Falling In

Poppy was running, the only sound that she could hear was the sound of her sneakers slapping against the pavement and her heartbeat thrumming loudly in her ear. Poppy generally had a rule against any form of physical exertion; it was something that amused Ellie greatly when they were in secondary school, but desperate times called for desperate measures and she quite honestly couldn’t remember a time when she had felt as desperate and vulnerable as she did right now. She had been in the middle of a lecture when she had gotten the phone call, and had just bolted.

“She might not make it, Pop.” The words were still ringing in her ears as she kept running towards her destination, Weybridge hospital, the entry way of the average looking hospital shined before her and Poppy slowed down a little. As big of a rush as she was in, she had a feeling that the hospital staff may not appreciate her jetting through the building quite as much as she would. She remembered the last time she had been here, but quickly pushed that particular thought out of her head, she was going to be enough of a mess already.

She had started to walk faster, her breath coming out in short pants as she made her way to
the ER, she was almost running again and she had stop herself from breaking out into a sprint in an attempt to restrain herself. Poppy had never been good in a crisis, she wasn’t good with dealing with her emotions at all, and as such, was the absolute worst person to look to for strength and support during those sorts of times. Ellie had always been the strong one, the one who held Poppy together during times of severe emotional distress.

Poppy had met Elissa Franceschi when she was eleven years old, the two of them were the last people to be chosen for dodge ball of the first day of seventh grade in PE class, they had bonded over the fact that they were athletically impaired, as they preferred to call it. The two had been best friends ever since, surviving through the hardships of secondary school and the pressure of their final exams, to being best mates almost ten years later. Ellie was two years older than Poppy but had been kept down due to illness in nursery school.

Ellie had been there for everything that had happened in Poppy’s life during the past ten years, from crappy boyfriends to even crappier funerals, Ellie was there for it all; offering everything from a bowl of ice cream to murdering her brother to make things even between them. Ellie never failed to make her laugh and it always managed to make things seem not as bad as they had appeared to be before, she had even ‘accidentally’ arranged for Poppy’s ex-boyfriend, Mason, to get a rather unfortunate black eye the night before an audition he had with a small agency.

Poppy couldn’t imagine doing anything, or being anywhere in her life without Ellie, her sunny disposition was something that rivalled Poppy’s own optimistic outlook on life and people had always commented that you wouldn’t think of one without the other immediately springing to mind. During their secondary school years, the two had gotten a reputation for being connected at the hip and it had gone so far as their tenth grade French teacher, Madame Vousipont, had been convinced that they were sisters, no matter how many times the whole class swore to her that the two were merely best mates.

Poppy hurried up to the receptionist in the intensive care unit at the hospital, out of breath and her heart still pounding in her chest. It felt like history was repeating itself, and Poppy hated that scared and vulnerable feeling that was rising in her chest, it was a feeling which she had spent the past seven years trying to ensure that she never felt again. Her attempts had all been wasted, all that hard work disappearing in a single moment when she had gotten that phone call an hour ago, this wasn’t about her though, it was about Ellie.

“Elissa Franceschi, she was brought in a little over an hour ago from Abbotswood Drive, s-s-she has dark brown hair and was wearing jeans and a jumper, most likely” she rushed out, waiting impatiently as the young blond woman stared at her with a bored expression, how could someone be so heartless to someone who was clearly distraught? The woman slowly flipped through the clipboard she had on the desk in front of her, her bored expression quickly changing to one of excitement and realisation as she remembered that particular patient, or rather, the family of the patient, Poppy thought.

“Oh, yes, are you family, miss?” she questioned, giving the girl a challenging look as she waited for her response. Poppy had considered that this may possibly be an issue for getting information, along with the option of just lying and saying that she was a family member, but then came the possibility of the infuriating receptionist asking for identification and proof of relation, along with the fact that Poppy couldn’t lie to save her life. Slowly, she shook her head, “Well, then I’m afraid you are just going to have to sit down for now” she smiled fakely.

“You don’t understand, she’s my best mate, I can’t just sit around and wait for someone to come and tell me that she’s in a critical condition, she might have died by then! Please, just let me go and fetch her brother from wherever the hell she’s being monitored and he can tell you all about how I’m virtually family and you can stare at him all googly eyed” she pleaded, on the verge of snapping at the insufferable woman in front of her. Girls always went stupid over Ellie’s younger brother, and she was constantly complaining about it to Poppy.

“I can’t let you do that, miss, it’s against hospital policy, so sit down until someone comes to fetch you.” The blond woman hissed harshly, narrowing her eyes at Poppy dangerously.
Poppy chewed on her lip thoughtfully, there had to be a way around this, she just had to think carefully about it, she had always been talented at thinking outside the box, but complete rubbish at doing so at a moment’s notice. If only she could call the one the blond receptionist was so crazy about, then she would see that he knew her and bloody let her through.

