Sudden Hope (6 page)

Her hand flies up as fast as I have the words out of my mouth. “Oh! No you don’t
,” she says. “You have no reason to apologize to me or anyone, do you hear me?”

“Okay. I really thought you would be mad at me
,” I reply.

“Why would I be mad at you? You should be mad at me, for allowing him to come. So stop worrying about people being mad, because Matt got what he deserved and let’s just go have some fun.”

I hug her as tight as I can. At least I have my girls. I’ll deal with the boys later. Tonight, it’s about us. We pull up to Forever Young and I feel like jumping for joy.

“Thanks
, Chickie! You know how to cheer me up, don’t you?”

“Yep, we wouldn’t be best friends if I didn’t
,” she answers.

Jenny parks the car and we all walk up to the main entrance of the hottest teen dance club ever built. You have to be sixteen to get in and no one over nineteen is admitted. School ID's are a must.

As we walk in, the intensity hits me instantly. Music is pumping louder than you can handle and the strobe lights are on full force. People are packed and pressed up against each other. The smell of sweat and cheap perfume lingers in the air. You can feel it in the base of your chest, pumping, hitting you with a force that makes you forget about everything.

“I'm going straight to the dance floor
,” Lea exclaims as she pulls me along with her. I grab Jenny’s hand and pull her right along with us. Lea cannot dance to save her life. Her dancing resembles what I can only describe as a monkey being electrocuted, but she enjoys herself immensely, and that is all that really matters. Her smile never leaves her face.

We dance all night
with not a care in the world. Laughing and singing along with the music. It’s a great night, exactly what I wanted, and exactly what I needed. The three of us are fine. As long as we are good, I feel like I can handle anything.

We walk outside to Jenny's car and Chris is leaning against the door. His head is down, shoulders slouched, and it looks like he hasn’t slept all night. I really want to deal with this after I sp
eak to Danny but just as I turn around to tell Jenny I will find another way home he looks up, straight at me. There is no way to avoid him now. I slowly walk up and Lea swoops around me.

“Hey Chris,
how ya doing?” She is trying to feel him out for me.

He looks at her and nods raising his eyebrows and smirks. “Not well actually. What do you think?”
he snips at her.

“Sorry
,” she answers looking at me over her shoulder. I think the sorry is more for me, not him.

“CC
, we need to talk, NOW!” He is angry. I knew he would be but at the same time he doesn’t have a right to be. I am not his girlfriend. I am strictly his friend. I have always made that quite clear. There is nothing between us except a friendship, and that is all there will ever be.

“Okay, Chris. What do you want to talk about?” After tracking me down and cornering me what does he expect other than for me to be a bitch
? “Really. CC. What. Should. We. Talk. About?” he says every word individually. His eyes slant, becoming fragments of what they were. He is breathing heavy, panting.

“Alright
, Chris, we can talk. Sorry, Jenny can you wait for me?” I look at her pleading not to leave.

“I'll take her home Jenny. You guys leave. We need to talk alone.”

“No, that's okay, Chris. We can wait,” she is speaking to him but looking at me.

“No
, Jenny, leave,” Chris is raising his voice at her. He never raises his voice.

“I don't care what you think you are telling me to do. I’m going nowhere with you in this state. I'm not leaving her. You don't raise your voice to me! Do you understand me?” Now Jenny is yelling. She steps in between me and Chris and is on her tiptoes up in his face.

Chris looks at her and laughs. “What do you think I'm going to do, Jenny? What? I love her. I’m not going to hurt her, just talk. I just want to do it alone. I want to get my heart broken alone, just with her.” He is down to a whisper now, back to the Chris we know. Jenny looks at me.

“It's alright
, Jenny, go. I’ll have Chris drop me off at your house later.”

“Are you sure?” She is being the overprotective Jenny now, the motherly Jenny.

“Yes, I'm sure, Chickie, go.”

