Popping Bubbles, Chapter 20

by Red in Hogwarts or Forks...you pick

*AN*sorry, it's kinda short.

Macey couldn’t actually believe she was walking two miles in the freezing (school) night, with her coat over her pajamas.

But she was.

Laura kept a grip on her arm the entire time, not that she needed too. Macey could sense that Laura really needed something to hold on to, so she let her arm suffice.

They trudged, slogging slush and snow. The cold bit their ears and noses and froze unspoken words into clouds. Macey rubbed at her nose with her free hand, then stuffed it back into her pocket, wishing for Avery.

It was a little over half an hour before they saw the lights from the hospital in front of them. Laura strengthened her grip on Macey’s wrist, and Macey didn’t complain.

They trudged as fast as it is humanly possible to trudge and clunked into the lobby, their snow boots banging carelessly on the cold tiles as they rushed to the front desk.

“Can we see Avery Crawford, please?” Macey panted.

The receptionist checked her files slowly, giving the two friends time to catch their breaths.

“I’m sorry,” she said, with no hint of actual sympathy in her tone. “Only relatives are permitted to see her at this time.”

Laura deflated instantly.

“We’ll wait then,” Macey said decisively. Now it was her turn to drag Laura—into a plastic waiting-room chair.

Macey took the seat next to her, concerned for Avery. She bit her lip, cinching her eyebrows at the clock.

Macey didn’t want to break down in hysterics right here in the waiting room—it already had an air of depression, which didn’t do much to improve her mood.

So she waited, trance-like, watching every precious second tick away at the clock.

Laura sat there, ticks echoing in her brain and Avery tattooed to her eyelids. The beat of the clock was in time with the one word left in her mind.

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

But what they were waiting for, neither of them knew, and weren’t quite sure they really wanted to find out.