Operation Beautiful

I follow Emmaleigh down to the kitchen. “What was that about?”

“What?” with a flick of her head, her long hair covers her face. Without thinking I walk over to the fridge and push a strand back behind her ear.

“That...” I’m not sure how to put it. “Did someone put their confidence pants on?”

“Very funny,” she says, but I can tell she’s embarrassed. I kind of regret bringing it up now. She pulls two pudding cups out of the fridge and hands one to me. “I just thought I’d try...you know...treating you like one of my friends.”

“Ah. So you aren’t normally so shy around your friends?”

She shakes her head. “Not with Jessica, anyway.”

“Mark!” Mrs. Hansen calls suddenly, making us jump. She pokes her head into the kitchen and smiles.. “Corey, could you be a dear run upstairs to call Mr. Hansen? We have to leave now to help prepare.”

“Coming dear, coming!” Mr. Hansen replies, bouncing down the stairs boyishly.

“Okay, so we’ll be back really late,” Mrs. Hansen says as we see her to the door.

“Don’t worry, Ma,” Matt says with a smile. “We’ll be okay. You guys can sleep over if it gets to late. We can handle ourselves.”

“They have a point, dear,” Mr. Hansen says. “It’s four now, we’ll reach by seven. The party will last until nine or ten, so if you want to start driving back right away we’ll reach by about midnight or later.”

“All right. We’ll sleep over. Are you sure you guys will be okay alone?” Mrs. Hansen asks, concerned.

“We’ll be fine,” Jessica insists. “See you tomorrow!”

We crowd around the door and wave.

“Video games?” I ask Matt once the door is shut.

“Hell, yeah,” he agrees. And we run upstairs.

“Hey, what do you guys want to do for dinner?” Jessica asks, poking her head into the game room hours later.

“I dunno,” Matt says, pausing the game and turning around. “We can go out to eat.”

“Emma’s not feeling too well,” Jessica replies. “Can we just get take out?”

Matt stands up suddenly. “What time is it?”

“Seven,” I say, pulling my cellphone out of my pocket and looking at the display.

Matt gets a glint in his eye. “Jess, get your coat, we’ll go get the take out. Corey, go and make sure Emma is okay.”

Jessica rolls her eyes but when she opens her mouth to argue, Matt pushes her out of the room.

“Um...Emmaleigh?” I call, tapping on Jessica’s door. There’s no answer. I feel myself panic a little and swing the door open. She isn’t there. She must be downstairs. “Emmaleigh?” I call.

“I’m on the couch,” she calls back.

“How are you feeling?” I ask, sitting on the couch next to her.

“A bit...off,” she says. She tries to get up. “I think I’m going to use the bathroom.”

“Again?” I ask. “What is it with you and avoiding me?”

She puts a hand to her forehead and falls back on the couch. “Corey...” her voice is faint, her face pale.

“Emmaleigh?” This is new. “Emmaleigh, are you okay?”

“Corey, I...” she puts a hand on my arm. “I’m feeling nauseous.” She tries to stand up. I grab her arm to steady her as she falls over again.

I don’t know what to do. I’m panicking. “Um...let’s get you to the doctor. I’ll call Matt on the way, okay?”

***
“Matt!” I nearly yell into the phone.

“Dude, chill. What’s up?” he laughs.

“It’s Emmaleigh. She was feeling nauseous and nearly fainted so I’m going to take her to the doctor. But I don’t know where to go.”

Matt pauses for a moment, trying to grasp the situation. “Okay,” he says. “Okay. Um...call Trevor. His parents are emergency room doctors, he’ll know what to do. Call me once you guys get to the hospital, okay? We’ll be right over. It’s probably nothing big, right?”

I think about it. “Well, she’s just feeling sick. So...maybe food poisoning or something? It’s just...she scared me, fainting like that.”

“Call Trevor, okay? Now you’re scaring me,” Matt says.

I hang up and call Trevor. “Trevor, I need help!”

“What’s up?” he asks.

“Um...Emmaleigh nearly fainted and I was thinking of taking her to the emergency room but I don’t know where to go and...” I trail off uncertainly. I feel my heart start to pound again. I’m panicking.

“Calm down,” he says, though his voice jumps. “Wait. Emmaleigh nearly fainted?”

“Trevor, I’m panicking here!”

“Calm down,” Emmaleigh says. “It’s not that big of a deal. I’m feeling really hungry now. When’s dinner?”

“Take her to the emergency room,” Trevor says. “I’ll call my parents.” He gives me directions and says he’ll be there as soon as he can. I call Matt and give him directions. Then it’s off to the emergency room

“What seems to be the problem?” a nurse asks, looking over me and Emmaleigh and Trevor. If he’s fazed by our age, he doesn’t show it. It took half an hour for them to let us into the emergency room.

“I nearly fainted,” Emmaleigh explains. “And so they kind of panicked and...yeah.”

“So you’re feeling fine now? Anything strange happening to you lately?”

“Well...” Emmaleigh says, looking at us. “I, uh, I was going to wait and talk to my doctor because my mom said I had an appointment next month, but since I’m here...”

“Yes?” the nurse asks, his voice becoming softer as he sees her anxious face.

“I’ve been going to the bathroom a lot lately. I’ve even been waking up at night to go.” The words come out in a jumbled rush. So she really did have to go the the bathroom.

“I see.” The nurse’s voice changes a little. He riffles through a drawer. “Have you been drinking more water lately?”

Emmaleigh nods tentatively. “Yeah. I’ve been feeling thirstier, too.”

“I see.” His voice is freaking creeping me out. He approaches her with a small machine. “Let’s take a blood test, shall we?”

She shuts her eyes, “Will it hurt?”

“Like pricking yourself with a needle,” the nurse says. “It only stings for a second.”

Well, at least he’s honest. Emmaleigh grabs my hand tightly and shuts her eyes as the man pokes her finger with some pen-like device and squeezes the blood onto a slightly larger machine.

“Hmm...” the nurse says. “Why don’t you go back into the waiting room for a few minutes? We’ll call you.”

When we get back to the waiting room, Matt and Jessica have arrived. We’re all standing there in shock.

“I’m sorry, what?!” Jessica asks, her face pale.

“It’s okay,” Trevor says calmly, putting his arm around my shoulders. “They’ll call us back in a few minutes. It’ll be fine.”

Ten minutes later, a different nurse approaches us and lead us to a different room. Only two guests are allowed in at once, so Trevor tells Matt and Jessica to go pick up iPods and food for us. He says that it'll take a long time before anything really happens and if it does, he'll call them personally. I remind Matt that he was supposed to pick up pizza in the first place but abandoned the plan when I called, so Matt prepares to leave.

Jessica wants to stay, but Matt puts an arm on her shoulder.

“Jessica. We can come back to see Emmaleigh. They're only allowing two other people inside at a time. Trevor knows his way around the ward, Corey can be there to help Emmaleigh since she doesn't know Trevor that well, and I have the money and directions for pizza. This is the best way.” Jessica sighs and lets him lead her away.

Emmaleigh, Trevor and I enter the room and the nurse hands Emmaleigh a bundle. “Why don’t you go change into this, dear?”

Emmaleigh eyes the hospital gown warily. “Uh...here? Now?”

“We’ll be waiting outside,” I tell her.

The nurse follows us out. “The blood test,” she says, looking down at a clipboard. “Her blood sugar was extremely high.”

“What does that mean?” I ask, though I vaguely know the answer.

“Diabetes,” the nurse says gravely, looking at both me and Trevor. “She has diabetes.”