I had never passed out in my life. But I liked this absolute calm. No dreams, no thoughts, just pure, opaque blackness. And that's why I defended myself against the tiresome awakening with all my senses. I pushed back the coming thoughts, tried to suppress the increasing headache, but nothing was of any use.
Finally I gave up and carefully opened my eyes.
At first blinded by the glaring light, I slowly got used to my surroundings. It was clearly not my room because my walls were pink while these were white. A single flower pot adorned the desolate room, and a cool breeze, which I loved so much, was blowing in through the open window. I sat up and the bed creaked treacherously.
"Bree?"
Immediately my gaze wandered to the person who rose sleepily from an armchair to my left. I was sure I didn't know him and yet he felt so familiar to me. His black, tousled hair, his blistered skin, the way his lips moved when he smiled gently at me.
I silently allowed him to sit down on the bed with me. In order not to offend him, I decided to pretend I knew who he was. He just can't be a stranger to me, as familiar as he behaves towards me.
"Where am I?" So I asked and looked around once more as if the bare walls were giving me the answer.
"In the hospital," the boy replied slowly.
I looked at him in disbelief. I beg your pardon? In the hospital? How so? I tried to remember what might have happened, but there was nothing in my head.
As if the boy were reading my mind, he continued.
"We went to Rogers Park last night for the Halloween party you were throwing." he looked at me carefully, but I hadn't the faintest idea what he was talking about. The memory seemed burned out. "You drank a little too much alcohol and I had to bring you here."
My eyes widened. Impossible! I don't like drinking alcohol very much, I know that, that's why, whatever happened last night, it was definitely not alcohol. But before I could reply, he put his hands on both sides of my temples and forced me to look into his eyes. Pitch black.
It was as if I was going to pass out again, because apart from this blackness I couldn't see anything.
"Bree, do you know who I am?" he asked me and to my own amazement I answered without hesitation. The right words just appeared in my favor.
"Eathan Parker" I paused in amazement as the words inexorably gushed out of my mouth, "You're going to 11B at A.J. Dimond High School."
The darkness engulfed all other noises so that only his voice could be heard.
"Right, and yesterday you drank too much, I took you to the clinic and watched over you here all night."With these words he freed me from the darkness and instantly gratitude spread within me. He had helped me, he is my friend, how could I have ever doubted his words.
We sat in silence on the bed for a while before the door opened and Harvey and Ellie entered the room.
"Good morning" warbled Ellie and pressed chocolates into my hands. "Your breakfast"
I smiled and pulled the blonde close to me. She is a sweetheart. Judging by the sun it was still quite early in the morning and she definitely didn't get enough sleep, but she was standing here anyway. Then my eyes fell on Harvey, who eyed Eathan suspiciously before turning to me.
"How are you?" he asked softly and looked me in the eye. As always, my heart skipped a few seconds, but this time it wasn't my feelings for Harvey. I stared at him, startled. What happened to his eyes? The otherwise light fawn brown was suddenly darker, almost chocolate brown. Maybe I was just imagining it with the color, but the emotions that I could always read in his soul mirrors were definitely gone. All I saw was cold.
"Everything's fine," I muttered confused. He seemed to notice that something was wrong and silently turned away from me.
"You don't look like that!" Ellie, my savior, said, "You are incredibly lucky that there are no mirrors here, because you can't imagine what you're doing to us!"
Eathan suppressed a laugh and even Harvey had to smile. I, on the other hand, didn't find it particularly funny and looked at Elle with big eyes.
"So bad?" I asked and with her nodding full of pity my last glimmer of hope vanished. Then Ellie clapped her hands enthusiastically.
"So guys, get out now!" she pointed to the door. "Bree needs to be made human again!"
I smiled gratefully at her as she winked at me and closed the door behind Harvey and Eathan.
As soon as it fell into the lock, she hurried up to me, grabbed her handbag as she passed and fell on my bed.
