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An electric shock strikes my head, slowly bringing me back to consciousness. Sounds and murmuring fill my head as it aches more, a ringing sounding in my ears. My body shivers with the cold, and I shift my position. Where am I? I try opening my eyes, but they’re heavy. I move my hands, and feel a rough, papery surface under me. I squeeze my eyes, then immediately pop them open. I stare at a white ceiling, small squares of LED lighting dotted around. The bright light almost blinds me, causing me to squint. I push myself up to a sitting position, my legs dangling off the surface, less than a foot away from the ground.
I look around, finding a couple of boxes and cupboards stacked on shelves and hung on walls. A small table and chair are in the corner of the room, both white to match the rest of the room. A laptop sits on the table, half open. I look around and find I’m sitting on a bed covered by a thin paper sheet. Fora second, I don’t know where the hell I am. That’s until I see the first aid kit and stethoscope on the table. I’m at a doctor’s room? Or a clinic? Nurse? I don’t know.
A woman then enters the room, wearing a blue uniform and name tag with the nameStassiewritten on it. It confirms my last prediction: I’m in the nurse’s office. But why am I here? Where exactly am I anyway? What happened? My mind is completely blank. The nurse notices me, turns around and grabs some tools from the table.
“You’re awake,” she exclaims, approaching me and taking my arm almost immediately. She wraps something around it and starts checking other things. All these readings show up on devices, sending another ache in my head.
“Where am I? What happened?” I ask, and the words come out in a weak, tired tone.
“The nurse’s office at the school. You fainted, and your friend brought you here,” she explains. I’m in school. Wait, what? Fainted? I close my eyes, trying to get some kind of recollection of what happened. What is the last thing I remember? I search my mind until I recall the fight. The fight, the blood. Just before I got dizzy, and everything turned black. Shit. I thought I’d sorted that out. And someone brought me here. A friend. Elias. Elias was with me. He brought me here.
She finishes using all the devices and gathers them, placing them back on the table. I raise my arm to hold my head, which is still aching. “Which reminds me, three people who claim to be your friends, or know you, are outside waiting for you to wake up. You cannot leave the office for another hour due to school guidelines, so do you want me to let them in now, or do you need some more time?” she asks. What? I have to stay here for an hour? A full hour. They’re joking. I sigh, dropping my head.
“Let them in, I’m fine,” I tell her. She nods, grabs a bottle of water from the counter and hands it to me. I take it from her,and she leaves the room. I open the bottle, which I struggle with due to still being weak, and take a sip. I put it on the small table next to me, searching around for my phone. Or my bag. Or any of my belongings. I find them all in the corner of the room, behind the door, piled up together. I try to go and get them, but a sense of fatigue hits me and I give up on trying to get up.
I fainted. I thought I was fine with that. I’ve been trying to get over this since forever, and I thought I could control it. But no, I guess this is just a wakeup call to listen to my mom. She told me to be careful because it might still happen, but my dumb self decided not to listen to her. I should’ve learned my lesson by now; Mom is always right.
Suddenly, the door opens again and Lorenzo runs inside. His eyes are wide when he sees me. “Vi. Are you okay?” he asks. He comes close and sits down in the chair in front of me.
“I’m fine, just a small headache. You didn’t all have to wait,” I assure him, and relief fills his face.
“Elias told me what happened. Are you sure you’re okay?” he clarifies, asking again. Hemophobia; fear of blood. Lorenzo knows about it, even though I told him I had it under control. This is last time I decide not to listen to my mom. He’s acting the same as her, telling me to be careful. But I insist I’m fine.
“I’m okay. It was an in-the-moment thing,” I tell him. He smiles at me, and I notice him exhale a big breath.
“Elias and Aurora are confused, so I’ll let you explain it to them.”
Elias and Aurora. Elias. He was with me. He saw me. He was the one who brought me here. My mind can’t wrap around the fact. Elias was with me then. Why do I keep breaking in some way in front of him?
“I will. What time is it? Why aren’t you in class?” I ask, realizing I have no idea how long it’s been. It had been the end of lunch break, and we were heading to the library. Theneverything happened, and now I don’t know what time it is nor what period we’re in.
“It's the fifth period. Halfway through. You’ve been unconscious for a little under an hour and a half. There’s still half of period five left, and then period six, so an hour and a half of school left. As for class, we are all skipping. Aurora and I left class after we heard, and Elias has been here ever since you fainted,” he tells me.
Elias been here since I fainted? But why didn’t he go to class after the nurse came? He could’ve done a million things in the time I’ve been here, and it’s not like I was stranded in the middle of nowhere.
“Go back to class. I’m fine, I’ll make sure to text you when they let me out,” I tell him. He rolls his eyes, standing up.
“Call me if anything happens. I’m fine with leaving class again. If you need physical or emotional support, I’m here,” he offers. I smile back to him, and he leaves the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts for the span of one minute.
That’s before Aurora runs in, calling my name as she hugs me. “Are you okay? What happened? Elias wasn’t really clear out what happened. Did you get hit? Are you feeling better?” She shoots questions at me like they’re nothing, sitting down on the chair Lorenzo was just sitting on. Elias enters, standing next to the door. I get a quick glance at him before turning back to Aurora, and our eyes meet for just a second. They look tired. His whole face looks stressed. Is this because of me? Has he been stressed because of me? I tuck away the thought, shifting to answer Aurora’s dump of questions.
“I’m okay. I didn’t get hit or anything and I feel better,” I reassure her.
“What happened?” she asks again. I take a deep breath, and notice Elias is waiting for an answer just as much as she is, his entire attention turned to me.
“I have hemophobia. Fear of blood. In certain cases, it makes me dizzy and go into some type of panic. If no one is there to stop me or block my sight, I eventually faint. There was blood splattered on the lockers from the fight, and it caused a reaction. I’m fine now, though, you don’t need to worry,” I tell them. Aurora sits straight, and Elias fixes his posture.
“How come you didn’t tell us?” she asks, concerned.
“I don’t talk about it much. But as I said, it’s okay. I’m okay now, don’t stress yourself because of it,” I say, giving her a reassuring smile. She returns it, then stands up.
“I’m glad you’re okay. I need to go to class, though. I’ve skipped enough already. I hope you get better,” she says before rushing out of the room.
Elias waits until she’s completely out of the room before he even moves. He runs his hand through his light brown hair, then looks back at me. I see the spark of worry in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I should’ve noticed it had something to do with the blood,” he apologizes, walking closer. I draw my arms closer to me as he approaches.
“You don’t need to apologize. You didn’t know what to do,” I tell him. He sits down next to me on the bed and takes one of my hands.
“Are you sure you’re okay? Do you need anything?” he asks. At first it feels unreal, that for the first time, Elias isn’t his usual, bright self. He’s being serious, a sense of urgency in his voice. He’s actually worried.
