Just to Live

“Mommy, what did the doctor say again?” Erika asked in child-like innocence to its entirety.

Maria continued brushing Erika’s hair as she said, “He said she was malnourished and reached hypothermia.”

“That means that she didn’t have enough vitamins in her body and that she was too cold right?”

“Right,” Maria smiled. “Tabitha’s fever also caused her to begin to hallucinate. For now, they gave her an IV strip for the malnourishment and they gave her medicine so she can sleep.”

Jimmy and Johnny walked into Tabitha’s room with a small teddy bear and a vase of sunflowers. Both men looked disheveled and as though they hurriedly ran out of an airport, into a taxicab, and went straight to the hospital. That’s exactly what they did. Jimmy and Johnny just returned from their trip of constant star searching when Matthew sent a text to both men, explaining what happened to Tabitha. They were both asked to keep an eye on her as well as her mother and sister.

“That sounds serious,” said Johnny.

“Sorry, but I don’t think we know you,” Maria stated, standing up from her chair.

Johnny placed the vase near the window before he paid any attention to Maria. “You don’t, but we’re Tabitha’s other bosses. Matt asked us to come visit,” he explained.

“And he told me to take you back to the mansion so you can wash up and get some rest,” Jimmy continued from where Johnny stopped.

It took a little more coaxing to persuade Maria and Erika to leave Tabitha’s room, but they did, following Jimmy out of the hospital. In the mean time, Johnny sat in one of the ever-popular uncomfortable hospital chairs, patiently waiting for Tabitha to wake up, which would take hours.

‘Erika doesn’t love me anymore. Mom left us for good because I wasn’t good enough.’

Tabitha’s fever caused these hallucinations to occur. Although her eyes were tightly closed, she could feel the walls in the room close in and push farther apart simultaneously. The thoughts of her family falling apart swam around her in a circle, taunting her. Then, the rational part of her brain convinced her it couldn’t be true and she was finally able to wake up.

When her eyes opened and focused on everything surrounding her, she found a bouquet of flowers by the window next to her and a teddy bear hugging the vase. Her mother and sister ran towards her with smiles on their faces.

“You didn’t die!” her little sister exclaimed.

“What?” Tabitha gasped. Since when did she almost die?

“Matthew found us! He’s an angel, I swear. He saved you from death,” Maria gladly explained.

‘Oh god,’ Tabitha sighed inside her head, ‘She’s getting all religious again.’ However, on the outside, she wasn’t feeling so embarrassed.

“Oh.”

Maria frowned at her eldest daughter’s crying face. “Sweetie! What’s wrong?”

“I almost died and left you all alone! What kind of daughter am I?” Tabitha cried, burying her face in her shaky and cold hands.

“Tabitha stop it. It isn’t your fault,” Maria scolded snappily.

“Yes it is!” she retorted, lifting her head to look at her mother with tears in her eyes. “I swore that I would always look after you and then I almost die!”

“You’re so lucky that I agreed for Matthew to take us in,” Maria sighed, shaking her head.

“You WHAT?!”

“He wants to look after us so I agreed.”

“M-mom!”

“Don’t argue, you need resting.”

Maria didn’t give Tabitha a chance to argue back for she pulled Erika out of the room with her. Tabitha was left alone, shocked that she would have to go back to the mansion, and she didn’t even have a say in the matter. She wished she could somehow sneak out of the hospital so she wouldn’t have to go back and face Matthew…to face Brian. The only problem was that she couldn’t do such a thing. Daylight shone outside meaning that there was most likely a lot of activity occurring throughout the hospital, throughout the hallways. Someone was bound to know if Tabitha tried escaping.

“Hey, you’re awake,” said the new visitor. Tabitha looked to the door, seeing Brian standing there with a medium sized koala bear in front of him. She immediately felt a surge of fear. After she witnessed his frightening anger spell, she never wanted to see him again.

Brian shut the door behind him quietly and pulled a chair along with him until he reached Tabitha. The koala bear was in his lap and he looked at the top of its head. Tabitha looked throughout the room, trying helplessly to think of a way to rid herself of the man.

“I’m sorry,” he said lowly, refusing to look her in the eyes.

“Uh, what?” she asked.

“I’m sorry,” Brian reiterated. He raised his head. Tears brimmed his brown eyes. “I feel so bad for what I did. Dude, I treated you like you were a slave. That’s not the right thing to do, ever. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright,” she replied meekly.

“No it’s not!” he urged, standing to his feet. “If it was, you wouldn’t be scared of me! I know you are. What can I do to make it up to you? I didn’t mean to scare you and treat you like shit.”

“Uh, I don’t know.”

It was strange that someone was asking for forgiveness of her. She never experienced it, and it felt so weird.

“Okay,” Brian sighed dejectedly. “I’ll give you time to think of something. I won’t bother you at all when you get back home. Only if you need to talk to me. I’m sorry.”

Home. What exactly was home to her?