Hollywood's Golden Runaway

(1 4)

As it turns out, filming did happen the day after my phone call with Grandma and it wasn't until 3 days later that we got the day off. It's half-five and we just wrapped another scene. My neck cracked, I rush over to Ethan just as he put his best friend, Mr Megaphone, to his mouth.

"That's a wrap for today, people! Thank you for your hard work, call tomorrow is ten! See you all then!" He turns and smiles at me once he's finished his announcement but I don't even stop to say a word before I'm sprinting towards my trailer. I brush past Liam who tries to ask me what I'm doing. I haven't spent any time alone with him since the Finn incident and I can tell it's starting to annoy him. I do feel bad, and I've noticed his absence the past couple of days. Although we spend time together with the rest of our friends, not having our usual level of intimacy I've been used to for the past couple of weeks is starting to wear my own nerves thin. I hear his sigh clear as a bell in my ears, but I'm thrown into my seat in front of my mirror before I can give it a second thought.

Julia goes to remove my wig but a sudden thought has me grabbing her wrist, almost scaring the life out of her with the unexpected movement. She and Kate both regard me with quizzical stares as I scramble to think of an excuse.

"Er, I think Ethan mentioned something about running a couple of other scenes later on tonight and so there's probably no point taking it off just to put it on again right?" Surprisingly, despite my obvious fumbling of my words, they believe me and focus on removing my make up with focused diligence. I realise that I can't just waltz into the hospital as Isabella and demand to see some old lady, I need to be Salem again.

Thankfully, they do their job swiftly and shuffle out of the trailer with my thanks. I throw Selina's clothes onto my bed and throw on the nearest ensemble of clothes that I can find. An old t-shirt of Liam's and a pair of jeans. I open the door to my trailer ready to jump into my car but barrel headfirst into Liam whose fist is raised to knock.

"Hey, sorry, I'm in a hurry, can we talk when I get back?" He can see that he doesn't have a choice in the matter and I duck under his arms, walking backwards towards my car. Frustration is clear on his face and I give him an apologetic smile, "I promise I'll come straight to your trailer when I get back!" I affirm and slip into my car, surprised that he didn't even ask where I was going, especially in Selina's wig but I'm thankful. I'm tired of lying. He watches me all the way out of the lot.

The ride to the hospital only takes ten minutes and with the hood of my sweater pulled up closely around my face, I rush through the entrance and straight past the nurse at the reception. She tries to call me back, but knowing that I have an already extremely limited amount of time with her, I just rush into the elevator and hit the button marked "1 thru 20". Of course, her ward has to be at the end of the clinical hallways that buzz with the evening activity of the doctors and nurses. I pass a man who's making his way from room to room with a trolley of food. A pair of doctors quietly discuss in one corner and when I round the next one, I am greeted with the sign 'ward 19'. Room 2 awaits me to my right, the door ajar.

With a subconscious glance over my shoulder, I push the door open. I am still panting slightly from running, but the sight of my grandma lying on the bed in front of me stops my body completely. The door closes quietly behind me, the sound of it waking her from her doze. She looks awful. Her skin is sallow and her skin seems to be moulded to her bones. Her breaths seem pained and weak. While she sleeps, her heart rate monitor is the only indication that she is still alive. Tubes surround her body, hooking her up to all the machines and drips around her.

"Hello?" She mumbles as she rouses herself. Her blurry eyes catch sight of me standing in the shadowed corner of her room. "Who's there?" She hurries to push herself up, but pain is chiselled into her features, in each and every crease and wrinkle. I emerge from the shadows, tears already streaming down my face with abandon.