I Fell For You At The Cemetery

08.

08

When Sarah opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Chelsea's tear stained face and before she could say anything, she felt Chel's hand connect with her right cheek, hard.

She winched at the stinging sensation after the slap and closed her eyes, waiting for Chel's outburst.

It didn't come. Instead, she felt Chel's arms go around her shoulders. "You idiot," she muttered into Sarah's hair, sobbing. "You idiot."

Sarah opened her eyes and wrapped her arms around her too as she started tearing up. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry, Chel."

And she was. She was sorry for worrying her. She felt guilty for putting her through all this. She heard her sigh but her shoulders were still shaking. That's how much she'd scared her best friend.

"I-I thought t-that you were gone," Chel said shakily, her voice thick. "When I saw you lying there like...like that, I thought that...that that was it. You were gone."

Sarah pulled away a little from the embrace and looked into her watery blue eyes. "I'm not leaving you, Chel. Not anytime soon," she said, smiling apologetically. There were tears in her eyes as well. "I'm sorry."

"As you should be!"

Sarah blinked and looked at the other person present in the room. She looked back at Chel. "You called Mammy?"

She shrugged. "What was I supposed to do? I panicked."

"Seriously?"

Sarah wasn't in the mood for any lectures, no matter how much she deserved them at the moment. She was still tired and her head hurt a little so she just wanted to lie down for a while and do nothing. But with Mammy around, that wasn't possible anymore.

The old lady was glaring at her, her glasses perched delicately on the nose. She was sitting on the sofa with her hands folded on her lap and as much as Sarah hated fuss, she still wouldn't mind if Mammy looked at least a little concerned instead of angry.

"I don't think I need to mention just how much of a shock you gave us. Honestly, Sarah, you're a grown woman and you need to take better care of yourself."

Sarah resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I just fainted, okay?"

"And that was because of your lack of sleep, too much stress and the fact that you haven't been eating well."

Sarah was surprised that Mammy knew all that. It was only Chel who picked all that up since she lived with her but Chel had probably briefed Mammy up when she was unconscious.

"Getting back on track isn't easy, especially after a loss," Mammy said, her eyes downcast and her voice a bit unnaturally high. "But you need to first promise yourself to try and get better."

She looked up and her eyes locked with Sarah's. "Okay?"

Sarah was used to seeing Mammy's steely grey eyes but at the moment, there were clouded with pain and Sarah once again, realized that she wasn't alone in this. If anything, it was even more harder for Mammy.

Sarah nodded and blinked, shame and guilt washing over her again. "Okay." She resisted the urge to apologize again.

Half an hour later, Chel had filled Sarah in on what had happened. She had woken up in the middle of the night to check on Sarah, like she sometimes did, and had found her bed empty. She had tried calling her cell but found that Sarah had left it at home. When she still hadn't come back after an hour, Chel got worried and went to the one place where'd she'd possibly find her. The Cemetery.

And she had found her, lying face down on the ground in front of Steve's grave.

"I'll kill you myself if you ever scare me like that agin," she warned Sarah now.

After finding that she was still alive but very cold, she had called Mammy in a fit of tears.

"You couldn't just call the ambulance like a normal person?" Sarah shook her head at her. She received a slap on her head for that.

"I was worried. I wasn't thinking straight."

"When are you ever thinking straight, Chel?"

"Says the person who decided to go faint outside in the snow."

"That makes no sense. Why would I even decide to faint? It just happened. I can't control that."

"Anyway," Mammy interjected, clearing her throat. "I got the call from Chelsea and drove over there. We then dragged you to the car and brought you home. You woke up after a few minutes and I had to call the school to tell them you'll be absent today and possibly the next few days as well."

Sarah frowned. "Next few days? But I'm okay now. I don't need to be absent."

Mammy sighed, taking her glasses off. Sarah noticed how she looked more tired and older with them off. It wasn't that noticeable with her glasses on.

"Just take a break," she said. "To relax and...stuff. You don't have to do those tuition classes either, if that's too much for you."

Sarah's eyes widened slightly. Wow, Mammy was actually going easy on her. She never thought she'd live to see the day but instead, she shook her head and smirked. "How are tuition classes too much for me? I can handle a bunch of idiots. What's really going on here is that you don't want to pay me extra for those classes, right?"

Chel nudged her shoulder, joining in on the fun. "Mammy's such a miser."

The old woman's eyes cleared a little and Sarah saw them twinkle as she smiled at them. "Very well, then," she said, after a while. "You can still do the tuition classes but I will insist on you taking a few days off and just taking things slow."

"Fine, fine." Sarah waved her hand at her.

Sarah was used to Mammy's tough exterior. There were times, like today, where she would reveal her soft nature behind that stern facade but Sarah didn't want her to start treating her as if she were a delicate object that might possibly explode. She wanted Mammy to be Mammy. She wanted things to go back to the way they were.

That night, they had sushi and Sarah and Chelsea got into a pillow fight. Sarah fell asleep early and woke up in the afternoon the next day, feeling peaceful. She was ready to start working again and she decided to go to school from tomorrow. She was determined to try and get her life back together.

That night just as she was getting ready for bed, she got a text message. It was Joey.

Are you okay?

She pondered on the question, lying down on her bed and pulling up the covers to her chin. This time, she sent him a reply before going to sleep.

I'm still breathing so I guess, yeah.