My Girl

“This can’t be happening.” I watched as our surroundings zoomed past us quickly as Nick sped down the highway.

“She will be fine.” Nick said shortly, turning quickly off the exit. I bit my bottom lip to keep my sobs from escaping my lips and shook my head.

“That’s what they said about my dad, too.” I mumbled, sliding open my phone and closing it again. I had tried calling Parker the entire drive over to hospital, but I had finally given up.

Nick stayed silent as we found the closest parking spot to the entrance of the hospital. Barely waiting for Kevin’s old car to come to a stop, I jumped out the passenger seat and started running toward the entrance. Although Nick was behind me, he seemed hurried as well.

Pulling my phone open once more, I dialed Parker’s cell phone number. This time instead of sending me straight to voicemail, it continued to ring.

“Elise?” Parker didn’t seem panicked when he answered, but he didn’t seem fully relieved either.

“Yeah, we’re here.” I said, turning around to see Nick stumbling through the doorway. “Please tell me she’s okay.”

“She just went in. I don’t know.” Parker answered truthfully. I pulled my hair away from my face and glanced down at my phone.

“Tell me where to go, Park.” I said, ignoring the uncertainty in his last answer.

“Right.” Parker paused. “Third floor, room sixteen.”

“Okay.” I snapped my phone shut and glanced at Nick. “Let’s go.”

We walked over the elevator and I pressed the up button about ten more times then I probably had to, but it somehow assured me that the elevator would get there faster if I clicked more.

Nick reached out for my index finger and set it back down at my side, wrapping his hand around mine.

“Your mom is going to be fine.” Nick said, pulling a strand of my hair behind my ear. The door in front of us tinged, signaling that it was now on our floor, and the two of us entered the small room.

“It’s just weird thinking about the last time I was doing this…” The way the shiny walls of the elevator seemed so familiar, it scared me. “…I was running up here just to make sure I got to say goodbye to my dad.”

Nick walked from the side of the elevator he was standing on and smiled encouragingly down at me, pulling me into a hug.

“Last time I was here…” Nick let go of me and pulled at the hem of his shirt, revealing a white pod that was on his lower back. “…I found out about this. I know that doesn’t compare to anything about what happened to you, but I’m not fond of these places either.” I smiled and looked back up at Nick once he settled his shirt back down over the pod. The elevator doors tinged and we both looked up at them.

“You ready?” Nick asked, taking my hand in his and squeezing it gently. I looked up at the door again and nodded my head.

“Yeah.”

“Elise?” The doors slid open to reveal Parker, who was standing in front of Arielle and Steph in the waiting room.

His eyes shot down to mine and Nick’s intertwined fingers, but then quickly back up to my face.

“The doctor wanted to see you once you got here. To answer some questions.” He continued, ignoring Nick next to me. I nodded.

“Where?” As if answering my question, a man looking around his middle forties exited out of the back room with a clipboard in hand and approached our group.

Probably judging by my frightened face, he knew who I was. “Your mom is going to be fine, we just need to ask you a few questions before anyone is released to see her.” He glanced down at his clipboard again and nodded toward the double doors where a few nurses were walking through as I looked that way.

“Shall we go take a seat?” I glanced at Nick and Parker, who were now standing next to each other. They both glanced at each other but looked away quickly when they realized the other person was looking at them.

“Yeah.” I mumbled, taking my hand out of Nick’s. “I will be right back.”

“Okay.” Nick and Parker said at the same time. This time, they looked at each other and didn’t look away until I had left in front of them.

“Your lucky your friend found your mom when he did.” The doctor said once we were behind the hospital doors. I partially listened to what he was telling me, but I couldn’t help but glance around the surrounding, seeming vaguely familiar.

The eerie look the fluorescent lights gave off a weird feeling when we entered an empty office with the doctors name on the front door. The smell mixed between rubber gloves and antibiotics rushed in front of me as I sat on the opposite side of the oak desk.

“Now Elise.” I hadn’t read what the door said, so the doctor remained unnamed. “We aren’t exactly sure what to diagnose your mother with just yet, so she will need to stay here overnight.”

He folded his hands out in front of him and looked up at me through his thick glasses. “I think it’s best if you try to get some sleep tonight and come back tomorrow morning, not much can be done tonight about your mother.”

I stared at the doctor in shock. “What? What do you, mean, why can’t you do something to help her? Something has to be done!” I felt my hands start to shake as little black dots danced around in my vision.

“Elise, your mother will be doing fine tomorrow once she has time to recover.” I was partially listening to what the doctor had to say, but I was paying attention more to steadying my breathing and having my vision go back to normal.

When panic attacks like these happened, there was only one thing I could do. But instead of that same image popping up into my head like it did every time I thought of my dad, the image where he was standing on his own two feet and dancing around the kitchen as soon as My Girl had started playing on the radio, I imagined something else.

Somebody’s hands gliding over the strings of a guitar. An acoustic version of the song playing in my mind as the visions still came one after another.

“Elise…” The doctor waved his hand in front of my face. “Is everything alright?”

I glanced out of my haze and stared up at the man, slowly getting up from the chair I had been sitting in. Nodding my head, I opened my mouth to speak.

“F-fine.” I glanced out the glass door of the office and further out toward the double doors I had entered in a few minutes ago. “I can’t have her leave me.”

The doctor pulled his glasses off and stood up from his desk. “We are doing everything we can, drop your phone number off at the front office. We will call you when your mom comes to.”

I felt a tear escape my eye and slide down my cheek, letting it make it’s course down my chin.

Without another word, the doctor and I exited out of his office and went back into the waiting room.

“You kids should go home and get some rest before coming here tomorrow morning. Elise, we will call you when we know what is going on and when you can come and visit.” The doctor said, smiling at a nurse that quickly whisked him away from our group.

“Do you need a ride home, Elise?” Parker glanced at Nick and quickly called out for Arielle to get ready to leave.

“I can drive her home.” Nick offered, smiling sarcastically at Parker. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Guys, not right now.” I mumbled, watching as Arielle and Steph made their way up to the three of us.

“Alright.” Parker looked back down at me and smiled encouragingly. “Call me once you know what is up, okay?”

I nodded my head and smiled slightly at him. He turned around with Arielle and Steph following closely behind him.

Nick and I stayed silent as his eyes followed Parker out to his car in the parking lot.

“Can we please leave?” I shivered as the hospital brought back more memories from a few years back.

And even though I tried to keep all of those flashbacks away; there was one thing that I saw tonight that I knew I wouldn’t be able to get out of my head.

And that was Nick singing My Girl, My dad’s song. I had never gotten close with many guys in my life, not since the most important guy I had ever learned to love had suddenly left.