Cursed (9 page)

I looked at Giselle and ignored him, “This is
good news because they already know what’s wrong with you and how
to treat it and you’re going to the best hospital. They will find
answers and if it kills me I will find your mom okay?”

She nodded but I could see she was shut off
trapped in the doctor’s first sentence.

I looked at the doctor, I needed my cell phone
and for him to go away, “I will talk to her.”

He agreed with a head nod and walked from the
room.

I sprang from my bed like a sloth and started my
emergency texting as soon as my cell phone hit my fingers. I
messaged my sister.

“Dude get G’s dad here 911” clearly not
understanding she texted me back.

“???”

“No time 2 talk get her dad he’s sleeping @
work. Tell him 2 bring the visa bill with the resort name on it his
wife is staying @”

“??OK??”

“U HAVE 10 MIN 2 B Here”

“KK”

I sent Blake a message as well.

“U :* my sis??”

He messaged me back instantly undoubtedly having
already talked to my sister.

“nothing I decided and I turned my phone off. At least he never knew
I liked him.

I looked back at Giselle who was sitting up
staring blankly at the bed. I turned my phone back on and ignored
the messages I was receiving from Blake. I googled Liver Disease,
not that I needed to I could have told her everything she needed to
know but sometimes reading makes people feel better, it did me
anyway. I read for about half an hour looking for a bright side. I
didn’t find one.

From the article it looked like we had drug
induced Cholestasis, which was likely to last a month or so in a
worst-case scenario. In Giselle’s case an allergic reaction
triggered the worst worst-case scenario, which looked like an acute
case of hepatitis.

I looked at her and smiled, “This is going to be
treatable at the hospital. In the city they have resources we
don’t.”

Giselle smiled, “I’m glad you’re going to be
okay Aimee, this was never about you.”

She seemed to be coming to terms very quickly
with her situation, which saddened me. Giselle should be screaming
and having a fit but she seemed to be used to disappointment, not
something I would have imagined for her.

I saw Giselles’ dad rushing for our room in his
rumpled suit with my sister hot on his heels. He ran for the room,
“Oh my god Giselle, oh my god. Baby are you okay?”

He knelt at her bedside crying. It disgusted me
to see him like this. She was comforting him; Giselle had the most
selfish parents I had ever seen.

I got up from my bed and left them alone as the
doctor came in, he looked very angry with Giselle’s dad. Evidently
leaving your eighteen year old to cope with liver disease alone was
not cool even to doctors with no bedside manner.

I dragged my IV machine squeaking the whole way
to where my sister stood holding the piece of paper I had asked
for.

“He gave it to you?” I asked looking at the visa
bill.

She smiled, “Yeah I told him about Giselle being
sick and the hospital trying to reach him. He had apparently been
drunk in Handley for three days and before that in Portland on
business. He went home a few times but never checked the messages.
He just thought she was out with friends.”

I shook my head taking the visa statement, “What
an idiot.”

I looked at the charge on the visa, “Grand PLDM
White Sds Rst, $3200.00” I punched the code into Google with the
word Mexico in front, “Grand Palladium White Sands Resort in the
Mayan Riviera. There is a number here.” I clicked on the number for
phoning from Oregon so my phone would dial instantly.

“How did you know about her mom?” my sister eyed
her suspiciously. I shook my head as I responded to the person
answering the phone. I spoke in Spanish perfectly while my sister
made faces at me.

My sister rolled her eyes and mouthed the words
‘Show-off’

The lady on the other line spoke quickly and I
smiled, “Gracias.”

I hung up the phone as my sister crossed her
arms, “What did you say?”

I wanted to tell her that if she had actually
paid an ounce of attention in Spanish class she might actually
realize what I had said but I resisted, as there were others things
weighing heavily on my mind.

“I told her that I needed Pillar to come home
that her daughter was being taken to children’s and was very sick.
That’s what’s happening.” I looked into the room to see Giselle’s
dad talking with the doctor and nodding his head with a blank
stare. He understood what he was being told but didn’t comprehend
what it meant.

