The New Girl Next Door

Chapter 5

Kaylie’s POV

I slowly open my eyes and I’m in a room that isn’t my own. The lights in this room are extremely bright and vision is blurry, it is going to take a second for my eyes to adjust to everything. Where am I? My head is pounding, my side is aching, and I feel like I was hit by a bus. What happened to me?

My eyes start to focus, and I realize I am in a hospital. The memory of what I was doing last comes to my mind. How am I still alive? A bunch of questions swim around my head about how I ended up in the hospital, but it is only making my headache worse.

There is a whiteboard on the wall across from the bed that says Friday, April 4th, and the clock above it reads 3:48 PM. Have I really been out for two days? Tears fill my eyes and slowly slide down my face. I’m so glad I’m alive. What was I thinking?

I lay in bed for a second trying to wrap my head around everything that has happened when I hear light snoring and the sound of someone typing. My head turns to the right and I see both of my parents. My dad is sleeping on the chair in the corner, even though he is asleep I can see the pure exhaustion on his face, he has worn himself out worrying. More tears fall because I feel so guilty causing him all this stress. His pastime is worrying about me. He isn’t an overly protective father, he raised me to be tough, but that doesn’t stop him from worrying constantly. My mom is sitting in the chair next to him, typing away on her laptop. I’m not sure what she is doing, maybe work, maybe updating family members about, I don’t know. But what I do know is she looks like she is carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. This woman who is full of energy, looks like she is running on empty because of me. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has been up the entire time I have been here.

How could I do this to them? How could I do this to myself? But I need to focus on the fact that I am still alive. If I did succeed in my attempt, I would have destroyed them.

I muster up all my strength and say, “Mama.” But it is barely above a whisper.

Her eyes shoot up and they lock onto mine as she throws her laptop next to her. She shakes my dad never taking her eyes off of me. “Phil! Phil! Wake up!”

He stirs awake and asks in a groggy voice, “What Amy?” But then he sees. “Oh my God, Kaylie!” He quickly leaves the room and I assume he is going to find a doctor or nurse.

“What Amy... Oh my God, Kaylie!” my dad exclaimed before jumping out of his chair to go find a nurse.

My mom grabs my hand with tears rolling down her face. “Baby, why would you do something like this?”

However, the nurse is in my room checking my vitals before I can answer her. Once the nurse leaves the room, I tell my parents what happened and what led me to my attempt. I tell them everything from the party, to Toby breaking up with me, the harassment on social media, I don’t tell them about the actual page just that people said stuff online, the ridiculing comments in the halls, and the groping from random guys.

“I-is that where all the bruises on your chest and butt were from?” my dad stutters out. I nod and watch the anger grow on his face. He slams fist down onto the bed. “I can’t believe that f*****g school didn’t do anything, especially with a girl being sexually assaulted daily in their own halls.” My dad is not a violent or angry person, but right he looks ready to kill someone.

My mom places a hand over his fist and urges him to calm down before he starts scaring me. She turns her attention back to me and moves a piece of my hair out of my eye. “Kaylie, why didn’t you tell us what was going on?”

My teeth sink into my bottom lip while I look away from them. “I didn’t want you two to worry, I thought I could handle it on my own. I-it just got to be too much and I felt so alone.”

“What about Emma and Clair? Where were they during all of this?”

I sob into my hands. “They were there sticking up for me for a while, but a couple of months ago I pushed them away. I was worried that people would turn their abuse on to them for being associated with me. I couldn’t let that happen.”

She removes my hands from my face and my dad passes me a drink of water. “Oh sweetie, I get why you did that. But you can’t push people away who care about you, especially when you are struggling so much.”

I only nod. I know if I open my mouth I will start crying again. She sits down next to me and strokes my face. “You should give them a call later. I guarantee they miss you and would want to hear how you are doing.”

“Okay, I will call them later,” I assure her.

I look around the room wondering how I bring up the fact that I am still alive. How did I get to the hospital? I stammer, “So, I-I don’t want to be that person, but uh how am I alive? The two of you were at work and um wouldn’t have found me for hours?”

My dad slightly chuckles, which only confuses me more. Not sure what is funny about a suicide attempt, but okay, Dad. He finally says, “Uh that would have been Jar Jar.”

I raise my brows at him. “Wait, what? The dog found me. What does that even mean?”

“Well, I guess Jar Jar found you unconscious on the bathroom floor and started pawing at your side to wake you up. When he realized you weren’t responding he started doing it harder and harder in the same spot. He could sense something was wrong and started barking very loudly over and over again. Luckily, Jim was outside getting his mail and heard him. He used his key and went to check on him. That is when he found you unconscious, foaming at the mouth, had four deep scratch marks across your side, and the open bottle on top of the sink. Jim then proceeded to call 911.”

I am alive because of my dog. Wasn’t expecting to hear that. Well, Jar Jar is officially the goodest of good boys out there. I look down my gown and see a bandage covering what looks to be four stitched-up cuts that span across the right side of my ribs and abdomen. I sarcastically say, “I told you that he needed his nails trimmed.”

My dad and I laugh while my mom rolls her eyes, signaling to us that we are missing the point before she laughs herself. My dad and I have always had this kind of relationship, we constantly joke around and tell each other things straight up. Mom doesn’t find it amusing most of the time.

After that, my parents and I talked about what would be the best course of action for me, especially with finishing my junior year. However, I found myself drifting off and it was becoming harder to keep my eyes open. We decided we would finish this conversation later so I could get some rest.

