
"You don't think I already thought of that? I don't have a car and we are definitely not calling an ambulance, it'll bring too much attention." Izzy cries, pacing across the bathroom.
"Then we'll use my car." I say, throwing her my car keys from my backpack.
"How are we going to make it to the parking lot without people noticing?" She asks, Jesus, why won't she just go along with it.
"We run." I say, picking up a limp clary into my arms, as I lift her up she gives a faint moan that breaks my heart.
"Shh." I say to her gently "It's okay."
Her eyes start to flutter open as she tries to lift her head. She looks at me confused for a second then gives me a small smile before falling unconscious again.
Izzy grabs Clary's backpack holding on to it for dear life. Everyone is in class already but there's always stragglers in the hallways, let's just hope none of them are people we know.
As we exit the bathroom we start to jog through the halls trying to make as little sound as we can. We're almost to the parking lot when we hear someone yell from down the hall.
"Hey! What do you think you kids are doing!?" Neither of us bother to look back we only run faster through the exit toward my car. "Get back here!" he yells from some distance behind us.
When we reach my car Izzy gets into the front and I crawl into the back with Clary on my lap. Izzy backs out of the parking spot violently as the mysterious voice, which happens to be a security guard reaches us. He looks livid; as we drive away I can hear him yelling god knows what at us.
As Izzy speeds through every pedestrian, stop sign, and red light I feel Clary start to toss on my lap, I try as gently as I can to sooth her by running my hands through her hair which seems to work until she is overcome by a fit of coughing leaving a crimson red stain on her hand causing her to give another small moan.
"It's okay Clary," I say trying hard not to freak out "We're almost there." I finish giving her a light kiss on her forehead.
2 minutes later we reach the hospital, Izzy speeds into the parking lot almost running over a nurse on her break. She quickly pulls into a parking spot and we rush into the hospital entrance. As we enter the emergency wing I see none other than my adoptive dad there taking notes on a clipboard.
He doesn't notice us at first but when he looks up he does a double take.
" Jace? Isabelle? Shouldn't you two be at school?" He asks in a slightly annoyed tone.
However, when he sees the look on Izzy's face and then at limp Clary in my arms, he immediately yells for someone to get a stretcher. A nurse is immediately there who takes Clary out of my arms and onto the stretcher. Our dad starts to talk to three nurses in rushed voices that quickly rush Clary, my Clary, down a long hallway. I try to follow but I'm stopped by a nurse who holds me back.
"Only doctors and nurses are allowed sir." She says in a matter of factly voice.
"But that doctors my father." I retort back to her, desperately wanting to be with Clary.
"Yes but are you a doctor?" She says back, I don't answer. "That's what I thought. You can wait in here for now until we call you back okay?"
Defeated I take a seat next to Izzy in the empty waiting room. Izzy is crying but trying hard not to make any noise, I pull her into a hug, where she lets out all of her crying. I try my best to comfort my sister but it's hard when you don't know what's happening so you can't even comfort yourself.
After an hour and a half of anxious waiting, I decide I need to call Jon who's probably wondering where we are. I reach for my backpack under me, which turns out being Clary's bringing a fresh stab of pain to my heart. Instead I take out Clary's phone opening it to see a picture of us from when we went to the movies we both had popcorn in our hair from trying to throw it into each other's mouth which obviously failed miserably.
I scroll through her contacts until I find Jon's. I press the call button and wait. He answers after the second ring.
"Clary?" He says, "Where are you? We're like 40 minutes into lunch."
"Jon." I say finally, in a tight voice.
He's quiet for a second and can hear all of the chaos of the lunchroom he's in.
"Jace? Why do you have my sister's phone? Is something wrong? Where the hell are you guys? Are you even at school."
I decide not to answer any of his questions, I'd rather have him come to us. Izzy is watching the phone call unfold next to me through curious, red tinted eyes.
"Jon, I'm sorry." I say " We're in the hospital."
"WHAT?!" He yells through the phone line, probably bringing a lot of attention to himself.
"It's Clary. We're at the hospital where my dad works." I say "I'll explain when you get here."
He curses under his breath "Yeah, I'll be there in like 10 minutes." He hangs up after that.
Izzy and I both look at each other for a second before going back into our own thoughts.
This is going to be a long day.
AN: Tell me how you guys liked this chapter! I'm trying to move this story along because I finally know where it's going! SHORT STORY, I was putting on a shoe yesterday but luckily I had looked down at my shoe and there was a Scorpion in it! I think I saw my life flash before my eyes at that moment. ANYHOO. You guys are all amazing thank you so much for the continued support and amazing reviews! I love you all!
R & R
XOXO
Erin