by Tara Brown
The hospital admitted me as my dad had explained that the girl they had there that was still not awake had shared her drink with me all night as far as he had heard.
The nurse scowled at me, like I was one of those partying reckless teenagers who had burdened her dad with this.
Little did the nurse know I was the biggest nerd she had ever met.
I was put on an IV and given some gravel to make me sleep. I had weird dreams Wade was in them and my mom. My mom kissed me on the forehead and put her hands over my eyes. I could hear people talking, they were arguing. Wade was beside me whispering to me that everything was going to be okay if I just came back to myself. I finally got my mom’s hands off my eyes and I could see people kissing. It hurt me to see it but I didn’t understand why. Wade stood between the kissing people and me and shook his head. He blew me a kiss and I woke up.
I was really groggy but at least this time I knew where I was. I was so tired and cold. I felt sick still so I let myself fall back into a dreamless sleep this time.
I thought I was still dreaming when I heard talking in the empty black space that had become my brain, “Are there any effects of this on her body that we should be prepared for?” my dad’s voice sounded exhausted.
“Yes and no, she will need to be very careful with herself for the next couple months this is a serious thing. The level of the drugs we found in her system was very high.” A lady told him. I opened one of my eyes to see the light of day without the intense pain. I felt remarkably better and quite hungry.
I looked around me to see my dad and a lady doctor standing in the hallway discussing me.
Shane was on the chair beside my bed past out. He looked so peaceful but something about him being in my room was weirding me out, why would my sisters’ boyfriend be in my room and where was my sister? I looked around for Alise but didn’t see her anywhere. I knew she must be around somewhere if Shane was with me.
I pushed the button to raise my bed to a sitting position; the feeling of movement gave me a trace of a head rush. It was nothing compared to the ones I had had the day before when my dad had checked me in. I could recall only the truck ride with him and very little else.
Shane started to stir from the noise of the bed, he opened one of his eyes to see me bright eyed and bushy tailed and smiled at me. His smile made me happy, I smiled back.
“You’re awake now. Thank god. I guess that means you’re out of the danger zone.” He whispered stretching on the recliner chair.
“What?”
“You and Giselle were given some crazy homemade date rape drug, you actually saved Giselle’s life by drinking half of the glass. She’s still out, no sign of her waking up anytime soon either and with these things apparently the longer you sleep the worse your chances become.” He looked at the doctor and pointed in my direction through the doorway.
I shook my head, “Huh?”
“You’ve slept for five days Aims, five days in and out of sleep. Giselle isn’t even stirring, the doctor said she has brain activity but she isn’t waking. This drug was poorly made and would have killed her if she had the glass to herself. We found you guys upstairs in a pile of puke each. I’m guessing Giselle never ate dinner and you did so your body coped with the drug better than hers. Something about absorption.” I had stopped listening when he had said my nickname Aims. He was using my nickname. I tried to be cool and stay engaged. I processed what he had said for a moment feeling the appropriate response filling me.
I was aghast as small memories flooded me, “How did I get to bed at your house? I remember that I woke up naked.”
He shrugged, “We don’t know. You were at the top of the stairs and while we were getting Giselle in the ambulance and everything we left you upstairs. We came back and you were in bed and there was a giant pile of vomit at the top of the stairs.”
“Wade helped me, what if he’s the bad guy? What if I was date raped and I didn’t know?” suddenly I was feeling sick again but this time it was much more disgust based as flashes of memories filled my confused mind.
He shook his head, “No that Wade guy was gone, long before this happened. His girlfriend freaked on him for talking to your sister and she made him leave. I was right there. You got yourself cleaned up before the drug hit too hard.”
I remembered Wade, I remembered him carrying me. I wasn’t wrong. “My ring is gone, how do you explain that?” I held my hand out.
He reached into his pocket, “I found it in the pile of vomit, well on top. It was shiny and clean but sitting at the top of the pile. I grabbed it and cleaned it for you. I know how important it is to you, it was your moms right?” He passed it to me. I put it on, it slid on too easily. I had clearly lost more weight.
I blushed, “How do you know it’s important to me?”
He blushed back and shrugged, “I pay more attention than you’d imagine Aimee.”
I felt the heat in my face getting stronger.
He smiled at me, “It’s really nice to see you have color again.”
Unsure where the conversation was going I looked around, “Where’s Alise?”
He blushed slightly, “Not sure. With Blake maybe. What do you remember?”
“It’s a haze right now. Mostly I remember Wade. Not sure why, it’s weird cause I swear I know him from somewhere.” I lay back down on the bed feeling ready for some more sleep. His words came crashing back at me and I shot up thinking out loud, “Why is she with Blake?”
He looked preoccupied and lost in my question.
