Chapter 2

"Help! Somebody please help us!"

I yelled frantically, but nobody answered my plea. Where the hell are all the people in New York City when you need one of them?

Seeing nobody in sight, I gently laid Jeffery down on the sidewalk, making sure he was out of the street, and ran to a nearby phone booth.

"Hello, 911, please state your emergency."

"Yes, hello, a boy on the street suddenly collapsed. We're across from 429 Aston Row. Please send an ambulance immediately!"

After finishing the call, I ran back to Jeffery, who thankfully had started breathing again. However, it was a short, hurried breathing pattern, like that of someone in hysterics.

I had had some first aid training, but nothing on how to deal with someone in a situation like this. The best I could do was sit beside Jeffery and wait for the ambulance.

Luckily, I didn't have to wait long. The ambulance came screaming around the corner just three minutes after I had made the call. I stood back as they loaded Jeffery onto the stretcher.

"Ma'am, the police are going to need to ask you a few questions. Would you please come to the hospital with us?"

I looked at the EMT for a second before getting into the ambulance as directed.

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Once at the hospital, three of the paramedics rushed Jeffery down a hallway to the left while I was led to the right. There were two police officers, a man and a woman, waiting for me in a small, white room, complete with dim lights and no windows.

"Are you Ms. Anabella Scotts?"

"Yes." It's been a long time since someone had called me by my first name. I usually went by Ann or Bella. Either worked fine.

"We just have a view questions for you. Common procedure. I hope you don't mind."

It was a statement, not a question, but I still felt the need to answer, "Of course not."

"Alrighty then. First of all..."

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I bit back a groan as I wiggled around on the uncomfortable hospital chair. The police had asked me simple questions like "How old are you? Where do you live? Why were you at the scene of the accident? What did Jeffery look like when you found him? Did he say anything? Why do idiot cops like us have to ask so many unimportant questions?" That sort of thing.

The doctors had decided it would be best if Jeffery woke up with someone he knew nearby. I wasn't exactly a friend of his, but I went to his school and the doctors decided that was better than nothing. So, that's how I ended up with a sore booty on a hard plastic chair beside Jeffery's bed.

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I had counted the tiles in the room about fifty gazillion times and it was still only about four in the morning. I had already called my grandparents and told them what happened and where I was so they didn't worry and call the police. Bored with my thoughts, I went back to the tiles. Fifty gazillion and one, fifty gazillion and two, fifty gazillion and thr-

"Fuuuuuck"

I looked over at the bed, where Jeffery was coming too.

"Hey, you okay?"

"I have a killer headache. Where am I?"

"Hospital. You were brought here after you passed out in the street."

He was silent after that, gazing up at the ceiling.

I followed suite. I knew it was a lot to take in.

"So, what are you doing here?"

"The doctors thought it was better for you to have someone familiar in the room when you woke up. Even if we just go to the same school."

"Oh. Your…An..gela right?"

"Close, Anabella." I smiled at him, which he returned with a small one of his own.

"Soooo, random topic. What's your favorite movie?"