| Fan Fiction |
by Vivien
Giving up on the weather, Selena dragged herself into the kitchen to make herself some lunch. Salad would be nice, Selena decided. At least it was the safest. With the bad luck she is having and her cooking abilities, cooking any type of meet would result in the meat being raw and she’d probably end up in the hospital with food poisoning. Yes, she was trying to get to the hospital in this terribly weather, but she didn’t like getting there by an ambulance.
Selena placed the lettuce onto the cutting board and began cutting them into bits. Slowly, she found herself zoning off. Her friend was terminally ill in the hospital and she just stole from her best friend, but so what? Even if the sky came falling on her, she could handle it.
Suddenly, she found the knife digging into her finger and a red substance came rushing onto her lettuce. “What is going on?” She cursed the unpleasant events that were happening. Brushing away the tears that fell uncontrollable, she told herself not to cry. “Don’t worry, Selena. You’ve seen worse. It’ll be alright. Everything will be alright. You just have to believe.”
Bandaging herself up and finishing off her salad, Selena smiled for the first time in weeks. The sun was finally out, shining brighter than ever before. Selena knew she has reached the bottom of the well. Nothing can get worse. Everything will only go uphill from here.
-
“Hello Miss Li,” the nurse greeted. Selena had been visiting the hospital so frequently that almost all the staff in that department could recognize her. Selena forced a smile but continued off without a word.
As she approached the familiar room, doctors and nurses were rushing in and out, a sight she did not want to see. “What’s happening? Is the patient alright?” she stopped one of the nurses to find out about the situation.
“Don’t interfere with the doctor’s work,” the nurses quickly answered before rushing off.
As the nurses rolled the patient out, the doctor briefly explained the situation to Selena. “The patient’s condition has worsened. We need to do an operation immediately.”
Selena sunk herself on the chair outside the operation room. This has happened so many times that she can barely remember how many times she’s sat on this chair.
-
Down at the Accident and Emergency department, the deafening voice of a young man earned him uninvited attention. “Cheung Sir, is it? Don’t listen to what she has to say. She’s just a prostitute.”
“I don’t care if she’s a prostitute, everyone has their rights. What’s your name?” the policeman asked.
“Sammul Chan.”
“Sir, why are you asking him first?” the girl asked, “You should be asking me first. Look what he did to me, he disjointed my arm. And I’m not a prostitute, for your information.”
“If you aren’t so promiscuous, you wouldn’t have come up to me randomly to whisper into my ears.”
“If you aren’t so abusive, you wouldn’t have disjointed my arm,” she fought back.
“You gave me a black eye! It’s called natural reflexes.”
“Mr. Chan, is it?” the nurse interrupted, “Come with me, the doctor will take a look at your eye for you.”
-
After prescribing his medication, Sammul wandered the hospital in search for the girl responsible for his black eye. However, his vengeance seemed to have faded when he caught sight of a familiar girl. “Isn’t that Benny’s girlfriend? What is she doing here?”
“Hey Selena,” Sammul greeted, sitting down beside her, “What are you doing here? Did you get a chance to talk to Benny after the time we met that crazy man at the café? What was his name again? Wayne Lai, was it? So? Did Benny tell you about it?”
“Stop talking! Can you be quiet for a while?” Selena knew she was rude but couldn’t help herself from doing it.
“Sorry ...” Sammul apologized, “Is anything wrong? Oh, is the patient in there someone you know?” Sammul looked up at the bright red operation sign. Seeing that Selena was in no mood to reply, Sammul left her alone.
Moments later, Sammul came back. “Coffee?” he asked, handing her a cup of nice warm coffee. Successfully handing the coffee to her, Sammul sat down beside Selena, giving her a comforting pat on the back.
In all the trouble she’s been experiencing, Selena found Sammul to be the only one able to lift her mood. A pat on the back and a coffee was all she needed. Nothing more. “Sorry,” Selena finally managed to say.
“Sorry?” Sammul acted as though he had forgotten everything, “Sorry about what?”
Selena smiled for the second time that day. “You know what I’m talking about.” Looking up at him, Selena finally realized that his eye was bruised. “What happened to your eye? Is that why you’re here at the hospital?”
“Don’t even remind me about it,” Sammul had a lot to complain about, “I was minding my own business, waiting for the bus to come. Out of nowhere, this prostitute comes up to me. Of course I’m not that type of person, right? So I told her to find someone else and she gives me a black eye! Oh, that’s right. I was looking for her just now. I’ll see you around!”
“Bye,” Selena waved.
Before disappearing, Sammul turned around to make one last statement. “If you need anything, call me up.”
-
Out on the streets, Sammul could feel pairs of eyes staring at him. “What wrong have I ever done?” he mumbled to himself. It must’ve been someone’s bad luck rubbing off onto him. Taking a few steps forward, Sammul proudly stepped over a banana peel. But the feeling of success was overshadowed by the feeling of defeat when a chunk of white sticky mixture landed on his shoulder. Looking into the sky, he watched as the bird flew by.
By now, he’s had it. Each time someone snickered at him, he wanted to find a hole to hide in. However, seeing that even the approaching kid was laughing at him, Sammul decided to give the child his death glare. Staring intently at the boy, Sammul found himself jump back an inch for the phone in his pocket was vibrating. Off in the distance, the laughter of the child slowly faded.
