Beauty (25 page)

I’d been told to come immediately to the
west wing of the fourth floor, terminal
care. It was easy enough to find, and instead of asking at the nurse’s station I made a circle past each room, slowing to read every name.
Eight rooms down
I found her, the door closed, but the chart outside stamped in bold with her first and last name.

Visi
ting hours were almost over, but
no one paid me any attention as I slipped into the room, my mask lowering as the door clicked shut behind me.
There was only one bed in this room, machines decorating both sides. Her face was paler than the sheet that covered her, her bright red hair hidden by a wrap that covered her head. I’d expected to see a tube in her mouth, one of the machines breathing for her
, but she was free from the neck up, all of the lines leading in, disappearing under the sheet.

My breath held as her lids
opened slowly at my footsteps, her eyes blank as they stared at me. The words I wanted to say the most stuck in the back of my throat, and I stifled a gasp when she finally spoke.

“Are my parents here yet?” she ra
sp
ed, her voice barely audible above the constant whir of the machines.

I shook my head once, my hand on her shoulder as I took the final step to stand beside the bed.

“No…not yet… I didn’t know their names, and I didn’t see your purse in the car…” I explained, my voice catching as her brows furrowed together.

She had to be in pain.
Why wasn’t she sedated…
?

“I’m sorry… Who are you?” she asked, confusion filling her features now.

She didn’t recognize me. Understandable considering the sudden weight gain.

“It’s me…Evelyn…” I answered softly, sinking into the chair beside the bed. “Eve…your friend,” I added when she shook her head slightly.

It looked as if she were considering what I said, a taken aback look on her face now.

“I’m thirsty…” she finally replied, nodding her head towards the
cup of juice on the
tray at the end of the bed. “Would you mind…?”

“
Are you in pain? Should you even be drinking?
You just had surgery…” I whispered, my eyes falling to the spo
t where her chest rose and fell under the covers.

I wasn’t expecting the forced laugh that caught in her throat, tears filling her eyes as she met my stare.

“Haven’t you heard…? I’m dying…” she shrugged, her face twisting with sadness. “They said I can eat or drink anything I want. I don’t have long. Yes…” she nodded, her hand lifting to wipe her running nose. “I’m in pain, but I wanted to see my parent
s
one last time. Tell them… I don’t know,” she shrugged again, this time swiping at her tears. “I fucked up…bad….”she murmured, her hands covering her face now.

“Don’t cry…” I whispered, moving from the ch
air to hold one of her hands
. “It’
ll be okay… I know it doesn’t seem like it now…but…”

“How can you stand there and say that?! Don’t you get it? There is no hope, no surgery, no nothing. Without a heart I’m…”

“You’ll make it… You’re strong…” I insisted, squeezing her hand harder.

I couldn’t sit back and watch her die. I just couldn’t do it.

“And how would you know what I am?” she snapped, jerking her fingers free. “You say you’re my friend, but I would remember having a friend as big as you. Kind of hard to miss,” she added with a grimace, my heart plunging into my chest as I took a step back.

It was the pain talking. She hadn’t really meant it. Or I was in d
enial. The witch’s words haunted
me as I sank back into the chair at a loss for words.

“You have friends, but you list them according to popularity and body type. You have family, but you treat them like an unwanted mark on the bottom of your shoe.”

I’d come to the hospital hoping to find truth there. It hadn’t taken me long to realize that Abbey, Michael and Buster had been there for me since we’d first met. I’d shunned them in favor of a prettier package, and had probably lost them by doing so. Becca and I had shared something I’d never had with June and her friends. She’d looked out for me, and until a moment ago I was going to give my life to save hers.
Until a moment ago
I’d fallen for what true friendship wasn’t, but what I wanted it to look like…a mirror image of what I’d always hoped to be. Skinny.

Plain. Invisible. Fat. Ugly.

That’s how
Becca saw me without the thin
body I’d met her in. She looked rig
ht through me now, even with death looming, her ugliness
showed. For a moment resentment
rose through me, and I suddenly wanted to see the look in her eyes when she realized
that I was the reason she was l
ying her
e
now. I was no longer sorry. I was pissed.

“It was my f…”my words stopped as the door to her room creaked open, an older woman rushing in, already crying.

