Today is a normal day. As normal as it can get for Gretchen Weiners.
7:00am. Her alarm blares at her, making her ears ring. Just five more minutes she thinks to herself, reaching out to press snooze. She inches closer and closer, not remembering her bed is now very small compared to her queen sized bed at home. As soon as she presses the button, she realises that she is falling, and unable to catch herself.
Her heart drops as she rolls onto the wooden floor of her dorm with a thump. She glances up at Karen (her roommate!), who is still sound asleep, softly snoring. Breathing a quick sigh of relief, Gretchen clammers back up, all the sleepiness disappeared from her body. How irritating. Now that she’s up, she may as well take a shower.
As she turns on the water, she can hear Karen slowly waking up too. The two of them had been lucky to land each other as roommates, considering Karen had barely made it out of highschool, let alone into a psychology course at the same college as Gretchen.
Hot water rolls off of her back, slipping down the drain. If it was a truly normal day, she would have relished this, but she is in a hurry. It’s all because of a stupid linguistics lecture she has at eight-thirty, and she wants a nice cup of coffee beforehand.
She’s about to turn the shower off when Karen opens the door to the bathroom.
“Gretchen?” She says, her voice croaky from being asleep, despite already being fully dressed.
“Yes, hun?”
“I’m going to get coffee. Do you want some?” She asks.
“Ooh, yes!” Gretchen smiles widely. “Just a latte?”
“Yep!” Karen grins back at her, turning on her heel and leaving. “I love you!”
“I love you too,”
Hopefully she’ll be back before her lecture.
When she finally turns off the shower, Gretchen starts completing the remainder of her morning routine. She dries off, and pulls on a dark-wash denim skirt and baby blue top. The sleeves are too long for her arms, but it doesn’t annoy her. She puts on a little concealer under her eyes and light mascara, nothing like she used to do back in high school.
Shoving on her shoes, she takes her backpack from beside her bed. As she’s about to leave, she notices Karen isn’t back yet. That’s odd. The coffee shop is just one block away.
7:56am. She waits patiently for a moment, checking the time on her phone every five seconds. She has to leave in twenty minutes if she wants to make it to the lecture on time, fifteen if she wants good seats. The all-too-familiar feeling of anxiety bubbles in her stomach with every minute passing. Gretchen’s known this awful feeling for years, and still hasn’t learnt how to shake it.
Wow, it’s been a while. Maybe she went to the Starbucks instead, that’s about ten minutes away, and it *always* has a line.
8:14am. I guess it’s time to get going. Gretchen groans, walking out the door, locking it behind her. Hopefully Karen remembered her key. Speaking of, Gretchen opens up her phone, shooting her a few texts.
To: Karen <3
[Gretchen]: Where are you?
[Gretchen]: I have to leave :( I’ll see you later?
Turning off her phone and throwing it in her bag, she races off to her lecture, pretending not to give it another thought.
Throughout her lecture, she finds herself waiting for a text or call, even though it might cause a scolding from the professor. God, she can’t take her mind off it, and trying to focus on taking notes is making it worse. Information going in one ear and out the other, weaving through dangerous thoughts she’s tried so hard to keep her mind away from.
Darkness seeps into her mind, slowly but surely.
What if she’s kidnapped? It’s broad daylight. Are you stupid?
What if she’s dead?
No!
Focus on your work! Or try and breathe properly!
Shaking, she leans over to the person beside her.
“How long do we have left?” She asks.
“An hour.”
Shit.
10:43am. As soon as the lecture is over, she’s out of the classroom, phone in hand. No new notifications have come up, so she tries again.
To: Karen <3
[Gretchen]: Hey are you in class??
[Gretchen]: Sorry I couldn’t wait
[Gretchen]: Pls don’t ignore me!
[Gretchen]: Where are you???
She sighs, putting her phone away. She’s learnt many times that sending a series of desperate texts doesn’t work. She doesn’t have another class until the afternoon, maybe she can look around campus to find her. She couldn’t have gone far, not without a car.