It was like her prayers had been answered, as not a moment later, the boy wonder walked out of the elevator with Ellie’s parents, Clive and Jenna, talking a mile a minute about the condition of their only daughter. Ellie’s parents had accepted Poppy into the family from the very moment she had first walked into their house in the seventh grade, welcoming her as an adopted daughter; she was even in their family Christmas card every December. Poppy’s own parents, Denise and George, had immediately clicked with Clive and Jenna, spending most weekends with the two on double dates.

Jenna spotted Poppy standing there and bustled over to the desk where Poppy was having a staring match with the now irritated receptionist, grabbing her in a warm hug that showed how worried sick she was about Ellie. “Poppy, sweetheart, thank goodness you’re here! I don’t know what I would’ve done without you! Dumb and dumber are being useless as per usual over there, but why are you standing here, dear? I would’ve thought you would be with Ellie in her room” the lovely older woman asked, her kind heart-shaped face creased in concern and worry for her whole family.

“Hi Mama Franceschi, well, you see, I would love to be in there with my best mate, but this receptionist has just been telling me that as I am not family, I cannot be in there with any of you” Poppy chirped to the older woman who was basically a second mother to her, Jenna had always made it very clear to Poppy that their door was always open to her and that there was always a spare room available to her, should she ever need it. To her, Poppy was as much a daughter to her as her own.

“Oh, nonsense! You listen to me, young lady, this girl is as much a part of our family as my daughter, who, need I remind you, is in a hospital bed, and my son over there, who I am sure you have noticed by now. If you do not let her into that hospital room, you will be looking for a new career, understand?” she sternly berated the young girl, leaving her to nod tightly, glaring daggers at Poppy as she looked at the floor in a vain attempt not to showcase her extreme amusement at her terror and fright.

Without any further comment, Mrs Franceschi wrapped her arm around Poppy and led her away to where her husband and son had been standing awkwardly, watching as she traumatized the poor girl before stalking away with a satisfied grin on her face. Poppy smiled a little at the two as she remember why they were all here, she had seen the three of them last Sunday for dinner, upon Jenna’s insistence, but that now seemed like so long ago to Poppy, even though it was only a few days ago. To say Poppy was scared would be an extreme understatement.

It could’ve been worse, Poppy thought to herself as she took in the sight before her of her best friend on the bed with a range of tubes coming out of her. Her arm was hooked up to a drip with a bandage wrapped around her head, her eyes were shut peacefully and the room suddenly felt very small to Poppy. Jenna was situated on the edge of the bed, sniffling at the sight in front of her; Clive had his hand on his wife’s shoulder and was holding back tears of his own, Poppy slipped out of the room.

Poppy paced in the hallway outside the hospital room, her heart seizing up as she swallowed the bulk of her tears, Ellie had been on her way to work when her car had been hit by a range rover, she had spun out of control before hitting a tree. Poppy had gotten the call an hour later, when Ellie had come out of the ER and been placed in the ICU for monitoring. She blamed herself, even though there was nothing she could have done in this situation to help, she just wanted to be able to do something.

The door of Ellie’s room opened, and her younger brother strolled out, attempting to smile at Poppy and failing miserably at it; Poppy smiled softly at him as she took a seat next to him on the floor which he had promptly slid down to. “Hey Josh” she breathed out as she leaned her head back against the morbidly white hospital walls, Josh and her had been in the same year for all of Secondary school, along with Ellie and for all the time that she had known him, he had been somewhat of a chick magnet, with a bad record.

The girls that Josh ended up dating always managed to hurt him, but Josh had the same sunny disposition that Ellie had, and never let the way that girls hurt him deter him from trying again. Poppy never understood why girls had this inexplicable desire to hurt Josh, she really didn’t, he could be a bit jerky at times, but he was otherwise rather sweet. He had been touring the world with his band, You Me at Six, for the past few years, and was getting to be really popular in the UK, along with everywhere else in the world.

“Poppy-flower, you’ve been flipping out haven’t you?” he teased, ruffling her hair lightly and making her pout at him, Josh and Poppy had always gotten on rather well. More often than not, Poppy would find herself and Ellie hanging out with Josh and his mates on a Saturday night, either down at the pub or at one of their places. Ellie would never admit it, but she missed her little brother a lot when he was away on tour. “ Don’t stress, Pop, she’s gonna be just fine, Doc says she should be out in a week” he reassured her.

Poppy reach her cardigan-covered arms out and wrapped them around his neck comfortingly, her heart going out to the boy who had been in her life for so long. If Poppy was being entirely honest, she always held a soft spot for Josh, and when his own warm arm settled over her shoulder casually, she told herself that the funny feeling in her stomach was merely relief and nothing else. She settled her head into the crook between his shoulder and neck, closing her eyes briefly as she relaxed against him, letting the warmth calm her down from her panic.