"NO! I don't wanna go!" The clanging sound of metal on metal could be heard clear across the entire third floor as the single occupant of room #331 threw bedpans, trays and any other object she could find across the room at the nurse.
"What is going on?" Jessica cried as she ducked into the room. The young nurse's face was set in a scowl as she tried to explain. "Jesus Christ! Your daughter is crazy, lady! This is the first time I've ever seen someone fight to stay in the hospital!"
Jessica sighed and looked at her daughter. "Saige honey, don't you want to go home?" She asked sweetly.
"NO!" Saige shouted back, crossing her arms in front of her chest like an ill-tempered child.
"Why not?"
"I'm not going anywhere until I get to see Aidan." She stated firmly.
"Saige I told you…"
"I don't care!"
"Would you like me to get security?" The nurse suggested.
Jessica studied her daughter for only a moment before she agreed. Saige went into a fit again. "I can't leave! Aidan is here! Mom, how could you do this to me!?" Her eyes spewed daggers of hatred at her, like it was the ultimate betrayal.
"Do what?" Jessica snapped.
"Keep me from seeing Aidan!"
"Honey, you don't want to see that boy. He's scum. Now get dressed or the security will drag you outside in that hospital gown, for all the reporters to see…"
"MOM!"
"I mean it, Saige! We're going home!" And with that Jessica turned around, muttering to herself, on the verge of crying. She couldn't understand why her daughter - her own flesh and blood - didn't want to come home with her. Did she hate her? Why would she want to stay with some boy who'd taken advantage of her instead of her own family? It didn't make any sense.
Saige was sobbing into her pillow when Jessica returned with Eric and a security guard, but she was fully dressed.
"Come on," The guard said, stepping up to the girl with the nurse.
"Let's get her into the wheelchair."
"I don't need a wheelchair!" Saige snapped suddenly, bolting upright on the bed. "I can walk!"
"Not while I'm around," The nurse declared, "You've still got several fractures that haven't completely healed. It's bad enough that you've been throwing things around all afternoon!"
"I don't care." Saige seethed. "I want to see Aidan."
"Well Aidan doesn't want to see you." Eric said, stepping up. "Don't you think that if he did he would have come to see you?"
Saige stared at him, her mouth dropping open. A fresh set of tears welled up in her eyes. "How could you say that…?" She whimpered, her voice breaking as she stumbled over the words. She looked at her mother to defend her, but Jessica just raised her chin and said, "He's got a point."
"NO!" Saige shrieked, leaping off the bed and grabbing the food cart from next to the bed. It took all her strength for her to hurl it in her parents' direction and it toppled over at their feet.
The security guard grabbed her from behind and placed her, kicking and screaming, in the wheelchair. Saige's legs flailed wildly as she was dropped rather unceremoniously into the chair and strapped her in.
"I hate you!" She hissed at her parents. She didn't even seem to care that Jessica's eyes welled up with tears, and Eric went off on some mindless tangent.
The nurse rolled her carefully out the door, leading the way to the exit. Saige sat there, arms crossed in front of her and face scrunched up in anger, silently oozing hatred towards the adults.
They took her down the elevator and into the front lobby, where outside a swarm of reporters awaited her. Saige didn't even bother to acknowledge them as her parents and the nurse fought their way through the crowd for her. In minutes they were in the car, and she was carefully buckled in, and they were on their way back to Hamilton.
"You're an ungrateful brat, you know that?" Eric was saying, "I mean, all you ever do is think about yourself! What about us? We've gone through a lot while you were gone. Your mother…"
"Eric…" Jessica sighed, but he continued.
"…Was a wreck and I had to deal with her whining all the time, and those damned reporters were always over asking for interviews, and the cops had us at the station every weekend!"
Saige couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was selfish? Her? And that poor baby Eric, for having to deal with a grieving mother for a month.
"ME!" Saige shrieked indignantly. "I cannot believe you would dare say this to me, ME! You say you've been through a lot! You act like I ran away. Like me being kidnapped was some grand inconvenience to you. Well let me clue you in, pal. While you were supposedly looking for me, I was tortured, and chained to a bed with one tiny meal a day, and raped by a fat asshole almost as intolerable as you are! So don't talk to me about your problems!"
Eric slammed his foot on the brakes, his face red with rage, and turned to scream at her some more.
"Eric don't you dare talk to her like that!" Jessica.
Finally, mom figures out what's going on… Saige rolled her eyes.
Eric turned to her and the two engaged themselves in a screaming fit. Saige tuned them out and stared out the window, watching the cars pass by. She wasn't even aware of the tears running down her face until a single salty drop weaved its way into her mouth. She sniffled, wiped them away, and kept her arms crossed protectively in front of her until finally, the argument ended with her mother and Eric both silently fuming.
Eric drove recklessly all the way into Barry, where he stopped and offered to buy them ice cream. It always ended this way, with him trying to buy their forgiveness. It appalled her, really. It was an insult to her integrity: something Eric knew nothing about. And it depressed her how quickly things had returned to 'normal'.