11:23am. After checking the dorm, Gretchen runs out to the courtyard just outside the library, Karen’s favourite spot to go. It’s bustling with people, but Karen has bright blonde hair and always wears heels, so she’s never hard to spot in a crowd.
She searches, dodging people left, right and centre. But she doesn’t seem to be there. So she checks her phone for maybe the sixtieth time, and still nothing. Not even an emoji.
Gretchen’s heart thumps loudly in her chest, adrenaline flooding her body. Where the hell is she! She doesn’t have classes this morning, and she isn’t in the dorm. Not knowing what to do, she decides to call Janis, who’s just in the next town over doing art school. She’s actually surprisingly good at calming people down.
“Gretchen? What’s wrong?” Janis says once she picks up.
“Karen… gone… don’t know what to do,” Gretchen stammers over her words, fighting for the air in her lungs.
“I’m going to need you to take deep breaths for me, okay?” Janis’s voice is concerned. “Do you have an idea of where she might be?”
“She went to get us coffee this morning, I haven’t seen her since! I’ve checked our room, and she’s not in her spot!”
“Have you checked inside the library?” Janis asks, and Gretchen pauses.
“No,” Gretchen ducks her head, even though Janis can’t see. How did she forget? “I’ll do that now. Thank you,”
“Text me when you find her, okay?” Janis hangs up. Great.
11:54am. Gretchen’s almost through the library door, when she gets a phone call from an unknown number. I cannot catch a break from devices today, can I? She laughs to herself. Clicking accept, she holds the phone to her ear.
“Is this Gretchen Wieners?”
“Yes?”
“We are calling to let you know that your friend, Karen Smith, is in the hospital.”
Gretchen thought she was going to be sick right then and there.
“Is… is she…” Gretchen’s eyes fill with tears, fearing the worst.
“She is alive.”
Thank god.
“She was hit by a car walking across the road. She’s just had a hip surgery, but she also has a minor concussion and a few grazes.” They explain, while Gretchen remains in a stunned silence. “Her parents were contacted, but ever since she woke up, she’s been asking for you. We would have called sooner, she doesn’t have you listed.”
“Oh-okay. I’ll be there as soon as possible.” Gretchen clicks off the call, relief washing through her. She is okay. She is okay!
To Group: Janis :), Regina :D, Damian, Karen <3, Cady :)
[Gretchen]: Guys
[Gretchen]: Karen’s in hospital
[Gretchen]: (alive, dw!!)
[Gretchen]: I’ll explain later
12:13pm. Gretchen kept her promise, and was there in thirteen minutes, no less. She can’t remember the events between when she got there, and when she got into Karen’s room. The moment she sees her all bundled in bandages and a bed hooked up to a million wires, she bursts into tears.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” The nurse who escorted her says, closing the door behind her.
Gretchen rushes to Karen’s side, grasping onto her hand and avoiding the I.V, she presses a kiss to her fingertips.
“Gretch,” Karen rasps out, tightening her grip.
“You weren’t answering my texts,” Gretchen sobs. Happiness? Anxiety? Relief? Who knows. “I was so worried,”
“I was at the shop, and then suddenly, a car hit me.” Karen states solemnly. “I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“It’s not your fault,” Gretchen laughs at the situation they are in, already getting antsy at all the beeping. The two of them talk over what happened, listening intently on each other’s side of the story. Turns out Karen was craving a caramel frappuccino, so she went all the way to Starbucks, only to wind up in a hospital bed.
Janis had rolled in about half an hour later, and Gretchen received several panicked calls from Cady, Regina and Damian confirming Karen was indeed alive and well.
8:49pm: Karen is already asleep, and Janis has gone for the day, and Gretchen is still wide awake thinking. If you had told her in the morning that she would have spent the whole day in a hospital next to Karen, she would have laughed at (and then seriously questioned) you. But now she's here.
So much for wanting a normal day.