She looked just like Becca. Bright red hair was cropped close to her head, pixie like features almost mirroring her daughters with the exception of a slightly wider nose. She stopped just short of the bed, her head shaking as
she looked around at the machines and then behind her
. Two more people filed in holding each other, a younger girl with the same matching bright red hair, and an older man that I could only assume was Becca’s father.

I felt out of place watching them cry together, hugging each other and then crying some more. There was no introduction, but I’d already realize
d
there wouldn’t be one.

“Have you not learned anything…”

Once again the witch’s words plagued me and I
released
the hate and resentment I felt. My decision made.

“Are you the doctor…?” Becca’s mother asked as I rose to a stand, reaching for the cup of juice on the tray.

“No…” Becca dismissed the question before I could answer
, all eyes back on her
. “Just some girl that wandered into the wrong room. She was just leaving…”
she sniffed
, not even bothe
ring to look at me as she snatched
the cup from my hand.

I watched as she swallowed the tainted liquid in one gulp, the glass rose hanging from my neck sliding closed with a quiet click.
I’d drained the entire vial, four fat drops of my blood now a part of her. She was dying anyway. By the time her heart’s desire was realized….she’d be dead.

It was worse than I’d ever imagined it would be... My final selfish act and I felt the weight of that last pound settling somewhere deep in my chest as I left them to say their goodbye’s. Somehow
I knew that I’d always feel it: a
constant reminder that learning how to love myself had been at the cost of letting go of someone else.
I’d probably never be skinny again, but if I work
ed
hard, I knew I wouldn’t always be fat.
Becca would die and my life would continue on, picking up the tiny bits and pieces of the innerself I’d cast aside. There was beauty waiting for me there. I just had to find it.
My thumb dialed without looking, the phone pressed to my ear when it connected on the first ring. It would probably take me a lifetime to undo all the wrong I’d done, but life had paid me a lesson I wouldn’t soon
forget. My fate was in my hands, I could see that now, but I needed help…real help.

It felt like forever since I’d last heard her voice and I spoke through
the
tears I’d been holding in until now.
“Hi mom...

“It’s me...

“Evelyn...”

Thank you for taking the time to read Beauty. I truly hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please visit my website for news, updates, contest, giveaways and more!

http://patriadunn.moonlitdreams.org

Patria L. Dunn (Patria Dunn-Rowe) (Author of The Gifts Trilogy)

BONUS

****Leave a review for Beauty on Amazon.com, shoot me an email at:
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

Nine gifts were stolen from a mythical man with wings ages ago. Those nine gifts found themselves transferred into human eggs, delved out through in vitro fertilization. These newly made beings were born into the world unbeknownst to man. There are dark spirits searching for those gifts, ready to reclaim them from the humans who have been created to bear them...

When twenty-one year old Nahla Marks decides to start her junior year at Wake Forest University as an education major instead of continuing on the path to pre-med, everything seems to fall apart. Her world is turned upside down as this strange "thing" begins to manifest within her. Nahla fears she is losing it until she meets Gideon, the man with the silky smooth voice and chocolate brown hair, who seems to understand exactly what Nahla is going through.

Gideon knows the answers, but can Nahla trust him as her body begins to betray the fact that she may not be quite as human as she thought? Will Gideon be able to save Nahla from the dark spirits that are hunting them both?

Three months ago no one even knew her name, but now, bound by a curse and on the run, there was no one else she could trust…but him.

http://www.amazon.com/Gifts-Vol-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B004UC6AEO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1325897336&sr=8-2

Cover Design fo
r Beauty
Renu Sharma

Book cover art © Renu Sharma | www.thedarkrayne.com

*Once again, I just have to give my sincere thanks for all your hard work on this project. You’ve taken time out of your busy life as a wife and mother to help out a friend and I love you for that. You certainly inspired me to push forward and get it done, and I’m glad that you are a friend that I can count one. Thank you for always having my back and being there when I felt like giving up. Much Love your way and I can’t wait to keep sending you more and more books to read and edit for me!

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The kindness of people that I’ve met on the internet in the last few months never ceases to amaze me. You have really went above and beyond anything I ever expected from a reader, giving me excellent feedback, and helping me make my work as flawless as possible, so that it can be even more enjoyable to others. Sending a big thank you your way for the time you’ve taken out to help me become a better writer. I truly appreciate it.

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