“Okay, play nice.” She crinkles her nose and shoots Chris an evil look. “Let’s go
, Lea. We will see you in a few, CC. Call me when you’re on your way.” I stand here with my arms wrapped around myself as I watch Jenny and Lea drive off.

It isn't cold outside tonight, but the feeling that consumes my body has me shivering and shaking like it is ten below zero outside. Chris is staring at me with a look of disgust. He isn't speaking and that only makes me feel more uncomfortable. I have to try to break the ice.

“How do you want to start this?” I ask without looking up. I have never been shy around Chris but I almost feel like I need to be.

“Can we walk?” he asks.

“I guess.” I really don't want to, but I know I have to. We walk down Main Street for a while, neither one of us making an attempt to discuss what happened. We might as well have stayed in the parking lot. Another wave of uneasiness washes over me. “Chris can you please talk to me, that's why we’re here, isn’t it?”

“No
, CC. We’re here because you are a Bitch!” I stop dead in my tracks.

“What did you just say to me!?” It isn't a question
, it is a shocked statement.

“You heard me.
You. Are. A. Bitch. CC. The biggest bitch I have ever met!” Tears spring to my eyes, but I will not let them fall. I cannot believe he is saying this.

“Why would
-” He cuts me off before I can finish. He is now face to face with me. I can feel his breath on my face.

“Why would I? Why would I what? Call you a bitch, or why would I love you? You know what
, CC, let me tell you something. You are the biggest fake tease I have ever met. You've led me on for years and I don’t know what was worse, the fact that I trusted you or the fact that I fell for your line of shit!” he is yelling again, he is actually screaming at me. The tears I have been trying to hold back are now flowing freely, leaving hot tracks against my cool cheeks.

“I never led you on
, Chris. I have been honest with you since day one. I have always told you I didn’t like you in that way.” I am openly crying now sobbing between every word. Chris' eyes get big and he shoves me back, I start to scream and I feel something hit my head. My vision gets blurry and for the second time in my life, I can only remember falling.

“You’re going to be okay, miss, just don’t move.” Everything is black! I can hear voices but can’t open my eyes. What the hell is going on? My head hurts like nothing I have ever felt before. I can hear people talking and it feels like I am moving, but I have no idea where I am. I am so tired and my head hurts so bad, something warm and wet is all over me. I can't fight it as I drift off to sleep.

Disoriented, I wake up in a room I don’t recognize, and it is cold and quiet. There are machines everywhere- a hospital? How strange. I try to speak but my words do not sound like mine. My throat is dry. I try to swallow but it feels like I ate sand paper. |

The door opens slowly and a stout gray haired woman comes walking in and look at me with a smile. “So you’re awake, Honey?”

I shoot her a confused look while tilting my head. “You’ve been asleep for a while. Let me go get you a drink of water and let you wake up a little, I'll go get the doctor too.” She smiles at me again and winks. “Oh by the way, there are going to be some very happy people when I inform them you’re awake.” And just like that she walks out of the room.

I try to gather my thoughts. What happened? Why am I here? I am so confused. The doctor comes in and introduces himself.

“Hi, I’m Doctor Jacobs.” He doesn’t look at me, instead he just grabs my chart and starts flipping through the pages. Under normal circumstances I would have thought he was cute. Jenny and I would have been talking about him for days. He has short brown hair and chocolate eyes. His face is comforting. He has smooth features all around. His body, well at first glance I would have thought he was an athlete, not a doctor.

“How are you feeling?”
his voice is soothing, controlled.

“Um, okay I guess. My head hurts, a lot. What happened?” I can’t remember anything and none of this make sense at all.

“You suffered a major head injury. But it seems like you are going to be okay. We’re not really sure what happened, we were hoping you could help us with that.”

“I don’t know! I don’t even know how I got here
,” I’m sure I sound panicked, which I am.

“You were brought in with your friend but we will get to that in a moment. The detective would like to see you before you have any visitors. We’re going to move you out of the ICU and into a more comfortable room as soon as we can, then you can have company. Do you have any questions?”

