Keep Me From Falling Apart [Niall Horan]

Chapter Seven

“Hey, Haley, I’m gonna take these things up to my new room,” I said holding up my duffel bag.

“Yeah, okay,” she said as I walked towards the elevator.

The doors open and a few nurses stepped out, but a few also stayed in.

I stepped in beside the heavy set one and kept my eyes on the floor.

“Which floor?” She asked pointing to the buttons.

“Uh.. 10,” I said, that being the first number to come to mind, though it wasn’t the one my room was supposed to be on.

She pressed the button and the doors closed.

The ride passed in silence, then the doors opened on floor 7. The girl stepped out and left me with the tired looking Doctor who hadn’t glanced at me once since I’d been in there.

She was going to floor 13.

I got off on 10.  

Once I got off, I checked the first clock I saw. 5:50am. I waited a few minutes and pressed the elevator button again. It opened and out stepped two nurses and two more stepped in with me. I calculated things in my head. Whitney said she was going to my house about 5:20am to get my things. Adam usually leaves for work at 5am, I told her that. My Mom usually didn’t get up till about 8am, but since she was supposed to be here at 8, she’d probably be up about 7:30am. Whitney was supposed to meet me at the ER entrance at exactly 6:00am. The drive to the airport was about a 10-15 minutes drive. 

I knew we would be pushing time horribly, but I had no choice. I just hoped Adam believed Whitney’s lie of needing some clothes I’d borrowed. Hopefully, in his morning state, he would. 

The nurses got off on floor 4 and I was about to press the floor button when another nurse stepped in.

“Which floor?” I asked.

“Eight,” she said and I pressed the button along with 5.

I got off at 5 and waited a few seconds before pressing the button on another elevator. 

It was 5:57am by the time I got on another elevator.

I was starting to have an anxiety attack. Everyone who stepped into an elevator with gave me a weird stare. Of course I was a mental patient, why wouldn’t I get weird stares? But I’m also barefooted, wearing gray sweat pants, a white T-shirt, and I’m carrying a duffel bag full of my escape items. I kept thinking someone was going to threaten to call security on me if I didn’t get back up to my room, but every time they just said what floor or asked which for me.

The last person stepped off the elevator at exactly 6:00am and I practically punched the floor button before anyone could get on with me. I prayed no one pressed the button while I was descending the 7 floors left. Miraculously, no one did. 

A soon as the doors opened, I sprinted out and started down the hallway. I slowed my pace after I got a few curious looks from Doctors, but I kept making my way towards the ER. I walked past a waiting room and glanced at the clock. 6:05am. I could feel my heart rate speeding up. I still had a while to go before I got to the ER, the hospital was pretty huge. I rounded a corner and jumped back before the security guy coming from the cafeteria saw me.

Thankfully, he was caught up in his coffee, so he didn’t notice me, so when he went around a corner, I continued. I kept my head down while I walked, making sure no security cameras caught my face. I finally saw the ER door and I couldn’t help but walk faster as I got closer to it.

I practically broke the door down walking through it. I looked at the clock behind the Nurses counter. 6:10am. I was almost out of the hospital, but I was still worried about catching my flight. I started across the waiting room, my duffel bag over my shoulder, my arms crossed to hide my bandage and hospital bracelet. All the nurses and patients were too traumatized to notice me as I made my way towards the door. But the security guard wasn’t.