#

I have been in the hospital now for two days, well two days awake. I am supposed to leave in three days. When I woke up, I was placed on a seventy-two-hour hold to ensure I was no longer a danger to myself, which is understandable. This has given them time to figure out medication for depression and anxiety, and time to meet with a therapist before I start my six weeks of outpatient therapy when I leave this place.

Gosh, I can’t wait to leave this place because hospitals are so boring and the food sucks. Well, the food sucks because they have me on a strict diet because of the damage I did to myself. The past two days have been an all-liquid diet, yum. I have to keep down solids before I am allowed to leave but I won’t start those until tomorrow. I can’t believe I have three more days of this. Maybe, some television will help my boredom.

I flip through the channels and luckily find one that is playing reruns of Friends, my favorite, I guess I can manage. Just when Phoebe finds out the truth about the movie Old Yeller, I hear two familiar voices in the hallway.

“Hey Kay,” Emma and Claire say in unison as they enter my room.

I smile. “Hey guys, come here and lay with me. Friends is on,” I shift over to make room for them. Honestly, this bed isn’t large enough for the three of us, but we will make it work.

They both make their way to bed and sit on either side of me. They give me a look because they know I am trying to avoid the topic at hand. “Okay, fine. We can talk about it,” I mumble because I really want to ignore it.

Emma sniffles wiping her nose, “Why did you push us away? And why didn’t you call or text one of us before you opened that bottle? You know we would have been there in a second.”

“I pushed you guys away because I was worried that you two would start experiencing the same s**t I was just because we’re friends. I wanted to protect you guys. And honestly, after my fight with Paige, I wasn’t thinking clearly,” I cry while Claire rubs my shoulder and Emma holds my hand.

Claire pulls me into a hug. “Kay, you are always thinking of others, you have to start focusing on yourself. Also, we could have handled it, and if it started happening the three of us would have stuck together. We get why you did it, but we are upset that you did.”

“I know, and I’m so sorry for doing that to you two. Thanks for coming to see me today. I have really missed you two and I love you both.”

Emma smiles. “And we love you.”

“Honestly, I still can’t believe you broke Paige’s nose.” Claire laughs trying to be lighthearted and brighten the mood.

“Well, the b***h had it coming.”

“Dude, I heard she is getting a nose job to fix it, and she is getting the same nose as Becky.” Emma blurts out while Claire and I are laughing.

Claire adds, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Beth goes and gets her nose fixed too.” Emma and I nod in agreement.

“Okay, but seriously Kay, how are you doing?” Emma asks with concern in her eyes and once she asks Claire has the same look on her face.

“I’m doing a lot better. I woke up on Friday grateful that I was alive. I never want to do something like that again. I really want to get better. I am currently on meds and I started meeting with a therapist.”

Claire asks, “What about school? Do you know if anyone is getting in trouble?”

“As of right now, I don’t think anyone is getting held responsible. The school wants proof that I was being bullied and harassed. Well, we don’t have any, I didn’t tell my parents about the page cause a lot of s**t would happen if the school found out about it. But my father is pissed about me being assaulted and no one was stopping it. They told my parents they're going to create an assembly to talk about how assaulting people is bad, which is bullshit it won’t change anything.”

She stutters as she asks the next. She already knows the answer but needs me to confirm it. “A-are you coming back to school?”

I shake my head. “No, I’m not. I will finish this year off at home. The school is converting things over to online programs for me and if I need to come to the school for something I just work in the office. But after that, I-I’m moving, my parents are looking at a house right now.” I look down, twiddling my thumbs because I’m not sure how they will respond to the news.

They don’t say anything. I look up and both of them are visibly upset. Emma cries, “I’m sorry Kaylie. I wish it didn’t have to come to this.”

“I know, me neither. But that school isn’t going to do anything to protect me. It’s the only option.”

“We know, and we understand why you need to go. Doesn’t change the fact that we are going to miss you.” Claire sighs, running her fingers through her hair, and looking around the room to keep herself from crying.

“Hey, you guys, it will be fine. The house that my parents are looking at is only thirty minutes away. We can still see each other, and this place has a pool,” I say trying to comfort the two of them. The two of them smile at me.

We spent the rest of the night talking, laughing, and binging episodes of Friends. I am going to seriously miss seeing the two of them all the time. But I am so thankful that they are still here and have my back even when I tried shutting them out.

#

It has been four months since my attempt. Moving was the best option for me. But all that means in a few weeks I am going to be the new girl. I’m super nervous about starting over at a new school and not knowing anyone. I just hope this year is better than last year. I’m over high school, so I just want to do what I need to do to get into a good university. But I might know one person when I start my senior year, my next-door neighbor, so I guess that’s a good thing. Dad has been going to the new house a few times each week over the past couple of weeks, bringing some things with him to reduce the amount of stuff we have to put in the moving truck. He had the opportunity to meet our new next-door neighbors and their son, Jake, who is the same age as me and will be in my class. I really hope this Jake guy isn’t an asshole, I have already dealt with enough of those for a lifetime.

I drive down the new street I will be living on with windows down blasting country music. I have been to the new house already, but my stomach is in knots knowing this is it. As I am pulling into my driveway, I can see someone sitting on the front porch of the house next to us. He is smoking a cigarette and texting; I am going to assume that is Jake. From here I can tell he is tall and fit. He has thick dark, brown hair and is tan. Exactly what I need right now, tall, dark, and handsome.