“Magic Rob!” Rob said, spitting off his name.
“Hmm..Magic Rob?” the receptionist said, looking through the pages of her book over and over, mumbling his name.
“You might have me under another name?” Rob said, hoping she would get distracted and let him through.
“What might that be?” she said, running her pointer down the page.
“Um..” Rob couldn’t come up with another name.
“Wait, is this you? Robert Mettiker?” she asked.
“YES!” Rob said, praying the real Robert Mettiker wasn’t close by.
“I wonder why they didn’t put you under Magic Rob?” she asked. “Well, either way, you’re here so let me make you a name badge. You will have to wear this throughout the hospital so everyone knows who you are.”
“Ok, I will do that,” Rob answered.
“You’ve been here before right?” she asked.
“Yes! Many times!” Rob said, hoping she wouldn’t catch on to his lie.
“So you know where to go?” she asked, looking at him with serious eyes.
“Yes, absolutely!” Rob said confidently.
“Then, off you go! Make the people smile!” she said. “Don’t scare them like you did the nurse though. That wouldn’t be good!”
Rob let out a little laugh and said, “I promise!” and then walked away, towards the inpatient wing.
He didn’t know exactly where Rachel’s mother would be, but he figured he was heading in the right direction.
He kept his sunglasses on as he walked under the bright lights in the hallways. He didn’t want to take a change with singing his skin again and causing another commotion. He couldn’t believe that he covered it up the first time, but thankfully, he got himself out of that mess.
He passed room after room, but did not see Rachel’s mom’s name anywhere. He felt like he was walking around in circles with no end in sight. His skin felt hot under his coat and he knew he didn’t have much time before he had to get out of the hospital. He knew he wasn’t safe here and it was only a matter of moments before security would pick up the fact that he was an intruder.
He quickened his step and
CHAPTER TEN
The horn beeped loudly outside of Trista’s house causing Rachel to jump. She dreaded this moment. She didn’t want anything else to happen to her tonight and she already felt woozy having had her drink spiked. She closed her eyes for a minute and imagined she were home, at her house in Pennsylvania, in her bedroom alone about to go to sleep. This thought relaxed her despite the fact that her head was starting to spin. Am I drunk? She thought to herself. She couldn’t make out the feelings that were going through her body.
BEEP BEEP.
“Grab your stuff, Rachel! We can’t keep them waiting!” Trista yelled.
“C’mon, Kelly, you can finish your make up in the car. You look fine anyway,” Trista added.
“AH!” Kelly yelled. “I’m so not ready yet. I thought you said they were coming at ten?”
“I don’t know. Does it really matter now? They’re here. We have to go!” Trista hollered.
Rachel grabbed her bags and started down the steps. She could barely see straight, but knew she had to keep going. She clutched the railing as she headed down the steps.
“AHHH!!!” Rachel yelled as she tripped down the steps.
“OMG! Are you ok?” Kelly yelled.
“AH!” Trista screeched, as she came running down to the bottom of the steps.
Rachel lay there, staring up at the ceiling with a blank stare on her face.
“I think she’s hurt?” Kelly said, looking at Trista. “I knew it was a bad idea to spike her drink.”
“Oh c’mon. She’ll be fine. It was only a little fall,” Trista said.
“A little fall, that was a huge spill!” Kelly said.
A moment later, Rachel jumped up and started hysterically laughing.
She saw both the girls looking at her in disbelief.
“What was that all about?” Kelly asked.
“Are you ok?” Trista asked.
“OK? ME? ARE YOU KIDDING! I’M GREAT!” Rachel shouted, grabbing all her bags again.
“Um, what is that?” Kelly said, pointing to an oozing blue liquid coming out of Rachel’s knee.
Rachel looked down and couldn’t believe her eyes. What was happening to her?
“AH! Hurry, get a towel,” Trista said, “Clean that up!”
Rachel quickly ran to the bathroom and started washing her knee under the faucet. She didn’t know why her blood was blue or what she was going to say to the girls.
Then, in her drunken stupor, she remembered a distant memory. She couldn’t quite make it out but remembered someone telling her once that she would never be the same again. She remembered being told to be careful of injury because your first could be your last. If you bleed a lot, you could die.
A panic set in, and suddenly Rachel felt sober. She had completely snapped out of her drunken state and now felt like nothing had happened. She had to stop this bleeding, but nothing was happening. She didn’t want to die, she couldn’t let one slip end her life.
“Can I have a band aid?” Rachel yelled out of the bathroom.
“Sure!” Trista said, running towards her with the box.
Rachel grabbed the box of Band-Aids and opened each one, making a cast out of them around her leg. The tightness seemed to be helping with the bleeding, and she knew she’d be in the clear now. She just had to keep an eye on it.
Rachel walked out of the bathroom as if nothing had happened, hoping the girls wouldn’t ask her about the blue ooze.
“What was that about?” Kelly asked.
“Oh, yeah, must have been the ointment I put on my knee earlier. Makes everything blue!” Rachel said, hoping they’d believe her story.
“How weird! Trista said, looking at Kelly.
“Yeah! Weirdo!” Kelly chimed in.
“I know, super weird!” Rachel said, letting out a laugh.
BEEP BEEP
The horn beeped again at the perfect time and distracted the girls from asking her anything else about the blue incident. Thankfully, now, the guys were here to pick them up.
“INFINITY! INFINITY! INFINITY!” the guys were chanting from the car.
Rachel got a pit in her stomach thinking about going to the club and desperately wanted to go home. A wave of home sickness hit her like a brick, but she knew she couldn’t leave now. She had to stick this out so she could eventually get to her grandmother’s house to get to the bottom of everything.