Page 95 of Freak Show

Ari, who was glaring hard as she said, “Listen, Deborah. I know that this is kind of hard to understand but seriously, that light is the freakin’ devil. My head hurts like the dickens, and that light is making me nauseous. Which, might I add, might be a very bad thing when you think I might have a neck injury!”

The nurse turned to me and glared. “See what I mean?”

“I see that you’ve left her here when you could’ve easily pushed this cart down.” I moved the linen cart. Then started to unclick the wheels of the gurney so I could slide it down out of the path of the light. “And everything would’ve been A-okay.”

The nurse glared at the both of us. “I don’t have time for this!”

Then she stomped off.

Holding my breath, I turned back toward the woman in the bed with the big white and blue brace around her neck.

I was suddenly nervous to make eye contact.

Then there was a muted sob, and I could do nothing else but look at her then.

“I’m so sorry,” she bawled.

I instantly felt a great amount of regret. One at not letting her know yesterday—I could’ve found a way, I was sure of it—and two, at how shittily—was that even a freakin’ word?—she was treated by her family.

I cupped her face and leaned down, whispering “shhh” before pressing my lips to her mouth.

She sniffled hard, and I couldn’t help the small smile that graced my lips before I said, “Baby. It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay,” she continued to cry. “My sister is the freakin’ devil.”

I smoothed her hair away from her face and said, “Have you even been seen by the doctor?”

She sniffled hard before saying, “No.”

I bent down and pressed one more kiss against her mouth before saying, “I’m going to find someone to help.”

And I did, coming back within a minute with a doctor that looked haggard.

He saw Ari and looked shocked. “How long have you been here, miss?”

Ari swallowed and said, “At least an hour, if not more.”

He looked horrified, and things happened fast after that.

She was whisked away toward imaging where she would have an MRI on her neck.

I was shown to a room by not the nurse that’d done the bitching earlier, but a new one that looked a lot more approachable.

“You can wait here until they get back,” she said.

Then she too was gone.

I didn’t have a clue how long I sat there fretting, but I heard a male’s voice in the hallway, and was unsurprised to look up and see Keene standing there.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, pissed and angry.

He sighed.

“How is she?” Keene asked, trying to side-step my question.

I didn’t want to answer him.

In fact, I wanted to ignore the absolute hell out of him and never talk to them all again.

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