“Talk,” Sammul spoke into the phone.
“Where on earth are you?” Benny’s voice’s was a whisper.
“Can you talk louder? I’m on my way to the library. Are you done picking up your books?”
“Yes, how long will you be? I’m starving.”
“I’m standing in front of you.”
The two hung up their phone.
-
Benny aimed carefully before clapping his hands together to kill the fly. “I can’t believe you’re so cheap. I knew it wasn’t a good idea to let you treat me to dinner. By the way, what happened to your eye?”
“What’s wrong with the food court? The environment isn’t the best but the food here is unbeatable. And let’s not talk about my eye, alright?”
“The food is unbeatable or the price of the food?” Benny teased.
“I don’t understand you. How are you enjoying dinner when your girlfriend’s in the hospital?”
“Selena’s in the hospital? Is she alright? When did you see her?” Benny asked question after question.
“Yes, she’s alright. As for her friend, I’m not sure.” Sammul chugged down the cup of beer to cool down. “Hey, look. Isn’t that Selena’s friend?”
Benny looked up to see Tavia and Ron. He wasn’t in the mood to see his psychiatrist. Not when she’s going to deny the fact that the world will come to an end. It took him a long time to accept the fact that he was the dreamer. He was excited about this game and he wasn’t going to let her logic ruin it for him.
“See Benny,” Sammul interrupted his thoughts, “Eating at the food court doesn’t mean being cheap.”
Tavia spoke before Benny could clear his thoughts to reply, “I’m just broke.” Turning to Ron, “You find a seat first. I need to use the washroom.”
“Why don’t you join us?” Benny offered, “She’s a doctor, what does she mean she’s broke?”
Ron sat down. “Bad luck, I suppose.” Ron debated for a while before deciding he needed to tell somebody about it, “Promise you won’t tell anyone if I told you.” Benny and Sammul nodded in agreement. “Her best friend ...” Ron paused.
“What?” the two said in unison.
“Which is your girlfriend,” Ron directed at Benny, “She took all of Tavia’s money. When Tavia called her, she wouldn’t let us know where she was.”
“Took?” Sammul blurted out, “That’s not called taking, that’s called stealing. And I was being nice to her today by ...” Benny nudged him and Sammul took it as a sign to stop.
“Over here,” Ron waved to Tavia, “You don’t mind eating with them right? There’s no other seat.”
Tavia shook her head and sat down to look at the menu.
-
Benny stood outside the hospital, debating whether he should step in. The Selena he knew wasn’t someone that would harm her best friend that way. Yet, he couldn’t help but to question her loyalty to him. In the end, he decided to look for her. He wanted to know what was going on. He wanted to hear both sides of the story. After all, she was his girlfriend and he wanted to trust her.
The hospital was big and looking for someone mindlessly wasn’t helping the situation. Benny could recall Sammul telling him that Selena was waiting outside an operation room when he met her just yesterday. The intensive care unit was the first thing that popped in mind.
“Sorry Sir,” a nurse greeted, “This is the intensive care unit. If you are visiting someone, please be dressed before entering the patient’s room. Do you know which room number you are looking for?”
In the midst of shaking his head, Benny managed to see Selena sitting by the bedside of a patient. “Someone’s already in there,” Benny pointed, “I’ll wait out here. Don’t worry, I won’t go in.” The nurse nodded and returned to her duties.
Building up his courage, Benny knocked on the window. When Selena turned around, he waved her out. After some hesitation, Selena came out. “How did you know I was here?” Selena asked, “Did Sammul tell you?”
Benny nodded, “I also know about Tavia’s situation. Did you really take all her money? Why didn’t you just ask her? Or better yet, you could’ve asked me. You know I would help you.”
Upon hearing those words, Selena look him into her arms to caress him. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Pulling her away, “Can you tell me what happened?”
Selena turned to look at the man in the room, “He’s my ex-boyfriend. I didn’t want to tell you because I don’t want you to have any sort of misunderstanding. And I know Tavia didn’t like the way he used to treat me. I know she won’t help him.”
“But you didn’t have to steal ...”
“I didn’t plan to. I chanced upon the box under Tavia’s bed. I wasn’t expecting the large sum of money I found. I didn’t know what I could do, I was lost and confused. And I really need the money ...”
Benny brought her into an embrace to stop her from guilt tripping herself. He knew she wasn’t completely at fault. People don’t realize what they’ve done when unpleasant things come firing at them. What she needs to do now is face the consequences of her mistake. She can’t be avoiding her friends all the time, especially when this was her best friend. She can’t hide from her mistakes forever.
-
Copyright by Vivien. August 19, 2010.
-
Author’s Note:
Surprise! A chapter mainly dedicated to Selena and Sammul! You didn’t expect me to update this story did you? If you’ve read my update for Next yesterday, you’ll know that I’ve managed to get my accounts reactivated. I know most of you would rather read Community Service but you’d read this story as well, right? Well, I found this story on page nine of Winglin’s index so I figured I should update it before it gets deleted. So this chapter might be a little shorter than usual. Community Service will be updated in a few days, probably early next week. Enjoy!