The Bet [COMPLETED]

Chapter 8: Suspicions

I couldn't sleep at all that night. Whenever my eyes dared to close I would see Robin's shaky hands in front of me. Joe brought me to the hospital, but they wouldn't let us see her. Eventually we had to leave. And after all that time all they could tell us was that they were doing all they could with her. I had no fucking clue what that meant. Did they mean she wasn't doing well? Or were they referring to her hands? What the hell was going on here?

I went to school on Friday mostly to tell the teachers about what had happened, although I expected them to already know about it. Surprisingly no one had told them; I was the first one. Didn't her parents tell them? Come to think of it, Joe and I were the only ones at the hospital yesterday. Her parents didn't even come to check up on her.

"You'd think the hospital would call her family up and tell them what had happened," Joe remarked.

"Maybe she doesn't have any parents," Kevin replied.

I didn't hit him this time; he could be on to something.

"Maybe she was bred by aliens or something," he continued.

Before I could even think of doing the usual, Joe did it for me. "Can't you see now's not the time for that?" he added, nodding at me.

Kevin pouted. "Sorry Zack..."

Sorry...

I could clearly see her again. I reached out to her, but she vanished. She was right there in front of me, yet I couldn't do anything for her. Hell, I was the one that caused her to be in such a state.

"Hey," John's voice emerged from my fantasy, "Snap out of it."

All I did was sigh. I had no other choice. I simply had to pay her a visit at the hospital after school.

I wasn't the only one that felt that way. Kevin, Joe, John and David visited her along with me. The second we opened her door we found her wide awake, staring at the ceiling as if it was an unknown monster she had never seen before.

"Hey Heart, are you feeling any better?" Surprisingly Kevin was the one to break the ice.

Robin looked at us. She didn't say a word. We stood next to her.

"Did the doctors say anything?" John asked carefully.

She nodded.

"What did they say?" David asked.

She didn't answer. She just kept staring at the ceiling.

I frowned. "Robin?"

Her eyes finally found mine. She seemed as if she was about to cry.

"What did they say?" I repeated to her, hoping she'd answer this time.

She slowly lifted her arms and placed them across her chest. Her arms were covered in bandages. A teardrop escaped the corner of her eyes. I made a sign at the boys to leave us alone for a while. They nodded and left immediately. Then I looked back at her.

"Is there something wrong with your hands?" I asked her in a low voice.

All she did was nod. I sighed.

"Did your parents visit you already?" I continued asking her.

She shook her head. "They're not even in the country. They're both on business trips."

"Oh..." Well, that sucked. "I'm sorry."

She shrugged. "What can you do? It's not your fault." She then looked at me in a serious manner. "And what Joe did, you shouldn't worry about that, either." She hesitated for a while. "I forgive you."