Life Of A Bitch

13

"The game's postponed." I hear the calm voice of Brandon over the speakers. "I'm afraid, that West High players will have to return. Seeya till next Friday, WH!"

"Well played, guys." Anna chimed in. "We can safely it was an.. well, interesting match!"

The guys bring Aiden to the bleachers and Coach orders a meek-looking boy to call the school nurse. Aiden's skin has turned deathly pale, even under the scorching sun. I go near him, and the boys make way for me to see him. I crouch beside him and take his wrist. Yes, irregular pulse, but pulse nonetheless. I exhale, relieved.

If he had died, the first suspect would've been the girlfriend. I've seen enough movies to confirm this. Even though reel-life differs from real life, all the students definitely would've pointed fingers at me. And that's the worst kind of rumour for my parents to hear.

"Don't stand over him!" Coach barks. "Let the boy breathe, for God's sake."

Immediately, we back away and take seats on the bleachers, afraid of getting scolded by him. The nurse arrives and measures Aiden's pulse, simultaneously spraying water on him. She opens his eyelids, slaps him gently on the cheek and fans his hair.

"He is gonna be alright, isn't it?" Coach asks Miss Rene, the nurse.

She looks at him with accusing eyes, as if he is the reason behind all of this. "He is unconscious and needs to be taken to the hospital. Now."

*

"He isn't dead, is he?" Anita asks.

"He was breathing," I say. "Dead people don't breathe, do they?"

"Zombies?" Lana pipes up. I roll my eyes silently in agony and lean against the wall.

We're in the hospital right now. Stephanie fell asleep, so Nathan took her home. There are only Coach, Lana, Anita, their boyfriends and me here. Mrs. Parker is at the reception, filling out the form and getting coffee for everyone. My eyes start watering; I desperately need a good night's sleep. Last night, I was so busy studying Chemistry for my tests - I'm weak at it- that I slept for only an hour.

Brandon and Callaghan were here a few minutes ago. By the look on Coach's face, I could say that he admires him. I know why. Despite the differences between Aiden and him, Brandon still came to visit him and to ask how he was doing. Not that it was his duty to so. He seriously has got a golden heart.

Mrs. Parker arrives with a tray filled with cups of steaming coffee and offers them to us. I refuse when she offers me; I don't want to end up staring at the ceiling tonight, instead of sleeping.

I feel my eyes closing and I let them do what they want. I have no energy left in me to act the part of the anxious and worried girlfriend.

*

When I open my eyes, I see a man dressed in white and having snowy hair speaking to a man and a woman. The surroundings are pristine white too. Am I in heaven? Unbelievable. After all the sins I committed, I should have been thrown into the darkest recesses of hell.

"You up?" I hear a familiar high-pitch voice asking me. Lana in heaven? What the hell, no pun intended.

I widen my eyes to shake off the sleep and look at Mrs. Parker talking to the doctor. "How long have I been asleep?" I ask groggily.

"Few minutes," Anita replies.

Mrs. Parker, the doctor and Coach turn to us, suspiciously. I sit up properly and finger comb my hair.

"Mr. Parker here, was drugged." The doctor states.

What?

"He was given a strong dose of benzodiazepines," the doctor continues. "Benzos are used by insomniacs almost daily, but as prescribed. In case of Mr. Parker, it was a heavy dose which could have been fatal, if the dose was even a bit greater."

Mrs. Parker starts sniffing into a lace handkerchief.

"And what I want to know is," Coach snaps. "Who did this?"

There's silence in the corridor. The guys are too loyal to do such a kind of thing to their leader. The girls are too dumb. Which leaves me. Obviously, I am the suspect. I am his girlfriend after all. I am jealous of his fame and money and so I tried to kill him, but he got out unharmed.

Why would I do this to him? Dammit. So much for being the famous quarter-back's girlfriend.

"If the dose was slightly higher," the doctor shakes his head. "His brain would have been damaged."

His brain is already damaged.

Mrs. Parker starts crying now. The doctor pats her back and says, "There there."

"All of you get into your cars and we'll go back to the school." Coach orders. "If anyone doesn't obey me, he or she would be suspended and kicked out from either the team or the cheer."

I look at the wall-clock. 5.30. Ugh, I want to go home.

*

"I ask for the last and final time: who did this?" Mr. Bennett roars. "I cannot believe my students, River High students have the audacity to nearly kill a fellow student! You should be handed over to the police!"

Right now, we're in the sports room, which is just beside the football field. We all look down. Honestly, I've never seen Mr. Bennett this angry before and its kind of scary. He looks like a lioness whose cubs have just been harassed.

"Who did this?" He shouts. Stephanie nudges me and whispers, "Do you have any idea who it was?"

When Mr. Bennett got to know that Stephanie and Nathan went home, he didn't call their phones. He called their parents to bring them to the school, and I directly quote him now, "ASAP".

I shake my head, afraid to talk in front of him.

"Coach Henderson," Bennett calls out to Coach. "Check their backpacks or whatever they carried to the football field." Coach nods and walks briskly out of the room.

I can hardly keep my eyes open now. I dig my nails into my skin, hoping some pain will drive the sleep away. It does, but only for a short while. I stifle a yawn and start thinking about my pending tests and quizzes, listing which subjects to study. I read in a survey that the more actively your brain starts to work, the less will you feel sleepy.

Okay, so there's Biology, and we're going to be quizzed about it tomorrow, so gotta read that. Then there's French, oh God. That's tomorrow? Shit. I don't have much time. I have to take an hour long nap and then start studying immediately. But I would have to go home first.

I want to go home! I cannot waste any more time on this bullshit! I have two quizzes tomorrow, maybe three- is there any quiz on English? Lord-

"Whose bag is this?" A voice shouts. We turn around and see Coach standing against the doorway, holding aloft a pink sling bag with a black leather strap.

Wait. What is my bag doing is his hands?

"Why?" Bennett asks. "What's wrong with it?"

"What's wrong with it?" Coach asks, walking towards him and placing the bag on the table. "Look what's inside it!"

Bennett looks inside, scrambles around objects -my makeup products- and then stops abruptly. He peers inside and his eyes widen. He takes his hand out of the bag and pulls out an orange coloured pill-bottle, labelled 'Benzodiazepine' by some pharmaceutical company.

What the fuck?