Coffee and Cigarettes

I hopped into Bob's car and we sped off to our house. Before Bob even stopped, I flung open the door and scrambled out. I zoomed into our house where my mom was holding Blair, who was pale as a ghost in her arms.

"What happened?" I asked, panicking.

"She fainted," my mother replied, sounding calmer than she looked. "Your father's called an ambulance. It's on its way."

"She looks so pale..." I said under my breath, pushing Blair's hair away from her face. She looked almost like a walking skeleton. "How long will it take for the ambulance to show up?"

"Well--" my mom began, but she was cut off by a knock on the door. "That must be them," she said. She rushed over to the door and opened it, ushering the paramedics inside.

They lifted Blair's limp body onto a stretcher, putting an oxygen mask over her mouth. They then proceeded to haul her into the ambulance, allowing my brother and I to ride with them as my mother and father followed in their car.

As soon as we got there though, they told us that we couldn't go in with her. This made Bob a bit mad.

"What was the point in coming here then, if you're just going to leave us in the dark?" he snapped at the doctor who had told us to leave for the meantime. "I want to be with my sister."

"You can't be with your sister right now, you'll have to wait. It won't take long--"

"That's not the point!" Bob retorted loudly. "She may be near death and you're expecting me to wait? No! I won't do it!"

The doctor furrowed his thick black eyebrows. "You'll have to or we will have someone escort you out of the edifice."

Bob's face flushed red before stomping off to the waiting room. I glanced at my parents who had witnessed everything. "He's just scared," I told them and the doctor. "He doesn't mean to be so rude, I apologize on his behalf."

The doctor nodded. "Not a problem. We'll call you when we know what's happened here."

My parents and I thanked him and proceeded towards the waiting room where Bob was sitting, head in his hands, his feet tapping on the floor at an amazing speed. It was a habit he'd picked up when he started playing drums.

I sat next to him and patted him on the back. "You'll be okay, right?"

He nodded. "It's not me you should be worrying about," Bob replied. "Something is definitely wrong with Blair, and if we don't find out soon, I'm afraid that it might be too late."

We sat there for about five hours in silence as people came in and out, doctors and nurses passing us by without giving us a second look. Bob had fallen asleep, as did my mom and dad. I sat up in my chair, alert, waiting.

I couldn't bring myself to doze off. I didn't want the doctors to just forget about us because we were all asleep.

Finally, the same doctor that Bob had snapped at came towards us. I shook my brother and parents awake as he came closer.

"Your daughter is sleeping, but she's stable." he said with a loud sigh. "But--"

"Can we see her?" Bob demanded.

"Well, yes, but--" Before the doctor could answer, Bob jumped up and practically ran to Blair's room, my parents following close behind. The doctor scratched his head, muttered something and walked away. It sounded something like, 'Your daughter's awake', but I knew that couldn't be right.

Shrugging it off, I followed my parents and brother to Blair's room.

My mom and dad were kissing her on the cheek, holding her hand, talking to her even though they knew that she couldn't hear them. Bob sat quietly in the corner of the room on a rickety old chair that the hospital really needed to replace. My mom glanced over at me and said, "Do you want to talk to her?"

I shrugged. "I guess so."

My parents backed away and sat next to Bob. They whispered into his ear and he nodded and they all left the room. I guess they wanted me to be alone with her.

I moved towards the hospital bed and sat next to Blair. There was an IV in her arm, the gown making her fair skin look even paler. Her eyes were sunken in, dark circles formed around them. This couldn't really have been my sister, could it? The Blair I knew was a beautiful person. The girl lying before me couldn't have been her.

"I don't really know what to say," I said honestly, in a whisper-quiet voice. "I wish you could wake up and make all of us stop worrying. I wish you could go back to the way you were. I think I'd rather see you healthy and bitchy than ill and nice."

I let out a sigh as the heart monitor let out slow but steady beeps. I didn't know why she was even hooked up to all those machines, she didn't even need them. She had just fainted, it didn't seem like a huge emergency to me.

My mom popped her head into the room. "Honey, we're leaving now. Come on, we'll come get her tomorrow when she's all better."

I nodded, exiting the room.

I looked back at Blair, breathing softly, lying in the hospital bed, unconscious to the world around her.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" I asked, not wanting to leave the room.

"Don't worry about her, she'll be just fine," my dad assured me. I looked over at Bob who kept his eyes glued to his feet.

"I hope so," was all I could say.

We piled into my parents' car and slowly drove away from the hospital. As the building seemed to sink into the horizon, I started to lull into a restless sleep. After all, I'd been awake the entire time whilst we waited for Blair.

I kept thinking back to what the doctor said.

What did it mean?