A/N :

I’m back after a not-so-short-temporary hiatus. I finally had enough time to complete this chapter. I hope it doesn’t seem rushed or anything. I didn’t take the time to check for mistakes so forgive me if there were any. :)

We arrived at the hospital at 12.03pm. We asked the receptionist where grandma was.

“Let me..ish…something...room 617..up..” I squinted my eyes at her as she mumbled incoherently while busy searching through a stack of files. Then, she set the files to the side and looked at us expectantly.

“Can I help you with anything else?” she asked.

“Which room did you say she was in?” mum asked impatiently.

“Room 617.” the lady replied knowingly.

We hurried off to the lift, with mum leading the way. Aaron was lagging behind and I yelled at him to hurry up before the door of the lift closes. A nearby nurse shot me a glare and I sent an apologizing look at her. I had forgotten that we weren’t allowed to make noise in the hospital, much less shout. She continued glaring at me. My eyes darted towards Aaron who had finally entered the lift and I kicked him on his leg when mum wasn’t looking.

“What was that for!?” he yelled, rubbing his leg.

“You could have walked just a LITTLE bit faster just now!”

“What! You just can’t WAIT to see grandma, huh?”

You see, it’s not that Aaron hates grandma or something. We just have a minor dislike because grandma tends to criticize us on everything. She nit-picks every inch of you and make a fuss out of it. She makes it sound like it’s a world crisis, for God’s sake! There was this once where she berated me for half an hour because of a little spot I had on my shirt after I had accidentally spilt my drink.

“No. I just…never mind.” I finally said, the ding sounded and the door slid open. We continued to trail behind mum, looking around at the people sitting around the waiting area. They looked sick, tired or sleepy. A few were crying silently while holding onto their coffee cups. I turned my attention away from them as I turned into a corner. A tacky piece of wood on a door inscribed with ‘Room 617’ greeted us before we opened the door. Grandma was lying on the bed, watching the television that was stationed at the corner of the room. The light green curtains were half drawn and the sky outside was streaked with faint white clouds, surrounded by the dark blue sky.

“Hi mum. How’re you doing?” I heard mum said.

“Hello Tara. Ahh, I’ve been better. When can I go back?” grandma replied.

I heard a knock on the door and saw a doctor coming in. Meanwhile, Aaron slipped out the door unnoticed by my parents. The doctor introduced himself as Mr. Gregory and said he was the doctor in charge of grandma. I tuned out on their conversation after that. I decided to sneak out of the room and go wander around the hospital until it was time to go home. I still had some chemistry homework that I procrastinated till the last minute. Chemistry was the second period tomorrow and hopefully I’ll be able to finish the exercise sheet by then.

“Mum, call me when you’re done.” I said before slipping out the door.

She didn’t reply so I didn’t know if she heard me.

‘Oh well...’ I thought to myself while I walk to the lift.

I found myself sitting at the cafeteria, sipping on a small cup of coffee that cost me twice the normal price after the search for Aaron proved fruitless. Looking around, I spot a few other visitors to the hospital. Even though visiting hours was over hours ago, immediate family members were allowed to visit those who have just been admitted into the hospital.

I raised the cup to my lips to take another sip and realized that the cup was empty. Standing up from the bench, I went to the nearest garbage can and crush the cup before dropping it in. I always had a weird impulse to crush anything that I used before throwing them away. There’s always a nagging voice at the back of my mind telling me that something I had used could be reused. Call me weird, maybe I just have an obsessive compulsive disorder.

I began my walk back to the lift, back to grandma’s room. There was a few men, a guy around my age, a middle-aged woman and an elderly man waiting in front of the lift. The door of the lift slid open and we went in before pressing the buttons of the floor we wanted to go to. Glancing at the guy subtly, I noticed that he wasn’t bad looking. In fact, he looks pretty good looking. He caught me glancing at him as I averted my eyes from him. I turned away slightly, my cheeks heating up as I stared at a little black dot on the wall that suddenly looked very interesting.

‘Is it hot in here or what?’ I thought as I waited for the next stop in the lift.

A few seconds later, the door opened and I rushed out of the lift, not caring that I was on the wrong floor. I went back to the lift after the door closed and waited. I discovered that I was on the third floor as I glance around. I waited for two minutes before one of the doors finally opened.

‘What is he doing here?’

He looked at me for a few seconds before exiting the lift. I stood in front of the bare lift before I came to my sense and went in before the door closed on me.

Checking the directory on the wall of the lift, I discovered that the third floor was the intensive care unit floor.

I watched him turn into a corner and lost sight of him after that. On my way home from the hospital, I continued pondering about the reasons why he was at the hospital. That night, I tossed and turn in bed, wondering why I was so curious about this incident at the hospital till I fall sleep.

A/N :

Now ladies and gentleman if present, I doubt there’ll be any guys reading this, there’s this little button on the bottom left of the page that says ‘go’. See it? Well, CLICK IT!