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NOTE::: this book is not a true story!!!! This is based upon things that could be, not what is. The opinions of the characters in the story do no reflect the opinions of the characters based upon!!!!!!!!! The story does not mimic nor reflect the characters based upon. This story does not reflect the author's opinion either, except what I say about lindsay..heheh. In other words, IT'S PURELY FICTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Rebekah?" Ariane called to me.
I spun around, nearly slipping on the clean hospital floor. I opened my arms wide, and a smile magically appeared on my face. It felt good to smile; I hadn't done it since I was admitted.
She and all my other visitors ran to me, and I enclosed every one of them with my arms.
"I haven't see you in so long! You look a lot better than you did. Too bad you still have to wear that funky outfit. 'Property of TCP Institution for the Mentally Insane.' That's a nice label," Ariane said sarcastically.
She hugged me so hard that I couldn't breathe. I searched for something to say, but the words got choked up and all I could do was smile.
I notioned everyone to follow me to my chamber. It felt great to see my friends again, but I sensed the fear in them. The fear that I might hurt them or something. I began to feel scared and alone.
My friends sat down scattered throughout the room. Nobody said anything for a while until Breanne dared to break the silence. I had always admired her for her courage.
"We brought the time capsule we put together ten years ago.
I thought it might be fun to read over how much of freshman dorks we were," she laughed nervously. We all knew that the secrets lurking in our past were going to be re-exposed as soon as the lid came off the box. We all took a deep breath as Bre removed the lid.
"The articles," Maliha said silently.
Bre pulled out the folder and searched for an article that was "worthy" enough to be read. "This one's on teen drinking. According to this poll, someone dies every thirty minutes due to alcohol. That's a sad statistic. And that was when the legal drinking age was 21. After all the problems and accidents that occurred, why would the government lower it?"
"Bre, I remember when we were fourteen and we always turned to alcohol to solve our problems. Every teenager in America had to have tried it at least sometime when they were in high school. Technically, we're a statistic too. Why do you see alcohol as such a terrible thing? Is there really a difference between an eighteen year old and a twenty-one year old?" Lynn protested.
"I personally think there is, I mean, if alcohol is such a dangerous thing, why do people continue to abuse it? If people who are over 21 can't handle the responsibility, why should people between 18 and 21 be given the chance too? Aren't there enough problems in the world as it is?" Bre argued.
"How about we move on to the next article. Reb's starting to look a little pale. We all know how hazardous it is to Reb when she gets like this," Ariane yelled over Bre and Lynn.
I rubbed the back of my neck and the pain eased.
Bre pulled out the next article on teen pregnancy and adoption. "Maybe we shouldn't read this on either."
"No. If you get to choose an article that criticizes mostly me, I get to choose an article that criticizes you," Lynn said to Bre.
"How does hat criticize me? So what if I gave up my baby? There's nothing wrong with it. I admitted that I couldn't handle the responsibility of a baby by myself, so I did the only thing that I saw right," Bre raised her voice.
"Guys, you're best friends, please stop fighting," I said quietly, but they didn't seem to hear me.
"What you should've done was use a condom in the first place and none of this would have happened. DUH!" Lynn said with a smirk.
"I'm sorry I disappoint you Lynn, okay? But what happened happened and it's over with. I don't wish that I could change what happened. I'm proud of myself and that's all that really matters. Period," Bre fought back.
"Guys, please. Just stop," I said louder. The tingling sensation began to creep slowly up the back of my neck.
Lynn caught my plead and stopped. The room was dead silent.
Bre dug through the box. She pulled out videos, surveys, stickers, and pictures. Kim picked up the photo album.
"Here's us at eighth grade graduation. I'm like, all over Dom. What did I ever see in him? After what he put me through? No offense or anything Lynn. I know I haven't said this before, but I'm truly sorry for hurting you back then," Kim reached out to give Lynn a hug.
Lynn was taken back by surprise; we all were.
"Hurt me? You only hurt yourself. Domie would never go for you. That's why we're engaged."
"You guys are engaged? Congratulations!" i hugged Lynn and she threw a nasty look at Kim.
Kim pretended not to see the look and turned the page. "Here's us at Mountainside in seventh grade. Jaime lost a lot of weight after that...." Kim trailed off as she realized the difficult subject she just sheaded light on.
The room fell silent at the mention of the word "Jaime." Everyone glared at Kim.
"Look, this was bound to come up anyway, so let's just get it over with," I said. The pain had reached my head and my eyes got watery.
"We're sorry for what happened, and we miss her a lot, but let's just forget about it," Maliha suggested.
"Forget about it? Jaime was my best friend," Marissa said. "It wasn't fair that she had to die so young. It shouldn't have happened!"
"Guys, Reb has way too much stress on her. She needs to get out of this crack house. No pun intended, but it isn't her fault for Jaime's death!" Ari defended me.
"What exactly happened to Jaime anyway? I know that she was murdered, but by who? Is that why you're in here Reb?" Bre asked.
I sighed. I wanted to make a beeline for the door. I wished that this was all just a horrible dream that I would wake up from, but it wasn't, and I forced myself to stay.
