2- Waking Up

      I woke up in a hospital bed, my head aching.  My mom was on a chair on the right hand side of the bed to my left, also in a chair, was Hilary Dugenson, my best friend since birth.  Our mothers had been best friends since high school and ended up giving birth at almost the same time.  We’d spent our whole lives together as friends.  We only got in a fight once and it was over which of our Barbie’s got the Ken doll.  I remember that it did not end well.  We cut the heads off of each other’s Barbie’s.  We made peace though.

      When I looked at my mother, the first thing that I noticed was the Mickey Mouse ring on her left hand.  My stomach clenched.  I had been hoping so much that I had only dreamed about the engagement.  Apparently, it was as real as the sun.

      My mom looked at me with a happy look on her face.  “Thank heavens; you’re awake.  How are you feeling sweetheart?” she asked.

      I just looked away.  I could not believe she is even here after what had happened; and wearing that ring!  Just thinking about it made me feel like I might pass out again.  I looked away from her, feeling as though I might puke.

      “Oh sweetie; is this about the engagement?  I thought that you might be upset about it.  I am so sorry that this happened.  I didn’t want it to turn out this way.  But-” she was cut off by the opening door.  Andrew walked in, balloons and flowers in his hands.  He had a giant smile plastered onto his face.

      “Hey.  How are you feeling?  Your mom told me about the accident kiddo; ouch.”  He put the flowers down on the table at the end of the bed then tied the balloons to the foot of the bed.  “So, do you remember what happened?” he asked.

      “Yes.  I do.  You asked my mother to marry you.  She said yes and now you are going to try to replace my father,” I told him.  My voice was stern and icy.

      I know that that wasn’t what he was talking about.  I knew he was really asking me about blacking out.  But I did not care.  He looked stunned and a little hurt.  Good, I thought to myself.

      It’s just not fair.  I don’t understand why he would try to replace Dad.  That could never happen.  So why would he even try?  He should just leave and forget that he ever tried this.

      “Um, yes; your mother and I are engaged.  But what I meant was do remember what happened when you passed out?” he asked nervously.  He was eyeing my mother in the corner of his eye.  Slowly, he crept toward her seeking her protection.

      “yes, I do remember.  Well most of it anyway.  But I do not see why any of that concerns you.  You are not my father.  You never will be.  It is a fact of life,” I said.  I could hear the harshness in my voice.

      “I know,” he said with a bit of sadness in his voice.  “But in a month I am going to be your stepfather.  And I was hoping that we could bond in that time.  I want us to be close and be able to talk.  I don’t want to be the step father that you can never talk to.  I understand that certain topics are off limit at this age.  But I just hope that we can start off with a healthy step father/step daughter relationship.  Understand what I am trying to say here kiddo?” he asked me, using that annoying nickname again.

      I hate it when he calls me that!  Why can’t he just understand that I’m about to go to college and that I’m not a kiddo anymore and- I stopped for a second.  Wait a minute.

      “Did you just say a month?  You’re getting married in a MONTH?!  But that’s like only…” I paused for a moment doing the calculations in my head.  Well it would have to be a month from a Saturday close to today.  Let’s see; yesterday was Thursday.  So today would have to be Friday.

      “That’s 3 weeks from when I start college!  Wait, so is he going to move in with us or something?  When?  Why now?  Why so quickly?”  Why me? I thought to myself thinking that that might be a little too much attitude.

      My mother inhaled deeply before she started.

      “Yes.  We are getting married in a month.  Nothing fancy; just some close relatives.  Andrew is going to be living with us.  He will move in this weekend to help plan the wedding and things.  We wanted to have a summer wedding on the beach before the summer ended and you went off to college.  This way all of the family can make it,” she said with a smile on her face.  For some reason she seemed to think that this would make me happy.  Well she was wrong; it so didn’t.

      I was so shocked that she would actually do something like this.  It was just that I had heard friends talk about how things like this happened in their families and sure, I have read plenty of fictional books about it too.  I just never thought that it would be happening to me; to my family.

      After a minute of silence, Mrs. Dugenson walked into the room with a giant teddy bear and some flowers in her arms.  She looked at me and smiled.

      “Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?  Gosh I hope you are alright,” she said as she handed me the bear.

      “I’m okay.  Thanks,” I replied with a slight smile.

      “I am so sorry sweetie but I have to take Hilary home.  But if your mother brought you your laptop, Hilary can get on the computer at home to talk with you later.”

      She was always like that.  She would do something that might upset someone just slightly and then she would say an obvious solution that would make everything seem much better.  Hilary was lucky to have a mom like that; a mom that didn’t want to replace her daughter’s father.  Mr. Dugenson was still alive; but still.

      “That sounds good.  Bye Hil; IM me later, okay?” I said to her as she walked towards the door with her mother.

      She half turned towards me and murmured “Kay.”

      She was never really social around people that she didn’t know (Andrew.)  Sometimes you might even think that she was a mute or something.  But I knew her better than most people did; she can get pretty wild.

      As soon as the door shut my mother picked up my laptop bag and handed it to me.  Everything was green.  Green had been my favorite color ever since I could remember.  I had liked it even more when I found out when people say that they are going to be eco-friendly they say they are “going green.”

      “Mom, can you please leave?  I would like to have privacy for a little while.  Oh, and take him with you,” I said talking about Andrew.

      There was no way I was going to act like “The Perfect Little Step Daughter.”  Please; if he thinks that I am one of those bratty high school girls with an attitude problem then so be it.  If he thinks that, he might just leave me alone.  That’s the best thing that can happen if he does end up marrying my mother.

      She gave me one of those looks that said “Now, now Bethany; be nice.”  You expect me to be nice to the man that is trying to replace my father? I thought, but did not say aloud because I wanted them to leave already.  They left.  As soon as I heard the door close, I opened my green Dell laptop.

      I knew that Hilary wouldn’t be able to get on the computer for a while since they had to drive at least 30 minutes home, not including any traffic time.  I’ll just put my head back and wait for the IM.  But as soon as my head hit the pillow, that was it.  I was out like a light.