Broken Scream

I went to school the next day with guilt hanging over my head. I had treated Mary like crap yesterday. I walked into my first period class with my head hung, and I sat down beside Mary. I took a glance at Mary and she was glaring at me. I quickly diverted my eyes and looked down at the desk top. I could tell she was mad at me; it looked like she hates me.
“Look, Mary,” I said, “I’m sorry about how I treated you yesterday, it’s just…” I buried my face in my hands as tears flowed from my eyes.
I was hoping Mary wouldn’t notice, but of course she did. “Alice, what happened to you when you were gone? If you’re not acting like this because of your family, then why is it?”
“I want to tell you I really do, but I just can’t. I can’t talk about it right now, Mary. Please don’t hate me.” I cried.
“Hate you? I could never hate you, Alice, you’re my best friend.” Mary said.
I opened my mouth to say something else, but the teacher walked in. the teacher turned to the white board and began writing down notes. I heard someone move into the desk to the right of me. I looked over and saw James sitting there. He grinned at me and I just looked away and continued taking notes.
Off to my right James went psst I looked over at him. “You look nice with short hair, Alice. When did you get it cut?”
“About a week ago in California.” I replied.
“You went all the way to California?” James gasped.
“No I went all the way to Tennessee.” I said.
“How did you get that far?” James asked.
“That doesn’t concern you, James.” I said.
“You know I remember before you took off we told each other everything. I loved you, Alice, and I still do. We were in love.” James said.
“Well, James, I don’t love you any more, I’m in love with someone else.” I said a bit too loudly. The whole class went quiet and everyone looked in our direction.
James just kept on talking like he didn’t notice. “What do you mean you love someone else? How could you just suddenly not love me after being together for five years?”
“James, I don’t think now is a good time.” I said.
“No, now is a good time and I want you to explain this to me.”
“You could never understand it, James; you just need to accept it.”
“I can’t accept it I’m in love with you. I had a crush on you for three years before I found the courage to ask you out. You’re the girl I imagined myself marrying.”
James leaned over the bar on his desk and smashed his lips up against mine. I pushed him away with such force he fell backwards out of his desk. I looked at him in disgust. I opened my mouth to say something, but I didn’t have anything to say. I just shook my head and stormed out of the class room. I walked all the way back to my grandma’s house. I walked in the house and slammed the door behind me. My grandma poked her head out of the kitchen when she saw me confusion shot through her face. She tossed the dish cloth on to the counter and came up to me.
“Alice, what are you doing home? School has just started.” My grandma asked.
“I didn’t want to be there right now. There was just a lot of stuff that happened this morning.” I told her.
“That is no reason for you to leave school, Alice. Now I expect you to go back to school and finish off the day.” My grandma scolded.
“I don’t want to go back to school today, grandma.” I whined.
“Now you listen here, you are going back to school weather you want to or not. I don’t want to hear another excuse, now get in the car.” My grandma snapped.
I stomped out of the door and got in the car. My grandma came out shortly afterwards and started the car. She pulled up to the school and walked me into the office. The office gave me two days of in school suspension that started tomorrow. After that they sent me off to my second period class. I walked into the class grumbling and too my seat. Of course James had to be in this class, and just so happened to sit in the desk next to mine. Why he had to be smart enough to be in my statistics class I have no idea.
I put my chin on my hand and let out a frustrated huff. The teacher put the homework problems up on the white board for everyone to get started on. I tried to concentrate on my homework, but I was too worked up to do so. I threw my pencil on to my desk and put my head down on the desk. Soon enough I dozed off.
I had the same nightmare I did a few days ago with that creature in it. The only difference was the creature was out of its cage and coming at me claws at the ready. The creature lunged at me and pinned me to the ground. His claws dug into my left shoulder and blood started pouring out. I screamed out in excruciating pain for someone to help me and I kept screaming it over and over. The creature’s claws dug into my other shoulder and I screamed out again. I woke up to someone shaking me and lunged into their arms.
“I want to go home, take me home. Someone get me away from here, please. My shoulder hurts, it hurt my left shoulder.” I cried.
“Alice, calm down please. Its ok it was only a nightmare none of it was real. Come on let’s get you to the office.” James said in my ear.
“My shoulder it hurts really bad, someone help me!” I screamed.
“Alice, your shoulder is fine see-“James began. “Dear lord, Alice, what happened to your arm? We have to get you to a hospital like right now. Does anyone have a car? We need someone to drive her to the hospital!” James yelled.
While James was trying to find someone to drive me to the hospital I passed out from the blood loss. Everything was dark this time; I didn’t have to see the red creature. I started to feel a little num, and it felt good next to the pain. The pain started to go away it felt like was falling into a deep sleep. As the time passed by it got even darker. My breath was heavy and calming at the same time. I could hear people screaming for me to stay with them. Some people were saying don’t go we can’t lose you now you just got back.
I heard a few more people talk before I drifted back into the black abyss. I woke up in a white room with a needle in my arm. I shook my head and looked around and saw a lot of get well stuff. That was when I realized I was in a hospital. I looked to my left and my grandma was sitting in a chair asleep. There was a digital clock sitting on the stand to my left that said two thirty in the morning. I grabbed the remote thing that was attached to my bed and hit the nurse button. A short scrawny old woman came running into the room. When she saw I was the one that buzzed her she gave me a big smile.
“Well look who decided to pull through after all. How are you feeling Miss. Prior?” the nurse asked me.
“I’m feeling just fine, why am I in here?” I asked.