He shrugged, “Well one day it will come back but for now you need to rest. I think its Blake and Alise’s job to tell you about what happened with them.”
I frowned wondering why he hadn’t answered me but then the doctor and my dad came into the room as I started to feel my mind shutting down for my sleep. I wanted the answer to my question but my eyes got so heavy suddenly. Shane was gone unexpectedly from the room no doubt giving the doctor some space to check my vitals.
“So you’re awake?” The doctor put her cold hands on my pulse on my wrist.
I nodded, “Barely. I think I need some more sleep.”
“Oh I agree, a few days and you can go home but we need to keep you for observation. You’re a very lucky girl.” Her tone was annoying.
“I don’t feel lucky. I went to my first party ever and was drugged. Not so lucky I think.” I kept my eyes closed as she checked my vitals.
My dad grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly, “Well the important thing is that you’re going to be okay Aimee.”
My opened her eyes and looked at him, “Dad you can’t blame Alise for this. It wasn’t her fault at all. I wanted to go to the party. Or Shane, he’s a very nice guy.”
He nodded, “I apologized to her don’t worry. I was just so mad. I know Shane very well; he and I are okay again. I’ve asked your sister and Shane and Blake to try to help out and find out who did this to you.”
There it was again, Alise and Blake in the same sentence. I knew that I wouldn’t get any answers from my dad so I closed my eyes and thought about who would want to drug Giselle, the list was endless. She was beautiful and fairly dumb which made the combination hard to resist. I had never been friends with her, undoubtedly something had to have happened to make me even consider drinking not only with her but in general.
The list would have to consist of who would actually date rape someone, in my sisters group of friends again I felt the list was endless. She had friends who had been creepy when we had been kindergarten. Now they were serial killers waiting to strike. Then again I was biased. No one from my nerd table came to mind. All of them would have the capability and intelligence needed to make a homemade date rape drug but none of them would have done it.
Slowly but surely the doctor left and then my dad and I was alone to drift off to sleep again.
Chapter two - Friends and Foes
“Aimee.” I opened my eyes to no one there, a woman had called my name I was certain
of it.
I sat up looking around, my stomach hurt to sit up but my pounding heart seemed to be supplying me with the ability.
“Aimee.” She called me again; I would swear it was Giselle’s voice.
I lowered my bed and stepped off gingerly hoping to not fall and reveal the opening of the back of my hospital gown to everyone. Hospitals really were cruel with their open back gowns.
I started to walk from the room not noticing the IV tubes until I felt the stab of pain trying to leave without the ghastly squeaky machine. My hand instantly burned where the needles went in. I backed up quickly and grabbed the machine. It and I made the slow progression down the hall to Giselle’s room, I didn’t know which room she was in but I knew the direction I had heard her voice. My body ached and the IV machine didn’t seem happy about the trek either.
I saw her through the door as I walked past the rooms peeking in. Giselle was lying there blinking I grimaced remembering that feeling. No one was in her room but it looked like the gardener had been by, every shelf and even the windowsills were full of flowers.
I smiled at her weakly as I crept along like the creeper in Scooby doo, “Hey Giselle.” I whispered even though if anyone had been near us they would have heard the unbearably loud squeak from my IV cart.
She turned her head slowly looking bewildered, her eyes looked frightened, “Aimee, you’re here. I knew you were here. What happened?”
“Someone got us good. We will both be here for bit longer. This is my first time walking in a week I think.”
She frowned, “No you were here. I saw you. You held my hand and you smiled.”
I frowned, “No maybe Alise came by to see you.”
Giselle nodded, “Maybe but I swear it was you. What happened exactly?” She spoke as if her mouth were dry. I pushed the button to bring her to a slight incline and sat on the end of her bed.
“I don’t know. Everyone says we were drinking together and then we were throwing up. They brought you here right away I think and me in the early hours of the morning. They tested us and we have some crazy date rape drug in our systems. Someone did this to us on purpose.”
Her frightened look grew in intensity as she pondered that thought.
She shook her head, “Who would do that?”
I pressed my lips together and furrowed my brow, “That’s just it, no one knows. The party had to have over a hundred people at it.”
“How long have we been here?” She looked as if the hamster in her head was actually making an effort at turning, I scolded myself, Giselle was sick and that was in bad form.
“You six days me five. I spent the first night at Shane’s house. They thought I was okay because I got showered and cleaned up but I swear it wasn’t me doing it. I remember someone else being there. I remember something but I can’t say what it is, like my mind won’t put it all together.” I blushed as I thought about it, “Giselle don’t tell anyone but I know I didn’t put myself to bed. I was naked when I woke and clean. I’m scared someone did something and then cleaned me up. But I can’t remember.”
