The Truths Behind the Life of Maeve Sun Lively

104

WHILE I HAD BEEN STANDING in front of the scene of the car crash and trying to comprehend what was happening was really happening, Klarise and Cameron had already been placed in ambulances and headed up for the closest hospital.

Despite everything, even if the cop did say he didn't care who I was, he did care about money. I happened to have my checks with me, and I wrote him enough for as bail. Or bribe.

Untangling myself out of the back of the police car, I tried to stabilize my shaking. My mind felt as if struck by a baseball bat, my eyes having stopped leaking tears as I just went through the motions numbly and trying to contain the emotions that were fighting to spill out.

"Are you guys going to the same hospital?" I walked slowly up to the ambulance where the nurses and helpers were cleaning up what they had and packing things up. They looked from one another.

One of them nodded in response, their eyes telling me enough of how I must've looked.

"Please," I begged, my lips trembling. "I need to get there."

It took half a minute when finally one of them waved me into the back of the ambulance. I thanked them deeply with all my gratitude.

There were small blocks of clear windows as I sat in the back, where I watched the crowds of people, some still recording, others just watching and whispering. The workers had assured me that the information for who was in the accident has remained confidential, but by now, people seeing me here, they might have already made their guesses.

I finally let my tears run in the ambulance at the thought of everything. It was too much, and my body, physically and mentally, couldn't keep everything trapped tightly.

"It's going to be okay," the nurse next to me said, stroking my back as I let my face fall into my hands. For the first time since I got on here, I realized she had been here next to me the entire time. How shocked was I to not have known until she said something?

I sniffed, still sobbing, and the rest of the way there this nurse kindly helped me. I think after all, some people were still decent.

"I...I..." I couldn't form my words.

"Shh, shh, breathe with me." She inhaled, and lifting my face up from my hands, I slowly followed her. My shaking lightened as the seconds passed, and soon, before I knew it, I could control my ever running tears.

"T-Thanks."

She smiled. "Don't thank me. No one should have to be in this situation." She continued to stroke my back as I drank the bottle of water she handed me. I found it comforting to have her do that while I tried to stable myself.

When I glanced up at her to get a better look at who has helped me instead of mocking me like the crowd back there in the scene had, I found a woman about ten years younger than me, warmly smiling at me with her light brown hair tied in a low ponytail, faint freckles dipped across her nose and upper face. As if seeing me and knowing what I was thinking, she nodded.

"I'm Nurse Anna. Just call me Anna."

I nodded, wiping away the remnants of tears with the back of my hand. "Maeve. And just Maeve please."

She nodded too, smiling. I found myself calming down almost completely with each of her gentleness, where the slightest reassured grin slowly came onto my face.

When we arrived, Anna seemed to abandon all her orders and what she was supposed to do in order to lead me to where Klarise and Cameron were. I was so overwhelmed with gratefulness that I couldn't get them into words, only letting her hold my hand while we ran around the huge labyrinth hospital.