"My Mom was about to commit suicide when Jaime walked into our house. My Mom panicked that she would call 911 or something, so she shot her. OUT OF PANIC!! My Mom realized what she had done, and shot herself. Blame it on me for Jaime's death like everyone else has apparently. I don't care. I couldn't handle the stress of losing two people I loved, so I drove myself crazy. The stress is the cause of my disease too," I explained. The room became blurry, so I decided to lay down.
"Guys, look at her. I know that it's exciting to remember the past, but we all had horrible pasts. We should take it easy for Reb's sake," Lynn warned. She came over to me and asked if I was okay.
"Sheila?" she asked with a chuckle.
I was in too much pain, so I just smiled.
Kim put down the pictures and pulled out a small notebook.
"Hey Reb, it's your old diary! Can I look through it?" she asked.
I held up my finger signaling the okay.
"This is when Reb was fixated on Ryan. Every other word is Ryan. Think you were a little obsessed?" Kim laughed.
I forced myself to speak relentless of the pain.
"NO ONE understood what I felt, and no one will. Don't even go there," I strained my voice to speak.
"Well, that competition between you and Lindsay never faded. She dated like 3 other guys you liked after Ryan, including Scott for the week they went out. Then, after they all dumped her, Ms. Frog ends up marrying Ryan. Talk about skank-girl," Maliha gossiped.
I sat up slowly with Lynn's help and turned myself to Maliha. "She WHAT?!!"
"They got married about 2 ears ago. That didn't last long though," babbled Maliha.
"Did they divorce?" i asked out of curiosity. I found myself liking Ryan again.
"No, it's tragic really. I don't remember it exactly, but I do remember that he was involved in some sort of hit and run accident about a year and a half ago. Lindsay got over it pretty fast. She married Joe about 3 moths ago," Maliha said.
"O my God," I said softly. The room began to spin and the walls were caving in.
"Reb? Are you okay?" Marissa worried.
I shook my head yes although I wasn't. My head began to feel numb. I knew I should get a doctor, but I didn't want my friends to leave.
"Geez, everybody dies so young. It's so horrible," Bre commented.
"Why do you guys see death as such a horrible thing? Isn't ti better than having to suffer?" I whispered from my bed.
"Well, Rebekah, you're like, used to death. I mean, if my mother, best friend, and now ex-lover died, I'd get used to death too," Kim replied.
Ariane could feel the tension rising in the room. Her palms got sweaty. She knew that all this stress wasn't good for me. She decided to get a cup of water from the machine down the hall.
"Do you think that death is easier for me Kim? Having someone you love die the first time is a big shocker. But to have the deaths of other loved ones keep coming, it's mind racking. You NEVER get used to death Kim. Why do you think I'm in here? I'm supposed to be let out next week, so can we please tone down the stress level?" I tried to yell. The pain was overbearing, and I started to cry.
Ariane walked back into the room and dropped the water as soon as she saw me curled up in my bed in pain, crying. She ran over to me, jumping over my other friends along the way.
"Somebody get a doctor!" Ariane screamed.
Lynn ran out of the room. Her footsteps could be heard pounding on the floor as she called for a doctor. She stopped in the middle of the hallway, with her feet firmly planted to the ground and said, "If some lame-ass doctor doesn't get out here and help her right now, I'm gunna beat all of you down!"
Everyone in the room chuckled, but they didn't feel like it helped.
"Excuse me? This is the year 2009! You're telling me that this sort of medicine still hasn't been developed? I am not about to watch her die!" Kim screamed in Doctor Julius' face.
"There's no technology out there to cure this tumor. It's far too large for any type of surgery either," he said. "I'm sorry."
He shut the door to the room behind him, and all of my friends began to cry.
"See? You don't get used to death now do you?" I said in a whisper. I laid down on my bed, and felt my body escape from me.
"It's Reb's 'quote book,'" Bre sobbed. She slowly opened the book, caressing each word as she read some of the quotes aloud.
"It's like some people come through our lives, to bring us something, a gift, a blessing, a lesson we need to learn. And that's why they're here. Where there is great love, there are great miracles," she said, crying.
Lynn took the book, and searched for a quote to read.
"There's moments in your life that make you. That set the course of who you're gonna be. Sometimes they're little, subtle moments. Sometimes ... they're not," said Lynn quietly.
She passed the book to Marissa.
"I always knew that we'd look back on our tears and laugh, but I never thought that we'd look back on our laughter and cry. That's one for Jaime too."
"I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I'm with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you have made of me," Kim quoted. She sat there thinking about our freshman days at lunch, and smiled through the tears.
"Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget," she said. She blew her nose on a tissue, and started to think about the song we used to sing about "weasel boy".
Maliha passed the book on to Ariane. "Are you sure you want to read one?" Maliha asked her.
Ariane nodded, and found the quote she knew she would read.
"No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth," she said. "I want to stick that on her grave. You know, as an epitaph."
"You are her bestest friend," MArissa reminded her.
I looked in through the window. I saw the quote book lying open on the floor.
"Bottom line is, even if you see'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So, what are we helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are going to come can't help that. It's what you do after that counts. That's when you find out who you are," I said.
I stood there, watching my friends hold each other. Someone tapped me on the shoulder.
"Ready?" they said.
I spun around to see Jaime, my mom, and Ryan standing there.
I grabbed their hands and watched myself rise to the heavens
THE END!
lol to everyone who has a character in this story and to everyone who laughed when I laughed and cried when I laughed while I wrote this... it may suck, but that's what's sooo funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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