At around 7:30, Mia knew it was time to get up. With only fifteen minutes left, they had almost run out of time. Mia sighed, not wanting to get up.

Blake looked over at her before he caught sight of the clock. Blake sighed as well when he saw the time. "I guess we should actually get up now," he grumbled, his dark green eyes staring at her curiously, seeming to search for something in her eyes. It was kind of weird.

"What are you thinking about," she asked. Blake visibly shook his head, seeming to shake himself out of his daze.

"Nothing," he lied. Mia could tell he was lying. It was obvious by his posture and the tenseness she could see in his muscles.

"Okay? If I was more stubborn right now I wouldn't let you get away with that but I'm really tired so I'll talk to you about it later and you know that I won't forget," she told him.

"I know," he told her.

"Good." Mia sat up in the bed slowly, unable to move faster due to all of her injuries.

"Here, let me help," Blake offered, getting up and walking across the tiles to her side of the small, yet surprisingly soft, bed.

"Okay." She hated that she needed help but if she had to get it from anyone, she'd rather it be him than anybody else.

Blake picked her up bridal style as he had now done so many times before. She tried not to show how much she loved it.

He carried her over to her wheelchair and set her down gently. Mia had talked to her dad earlier and they'd decided that she had to go home. Had it been up to her, she would have stayed at Blake's house so that she could have a friend.

Mia grabbed her back pack from the chair next to her bed, where her dad had placed it. Her dad walked into the small room a few seconds later, making the door creak as it opened.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked, looking around in search of anything she might have missed.

"Yep," she said, trying to smile. At least I get to go home today, she thought, trying to stay positive.

Mia wheeled herself out of the room following her dad. Mia got to the entrance of the hospital quickly and saw her dad's car. "I'll see you on Monday, I guess," Blake said.

"Bye, Blake."

"I'll never see you again," he joked.

Mia could feel herself grinning. "I'll never forget you and your terrible jokes," she added, pretending to hold back sobs.

"I know. I am pretty great aren't I? It's okay, I know that it's going to be hard to lose me but I believe in you!" he cheered.

"I'll think of you as I fall asleep."

"Okay, that's just creepy."

"I know." Mia winked at him, hoping it would add something. Thankfully, Blake laughed. "Anyway, I have to go. You have a ride back, right?"

"Yep, I took the bus here but I asked my dad to get our driver to pick me up," he told her. She smiled, glad that he had a way back home.

"Bye, then," she repeated. After getting a response, Mia made her way to the car quickly, hoping to avoid any more awkward moments.

***

The rest of the day was pretty boring. She read a book, drew some more random sketches, and watched a few episodes of her favorite show with Tori. All in all, the day was pretty good but Mia was terrified of the night.

Mia realized that she needed to go to bed. Since she couldn't get her wheelchair up the stairs, she asked her dad to help her. He picked her up gently and brought her up to her room where he set her down on her bed. She already changed into her pajamas so she didn't have to worry about that.

Once her dad had left, Mia tucked herself into the blankets carefully. She grabbed her laptop from the desk that was, thankfully, extremely close to her bed. She opened it up before checking her email. Nothing new. Mia decided to write a short story, something she hadn't done in years. Even just the feel of the keys against her fingers made her loosen up a bit. She felt herself relax as the familiarity of writing out her own story came back to her. The story she was writing was about a girl named Adrianna who discovered a whole new world. (I actually wrote the start of that story. I might finish it eventually so don't steal it. lol.)

As she was writing, Mia was forced to push out memories that continued threatening to enter her head. Alex would be proud, she thought. No! Just write. Ignore everything else, she reprimanded herself.

When Mia was younger, all she wanted to do was write. Day and night. It was the only thing she had a passion for. Mia's mom didn't like that.

Mia continued to write her story and was surprised when she looked up from her keyboard and saw light peeking out of her window.

