Secrets of the Lake Chapter 3
Spencer dreamt of the hospital room. Yeah, yeah, sounds boring, but it was… an odd dream. She was lying down on the hospital bed, and she saw Toby passed out on the chair next to her. He was holding a book in his hands. L'attrape-coeurs, The Catcher in the Rye. The book she gave him. She took a shaky breath, with the help of the oxygen mask. Just then, a figure shuffled into the room. He or she gently took the oxygen mask off. "You shouldn't need it for now, Spencer."
"Ali?" Spencer asked in disbelief, taking another shaky breath.
"Hey Spence. I've been trying to find a way to get in touch with you. This seemed like the only way."
"Are… we dead?"
Alison simply laughed. "Do I look dead? Honey, I'm more alive than I've ever been."
"But… they found your body… if that wasn't yours… whose was it?"
"That, my dear, is a story for another place, for another time."
Spencer tried to sit up, but Alison pushed her back down. "Rest up, Spence, you'll need your strength."
"Ali… do you… do you know who Red Coat and –A are?"
"I see them everywhere I turn."
"Then tell me!" Spencer pleaded.
Alison smiled. "You see them too. You're not too far from the truth, Spence. Don't over think everything. They are right under your nose." She turned to leave the room, but then walked back over the Spencer's hospital bed, sitting down on the edge.
"Tell Emily, Hanna, and Aria to be careful. Also, one of the people you are close with hasn't been telling you the whole truth about the night of Paige's party. Be careful, Spence." With that, she gave Spencer a small smile, placed the oxygen mask over her mouth again, and left the room.
Spencer's head hurt. What was Ali talking about? Did she completely dream that? Or was it real?
A nurse came into her room. "Oh, you're up Ms. Hastings. How do you feel?" She took the oxygen mask off so she could talk.
"I feel better," Spencer replied, her voice raspy.
The nurse jotted something down on her clipboard. Spencer just wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep. She would have, but then Toby stirred from his sleep and saw Spencer awake.
"Spence! You're awake!" He gently hugged her, trying not to put too much pressure on her.
Spencer smiled. She loved being in his arms. Toby looked down to his phone. "The girls have been wanting to see you." He looked up to the nurse. "Can they come in?"
"Yes," the nurse said. "They just can't stay for long." She turned to Spencer. "We'll have to do tests on your head to see if you have any internal bleeding in your head." With that she swept out of the room.
"I'm gonna go get them, ok?" Toby said. Spencer nodded.
She sat in thought for a couple minutes. Did she have a dream? What was Ali's whole speech about someone that wasn't telling the truth about the party?
"SPENCER!" someone screeched.
Spencer put her hands to her ears. Of course it was Hanna. Hanna, Aria, and Emily all came into Spencer's room, pulling her into a group hug.
"Guys… can't… breathe…" Spencer managed to choke out.
The girls immediately backed away. "Oh my God," Aria asked her eyes widening. "Are you okay?"
Spencer noticed tears forming in the tiny girl's eyes. "I'm fine. Doing a lot better."
Okay, so that wasn't the complete truth, she felt far from fine, but she didn't want to worry her friends.
"What happened at the lake?" Emily asked, her eyes widening.
"Um, I'm not really sure… I went to the garage, and then someone grabbed me..." she shook her head. "I don't know. It's all a blur."
"Did you see who it was?" Hanna asked eagerly.
"Maybe? I don't know. I don't remember."
The truth? She did know. Or at least she thought she did. She did see the person, but at this point she wasn't sure if the drugs were acting up or if it was real. Just like the Ali dream. She contemplated telling her friends about that. Maybe a little later, when she was out of the hospital. Right now, her head hurt and she wanted to sleep.
"It sucks that you can't remember," Hanna sighed. "Maybe we could have ended this, once and for all."
"I'm sorry," Spencer said sheepishly.
"No. Don't be," Emily demanded. "You have nothing to be sorry for. Aria and I should be sorry we didn't worry about you a lot earlier. Then maybe none of this would have happened."
"Can we not talk about this?" Spencer asked.
"Of course," Aria said. "So, Hanna, have you visited your mom lately?"
Hanna shifted her black bag over to her other shoulder. "Yeah, two days ago. I was going to go yesterday but then I got the call that you," pointing to Spencer, "were in the hospital, and my mom wanted me to come. So I'm going to visit her later today."
Seeing that Hanna didn't really want to talk about her mom, Spencer asked Emily, "How are the renovations with your house doing?"
Emily's eyes lit up. "We won't be able to move in soon, but my mom was thinking maybe we could expand or house a little bit. Now that was basically lost a wall we don't have to pay to get it removed so why not expand now? So my mom was looking for an architect to do the designs. We haven't found one yet."
The three other girls looked at her with the look they usually gave Hanna when she did something stupid.
"Seriously?" Aria asked.
"Even I'm not that stupid," Hanna said with a chuckle.
"Huh?" Emily asked, completely confused.
"Toby!" the three girls screamed at her.
Hearing his name, Toby rushed into the room. "Everything ok in here?" he asked, concern evident in his Caribbean blue eyes.
"Oh my God I'm such an idiot," Emily exclaimed, doing a face-palm.
"What?" Toby asked, confused.
"Are you sure he wouldn't mind?" Emily asked Spencer.
"Do you think he would mind?" Spencer replied, giving Emily a look.
"Can someone please explain to me?" Toby asked.
"Toby, my parents want to expand our house and we need an architect. Would you want to do the designs?"
Toby's eyes lit up. "Really?"
"Yeah, really," Emily smiled.
"Thank you so much Emily," he gave her a hug which she returned.
Spencer smiled.
A nurse walked into the room, telling all of Spencer's friends that they had to go. They looked a little disappointed that they didn't get to spend more time with their friend, but they understood. When the left, the nurse closed the door and told Spencer,
"We have to run some tests to see if you have any bleeding in your head. You already have a concussion, and we want to make sure there is nothing else wrong. Are you ready to go?"
Spencer took a deep breath. "Yeah."
There's Chapter 3. Now tell me, do you want Spencer to have bleeding in her head or should I save more drama for later chapters? You tell me!
~A