"Now listen carefully to me," she began and surprised me with her sudden change in mood. "You probably haven't been told, because you have to rest and avoid stress first, the doctors say" - Elle rolled her eyes at this point - "but since I'm your best friend, I'll take on this job ]Something happened to your party. Something very bad! "
I looked at her tense and frightened.
"Milly St.-James has been killed!"
Seconds that seemed like hours passed without me saying anything. Secretly waited, no, I hoped that Ellie would start to grin and laugh at me for my naivety, but the expression on her face remained serious and finally the little light of hope in me went out."How? Why?"
I swallowed the bitterness rising in me. Milly St.-James, our little nerd Milly, who always let me copy. The dark-haired good soul who has forgiven everyone for everything, including my unfair taunts in junior high school when I was young and pretty stupid. Not her ... she can't be dead!
"Bree, don't blame yourself for it ..." Elle said, but she was completely wrong.
"I don't blame myself!" I said and looked at her horrified "Why should I? I didn't have anything to do with it, but ..."
I looked thoughtfully out the window.
"But?" Ellie chopped up.
"But who was it?" I asked. Actually, I was just thinking whoever it was will pay for it, even if I'm not quite sure how yet.
"The police have already been called in and are investigating. They will probably question you too, because they have already been with me ..."
I nodded. Then I reached for her bag and took out some make-up utensils and a hand mirror from the side pocket.
As I looked at myself in the mirror, I glanced at Ellie curiously.
"Ellie, what happened yesterday? I want to know every detail!"
As if she had just been waiting for me to ask her that, she sat up and looked at me seriously.
"Do you remember how we talked about Eathan and you didn't know who he is?"
I shook my head and Ellie sighed.
"It doesn't matter. In the end we went to Eathan, who was standing next to Charlie, and talked while Charlie turned on you ..." I rolled my eyes annoyed, which Ellie didn't miss, but she skilfully ignored. "Until Christopher and Harvey showed up. I was surprised because you said yes, they weren't coming. So I went to greet Christopher while Harvey walked up to you. Well, then I was distracted, you know Christopher and all that He hugged me by the way. Suddenly we heard Charlie call your name in panic and when we turned around you were passed out. After that we heard a scream that turned out to be Millies, as I was later told because I was already at that point with Eathan and an unconscious Bree on the way to the clinic. "
After this long speech, Elle took a deep breath. Meanwhile, I thought about what Elle had told me.
We fell into an oppressive silence when I finally put the mirror back.
"Something's wrong, Ellie! What exactly happened before I passed out? Try to remember every little thing!"
She looked at me with pity and shrugged.
"I don't remember Bree, I'm sorry ..."
At that moment there was a knock on the door.
"Can I go back in?"
Harvey poked his head through the crack in the door.
I nodded, whereupon he entered my room. Eathan followed him as if at a step.
"Your parents are here, they're talking to the doctor," Harvey told me.Finally, I thought to myself, relieved.
"And the police were just there, but they'll be back tomorrow because ..." Eathan began, but Harvey interrupted him angrily.
"Has anyone asked you something? What are you looking for here ?!"
"Harvey!" Ellie and I shouted indignantly, but he ignored us.
"Get out of here! Now!" he hissed at Eathan in his anger.
It was like lightning that hit me. Immediately I caught my breath, but my thoughts whizzed through my head at double the speed. Images appeared in my mind's eye and disappeared a few seconds later, but I saw no connection between the memory segments. My déjà vu ended as suddenly as it had started, but it did not go unnoticed.
I felt the cold run into my limbs, adrenaline pulsing in my blood. With an effort I looked up, and for some reason I expected to sink back into the darkness of Eathan's eyes, but all I saw was a deep chocolate-brown sea, speckled with bright spots, which, however, slowly lost the battle against the dark brown and disappeared. I was in no pain, I just felt an uncomfortable tug in my head, as if someone was soaking up all my thoughts through a straw. Slowly the exhaustion grabbed me with its pointed, insidious claws and I let myself sink into the pillows, hardly preserved in the world. This was the second time in my life that I was passed out. And if I hadn't woken up a few hours later in the middle of the night, I, my friends, my parents and especially Harvey would have been spared a lot.