I hated watching the paramedics take her away. She had a mask on her face, but she was a hero, in all the wrong ways. I walked into the hospital with Kayla the morning after the insident. "Where's Carleigh Courtney?" asked Kayla.
"7th floor, first room to your left" answered the lady at the front desk. We made our way to the elevator when Kayla stopped. "Umm" she hesitated.
"What?" I asked.
"I'm afraid of elevators." She confessed.
"Great timing, Kayla. Ugh, fine, we'll take the stairs"
We stormed up the stairs to the 7th floor and walked into Carleigh's room where she was lying in her bed. She looked terrible, the top of her head was wrapped, you could see the dried blood in her hair. There were cuts all over her body where the shards of glass got pulled out by the paramedics.
"Is she okay?" a worried voice asked.
"Look at her, she's barely holding on!" Kayla whispered, not trying to wake Carleigh. Peydon's face turned pale white, his blue eyes contained the only color in his face. A nurse walked in behind Peydon and put her hand on his shoulder, bringing him back to reality. "She's holding on for you" She stated. He turned around, "What?" he asked
"Before she fell asleep, she took my hand and said, 'Do you know Peydon? He might come with two of my best friends, he's amazing. I want to see him one last time.' I remember seeing a tear of hope trickle down her face, but she was too weak to whipe it off her face. She's still struggling to stay alive. Honestly, I don't think that she's going to make it."
Peydon's eyes got wet but he didn't break down or let a single tear loose. Carleigh started to flutter her eyes, Peydon was telling Kayla everything that he could remember from his point of view. Carleigh woke up, she looked weak, but okay. "She heard him" the nurse said smiling "She reconized his voice."
Peydon ran over beside the bed and looked at Carleigh. If this happened outside of the hospitol, her face would be bright red. But instead, she was paler than usual, no makeup, and she had two black eyes that I didn't reconize until then. "Can I have a minute with her? Alone?" Peydon asked. Kayla, the nurse and I smiled. "Okay, you two have fun. Oh, and Carleigh, don't forget to take your pills, they're right beside you by the water."
"Okay," Carleigh said slowly and quietly, her voice was strained. She pulled down her covers to cool down and you could see the casts down her legs. The monitor beside her kept beeping, but barely enough for her to survive.
The nurse took us out of Carleigh's room and took us to a corner,
"I know you girls want to see what's going on in there. After all, it could be the last time you hear her speak,"
"Don't you have security cameras?" I asked
"Yeah, right in this room, let's go."
We walked into a dark room, but lit up by many screens. The nurse put in a code and then you could see a clear picture of Peydon and Carleigh. "Let's turn up the volume" the nurse encouraged.
Peydon was still standing beside her bed, everything was silent until Peydon spoke:
"Thanks, for what you did yesterday."
Carleigh smiled, the monitor started beating faster. "But please, don't scare everyone like that!" he chuckled. Carleigh looked over at the pills on the table next to her. She reached a shaky hand towards the pills and her water cup. "Here, let me help you" Peydon smiled as he held the cup and the handful of pills.
"It would help if you were sitting up, wouldn't it?" He smiled as he gently supported her back and stomach to be propped up straight and he held her there, she wasn't strong enough to hold herself up. She was breathing so raspy it seemed so hard for her to breathe. She took the pills and Peydon gingerly layed her back down.
"You didn't have to hold on for me" Peydon said.
"Yes,, I.. did" Carleigh argued softly.
"You don't have to live like this, if it wasn't for me, you could've been in a better place, or still at Sarah's." Peydon said. Carleigh started crying, it was the worst i've ever seen her.
"What's wrong?" Peydon asked
"You never loved me, did you?"
"...You're my friend. I love you as a friend."
"Oh, because I was going to say"
"What?" Peydon asked frantically looking over at her monitor, it was getting slower and slower by the second, her heart was giving up on her.
"I...love you.. Peydon. So much" her voice trailed off and she started to close her eyes before getting one last look of him, "Hold me, please, just until I..." Peydon quickly held her, whispering something soft into her ear. Then, the monitor stopped, "No," Peydon pleaded "wait, please don't leave! Stay with me, stay with your friends!" But she wasn't coming back. She was gone.
I angerly ran out of the security camera room and into Carleigh's room. I hugged Carleigh one last time, so did Kayla. "I know this is the last time I'll ever see her," Kayla whiped one of the many tears on her face. Peydon stood motionless, still holding her, but not like he was before. He had one hand holding her head and his other hand rubbing her hand. Peydon looked at the nurse in question, "Why did the monitor come back on? I thought that she was gone,"
"She is," the nurse said sadly, "But your heart is beating through her hand, it's your heartbeat you're seeing on the monitor."
"It's done, it's all over" I sighed.
"She's in a better place," Peydon said,
"A perfect place" Kayla added.
"Do you think she'll meet a guy up there before I get there?" I asked smiling,
"I bet she'll MEET somone, but I think the only guy she'll want to be seeing is you, Peydon." Kayla answered, pointing at Peydon.
"You think that she would wait for me?" Peydon asked.
"She has a good souls, good souls will wait, she waited to finally talk to you, right?" I answered.
"And her final wish came true" Kayla added
"And, she's watching us, all of us" I smiled as we walked down the hospital hallway, sharing memories of Carleigh from the past.
