4: 4
When I opened my eyes again, I was in a hospital.
Charles noticed I was awake before anyone else. He rushed to the bedside, his face heavy with a guilt too thick to melt.
“Linda, you're awake!”
His voice was hoarse. He reached out to touch my face, then froze halfway.
“Linda, I'm sorry. I really thought you were just throwing a tantrum.”
“I promise, I'll never leave you on your own again.”
I looked at him weeping and at the number dropping to 5 above his head, and suddenly it all felt so fake.
I didn't say a word. I couldn't even be bothered to lift my eyelids.
Then the door opened.
Alice walked in, carrying a cup of warm water.
In her other palm lay a single white pill.
“Linda, what's done is done.”
“Take this morning-after pill, and everything will……be okay.”
When I still didn't answer, a catch crept into Alice's voice.
“Linda, don't worry. No matter what happens, Charles will marry you.”
“Charles, right?”
Charles lifted his head and looked at her, his eyes crowded with too many tangled things.
A long moment passed before he spoke.
“Linda, let's go get our marriage license today.”
At that, I couldn't hold back a cold laugh.
“Can the two of you stop pretending?”
“If I'm pregnant, doesn't that just clear the way for you two?”
Charles and Alice glanced at each other, both stunned.
The truth was, before all of this, I'd already been ready to let them have each other.
But now, all I had left for them was hate.
Charles went white as paper and instinctively tried to explain.
“Linda, it's not like that. We were only……”
But the words caught in his throat, as if something had lodged there, and not one of them came out.
I couldn't be bothered to listen to their excuses. I yanked the needle out of the back of my hand and braced myself against the bed to get up and leave.
“Thud!”
Alice suddenly dropped to her knees in front of me.
She snatched the glass off the table beside her and smashed it hard against her own forehead.
The glass shattered.
Blood ran down her forehead and stained her eyes red.
She didn't seem to care at all. She reached out and clutched the hem of my clothes.
“Linda, I'm sorry!”
“It's my fault. Hit me, curse me, whatever you want, but none of this is Charles's fault.”
“I'll leave right now. I'll never show my face in front of you two again.”
Charles pulled Alice into his arms, aching for her, the alarm and pain in his eyes impossible to hide any longer.
“Allie, are you okay? Does it hurt?”
“Why would you do something so foolish……”
When he looked at me again, the guilt was gone without a trace. All that was left was gritted teeth.
“Linda Sullivan, you really are an ungrateful animal, no matter how well anyone treats you!”
“Allie must have been blind back then to ever help someone like you!”
I slid down onto the floor, watching the number above his head hit zero completely, and laughed until the tears poured down.
Someone like me?
What kind of person am I?
I deserved to be betrayed by the two of them together, is that it?
In that moment, all the love and all the friendship went up in smoke.
I looked up at the person in front of me without a shred of hesitation left.
“Charles, let's break up.”
Charles started to say something, but the attending doctor cut in as she walked through the door.
“Linda, get ready. Surgery in half an hour.”
“If you have anything to say, say it now. You might……not come off the operating table.”
Charles's pupils shrank.
“What do you mean?”
