I'll Be There (Ethan Karpathy)

Chapter 11

Ethan's POV

What is Claudia doing here?

"Hi, I'm Zoe's friend and I must speak to her now. Privately. It's extremely urgent." Claudia says sweetly.

The nurses looked unconvinced.

"5 minutes. Please." she says again, this time a little impatient.

The nurses sigh and walk outside, starting up a conversation between themselves.

I look at Claudia again. Her eyes have suddenly gone cold.

She glares at me.

"If that's your way of asking me to get out, I'm not going to." I tell her.

"Get out."

"No."

"Fine stay. But don't you dare say a word." she hisses at me.

"Hey Zoe, what does it feel like to know that you could die anytime? You could die right now, in an hour, in a week. You don't even know." Claudia smiles cruelly.

I see Zoe wince.

"Shut up Claudia. What do you want?" I say.

"What did I tell you before? DO NOT SAY A WORD. But good question, Ethan. What do I want? I want her to know what I have been through these last few weeks. Loneliness. Pain."

"Back off Claudia."

"Back off Ethan." she says, mimicking my voice.

"You know what, Claudia, you need to stop right now."

"Oh, and what is going to stop me?"

She then turned to face Zoe.

"Zoe, you asked for it so let me tell you. Guess what?"

"What?" Zoe says.

"You deserve to die. After all this time, something has actually happened to you that you deserve."

"You know what, Claudia, you need to shut up right now." I but in.

"Oh you shut up Ethan."

"You've had all you wanted for the past fourteen years of your life. You need a change. You need to learn that life doesn't give you everything." Zoe suddenly said.

I watched as Claudia slowly turned to face Zoe once again. Her nostrils flaring, her eyes flashing and closing into slits, her mouth quivering and drooling, slurring words that were unintelligible came spewing into space like a volcano releasing its pent up emotions into the darkness.

"DON'T YOU EVER DARE TALK TO ME LIKE THAT AGAIN. I DESERVE EVERYTHING I HAVE."

Claudia stomped to stand right beside Zoe.

"Well, Zoe, before I leave, let's finish what we started, shall we not? You really do deserve to die. I hope it's soon, by the way. No more suffering in this world right? And once you're gone, no one will remember you. Ever again. A forgotten piece of garbage no one wants to hear about. Well I guess you're friends will grieve for a while. Wait. You have no friends haha! Tell my grandfather that I said hi and that I love him okay? Thank you Zoe, I know I can count on you." Claudia said and blew me a kiss.

She walked straight out of the door without a glance backward.

"Zoe are you alright?" I ask.

No reply.

"I am so sorry," I say.

But she just sits there, lacking her usual bounce. Her eyes look sunken, pale and weary, lost in her thoughts.