Help On the Line (ON HOLD UNTIL SEPTEMBER)

CHAPTER FIVE- Mindy, Jared, and Valentine's Day (Shae)

A/N- there are some mature content, this is a pretty serious book, it's not just some typical wattpad-written romance. There are some mature subplots and the whole plot is for teens and is about real world problems, not just some unrealistic boy-likes-girl romance. so be cautious if you feel uncomfortable. this message is for a couple future chapters as well.

Shaelynn.

   We walked into the room. It was quiet as usual, except for the constant beeping noise of the machine. The beeping which used to frustrate me when it first got attached to her, was now what I depend on daily. It meant she was still holding on- not better, but not worse, either.

   Jared squeezed my hand tightly. He smiled gently at me, gesturing that I should sit down in one of the plushy chairs next to the bed. I did.

   He removed the slightly wilted chrysanthemums and laid them down, replacing the bouquet with stargazer lilies. They were pink and beautiful- her favourite flower. It looked pretty good with the dark brown of the table, good with the whole room in general. It brightened the place up a bit. She would like it.

   Jared sat down next to me, silent and staring at my sister's face. Eyes shut, mouth closed, and her hair long from the months of lying here. Her hair was as gorgeous as ever, strands of blonde  turned into golden flecks by the sunlight through the window. Her face had no makeup, her hair had no conditioner. She didn't need any products to be beautiful, though, seeing as she was still pretty radiant for a comatose person. I touched her hand.

   "Hey, Mindy. It's me, Shae. Well, duh. Who else would it be? Your friends are too far away to visit you as much as I do, in university." I waited; maybe she was answering me. Maybe she'd wake up somehow and say something, anything. But she kept still and just continued breathing. "They miss you, though. Mom and Dad miss you a lot. I miss you a lot." I tried to smile and failed. I sighed. "We got you flowers, Mindy, Jared and I did. We took away the chrysanthemums the nurses gave you; they were really pretty, as you know, yet wilted. But instead, Jared picked out these flowers for you- and get this. They're your favourite! Pink, big, and lots of them. Stargazer lilies. They're cute, huh? They smell nice, too. You can have a sniff." I held out the bouquet near her petite nose for a moment. "Lovely, are they not?" I smiled for real this time. It was always a little rough starting a conversation with her, but after a while, I felt like she was really listening. "I'll just play some of your favourite music on while you and Jared talk." 

   I got up and turned my back on them, setting up my sister's dock for her iPhone. 

   "What's up, Mindy?" Jared waited for an answer. He nodded like she answered. I tapped on the Music app.

   "I hope you feel better today. The weather outside is nice today, even though it's February the fourteenth. Three thirty PM, to be exact." He paused. "Yeah, yeah, Valentine's day. There's not much snow, which is a shame. But maybe next year it'll snow a lot, and you can come snow boarding with me. Shae tells me you're really good." Jared smiled. I smiled too, dreaming of the day Mindy would wake up and maybe even play in the snow, like we did when we were little. I scrolled over her playlists, wondering which one she'd want to hear.

   "But hey, speaking of Valentine's day, Shae and I got you another present. Guess what it is?" Jared brandished a box  from his backpack. "Chocolate!" he sang gleefully. "They're dark chocolate. We know you don't like milk chocolate that much, but in case you changed your mind, we got milk chocolate, too. Wanna smell them?" He opened the box and picked up a piece. Jared let her inhale the aroma. "Nice, right? We'll put them on the table next to your flowers."

  "Min, what playlist do you want? We got 'cray cray', 'pina colodas', 'all-time favs', and 'sleepy'," I read. Jared chuckled. 

   "Cool playlist names, Miss Clear. The older Clear," he classified.