In another hour, Saige saw the familiar sign announcing that they were arriving in Hamilton. Home sweet home… She thought bitterly. She looked to her right and saw the steel mills steadily puffing out smoke. They crossed the skyway bridge, and entered the city. Eric manoeuvred his way onto 'The Linc' and followed it all the way back to their apartment.
The elevator was still as slow as ever, and the buttons were still sticky. She didn't know why she'd expecting something like that to have changed after only a month. Maybe she thought it had been longer.
Her mother opened the door; she still fumbled around for ten minutes trying to find the right one. She had a collection of over twenty key rings at the moment. The door creaked, and she stepped inside. Exactly the same; right down to the smell.
Saige carefully crept down the hallway and opened her bedroom door.
"I left it exactly how you left it." Her mother told her, "So you'd be comfortable when you came back."
Saige looked around the room. It hadn't changed. Her book was still lying face up and open on her bed, her CD player was open on the floor, and there were clothes sprawled over the entire room; slumped over chairs, bunched at the foot of her bed, or hanging out of drawers. Not one thing had moved.
"That's great mom…" She murmured, stepping inside the room. "But it's not very comfortable."
"What? Should I have cleaned it for you?" Jessica blinked.
Saige shook her head.
"Then what?"
"I'm just not the same person anymore…"
It was all Jessica got before the door closed in her face.
Saige took one look around her room and grimaced. For one thing, the walls and ceiling were white. That would have to be changed immediately. For another, there were teddy bears and magazines piled high on her desk. She no longer found comfort in trying to be a normal teenaged girl. She realized now that she had never been stereotypically normal. Maybe she was just realizing now who she really was.
Whatever the reason, the first thing she did was stuff anything that she felt didn't reflected her personality into her closet: the place of no return. Secondly, she rearranged all her furniture and made plans to get some paint for her room in the morning. She pushed her bed into the corner against the wall. She hated the way it jutted out into the middle of the room the way the bed in Edgar's room had. Then the rest of her furniture: a desk, dresser and bookshelf, followed suit. She clumped them all closely together so she had more floor space. Then she cleaned it, and even vacuumed, and sat down on her bed to admire her work. It would take some time, but maybe eventually she could turn it into a sanctuary that didn't remind her of her crappy life or her time spent in Edgar's cabin.
Outside, she heard her mom and Eric yelling again. It was probably about her, although she didn't care to listen. She never listened when they fought anymore. It hardly irked her at all. She just stuck her favourite CD into her CD player and then, after discovering she hated it, chose another one and sank down on her bed.
In the morning, Saige awoke with the sun, before anyone else was up, and made herself pancakes for breakfast. She sat down at the table and tried to eat them, but found that she couldn't finish more than one. Just the thought of food was making her sick. Her stomach almost immediately tried to purge itself of the nourishment, and Saige sprinted to the bathroom, making it just in time.
She paid homage to the porcelain goddess three times before she made it back to the kitchen and contented herself instead, with a glass of water.
She groaned and rubbed her head as she stumbled back to her room and tried to find something suitable to wear. She picked out her favourite baggy black jeans, and a black shirt with fishnet sleeves. Her long golden hair she kept loose, and grabbed her black and white chucks as she left. She quickly scribbled a note to her mom so she wouldn't find the cops at her house when she returned and walked out the door.
Thank God for summer vacation, she thought happily as she walked to the bus stop. Even though the rest of the kids were finishing up the last of her exams, it was kind of pointless for her to write them now. And so, she got off school a week early. Summer was a beautiful thing. The sun was high and warm on her face, and Saige enjoyed being outside for the first time since she and Aidan had escaped from Edgar's cabin.
Aidan… Even the mere thought of his name depressed her. She missed him so much, and she wanted him to be with her while she tried to make sense of her life again. But he was miles away, and she might never see him again.
The bus arrived, and she took it all the way downtown to Gore Park. The first thing she did upon arrival was go to Cheapies for some decent CDs. She didn't know how she ever listened to the ones she had.
It felt good to go on a shopping spree and to buy something for herself. And she even went and found some paint for her room.
Her stomach was acting up all day, though, and by the time she got back home after the long bus ride, she thought she might throw up again.
"Saige! Where the hell have you been?" Jessica cried as she walked back in the house.
"I left a note." Saige replied monotonously as she continued on her way to her room.
"We were so worried!" Jessica gasped.
"I'm sure you were…" Saige muttered under her breath.
"After all that's happened, Saige, I would prefer it if you didn't go off alone. At least, not for a little while…"
"Well, I don't give a damn what you'd prefer." Saige grumbled.
"Saige! What is wrong with you?" Jessica questioned. "You never used to be so…snarky."
Saige shuddered, that word, 'snarky', had always annoyed her. "I told you yesterday, mother, I'm not the same person anymore. We're both gonna have to get used to it!"
And Jessica was once again dismissed with a door in her face.
