NOCTURNE » Nathan Prescott

» xv. kate

Opening the door I was greeted by a very bright room, there were a lot of balloons next to her bed and a bunch of cards on the desk. Kate was sitting in a chair at the back of the room, drawing something.
When walking past the desk I took a closer look at the cards -- there was one from Victoria and one from almost everybody at school.

"Hey Kate," I said quietly and she gave me a smile. She looked tired but a lot better than just a day ago.
"Maddie!" Without saying anything else she got up and wrapped her arms around me, and I couldn't help but smile as I returned the embrace. Holding the flowers towards her after we let go again I still smiled.

"The Gladiola symbolise strength and the Baby's-Breath means innocence," I explained as she put the flowers in some water and placed them next to the cards.

"Thank you." She gave me another smile and sat back down, pointing towards the other chair so I sat down as well.
"How are you?" -- "Better. I'm glad Max talked me down from there."

I nodded. "Me too." -- "And thank you for reaching out to me. On Monday. I remembered that and it cheered me up a bit back there, but it was all just kind of-"
She stopped and vaguely motioned towards the room.
"Like short-circuiting?" -- "Exactly."
I peered over at her sketches and was happy to see that she was back to her color- and cheerful drawings.
"How do you know what that feels like? On Monday you also said you know what it feels like …"

Letting out a sigh as Kate gave me a curious look, I scratched the back of my head. "Even if for different reasons I got to that point once. Two years ago? I didn't just up and leave because of some dumb scholarship. But that's nothing you run around with and tell everyone." -- "And you got better?"

She still seemed to doubt those feelings would fully go away, which I understood. For the longest time I felt like things were never going to change.
"It took a while but yes. I'm sure you'll be just fine, Kate. And trust the doctors here, they know what they're doing."
Seemingly relaxing a bit, the girl smiled down at her drawing. "I'm glad to hear that."

For a while we talked about who had already visited her and the cards she had gotten and for how much longer she would be staying at the hospital. Her aura had changed almost completely; of course, there still was some darkness there, but she seemed so much more hopeful. It made even me feel more hopeful about everything. Then again, this entire day had been way too good so far anyway.

"Hey, by the way … I kind of wanna talk to Nathan when I get out of here," Kate then said and I tilted my head slightly. "I uh … I dont understand. I thought you think he dosed you?" -- "That's exactly what I want to talk about. Anyway I kind of forgot his room number and you know how the map in the boys dorm looks …"
I raised an eyebrow. "His room is number 111. But um … focus on yourself first, okay? Gosh this sounds mean, what I'm trying to say is that confronting him about it this early on might trigger a bunch of things. Negatively. Just take all the time you need to properly heal, yeah?"

Kate nodded and scribbled around in her sketch for a bit.

"You like Nathan, don't you?" she then asked. "Um … I guess I kinda do, why?" -- "I see the way you two look at each other. It says a lot."
With a shrug I felt the heat rise up to my face again like I was some stupid teenager in a romcom.

"Anyway, you might not think he'd be capable of bad things like that, but be careful around him. Please?" -- "You're right, I don't. But I will keep an eye out."

She smiled and the sudden blush had left my cheeks again. The thing was that I did actually believe Nathan was capable of dosing up someone's drink for whatever reason. If he was just having a bad or weird episode that would be enough.

There was a knock at the door and a nurse came in, asking me to leave since she had to talk to Kate about something.

"Kate?" -- "Yeah?" -- "It's up to you if you believe me or not, but I know that Nathan is sorry too. That this whole video situation ended up like this."

The nurse shot me an angry look and I hurried out of the room, and Kate waved at me, smiling lightly as I closed the door.

I stayed in the hallway for a little longer, just staring out of the window and thinking about everything we had talked about. The fact that Kate was alive and well was finally starting to sink in and it felt like somebody lifted a tiny bit of weight off my shoulders.

"Madeline?"

I looked up to find my psychiatrist, Dr. Gomez, standing in front of me.
"What are you doing here? Our next appointment isn't before next week," he spoke and I nodded.
"Yeah I know, I was just visiting a friend." -- "Kate Marsh?" he asked immediately at which I nodded again.
"I was just about to sit down and have a talk with her. Poor girl."

The nurse was still in the room so he sat down beside me and tilted his head to the side.
"And how are you doing? That must have brought a lot back." -- "Last night was awful, honestly. I barely slept. But earlier today a friend came over and we watched a movie and just talked."

The man smiled knowingly, getting up as the nurse came out of Kate's room and handed him some papers before jogging off.
"Well then, if there's no need for rescheduling, I will see you next week."