They Regretted It After I Gave Up Chapter 05

They Regretted It After I Gave Up Chapter 05

I looked back at her.

“Mom.”

“What is it, sweetie?”

“I love you.”

Mom froze for a second before tears streamed down her face.

“Mom loves you, too.”

I didn’t say anything else.

The gurney kept rolling forward, and I was pushed into the operating room.

The anesthetic smelled faintly sweet, like rotting fruit.

I closed my eyes, feeling my breath grow heavier and heavier.

The surgical light above me began to blur.

I had a dream.

In the dream, I was myself again, the girl I was before I turned eighteen.

I was running the mile at a school track meet. On the other side of the finish line, Beckett was waiting for me with a bottle of Gatorade.

The sun was beautiful that day.

He ruffled my hair and smiled. “Trying to make the state team, Kat?”

Back then, I still believed my life would just keep moving forward.

Then the dream shattered.

“Her blood pressure is dropping.”

“She’s in respiratory distress.”

“This isn’t a normal reaction to the anesthesia. Check her airway, now!”

“Wait, the vomit has a sweet smell… Is this ethylene glycol? Did she drink antifreeze?”

When I was aware again, I was floating in the air.

I looked down and saw myself on the operating table.

My face was bluish, my lips dark, with dried white foam at the corner of my mouth.

The anesthesiologist stood beside me, his face ashen.

“She has no heartbeat…”

The surgeon came over, shone a light into my pupils, then felt for a pulse in my neck.

“She’s gone. Notify the family.”