Deciding to ignore the fact that she had stayed up all night, she continued writing. Occasionally, she'd give herself a mental pat on the back if she thought of something that made the story particularly good.

At around 8:00 her dad walked in. He looked surprised to see that she was already awake. "Breakfast is at 8:15" he told her.

"Ooh, you made breakfast?" she asked, looking up from her computer to stare at her dad.

"I did." His face spread in a smug grin. He looked proud of himself. Mia's dad didn't normally make food so this was quite a feat.

"Thanks, I'll be down in a bit," she told him. "Except," she said before her dad had left the room. "How the heck am I going to get down there?" she asked.

He laughed. "I'll be back and bring you down," he offered.

"Cool. Bye now." She ushered him out of the room before continuing to work on her book. When Mia finished the chapter she changed slowly. Due to the fact that she couldn't stand, it took a surprisingly long time to change.

Mia sat at the small round table as the smell of eggs and bacon wafted in the air. Mia's wheelchair fit but not well. She was slightly squished but made the decision to ignore it for the sake of bacon.

Her dad walked in from the kitchen, holding a tray of bacon in one hand and a plate of fried eggs in the other. He looked like he was about to fall and if she had been able, Mia would've helped him. Instead, she elbowed Tori lightly, silently urging her to help their dad. Grunting, Tori stood up and grabbed the tray of bacon, setting it down on the table as their father, less wobbly this time, walked towards the table before setting down the eggs.

The bacon looked slightly overcooked but Mia didn't mind, she was just happy that she got to have breakfast with her family, the only family she needed.

She ate quickly, unable to hold herself back from the delicious bacon sitting right in front of her. Although she ate fast, that didn't mean she was sloppy. Mia had always been well-mannered. Her parents had taught her about the importance of it as a child and she had listened to anything and everything her parents told her.

Once Mia and her family had finished eating, Mia handed her plate to her dad who took it over to the sink before washing them.

A rang sounded through the living room, interrupting the show she had been watching. Mia looked down at her phone and saw Bella's name on the screen. Curious, Mia answered the call quickly. "We need to hang out today!" she greeted cheerily.

Mia chuckled lightly. "Hello to you, too," she joked.

"Seriously! I need to talk to you about... just... everything!" Mia could hear the excitement even through the phone.

"I'll ask my dad. Just a sec." She held the phone to the palm of her hand, muffling what Bella would hear. "Dad! Can I hang out with Bella today?" she asked, yelling.

"I don't know!" he yelled back. Mia heard a scuffle from the kitchen and a few seconds later her dad appeared in the doorway. "Do you know where you'd be going?" he asked.

"Just a second," she told him before turning back to her phone. "Where would we be going?" she asked.

"Probably just Starbucks or something. Whatever your dad says is fine, though," Bella offered.

"Is Starbucks okay?" she asked, looking up from her phone again.

"Which Starbucks?" he asked. Mia noticed that he seemed unusually strict and his posture seemed tense.

Mia repeated the question to Bella who told her that they would hang out at the one closest to Mia's house. "The one closest to here?" she asked.

"Sure. Be safe, though!" he warned. "Please be safe." This time, he seemed to be begging instead of forcing. It was weird to see her dad so worried about her.

"I will, dad. I promise."

"I can!" she yelled after her dad left the room. Mia was undoubtedly excited.

"Awesome! I'll pick you up as soon as I can!" she promised before the line went dead.

As promised, about thirty minutes later, Bella arrived. Her car wasn't super fancy or anything but as long as it had air conditioning, Mia was happy.

Wheeling herself out of the house wasn't particularly easy but she was able to do it. The doorway was small, causing her to take longer getting out the door then if it were longer. When she had finally gotten out of the house, she made her way over to the car.

Mia was able to get in the car with a small amount of struggle and Bella put her wheelchair in the back of the car. Sliding into the driver's seat, Mia noticed how exhausted Bella looked. Her body was tense and she was fumbling around for her keys. Although Bella sounded energetic on the phone, Mia could tell just by one look at her that she was tired.

