Chapter 10 : Everybody Loves Muffins

Have you ever felt like you were slowly drifting out to another world other than the world we know as Earth? Well if you haven't I guess you don't understand how I feel right now. Everything had been a blur but as soon as the scent of latex gloves and antibacterial soap reached the tip of my nose I knew exactly where I was, the hospital.

I felt my heart sink as I realized where I was. My eyes were a TV, playing a memory on a big screen television, in great detail. I could see Dr.Reve's neck and David's hand with his veins pursing out from underneath his skin. I didn't want to think about that, why couldn't I forget about that. My eyes danced around the room and as I did that a pain pulsed through them and my entire face felt bigger than usual, what happened to me? 

Anger was a soldier that walked into a room, stiff, still, perfect, and most of all tense. "You're so immature! Where were you this past MONTH?!?!?! You think I don't know about what goes on in OUR house when I'm not there but BELIEVE me I do know, probably more than you, you don't know what the definition of a parent is, do you?" A familiar voice shouted, my vision was blurry and it took me a while to finally realize that my mom and , my dad were arguing. I couldn't believe my dad was here, he was almost always never around besides the holidays, my mom was also never around but she still stopped by to check on us every now and then. 

My parents argued alot and to be honest it was nothing new for me or my sister, it was quite a routine, at least it was back when they used to be around more. I lifted my body up slowly as I fought back the pain. I looked behind me and noticed the tea kettle and heated towels on the other side of me. Thank God I thought to myself, we were in the uptown hospital which meant there would be no sign of Dr.Reve. There was always such a great contrast between the hospital uptown and the hospital downtown, the hospital uptown had much better bedside manner and they honestly treated their patients like royalty.

Not too long after I had been sitting there with my hands around my legs feeling weak my mom came over to me. She Knelt down towards the hospital bed and covered her mouth as if it could somehow make me forget about what I had heard her and dad talking about. "Sweetie, I'm so glad you woke up...How are you feeling? Never mind don't answer that question, I forgot the doctor told me not to make you think about things right now...You were knocked out unconscious during gym class...You were hit with a  dodge ball...Those idiots" My mom said slowly and gently, which surprised me because I never expected that from her but then again my dad was even less affectionate than her and if I expected compassion from either of them it would be my mom, my dad was very distant with his emotions. 

There was a silence that lingered on in the room after my mom spoke to me but that was soon interrupted by the doctor that entered the room. "Okay! Everything looks okay, you just had a concussion, you may have some memory loss but I assure you that, that is okay" She said in a cheerful and warm way. My eyes focused on her, something was so familiar about this woman, the way she talked, her demeanor, everything, even her face.

She continued on talking about how I needed to take a pain killer for my pains and headaches for about a day or two. Through all her instructions and all the other medical advice she was giving me the only thing that stood out was when she said "And you MUST NOT do any activities that require critical thinking for a month and at least an extra 10 days, I like to play it safe...This means absolutely no homework, no test, and lots of fun!" she said chuckling but I guess she didn't realize that I was the odd one out of the bunch. I needed to keep my grades up and there was no way I was going to let a silly little concussion let me fall a month behind in my school work. 

The doctor left my room to go and get my clearance papers and medical notes I would need for school, when I went back. It was my time to protest the doctors instructions but I couldn't, my dad stood in front of the hospital curtains and said "Okay now that, that is all settled, me and your mother will be continuing our conversation in the lobby, it's important, you're sister should be coming back in soon...Oh yeah do me a favor and don't kill each other while we're gone okay?" My father said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes, let out a sigh and walked out the room while my mother followed behind him. 

When my father left the room I managed to get out of the hospital bed but it felt like I was pulling a truckload of merchandise. I stood around the empty room as the rhythmic beep or heart monitors surrounded me. We're all human and we all have hearts, some that are stronger than others. I guess my father had a strong heart because he managed to evade our teenage years while he was out working all the time, God only knows if that's even the truth. My dad had always been so fed up with the fact that me and my sister never got along and now we're actually talking and smiling when we see each other but my dad is always out, somewhere in the world where he can't see it. 

