I Don't Need It!

• Katana Gleeson, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2013

They say I’m sick, but I’m not.
I know better than they do. I don’t need to go to hospital, I don’t need medication. I don’t need any of it. My mother tries to take me to the hospital but I won’t go.
I collapsed once, once! And after that everyone seemed to think that I had some sort of Ventricular Tachycardia disease. So what if I lose my breath or get dizzy easily after doing stuff like sport. I’m not the fittest in the world or an athlete, but I know I’m not sick.

“Darling, you’re looking pale today. Are you feeling alright?” Mum asks as I go down for breakfast.
“Mum I’m fine” It’s getting annoying everybody’s always like ‘oh she took a breath, She’s sick!’ Well I am sick, sick of people.
“I made your favourite breakfast” I sit down and mum puts a delicious plate of pancakes, bacon and hash browns in front of me.
“Why, don’t you stay home today, we could go see a movie if you want”
“OK” This NEVER happens.
“Good morning” my dad walks in a kisses me on the forehead.
“What time do you want to get going?” Mum asks Dad.
“I think twelve’s good”
Nobody speaks a word over breakfast. My parents are acting very strangely today and I can’t figure out if it’s good or bad.
I go upstairs to get ready, straight after I leave the room I hear my mother burst into tears. I stop and put my ear against the wall.
“I can’t do it, I just can’t. I can’t watch her go, and do nothing about it.”
“There’s nothing you can do.”
“There is. We can force her to go to the hospital and get cured”
“We can’t force her to do anything and she doesn’t want to accept the truth. In a way it’s good. Like the doctor said because she’s telling herself she’s not sick she won’t need to stay in bed and be miserable”
“But her body will still…stop”
I storm into the kitchen.
“Stop! Just stop!” I yell “I’m NOT sick, I’m NOT dying! I’m a healthy normal teenage girl with no disease! I don’t need doctors or medication or to go to the hospital to get cured but I do need you to stop thinking I’m sick!”
Suddenly I feel dizzy and sit down with my head in my hands.
“Sweetie?” my mum puts her hand on my back but I push it away.
“I’m fine”
“She gets up and comes back with a glass of water which she gives to me. I take a sip then my body slowly falls to the floor. The glass I’m holding hits the tile then creates a thousand shiny pieces that make a pattern of red cuts on my hand as I lie there not moving but conscious.
Everything’s blurry but I hear dad rush to the phone to call an ambulance. I can feel mum by my side.
“Chloe! Chloe can you hear me? Chloe!”
I turn to my mum. As my eyes shut I say,
“Mum, I love you”