"So, how are you?" Mia asked.

"I'm fine," she responded. "I'm exhausted but I'm used to it. It's very tiring having so many siblings but I'm okay."

"I'm pretty lucky then, I guess. I mean, although very annoying at times, Tori isn't too loud and I don't have to babysit her like you do for your siblings."

"Well, we all have our own problems," she said, laughing slightly as they got onto the highway. "Like how you have to deal with like a million injuries."

"True that. Oh! Guess what!" Mia yelled.

"What!?" She looked excited.

"I get out of the wheelchair in a week! I still have to use crutches but it's way better than this terrible clunky wheelchair," she told her, smiling.

"Really!? That's awesome!" she squealed.

"I just can't wait 'till I can walk so people will stop staring at me," Mia admitted.

"Yeah, that would be annoying. By the way, what happened on Friday? I mean, you weren't there for lunch and then I heard rumors that you passed out and started like going crazy in the middle of class."

"Well... you see... the thing is..." Mia gave a nervous chuckle. She had forgotten to come up with an excuse! "I had a nightmare about what happened at the bridge!" she said triumphantly.

Bella looked at her, unconvinced. "It's true!" It really was true... mostly. She did have visions of the bridge but that wasn't why she was thrashing around and Mia knew it.

"Okay. I don't believe you, but okay," she said.

At least she let it go, Mia thought. After an unbearable moment of silence, Mia spoke up. "It was so boring without you," she told Bella. It was true. While she was at Blake's house, she was extremely bored. Although Blake was there every day after school, the other times all she could do was read and draw.

"It was pretty boring without you, too," she replied.

"Did Blake ever tell you anything about me?" she asked.

"A little. We knew you were at his house and that you had a private doctor. We knew that you were really badly injured but that's about it." Mia was slightly shocked but not much.

She knew that Blake wouldn't talk about her much simply because she asked him not too, but Blake was the kind of person who didn't do as told. She was thankful, though. She didn't want everyone knowing everything.

"Yeah, that's all true," she said. What else was she supposed to say. A few minutes later they arrived at Starbucks and Mia felt herself relax at the smell of coffee. It was weird but it worked.

***

Mia sat on her bed with a smile on her face. The whole day had been incredible and it was nice to talk to Bella. Apparently, Mia was all anyone was talking about school. Not comforting in the slightest but at least she would be aware from that point on. Mia flopped down on her bed lightly, careful of her burns.

Her mind still racing with questions, she grabbed her computer. She opened it up and saw the familiar blue background greet her. She typed in her password as she had done so many times before.

Automatically, her hands typed in gmail.com. It seemed like there were hundreds of emails from random social media sites but she ignored them and moved on to the important stuff.

Mia's heart seemed to stop. It's not possible! she thought, looking again hoping it would all be an illusion. No matter how many times she told herself it was all a lie, the name on the email wouldn't fade away.

She felt her eyes start to blur as she opened up the document. Her hands were clammy and her heart was racing but she kept reading.

My dearest Mia,

How are you? I promise I would have contacted sooner if I had the ability but I did not. Now, however, I have found a way. I would like to tell you that I miss you. I wish you could be here with me but your father has made up his mind on the matter.

I want to tell you that I am sorry. I'm sorry for my words on the day I left and anything else I have done to hurt you.

I heard that you moved. It must have been hard but it was your father's decision and I have no right to doubt his parental abilities. I don't know if you were told this, but I decided to station my work in Fremont, CA.

I know your first reaction will be to turn down everything I say, but please, give me a chance. I am going to be at the Starbucks on 37th street. If you have any room left in your heart for me, meet me there the Saturday after next at 4:00 pm.

Love, your mother.

P.S. Please don't tell anyone about this interaction. They will jump to conclusions and all I want is to see my little girl again.