Chapter 3

Zach’s POV

“Aria! Aria!” I screamed as the ambulance carried her away.

“Dude, the princess will be okay.” Finn tried to console me as he held me back.

“She was fucking attacked at school! You don’t understand! Nothing can happen to her! She’s my best friend!” I screamed in his face.

“Come on, I’ll go with you to the hospital, I’m sure she’ll just have a concussion, nothing too serious.” He tried to reassure me.

“Yeah, yeah, you have to be right. She’ll be perfectly fine. Damn, how did this even happen? They don’t even have the identity of the attacker because they somehow messed with the camera feeds. Who even does that and why?” I thought aloud.

“Who knows? But I think you’re overreacting.” Marcus clapped my back before we climbed into my car and I sped off to the hospital where her mother works, St. James Hospital. God, I hope we don’t run into her.

Every red light felt like torture as traffic crawled at a snail’s pace.

Aria’s POV

My eyes felt dry and crusty as I tried to blink the gross feeling away. What the hell happened to me? Where am I?

“Doctor! Doctor!! She’s waking up!” A deep male voice yelled from next to me.

Bright light assaulted my vision as I finally blinked up to a blonde hair, blue eye angel next to me.

“Excuse me, who are you? Are you an angel, am I dead? I didn’t realize death hurt so much.” I said in a hoarse voice.

“Haha, Aria, you’re not allowed to play a prank on me after being asleep for a week.” He said.

I frowned, Aria? Is that…me?

His eyes widened and he yelled for the doctor again, “Doctor!”

“Do you have some water?” I coughed as the dry, itchy feeling in my throat strengthened.

“Yes, yes, let me get you some water.” He shot up and ran out of the room, nearly barreling over a nurse as she entered the room.

“You gave him quite the scare, little slut, you must give it to him a lot.” She chuckled dryly, “Aria, what bullshit are you trying to pull?”

My mouth dropped at how she was speaking to me; do I know her?

“Nurse, what’s going on? Why are you talking to me like that?” I asked in hurt confusion.

“Nurse? Aria don’t play stupid, you know who I am. For fucks sake, more trouble than you’re worth.” She spat out right before a man in a white coat walked in. “Ah, Miss Montgomery, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

“Are you the doctor?” I asked dumbly and still in shock over the nurse’s harsh words.

“Doctor, she’s acting like she can’t remember me, surely she’s being dramatic.” The woman said sweetly to him, doing a complete one-eighty from how she spoke to me.

“Yes Aria, I’m Doctor Smith. Well, there was brain trauma which is why it took so long for you to wake up, you had a pretty nasty bruise on the back of your head from blunt force trauma.” He turned to the nurse and said, “it’s possible to have amnesia after such nasty hit.” He opened his mouth to continue talking when the blonde man ran back in the room and thrust the cup of water at my face.

“Thank you,” I whispered before grabbing the cup and slowly sipping it. When I finished, I crumpled the paper cup until my knuckles turned white. Why the fuck was this happening to me? Who are these people?

The blonde guy dragged his right hand through his hair, mussing it up and began to pace.

“Calm down boy, everything will be alright.” The nurse told him.

“Doctor, Mrs. Montgomery, can I speak to Aria alone for a minute?” The blonde asked.

The nurse’s lips tightened, and she glanced at the doctor before giving a curt nod.

“Aria, what’s going on?” He asked.

“Nobody is familiar to me, though you and the nurse seem to know me.” I whispered, still in shock.

“That nurse is your piece of shit mother.” He spat as I closed my eyes for a minute to gather my thoughts.

Who is he to me? I opened my eyes and asked, “are you my boyfriend?”

His face turned red, and he looked away, “no, we’re just friends.”

“I see.” I mumbled embarrassed that I even asked.

“Aria, I heard the doctor say something about amnesia. Are you sure you don’t remember me? I’m Zach, your best friend. Come on Aria, remember!” He kneeled down and touched the back of my cheek with his hand, causing an electrical current to run through me, make me shiver and I gasped in surprise.

I looked into his eyes, and he seemed oblivious to what just happened. Now I’m imagining things.

“Zach, I don’t know you. I need to be alone right now.” I told him.

The nurse, or I guess my mother, walked back into the room without the doctor and she smirked at me, “get out of here boy, I need to speak to my daughter.”

Zach looked at me warily. “It’s okay,” I told him. He got up from kneeling and walked out of the room, giving one last backward glance.

My mother flew across the room to me and gripped me by my tender scalp, as soon as he left, “I don’t know what game you’re playing but this isn’t going to fly. You’re getting discharged and I’m taking you home. You better hope to God that you really did get amnesia because if I find out you’re trying to make a fool of me, I’ll send you to an early grave.”

“You’re hurting me!” I cried out as she laughed.

“Get up Aria, you’ve got a long road to recovery.” She bit out sarcastically.

What fresh hell did I fall into?