A Star in the Dark

Chapter 4 May 13 2:00 pm

The day seemed to fly after the incident that went down that morning. Steph's mum had dragged her out to the car (only after changing into shorts and a tshirt that featured a boy-band) to take the 30 minute drive to the hospital. When they got there and the staff saw her leg, which had almost tripled in size and weighed her down, they immediately took her to the ICU.

They said she would have to be there for a while, 3 days at most. 2 days alone for scans and an attempt to get the swelling down, and 1 for resting. So she'd get out on the 16th, which, coincidentally, was her best friends birthday. This made Stephanie slightly depressed to think she might miss the party; Erika had always thrown the best. With 3 tier cakes and enough soda to kill a person, Steph had always indulged herself, and even gotten extras because she always spent the night after the party.

Her day-dreaming stopped there because she felt a sharp pain in her ankle. Then on the inside of her elbow. She looked at her leg to see a needle coming out of her ankle. Then she looked at her arm to see an IV sticking out about a centimetre. She felt pretty sleepy, which she suspected was some sort of medicine they were transmitting into her system, so she let the drugs carry her away into a dreamy sort of state.
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8:38 PM
When Steph awoke and glanced at the clock, she had only slept away 6 and a half hours of the day. This slightly depressed her, she was hoping to sleep into the wee hours of the next day. She tried to sit up, but found it immensely difficult. Apparently they'd surgically worked on her ankle, because even though the swelling had gone down almost to a normal size, and she had some stitchings, it hurt really bad to try and sit up. She had some cards on her side table along with what looked like home-grown marigold flowers.

She picked up the smallest card first, which happened to be from her mum. At first she wondered why it wasn't the normal size of a card, but when she opened the envelope she realised why- it was the picture of an ultrasound. wondering who it had come from, she flipped it over. On the back it read " Steph, I'm so sorry that you have to be in the hospital, but I thought you might like some good news. You're going to be an aunt!!!! I know it's hard to believe, I couldn't believe it myself, but I thought I'd let you know. But because I'm running out of room you'll have to call so we can..." the rest of the writing was illegible, so she put the picture back down.

There was only one other card, and it came in a yellow hallmark envelope. She slowly sliced the yellow paper with her fingernail and took the card out. She wanted to know who brought it for her, but when she opened it up all she got were very loud voices singing a song. Not wanting to alarm anyone, she quickly closed the card. Carefully peeking into the card, not wanting anyone to hear it again, she read 2 names, Erika and Brandon. Her best friends had been here. And saw her looking like she'd been hit my a truck. She didn't like the thought so she shoved it away along with the obnoxious card.

Finally she picked up the flowers that were tied with a pastel light green ribbon. There was a note card on the ribbon that had writing on the front and back.

"Kat, I didn't want Erika to see me giving you these flowers with this heartfelt note, so I brought them in after I drove her home. I want you to know that care for you deeply, not like a brother, but I think I'm in love with you. Normally, I wouldn't admit it, especially on a card. But I was afraid to tell you. I told you while you were asleep but technically that didn't count. But I want you to know that I'll always be there for you-" she had to stop reading here and flip the card over "-no matter what happens. I hope you feel the same, and if not we'll work something out. After all, what are best friends for? --Brandon."

The note touched Stephanie, who had always liked Brandon, but she thought he liked Erika, or possibly even Pricilla, the queen bee and head cheer leader bitch of the school. Brandon was hot (at least Steph thought so, but what did she know?), and Pricilla was always after him, but he ignored her. Now that she knew how he felt, her heart fluttered. But she remembered what she'd promised herself long ago. She'd never, ever date Brandon because it might tear her and Erika apart, and she just couldn't loose her best friend.