Giselle looked disgustedly at me as she shook her head. “What is wrong with people? You need to get the nurse to do an internal and make sure you’re still a virgin. Though I will say Aimee if you weren’t a virgin anymore you would be sore down there. I was when I lost mine.” She looked up at the ceiling and sighed.
I shivered at the thought of what potentially could have happened but also the fact I was having this conversation at all.
I sighed looking down at her arm where the IV was poking in, “I wish my mom was here.” I hadn’t really said those words in a long time but today when things felt so hopeless and out of control I felt as if I was at the end of my rope and ready to just let go and fall.
“Me too.” Giselle whispered.
I looked at her confused, “Where is your mom?”
She trembled a tiny bit as her lower lip quivered and a small tear left her right eye, “She left. A month ago she just packed everything and left. My dad doesn’t know what to do with himself so he works, non-stop. He doesn’t come home some times, just sleeps at the office.”
I put my IV free hand out to Giselle’s on the blankets, “Giselle I am so sorry. I had no idea.”
She shook her head almost as if it twitched, “No one does. He said she went to visit her sister but she just left. He left her one credit card so he can track her. He took her name off everything else. She’s been in Mexico for a week, paying for two people. I phoned Aunty Pilo and she said that mom hasn’t even called her, she never knew mom left.”
I didn’t know who the aunt was but I knew Giselle’s mom was Filipino so I assumed she must be her mom’s sister.
I nodded, “My dad isn’t taking moms’ death any better. I don’t think any of us are. My family is a mess too.”
Giselle looked at me with glistening eyes; her long silky black hair framed her perfect oval face. Her skin was an olive color with naturally pink full lips and eyes so black the pupils were not visible. She had big eyes and perfect cheekbones. Even heartbroken and horribly sick she was stunning.
“We have each other it seems Aimee.” She gripped the hand I had given her.
I pressed the button for the nurse who came running in as fast and breathless as she could.
“Oh thank heaven you girls are both awake.” She looked at Giselle specifically, “How are you feeling sweetie?” She put the tools to work and checked Giselle’s vitals.
Giselle nodded, “Okay, but I was wondering if we could share a room. We’re both pretty upset.”
The nurse nodded at us, “I’ll have your stuff moved over right away, since you’re already here. I can’t believe you made it all that way Hun, it’s a long walk for a sick kid.” She smiled at us both.
I patted my trusty IV cart, “It helped me the whole way.”
The nurse laughed at me and shook her head.
Before we knew it we were sharing a room and Giselle was regaling me with tales of boys and shopping discounts. There was no more sad talk about moms and dads or boys who like to drug girls.
I listened happily for the first time to be distracted by simple things that really had no bearing on my world.
Normally I liked to surround myself with intelligent people who only talked when important or interesting things were to be said but in this moment a story of drinking while in Cuba, and a few helpful hints no doubt, was extremely entertaining.
In the midst of the peace of us both taking an afternoon nap I heard her before I saw her, which was usually the case, “They’re sharing a room?” my sister asked quite rudely, also usually the case.
I opened my eyes to see the nurse talking to my sister and dad just outside our room, “Yes they’re scared. They’ve had something horrid happen to them and they’re alone here except for each other.” The nurse was polite but letting my sister know she could be a snotty bitch too but with a smile and actual authority.
My dad smiled at the young nurse, “Thanks I think we will see if they’re awake then.”
I smiled as I watched him light up as he entered the room seeing my face.
“You have color and your eyes look clear again. How are you feeling kiddo?” He asked sitting at the end of my bed. I nodded at my dad feeling sick for him and what he had been through in one year.
My sister’s face still looked as haunted as it had the morning leaving Shane’s.
I frowned at Alise’s odd look but answered my dad, “Good. We both seem to be coming around. I’m ready to get out of here though. The nurse said tomorrow if the liver tests come back normal.”
“Your livers?” my sister asked looking like she might throw up.
I nodded giving her a confused look, “Yeah did you even show up for bio? The liver is the filter for the blood, drugs and alcohols are filtered through the liver. That’s why underage drinking is so bad. You’re damaging a developing liver.”
My dad laughed, “Well good to see you’re feeli
ng like yourself again. We’ll come back tonight with some food if you want.”
I nodded, “Yeah I’d love something I can actually eat. Maybe bring Giselle something her dad has been really busy lately.”
Alise rolled her eyes at the comment, which angered me in ways I couldn’t describe. I felt so irate with Alise over the small gesture I literally had to count backwards from ten to stop myself from lashing out at her or throwing something at the very least.
Alise looked apprehensively at me as she asked, “How’s the memory coming?”
I furrowed my brow further I realized Alise was up to something. “Good I’m remembering little bits more and more every day.”