Chapter Fourteen: Melanie
Voices whispered around me in the shadowy realms of my consciousness. My eyelids fluttered as I tried to break through to where they were. Light streamed around me as I took in my surroundings.
I was in a hospital room. Across from me, my mom and dad lounged in uncomfortable straight back chairs. Luke perched on the window ledge, his legs dangling over the edge.
My mom’s eyes met mine. “Melly!” At once she was by my side, clutching my hand in hers. “Oh baby, we’re so glad you’re awake,” she said, leaning over to kiss my cheek.
Speaking seemed foreign, especially when my mouth felt like it was filled with saw dust. I cleared my throat several times. “How long have I been asleep?”
Mom didn’t reply. Through the shroud of her hair, she glanced over at my dad. He stepped forward. “You’ve been in and out for the last few days,” he replied.
I gasped. “Days?” How was it possible to be unconscious for days? Had I been in a coma? My frantic thoughts must have played out on my face because Mom leaned forward and stroked my cheek.
“The doctors thought it best to keep you medicated…in your condition.”
My eyebrows arched at the mention of condition. “What do you mean?”
“Maybe Luke and I should go get a Coke,” Dad suggested.
Mom nodded as Luke reluctantly hopped down. As he swept by my bed, he gave me a weak smile.
When the door closed behind them, Mom eased down on the bed beside me. “Melanie, the doctors have kept you medicated because you suffered a breakdown the other night.”
“I did?”
My mind felt like a wasteland saturated with foggy wisps of thoughts and memories. “What caused it?” I demanded.
Mom stared down at her hands. “You admitted to…” She drew in a deep breath. “You told Will you had been raped.”
Raped. The one word cut a jagged path through the fog. Everything came flooding back to me. I shuddered.
I told Will the truth. I admitted the unbelievable and unthinkable. Coach T had raped me. His father had raped me.
“What about Will?” I croaked. “Has he been to see me?”
Mom bit her lip. “We haven’t talked to Will since the other night.”
The knife tore further into me, causing searing pain to radiate through my chest. It pulsed like an artery had been severed. In truth, I wished it had. A major artery meant I could hemorrhage to death. Slow and easy…and then all this pain would be over. The hellish nightmare that was my life would be no more.
“It’s going to be all right, Melanie. You are going to be all right. A doctor examined you—”
My gasp interrupted her. Thank God I had been unconscious when they did it. I couldn’t imagine having to endure the exam.
Mom chewed her lip. “In time,” she paused, “you’ll be as good as new.”
I stared at her in disbelief. How could she possibly sit there and say that? The coach who had pushed me to excel on the court, the man I had spent endless hours with in a place where I was always loved, had taken my innocence—in every sense, both literally and figuratively.
Without a word to Mom, I pressed the nurse’s button. “Yes?” a voice questioned.
“I’m in pain,” I croaked.
“I’ll be right there.”
I could feel Mom’s concern bearing down on me. So I turned away from her.
“Melanie…”
“I don’t want to talk anymore. I’m tired. I just want to sleep.”
Before Mom could argue any further, the nurse came through the door. A part of me clapped gleefully as she inserted the needle into my IV. Within seconds, I was floating away. From the room, all my problems, from Will, and from the nightmare that had become my life.
***
When I woke again, it was dark. Dad sat beside my bed reading the newspaper. “Hey sleepy, you ready for some dinner?” he asked. He lifted the lid of the culinary delight provided by the hospital. I gagged as the smell hit my nose.
“I’m not hungry,” I murmured.
“Want me to go get you a hamburger or some chicken tenders?”
I knew I didn’t want any of it, but I also knew if I sent him on a mission, it meant I could get another shot while he was gone. I’d be out of it by the time he returned. So I nodded. “Yeah, chicken tenders sound good.”
He bent over and kissed me on the forehead. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I nodded. As soon as I heard the door click behind him, I pushed the button, summoning the liquid miracle for my problems.