Oh my gosh. It was a miracle from the heavens! Ariana broke free from her coma! Somebody! Pinch me!

Although that I said that in my brain, I felt a pinch on my cheek. I let out a yelp and massaged the area. My girlfriend and I were the only people in the room, and neither she nor I pinched my cheek.

"Derek," I hissed.

Derek appeared next to me and loomed over. He chuckled. "What is the matter, Daniel? Are you mad that I pinched you?"

"I am not mad. I hissed your name because I did not want Ariana to hear me. Only then will she corner me."

He made the pinching gesture with his thumb and finger. "Do you know why I gave you one of my famous pinches?"

"They are not famous. They are pretty annoying to put up with. And no. Why did you pinch me?"

He was taken aback by my question. "Have you seriously forgotten that I have the ability to read human minds? You wanted someone to pinch you, and I volunteered."

I felt like a complete idiot. "That is correct. My bad. And just for the record, I was being sarcastic. I did not desire to be pinched literally."

"I know that. I just wanted to mess with you."

Ariana was stretching every part of her body. Her arms. Her thumbs and fingers. Her legs and feet and toes. She had her eyes shut while she was awakening her body and reopened her eyes. The lights in the room blinded her, and she shielded herself using her arm.

"Ariana?" I said, hoping that I would not startle her.

When her sight adjusted to the bright lights, she shifted her head to me. Her voice was weak as she spoke.

"Daniel?"

"Yes, Ariana. It is me. You are in the hospital and out of your coma."

"Co...coma?"

I nodded slowly. "Laila explained to me that you were not feeling like yourself while we were running in the woods. She said that you collapsed, and when we brought you to the Forlot hospital, the doctor who is assigned to you confirmed that you were in a coma."

"Laila...Laila!" Ariana sat up straight, and her stomach heaved. "Is she here? Is she with you?"

"Shh." I held her face in my hands. "Calm down. Your sister is here in the hospital. Did you know that she has a boyfriend?"

"You mean her boyfriend Liam? Yeah. I was going to tell you about him later today, but..."

I stood up from my seat. "I will fetch her and Liam. Laila will be over the moon when she sees that you are wide awake."

I was about to go, but my girlfriend grasped my wrist.

"Before you bring her here...I...I need to admit something to you. Something...that I am not proud of."

I was a little surprised by what she said. "Does it have to be now? Not trying to be rude or anything, but you just woke up from a coma. You need to recover and be surrounded by those who love you."

"It is important, Daniel. Please. I need to get this off my chest."

"If you say that it is important..." I sat back down.

As you should already know from reading books, playing video games, and watching shows and movies, if there is a secret that is being kept from people who should have knowledge of it, the secret will not be revealed until the very end. Stinks when that happens, does it not? Well, guess what? Our writer is not like that and gets to the plot twist as soon as possible without revealing it early. Writers should definitely take after our writer because she does things right.

The only words that Ariana could say were that Laila was not aware of her cancer before there was a loud knock on the open door. It was Liam, and behind him was Laila. Laila exclaimed her older sister's name and pushed past her boyfriend. She ran to her and embraced her in a hug.

"Thank the good Lord," Laila said. "Liam convinced me to see you again. You probably cannot imagine my surprise when I witnessed you talking with Daniel." She pulled away. "I do pray that you recover soon so that you will attend the show tomorrow night."

"Wait. There is a show tomorrow night?" I questioned her.

"That is right," Ariana answered, her voice cracking. She turned her head back to me. "That is what I was going to tell you, Daniel, before Laila and Liam came in. Laila has a performance. She is in the orchestra and plays the trumpet."

Her sister smiled at me. "I am the lead trumpet player in one of the pieces of music. I was afraid that my big sister would not make it."

"You could have recorded the performance," Liam suggested.

I stayed silent for a few minutes and stared at the happy reunion. Something was not right.

"What are you thinking about?" Derek whispered to me. I forgot that he was still in the room.

"I...I think that Ariana lied to me," I whispered back.

Allow me to explain to you readers why I thought that my girlfriend had lied. She mentioned that her younger sister was unaware of the fact that she had brain cancer and a tumor. You could argue that Ariana was planning on telling me about Laila's performance next, and I will admit that is a fair point. But let me ask you this. Why would Ariana tell me that the performance was the only topic that she wanted to discuss? Whatever happened to Laila not knowing that her sister had cancer?

Maybe I am complicating the situation.

Laila and Liam insisted that they grab snacks for Ariana and left the room. I confronted my girlfriend.

"You said that Laila does not know of your cancer. Why keep it from her?"