Messages on a Coffee Cup

Chapter 17

  I walked into Kim's house, careful not to make a noise in case my mother was home. School ended literally two minutes ago and mom would've killed me if she found out that I skipped class... again. I walked over to the kitchen in search of copious amounts of food and found a chocolate bar and a note placed on the island. The note said:

   Holland,

   I'll be coming home late tonight at around 11:00pm. A colleague of mine is having a bachelorette party. Sorry for ditching you! I need some time out after what happened with your father. Boys are stupid. Be good, love you lots! 

   Kisses,

   - Mom

   Sick, empty house until Derek comes home. An hour of peace and quiet, I thought to myself.

   Suddenly, I heard a bump coming from upstairs. I slowly backed up towards the cutlery drawer, pulled out a razor sharp vegetable knife, and clutched it in my right hand facing downward. As I made my way up the stairs, I heard another bump coming from Kim's room. I tiptoed to her bedroom door and placed my fingers on the handle, knife raised and everything. My grip around the knife tightened as I pushed the door handle down and swung the door open revealing two half naked teens, Kimberly and Cameron, making out on my air mattress both in their underwear.

   "What. The hell. Is this?"

   Both their heads whipped around as their eyes widened in fear and stared at me.

   "Get the fuck off my mattress," I said, vigorously waving the kitchen knife in the air.

   They remained silent and slowly got off of my mattress, gravitating towards Kim's bed. They stared at me as I raised my eyebrows in disgust.

   "Really Kim? Cameron? Are you really that desperate?"

   "Holland, could ya maybe put the knife down?"

   I looked down at my hand and realized that I was squeezing the knife by the blade. I dropped the knife and studied the grotesquely bleeding gash that was in the middle of my right palm. That's when I began to feel the pain, sharp and excruciating.

   "Shit!"

   My legs weakened, my vision blurred as I struggled to keep myself up. I couldn't seem to take my eyes off of the blood oozing from the three inch gash on my hand. 

   "Not again."

   "Holland! Oh God!" Kim exclaimed as she rushed to brace my fall.

   "She's gonna faint, isn't she?" Cameron asked, worried.   With the last bit of strength I had left, I attempted to answer Cam's stupidly obvious question, "Yes, yes I am."

   Those last words drained the energy from me and I let my limp body crash to the ground, allowing the darkness of fear induced sleep take me to the universe of unconscious dreams.

~

   My eyes fluttered open, hoping to see Ethan smiling down at me in the comfort of his apartment's movie room again. Let's just say, I hoped for too much. Instead, my eyes fell upon a distressed Kimberly running by my side in what looked like a hospital, yelling my name in efforts to wake me from my post unconscious daze. It seemed that they had put me in a wheelchair to transport me from the car to the emergency room. My hand still hurt like hell so I made an immense effort to keep my eyes looking anywhere but down. I looked around for Ethan; no where to be found.

   "Where's E?" I asked, still dazed and confused.

   "I called him while we were in the car, he should be here in like three minutes," Cameron responded.

   We finally made it to the emergency room where we met a nurse who told us to go straight in to care room two. Cameron wheeled me in and Kim attempted to help me transfer myself on to the hospital bed.

   "I'm cut, not crippled! I'm good," I said, shooing her off of me and sitting on the bed, hand raised in the air to slow down the bleeding. I heard a series of odd rhthymed footsteps and Ethan emerged in the door way.  

   "I'm here! I came as fast as I could," Ethan said as he limped in to our little cubicle.

   "Hey, what happened to you?"

   "I cut myself with a knife 'cause I thought there was a psychopathic murderer in my house," I answered matter-of-factly.  "What happened to you?"   

   "Uh, I ran here."  

   He ran. Great, now I felt like absolute crap.