Giselle looked off out the window, it troubled
me to see her like this, my new friend who I had known my whole
life.

The stretcher came for her while we were in the
hallway; the helicopter had arrived to transport her. Giselle’s dad
kissed her hand and ran from the hospital.

I walked back into the room as they were
strapping her in for the ride, “I’ll get my dad to let me come see
you next week when you’re settled in. Text me when you get there
ok.”

She nodded, “See you soon then. My dad is going
to drive to the hospital now, so he should arrive a few hours after
me.”

I hugged her and felt her hands grip onto me
intensely, “Be strong ok.” I whispered in Giselle’s ear.

Giselle nodded and the doctors took her away. My
sister waved to her from the hall as they passed by and blew her a
kiss. Giselle blew her a kiss back but looked for me to wave once
more.

One more night in the hospital and I could go
home but this night would be completely alone. Not an exciting
notion.

“So what exactly is going on Aims? What’s wrong
with Giselle?” my sister stood beside me now watching where Giselle
had left.

“The drug that we took was poorly made to say
the least and almost killed us but apparently in rare cases an
allergic reaction can occur causing an inflammation...”

Alise held me hands up cutting her off, “Whoa
dumb it down.”

I shook my head, “She has the beginning stages
of liver disease which can lead to liver failure which in some
people can lead to death or permanent damage.”

My sister opened her mouth in understanding,
“Ohhhh, okay. So why didn’t it do it to you?”

I shook my head, “Her reaction was an allergic
reaction. We both reacted to the drug badly because it was poor
quality but she is actually allergic to what is in the drugs.”

“You got lucky.” Alise plainly wasn’t getting
the fact that no matter what I never would have had the reaction
Giselle did as I clearly wasn’t allergic to the drugs we took so I
nodded, “yeah and Giselle got unlucky.”

Sometimes talking to Alise cheered me up like
watching a chimp in heels walk around in lipstick.

“Will you be okay?” Alise looked concerned,
these were new expressions for my sister so she still looked lost
on how to make them perfect and instead she looked a little
constipated.

I smiled, “Yeah in a month or so the damage to
my liver should be healed but just in case I can’t drink or eat red
meat or fatty foods or do drugs.”

She laughed, “So just go back to boring old
you?”

I nodded, “yeah, sleep, math club and chess club
and homework. All that clean living you refuse to attempt.”

Alise wrinkled her nose, “No way too boring.”
She hugged me scaring me, it was so abrupt and sudden. “Okay well I
have to go Shane’s house and break up with him before he finds out
I kissed Blake. I know Giselle heard everything.”

I hugged back, “Yeah I don’t think she is
texting your friends right now to tell them that, she has a lot on
her mind.”

My sister pulled me back, her silver eyes
sparkling, “You don’t know the real Giselle, only the sick Giselle.
They are different people. See you later Gator.” She walked out
clicking on the shiny industrial flooring in her high-heeled boots
that came over her knees.

“Julia Roberts wants her boots back.” I shouted
at her.

Alise laughed throwing her head back and waved
backwards without looking and suddenly I was alone.

I sat on my bed and thought about the last week,
where had it gone? I felt the warm wind suddenly as the papers
beside my bed rustled. I looked around, “Mom?”

I couldn’t smell her and I couldn’t see her but
I knew she was there. I let the wind wrap around me for the moment
it was there feeling lost in it. “I didn’t forget about you mom,
it’s just been a rough week.” I whispered to the room.

The wind was gone as quickly as it had hit and
Blake was walking through the hallway coming toward me. His face
was a mask of shame, I hoped he would wear for a while.

“Hey.” He spoke softly as he poked his head in
and looked around for anyone else in the room. He came in without
asking and sat on the chair across the room from me.

“Where is Giselle?” He asked looking at her now
empty bed.

I frowned, “It’s not good. She had an allergic
reaction to the drugs.” His eyes grew wide as I explained the whole
situation with Giselle and her dad and mom. We talked like things
had never changed but they had and I saw him in a new light, one I
didn’t know how to feel about.

