Page 12 of Awakening

Colin is screaming at the top of his lungs in the distance. “Olivia! Olivia! Let me go!”

The last thought I have is that he finally did it. Ian just killed me. A crowd of people gathers around me within seconds, all of their questions of concern rolling into one indecipherable blur that is quickly drowned out by darkness.

Four

Olivia

Anice, masculine scent fills my nose as I force my eyes to open. Something pinches the inside of my elbow, and I groan as I look over to see an IV in my arm, and my hand wrapped in someone else’s. Widening my eyes in surprise, I look up, then breathe a sigh of relief when I see a familiar and comforting set of green eyes.

“Anthony?” I whisper.

“Hey, there,” he says with a warm smile. “How are you feeling?”

“I don’t know. Where am I? What happened?” I look at his white lab coat and see his ID tag that says Dr. Anthony Moretti, MD.

“You’re in the hospital. Do you remember what happened?” he asks.

I shake my head. “No.” I can’t stop staring at the MD on his identification tag. That doesn’t make any sense. It’s not possible. “How are you a doctor already?”

“What do you mean?” he asks with a smile.

“Why are you even here in Boulder? You should be in school in Aurora.”

“Olivia, we’re in Denver,” he says with a frown.

“That makes even less sense.” I look around the room and try to remember how the hell I ended up in the hospital.

Anthony rubs my hand. “Olivia, just slow down a minute. You’ve been through a lot, and I think you’re really confused.”

With a strange and sudden surge of energy, I sit up in bed as I begin to panic. “Why am I here? How long have I been here?”

“I’ll tell you everything I know, but I need you to calm down,” Anthony says with concern filling his eyes.

“Shit. School,” I say, rubbing my forehead. “How much have I missed?”

“Hey, calm down, Liv,” Anthony says, rubbing my hand again to soothe me. “You were brought in yesterday, but I doubt you need to worry about school,” he says with a dry laugh.

“I do, actually. I need to be sure I haven’t missed anything important.” My mind is a complete blank as I rub my temples to ease my aching head, and try to remember what I was doing before I ended up here. “I have no idea what’s happening right now.”

“Are you talking about grad school?” he asks with a frown.

“Grad school? What? No. I’m obviously not in grad school yet.”

He frowns again and asks, “Olivia, how old are you right now?”

I raise my eyebrows and say, “I’m twenty.” He knows exactly how old I am.

“Shit,” he says, dropping my hand and rubbing his palm down his face. “What year is it, Liv?”

“What? Why are you asking me this?”

“Please, just answer me. What year is it?”

I tell him the year and he doesn’t say anything. He just stares at me. “Anthony, what’s going on? What happened to me, and why are you even here?” I say, feeling my eyes narrowing as I look at his Dr. Anthony Moretti, MD identification tag again. “We broke up. You don’t need to be here.”

“Olivia, you were hit by a car and brought here by ambulance unconscious yesterday afternoon. You didn’t have identification, a phone, or anything. It was pure coincidence that I was in the ER and recognized you. Look, before I say more, I need to consult with a colleague. Just hang tight for a minute.” He pats me on the leg with a tight smile and leaves the room. A colleague? Anthony is a medical student. Nothing is making any sense.

Minutes later an older doctor with gray hair and friendly eyes comes in along with Anthony and begins asking me about my life history. “Could you give me your full name, miss?” he asks.

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