“Um, no. I don’t know?” I have more questions than I know how to put into words, but I don’t know where to even begin. “Maybe later.” That is all I can think to say.

“Very well then I will speak to you later
. The nurse will be back in to take you to a new room and give you something for pain. I will be up to see you in a little while.”

“Wait, how long will I have to stay here?” I
ask with a wince from the loudness of my own voice.

“Only a few days, we just want to keep you under observation
,” he answers as he walks out of the room and closes the door. Once again, I am alone and so very confused.

Chapter Eight

Detective Abernathy walks in a few moments after the doctor walks out. “You know, Celeste, we really do need to stop meeting like this.” I can tell he is sad, something is very wrong and he is trying to lighten the mood.

“Yea,” is all I can
say.

“Do you remember what happened?”

“No, I don’t remember anything except leaving the club.” I jump as tears prick at my eyes. “The doctor had said I was brought in with my friend. Oh no, where’s Jenny and Lea?” I am becoming frantic I try to get up.

Det. Abernathy puts his hand on my shoulder “Relax CC. Calm down, they’re fine.” I let out a sigh of relief. “Actually, you were no longer with them. You were with Christopher.”

“What? No I wasn't!” I snap at him. “Sorry but you have to be mistaken, I went for a girls night out with, duh, the girls,” I realize my tone and instantly feel bad. “Sorry about that.”

“No its okay you’re very confused right now. The doctor said sometimes with a head injury you can lose partial short-term memory but it will probably come back in a few days. We can talk then
. You need your rest. I’ll go.” He starts to get up but I grab his arm.

“Where’s Chris?” I am so scared, if I am here, where is he?

The detective hangs his head down. “He's here, in a coma CC. And you are lucky to be alive. We'll talk soon.” He nods his head at me as he opens the door to leave.

“Wait!” I practically yell. “I didn't call you.” He already knows exactly what I am going to say.

“Let’s worry about you right now, okay?” I want to comment but he is already gone before I have the chance.

As soon as Det. Abernathy walks out, the door flies open and Jenny is running through it, straight into my arms. I wince at the strong embrace. “Oh my God, CC!” I can tell she hadn't slept. The dark circles under her eyes are unlike her.

Then I saw him! Danny followed directly behind her. He is scruffy with the same dark circles Jenny has under her eyes. There is no sparkle, no shine, he looks dead. He slowly glides across the floor towards me. I lock eyes with him and cannot look away. The sadness in his eyes makes me want to cry.

I blink when Jenny begins to speak
, “Are you okay, well of course you’re not wait, you are, right. Are you?” She is babbling, scared but I can’t answer her. I can’t do anything but stare at Danny. “CC, I'll be right back. Okay?” I know she is only leaving to let us be alone and as much as I want her to stay, I need Danny. I think he needs me too.

“Okay,” is all I can say to
her. I want to say more but Danny is moving closer to me and I really only want to be with him at the moment. Jenny kisses my head like a mother would and gets up, she looks at Danny and smiles, then she walks out and we are finally alone.

Danny comes closer. I can practically reach out and touch him except, I am frozen
. paralyzed in the moment. He reaches out for me and I see the one thing I would have never expected, the one thing I would bet my life on to never happen, there are tears in Danny’s eyes. Danny is crying!

“Please don’t cry
, Danny, I'm okay! I swear!” It is all I can think of to say, but I am not okay. I am far from okay. I have no idea what happened, why I am here, why Chris is hurt. Why Chris was even with me? I only know that the last thing I want in this world is to see Danny upset.

“I should have been there
, Celeste. I’m supposed to protect you.” He brushes his hand down my cheek and runs his thumb across my lips. I shiver but not out of pain. The feel of Danny touching me, in a more then friend way is something I have only ever dreamt about. I just wish it wasn’t under these circumstances. He pulls his hand away and I miss it instantly.