I was lost in my thoughts before I realized my sister had entered the room. "Damn, I wasn't expecting you to be up already, you were knocked OUT, no offense....It was a hard hit, I'm just glad you're okay though, that's all that matters" she said while scratching the back of her head.

She walked up to me and held her arms out in an awkward manner as if she was unsure I would accept her hug or not. I hugged her back and could feel the warmth of her cheek against mine, it was strange because I had never remembered the last time I actually hugged my sister until now but somehow that was all that mattered to me that night.

The next morning was quite delightful considering the fact that my face was still swollen and busted from the whole dodge ball fiasco that happened yesterday. I entered the living room to find 2 plates of muffins and a flower pot filled with Tulips, my favorite flowers. I walked over to the flowers searching for a card to find out who send them, I found one but  all it said was 'I'm sorry for the misunderstanding I hope you feel better and, you can come see me at the Frosted Cakes Bakery if you want, I'm there everyday from 4 pm to  9 pm'

"What the fuck?" I whispered to myself. I didn't know anyone who worked at a bakery and I had no friends, who the hell would send me flowers and muffins? How did they know I liked Tulips?

My sister came out of the kitchen barefoot, still in her night gown. The fumes of tobacco hit me in the face and made my bruises worse, I hated the smell of cigarettes with a passion. She took a puff from the Cigarette and exhaled, releasing a cloud of grey smoke from her mouth. "Those are some good ass muffins, it's a shame they came from Denver though" my sister said as she took another puff from her cigarette and exhaled looking up at the ceiling while the clouds of smoke rose in front of her face.

"How do you know he sent them?" I said slowly as I looked at her. Something wasn't right, it seemed like everyone knew Denver but not in a good way, David talked bad about him and so did my sister but they never told me why.

My sister looked me up and down and shot me an intimidating look. "Look, don't worry about that okay, David needs to talk to you tomorrow and it's important okay... just don't go visit Denver at the bakery...I don't trust him and besides, I've heard he's a bad kisser" my sister said while putting her hand around one side of her face as if someone else was around listening to us.

Just then a high pitched peppy sounding girl, peered out the corner of our dining room. "Hey! I never said he was a bad kisser, I just said it was a really awkward kiss, we were both drunk and he nearly passed out after we stopped kissing...Man we were sooo wasted that night" She said while sort of looking up at the ceiling as if she were trying to put together the pieces of a night she couldn't even remember. 

"Umm..Why is there a random girl in our house? And damnit Jessica will you please burn that toxic piece of shit cigarette out!" I said obnoxiously.

My sister took a deep breath and smoked her cigarette, exhaled and then chuckled. "Chill! Mom and dad disappeared as usual, and this 'stranger' is Kizzy, one of my friends and we're gonna be hanging out the rest of amnesty week since Janelle has to worry about bringing up her grades and doesn't have time to hang out with me, and if it makes you feel any better I won't smoke in the house since I know you don't like it" she said to me.

There was a long pause after my sister spoke but then Kizzy decided to introduce herself to me. "Hey, I've heard alot about you, I can't believe you and your sister are getting along after all the stories she's told me" she said to me with a blank stare on her face. I began wondering what kind of stories my sister told her about me but then again  I really didn't give a shit, I was exhausted.

My sister sighed and said "Fuck it,  that's the past and all the matters is now" she walked over to Kizzy, grabbed her by the arm and guided her towards me, she put Kizzy's arm around my shoulder and put Kizzy's other arm around her own shoulder, and for some reason I felt like I needed to do the same so I did. Kizzy chuckled underneath her breath and said "This week is gonna be sooo much fun you guys, we're going to be spending ALOT of time with each other and I can't wait for this shit" she said in a devious  tone.