Complicated People, Complicated Love

The Beeping

Maya

    "You like?" I ask showing Lucas his own hand. My drawing is just a few buildings with a dark sky and moon in the back.

     "I love," he says and smiles at me. I lay my head back down on his lap, holding his hand that's on my stomach. I try not to think of the glass resting in my leg. I can't feel the pain, but I can feel warmth ooze down my leg and onto the floor. Blood.

     I open my eyes and Lucas is looking at me worriedly. "It's fine," I say smiling at him reassuringly. He nods, but his face doesn't change, if anything he looks sad now too. His eyes shift back and forth from my eyes to my leg and his face just grows more and more restless.

     "We have to get out of here, it's been thirty minutes and we haven't heard anything. Maybe the shooters gone. And plus, it doesn't look like your bleeding is going to stop anytime soon," I feel him shift uneasily.

      "We can't go." I say. He looks at me mystified. "It's too dangerous."

     "And leaving you here to bleed out isn't!?" He practically yells. I'm taken aback at his quickly escalated anger. He sighs. "I'm sorry, I'm just scared," he says. I reach up and put my hand on his check. "You're so cold," he says quietly, touching my hand. I feel cold. I feel really bad actually. I'm tired and everything seems kind of numb.

     "The police are outside, they'll come in soon," I say, closing my eyes. I feel him place my hand back on my other one.

     "Stay awake okay?" He says. I can hardly hear him though. Maybe he's just talking really quietly. I force my eyes open. I'm not on the floor anymore. Lucas is holding me bridal style and he's arguing with one of the senior guys. I can't hear what's going on and my head won't stay upright. I try to speak but my mouth is too dry and I can't get more than a squeak out.

     Next time my eyes open I'm in the hallway. The world seems to be moving in slow motion. I can feel that Lucas is running but everything just feels slowed.

     The next thing I sense is my arms being pulled away from Lucas. I want to scream or cry for whoever it is to let me go. But then I feel Lucas's hand grab mine and it's ok. Whoever's holding me places my down on something soft and then I'm out cold.

     I hear beeping. A sort of rhythm to the beeping that makes me too curious to keep my eyes closed. I open them and I'm in a a small room. The beeping it coming from a monitor hooked up to my arm. A hospital I'm guessing.

     I see Lucas reading a magazine on a chair next to my bed. I look at him, just soaking in the view. It has to be at least two minutes before he sees me looking.

     "You're awake!" He exclaims and jumps up from the chair. He kisses my forehead and I smile. "Don't ever scare me like that again!" He says sternly, but it's hard to take him seriously because he's half laughing with what I'm guessing is relief.

     "I'll try," I say smiling. He kisses my forehead again. "How long have I been in here?" I ask seeing that it's dark out the window.

    "A bit over twelve hours. You were seriously messed up girl," he says. Wow. I look down at my leg and its bandaged, slightly stained red. "They say you can leave soon. Your mom is in the cafeteria, she'll be up any minute now." I nod. "And before you ask your dad isn't here," I smile, one less thing to worry about.

      "Did they catch the person with the gun?" His face falls a bit. "What?" I ask.

      "Well, they did catch him, it was Billy."

    "What!?" I know Billy's not the greatest guy, but a bringing a gun to school?!

     "And it's not just that. He shot himself, that was the gunshot we heard." I can't believe this. "He's dead," Just then, my mom walks in.

    "Honey!" She says. She drops her food on a table and runs over to hug me. I've missed her. And I might even miss Billy too.