[working title] - ch 1

The constant beep from the heart monitor woke me up. My eyes were blurry, and my back was aching as I tried to sit up straight.
My left hand searched for my glasses on the nearest surface. Found it. I tried to recognize where I was as soon as I got my sight back. Everything was white.
A hospital room?
I got down from the bed and swiped open the curtain next to me. There was another bed... with a girl on it. The beeping sound came from her heart monitor. Well, it was still beeping, so I guessed she was either sleeping or unconscious. I walked closer toward her to see her face. Now everything started to rushing back to my head.

I was on my way to school when she suddenly flew right in front of my car on an empty crossroad. I stopped and came out of the car to check if she was alright. Her forehead had been bleeding, that explained the bandage that wrapped her head. I remembered how blood boiled in my head, but I couldn't remember anything after that. I must have had panicked and fainted. Did it happen this morning?

I opened the little drawer next to her, trying to find her belongings. I thought perhaps I could get some idea of who she was and what was she doing, jumping to a moving car like that.
Gotcha. Her phone. It wasn't password-protected. I moved my thumb rapidly across the screen. Camera roll, text, e-mail, phone book... none. They were all empty. But the battery was full. As if it was newly-bought.
"It's rude to rummage through other people's phone, you know".
"Whoa!"
Startled, I threw the phone and jumped a few steps back. The girl was just awake.
"Hey! You're gonna break it," she yelled, abruptly sitting up. "Ouch!"
"Hey, take it easy. Lie back down. You just got hit by a car," I said, holding her back with one arm and gently pushing her shoulder down with another.
"Ow... apparently so," said her. She touched her bandaged forehead. "You hit me with your car."
I started to panic again but I tried to sound as calm as I could possibly be even though my heartbeat was deafening my eardrums.
I hit her by my car. Right, that is a fact. But I didn't see her coming, that can be my alibi, right? I'm not guilty, right? Oh God, oh God... I've never been more scared in my entire life.
"Technically, it's my mother's," I replied, dropping my shaking body into the couch in a second that lasted like an hour long. All of a sudden my legs felt super heavy. I was so sure that she would hit the "help" button to call the doctors, tell on me, then the doctors would call the police, and then I would be jailed for attempt murder. My imagination alone was enough to ruin my unforeseen future. Where is that car anyway?

She saw my face and chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm not going to report you. I ran into your car on purpose."
I furrowed my eyebrows. "Come again?"
"I was trying to kill myself," she said with a smile.
I could feel my eyebrows furrowed even further, though I knew it wasn't possible. "Um... correct me if I'm wrong, but don't people normally say those kinds of things without smiling?"
She grinned even wider. "Haha, relax. But seriously, I'm sorry. You even waited for me here. Didn't you have somewhere to go?"
"Where else would I be after almost killing someone on the street? Thank God I'm not in prison right now. Besides, I wasn't waiting for you to come to. I passed out on the street right after I ran you over, so I was put in the bed right there," I replied, still trying to sound calm but for a whole other reason. But it was obvious I couldn't, so I sounded half-yelling.
"I see. I'm really sorry," she said, still wearing that stupid weird smile on her face. I couldn't tell if she was actually sorry. "You can go if you want".
"Err... yeah, I just need to see the doctor first before leaving. You know, so they won't freak out if they find out my bed is empty."

I was halfway toward the door, ready to turn the knob.
"Wait," she stopped me. "If they ask anything about this, we will agree that this was all an accident, okay? You were just driving, and I just wasn't looking because... um... I was in a hurry, so I crossed the street running. Okay?" she demanded.
My head was still processing everything that had happened, so I quickly agreed because I couldn't think of anything anyway at the time.

I opened the door and called a nurse. She called another nurse and told her to get the doctor. A minute later, the medical team escorted me back to my bed, checked my vital signs, and asked a lot of questions that I couldn't recall. I just answered everything honestly because there wasn't even any time for me to make up my answers. After all, it was all an accident. I glanced over to my left and saw her sleeping. Not long after that, they let me go home. I didn't say goodbye or anything to that girl because she was still sleeping when I left.

"I was trying to kill myself."
What the hell was that? What kind of answer was that? Was she messing up with me?
I decided to get over it because I didn't know how to find her even if I wanted to. Although even after a week, I realized I couldn't.

***

Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong.

JESUS CHRIST. It was only 7.13 a.m. and I've only fell asleep like two hours ago because I had the night shift at my part-time job. I swear, if it's that kid again from the third floor who sells cookies, I will put a lizard in his backpack next time he goes to school.
I peeked through the peeping hole.
Knock-knock. "Hello, anybody home?" said the uninvited guest.

Then there she was, standing on the other side of my apartment door: the girl I almost killed.