“Don’t you remember? Your shoulder got cut open somehow and you were bleeding to death. You had to go through surgery to stop it from bleeding.” The nurse said.
“My shoulder was bleeding, but how?” I asked confused.
“We don’t know, that James kid told us it just started bleeding out of the blue during school. We were hoping you would be able to tell us how it happened, but you don’t seem to remember it happening.” The nurse told me.
“James, he was the one who brought me here?” I asked.
“Not exactly, he came with his older brother. He seemed to be really worried about you. Is he your boyfriend?” the nurse asked me.
“No, not anymore. We broke up-“ I began when I realized I didn’t know how long I had been in here. “How long have I been in here?”
“You have been here for two weeks. You were in a mini coma. You lost a lot of blood and died on use twice.”
“I- I died?”
I felt all of the life drain from my face and I couldn’t breathe. How many people had I worried because of this? I started to cry just thinking about this. People that I care about and that care about me had to see me die or hear about me dying. I brought my right fist down on the bed. My grandmas’ head shot up when she felt the shaking. She gave me a big hug and pain shot through my left arm.
“O, Alice, you’re awake at last. It’s so good to see you awake.” My grandma cried.
“My arm, grandma, you’re hurting my arm.” I yelped.
“O shoot I’m sorry sweetie.” My grandma apologized.
“Don’t call me sweetie,” I said, “I am far from it.”
“You are my sweet little girl, Alice, no matter how bad you have been.” My grandma said.
“You know, grandma, I can recall a time when you hated me. That was only a year ago. Don’t you remember it grandma?” I snapped.
“That was one of the many mistakes I made after my daughter adopted you. You weren’t one of her own like the others. I was angry that she adopted you a few years after she had the twins. To me it seemed like you were just a pain that used more money. I realized my mistake last year when you ran off. After a few weeks I thought you might have died. That was when it hit me I cried for days. Then just last week when that boy came and told me he saw you I was happy I went to find you immediately.” My grandma told me.
“I was adopted? I thought I was there birth child. Why did they never tell me?” I cried.
“They were going to tell you that night, but then the accident happened. It was rotten luck on both your parts.” My grandma said.
“What were you planning on doing with me when you came to get me that night?” I asked her.
“I was planning on leaving you in that room and only give you your food and go to school.” My grandma admitted.
“You were a very cruel women, Stephanie, a very cruel women indeed.” I sighed.
“That I was, Alice, that I was.” She agreed. “Now go to sleep you need your rest.” My grandma told me.
“If you would like, you can leave tomorrow.” The nurse told us.
“Thank you.” I told her.
She nodded her head and left the room. I stretched m right arm and put my head on the pillow. I looked up at the high ceiling and began to doze off. Sooner than I thought I’d be I had fallen into a dreamless sleep.
***
I was leaving the hospital at about two in the afternoon. The drive back to my grandma’s house took about half an hour. In that time I saw that three new fast food restaurants had sprung up. I didn’t like any of them. I was board on the ride home, so I took out my phone and punched in Mary’s number.
Me: Hey Mary, its Alice. This is my new number so if you want to text you can have it.
It took her a little while to answer back, but she finally did.
Mary: Hey, Alice, I can’t believe James told you he wanted to marry you. Then he kissed you in front of the whole class. O and how is your arm doing, does it still hurt?
Me: Yes it’s true, but now I feel kind of bad for telling him I didn’t love him anymore. My arm only hurts when I move it. The doctor wrote a prescription for a certain kind of kind killer.
Mary: Dude that boy is hopelessly in love with you, I find it adorable. He told me while you were unconscious that he would win your heart back. He has some total Romeo mojo going on there.
Me: Did he really? I still love him, but I’m not in love with him anymore. I’m not going to lie I’m in love with someone else even when he lied to me and made me angry. He just seemed to complete me.
Mary: Alice, who are you in love with?
Me: No one you know, it’s not something you should be concerned.
Mary: hguygjhguyhh
Me: What’s with all the letters?
Mary: Sorry, James got a hold of my phone.
Me: he did what, how did your brother get a hold of your phone? He sounded just like you.
Mary: That’s what happens when he lives with me. So tell me about this guy you claim to be in love with.
Me: I can’t Mary, I just can’t. It hurts too much to think about him. I won’t ever be able to see him again and it hurts. I have to go.
I closed my phone and felt tears swell up in my eyes. Instead of holding them back I just let them flow out. My grandma heard me crying and she gave me a grim look. She pulled in to the drive way and looked at me.
She didn’t even have to ask me anything I just cried at her, “I miss him, grandma; I miss him so much it hurts. I want to see him again I love him so much.”
“Hush baby doll don’t cry everything will be ok. If it is meant to, then be then fate will bring you two back together again. If you love each other enough then you will find each other.” My grandma reasoned.
“I don’t think he loves me, I think he loves someone he has never even met. He lied to me he didn’t tell me he was betrothed.” I cried.
“Then he is not worth crying over.” My grandma said.
“He broke my heart, grandma; he broke it in little pieces. I want to see him once more.” I said.
“I know baby doll, I know.” She whispered.
I was really surprised that she didn’t ask me who I was talking about. I guess my grandma hasn’t grown accustom to asking me personal questions yet. I think that this was for the best.
“It hurts to have a broken heart, it hurts so bad.” I said.
“I know just what you mean that happened to me when your grandpa died.” My grandma told me
I gave my grandma silent thanks for letting me talk to her. I was glad that my grandma could relate to me in some fashion.