Chapter three - BEAUTIFUL
BOYS EVERYWHERE, OH AND A STALKER

My room hadn’t changed in a week but I felt like
a stranger in it, the walls were exactly the same but they felt
closer around me. The experiences I had been through in such a
short amount of time seemed to have shifted my mind, narrowed in
some aspects but broadened in others. Giselle was a new addition to
my life, instead of being besties with my sister she seemed to
prefer my company. This was weird for me, I didn’t even know how to
work the change into my day to day. Suddenly text messages were
coming every few minutes, it really was no wonder my sister was so
stupid, she had hundreds of friends texting her garbled English
twenty-four/seven. She didn’t have time to do anything but under
achieve.

I sat on my bed feeling more alone than I had
ever. I had always known I was a loner but I had always had Blake
through everything in my life and now I wasn’t entirely sure I
wanted Blake.

I decided to take a walk and go see my mom,
something about my bedroom was bothering me but I couldn’t put my
finger on it.

My dad was in the kitchen getting a glass of
water, he seemed to be humming. I stopped on the stairs listening
to him hum, I didn’t know the song but I knew this was the first
time I had heard my dad hum in eight months. I crept down the
stairs and snuck out the front door as quietly as I was able. I
wanted him to stay lost in whatever happy moment he was having. I
left him a note saying I went for a stroll on my bed.

My parents had been high school sweet hearts;
they had been band geeks together. My mom played the sax and my dad
the trumpet. My mom waited for my dad to ask her to the senior prom
but when he didn’t she went to his house and knocked on his door
and asked him. He said yes of course and admitted to being too shy
to ask her himself. They went to prom and never looked back.

They went to University together majoring in
opposite things, my mom Art History and Lit and my dad Sciences. My
dad did his PhD at Southampton University while my mom worked at
The National Gallery in London. We had been conceived in London at
our mom’s apartment while he was on winter break. Our mom and dad
moved home to Oregon when he finished school to the tiny town where
our dad worked in the city part of the time and worked with
research grants the rest of time here in town and our mom stayed
home with us until we were in first grade then she taught at the
local college two small towns over. We had never been the perfect
family but we were each other’s jumbled mess. My sister and I had
always been opposites, I was like both of our parents and Alise was
a hot mess. Our mom understood my sister’s wild nature as my moms’
sister had always been that way but our dad never understood and
had a hard time coping with my sister without my mom.

I looked around as I walked and realized I had
long past my mom’s spot. I felt confused, I had always been a deep
thinker but never so deep I would walk past my mom’s spot. I
assumed it had been the drugs. I was about to turn back when I saw
him, it was Wade. He walked along the side of the road and
disappeared into the thick woods. His tall immense body would have
been unmistakable in itself but also his dark blond hair and
stunning face. I couldn’t see his eyes but I remembered what they
looked like. My heart fluttered, I should be afraid of him but I
couldn’t make myself be afraid.

“Wade.” I called out.

He never came back.

“Wade, wait up. It’s me Aimee from the party the
other night. Wade.” I tried to run to where he had been but my side
hurt, right where my liver was located so I decided running would
take me a little longer to be able to attempt.

I walked into the dark woods pushing myself past
the initial thick and impassable brush as was common along the edge
of the forest where the light was the greatest. The brush scratched
me and pulled at my clothes and hair as I made my way into the
forest determined to see him again. When I got inside the forest I
looked around but saw nothing. I stood perfectly still feeling my
heartbeat intensify as several possible outcomes sped through my
mind.

-Wade might have been the pervert who drugged us
and got me naked though the lovely and relaxing internal
examination that a thank you god in heaven female doctor proved I
was still a virgin.

-Wade might not even have been there and the
poison was still wreaking havoc on my mind and now I was alone in
the dark forest hallucinating.

-Wade was trying to go for a nice walk when a
strange girl he didn’t know starting yelling and running, albeit
sadly, after him.