Heartbeat: Chapter One

Aged 10;

Patrick's POV

I don't understand why I'm always at the hospital staring at the light on the ceiling as I lay on a lumpy hospital bed ... the doctor said there's something wrong with my heart, but I feel fine! Well most of the time, sometimes my chest really hurts and I can't breathe, but I still want to go to school I really miss school though, I miss my best friend Luke, he visits me often though, but it's not the same really, we don't get the play like we use to, no football or swimming like I use to do because I my heart.. I want a new one- a better one, so I can be like everybody else and do things like everyone else does...

Luke isn't the only one who visits me, my private doctor's daughter always comes to visit me too, and her name is Lalani, we use to go to the same school as well but we never spoke until now but now we are like the best of friends, I turned my head towards the clock on the wall, I always heard it ticking, sometimes it really annoyed me so much that and I couldn't get to sleep at night, it was almost 5, that's when Lalani normally came, she came to visit me everyday after school and she sometimes came on Saturdays too, whenever she came near me my broken heart would flutter and skip a beat, I'm not really sure what that means...

"PATRICK PATRICK PATRICK!" Lalani came bundling through the door with a huge smile on her face as always, "guess what happened today?" she looked at me excitedly and smiled a very big smile, "what happened Lalani?"

"We went to the pond today, and guess what I bought you?" I never realized she was holding something behind her back until now, "What? What is it?" I said sitting up in the hospital bed moving my head to try to see if I saw what was behind her, she then pulled out her hands in front of my face and shouted out "TADA!" and too my surprise it was a frog, I screamed as it jumped on my head "GET IT OF ME LALANI! GET IT OFF!"

"What?" Lalani looked at me in shock not realizing the frog had even left her hands, she tried to get it jumping on the bed pushing me down and her on top of me, as soon as the did that the frog jumped from my head onto her head, "PATRICK GET IT OFF!" I sighed and tried to make a grab for the frog, it jumped off Lalani and on to the floor "Let's get it together," Lalani smiled and held my hand, we began running in the hospital room after the frog, but it was really slippy and slimy and slipped out of our hands whenever we tried to make a catch. Suddenly I felt I tight feeling in my chest, I stopped running and dropped Lalani's hand, coughing trying to bring in air but I couldn't, everything started to go blurry and black, the last thing I heard was "DADDY! DADDY HELP!"...

Lalani's POV
"Daddy, will Patrick be okay?"
"Lalani, what did I tell you about pushing him too hard?"
"I'm sorry daddy I just wanted to catch the frog with him... he's going to be okay isn't he?"
"Of course he is honey," my daddy said with a smile, "Now go to your room, it's time for bed,"

"Okay Goodnight daddy," I gave him a little kiss and went up to bed, I laid there for a while, I'm so glad Patrick is okay, I was scared something bad was going to happen to him, I didn't want that... because I think I love him, the way he smiles when I see him, I read books about love all the time, and I feel like that when I'm with him, he's going to be the one I want to marry someday, the only one, as I thought this my throat began to feel dry so I went to go get some water. I tip-toed to the kitchen trying to be as quiet as a mouse, saying "shhhh!" to any creaking floorboards, I got to the kitchen and pulled my stool to get my sippy cup from the cabinet, I quietly filled it with tap water and closed the lid. I started to head back up the stairs when I heard voices coming from the living room, the door was shut, so I thought I would listen in to what they were saying...

"I don't want our daughter to be hanging around with that boy..." I heard my mummy's voice, who was she talking about? Who can't I be around? "Patrick Fields? Why he's a very nice charming young man" My daddy's voice echoed through the door, especially when he said Patrick's name, why can't I be Patrick's friend? "I don't want my little Lalani to be put through losing someone," Losing someone? What could she mean...? "I see what you mean darling... that poor little boy won't even live to see his eighteenth birthday..." what? The words echoed through my mind... eighteen...? He won't live to be eighteen? Tears began to fall and I dropped my sippy cup and ran up the stairs not caring about any noise that I made, Why him? Why Patrick, why when I love him so much...