Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 15:15:58 EDT
From: BK
Subject: Pizza Parlor 2 

This story is a work of complete fiction. None of its characters are
real. If you are not 18, go away, you should not read this.

			       Pizza Parlor

	     Chapter 2 (in which the diaries are left behind)

    "What happened?" Amy asked her mother, as she woke up in a hospital bed, 
with a slight pain in her head.
    "We were in an accident honey." Her mom was sitting down on a chair 
beside the bed, and looked as though she'd been crying. Her eyes were puffed out, 
and her nose running, as she reached out to hold her only daughter's hand.
    "We..." then it all came back. The singing, the car, yelling for her mom 
to stop, the blinding blow to her head, Kristie sitting right next to her...
    "Mom, is Kristie all right? What about you, are you ok?" 
    "Everything's fine, sweetie, Kristie and me, we're ok." Even as her mom 
said this, Amy knew she was holding something back; something important.
    "What is it?" Amy asked, unwilling to let her mom allow the subject to 
drop.
    "You're hurt, maybe we should talk about it some other time..."
    "Maybe we should talk about it now." Amy said in a voice that was firm 
and gentle at the same time. Whatever it was had obviously scared her mother, so 
she needed to know.
    "Well," her mother said after she found Amy wouldn't let the subject 
drop, "the car we hit was a taxi cab. And you know those things are like portable 
coffins, just thin aluminum stretched over a frame. Well, when we hit, the 
driver died on impact, but there was a little girl in back, who might survive, 
but is badly hurt. She's in a coma right now, and, to tell you the truth, no one 
knows who she is. The cab was burned to shreds, so none of her things were 
saved. In fact, the paramedics barely got her out of the car before it burst 
into flames. She has a lot of bumps and bruises, and she might be in here for a 
while. Her parents should come eventually. The hospital said this happens often 
enough, and after a while her parents will realize she's gone, and come 
looking for her."
    "Oh my God." Said Amy. "Can I see her?" She didn't know why, but she felt 
as if she should see the girl. 
    "Not now, the doctor is still checking to see if your concussion is ok, 
plus the girl can't have any visitors. She's really not looking good."
    "Oh, ok..." Amy said, just as sleep seemed to take her again. She hoped 
the girl was ok, and wanted to know more about her. But even as she thought 
this, sleep overcame her, and she could think no more.

Jenny woke up to a blinding pain in her head, and decided she wished she 
hadn't woken up. Her entire body felt like it was in pieces, none of it in its 
correct spot. The smell of the hospital washed through her senses, and she felt 
like throwing up. The only thing preventing her from doing so was the presence 
she felt in the room with her. Jenny didn't know how, but for some reason she 
could detect a person in the room with her. And, she realized, she could also 
feel sadness, and wondered how bad she actually was.
She had to concentrate to open her eyes; so much was the pain in her head. 
When she did, it was well worth it though. Staring at her was one of the most 
beautiful people she had ever seen. Long brown hair, brown eyes like pools of 
chocolate. Sad eyes. They were beautiful, yet hard to look at, because Jenny got 
the feeling the sadness was because of her, and wanted to do anything to keep 
this perfect girl from feeling pain.

Amy had been watching her for weeks before she started to stir. I'm obsessed 
with her, she thought after a while. She had been coming to the hospital to 
see the girl almost every day since her return to civilization. That had been 
two weeks ago, and now, the girl was waking up. 
Amy was sad that day, because she had been thinking about the girl's parents, 
and how much it would suck to have parents that care so little to have still 
not shown up. Of course, she could not have any parents, Amy reasoned. What 
then? The girl looked like she could handle herself well enough when she's 
healthy, Amy thought, studying her. She had one of the prettiest faces Amy had ever 
seen, and that might have been reason for her obsession with her. Amy wanted 
to know the face, see what emotions could be revealed from her full lips. And 
then she saw her eyes.
Amy had been the only one in the room that day, as it often happened, and the 
girl had woken up, though briefly. In a matter of a few seconds, her eyes had 
opened. Blue green, that was the color her eyes had been. Like the ocean, 
they reflected the light of the room, turning them an even brighter shade. Then 
the girl had looked into Amy's eyes, and stared. Not a fleeting glance, Amy 
realized. A stare. One she would never forget. In that stare the girl's eyes 
seemed to change colors yet again, into the darkest, most deep forest green you 
could ever imagine. Amy caught her breath, and then the girl slept again. I 
can't leave her, Amy realized then. This is what my whole life has been leading up 
to. Meeting her. What am I going to do if her parents come and find her? What 
about when she gets better and leaves again? I have to find some way to keep 
her around...


 Later that same afternoon, Amy was talking to her mother, while they sat at 
the kitchen counter cooking food for dinner.
"Hey mom, what are we going to do with that girl if she wakes up and her 
parents aren't here?" Amy asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
"I wasn't planning on doing anything. When she wakes up, she can say who her 
parents are, or if she has any, so she won't need us for anything."
"Oh that's right." Amy said. She hadn't realized when the girl would wake up 
she would be able to say who her parents are. It was hopeless. She would never 
get to really know this girl, whom she wanted to know more than anyone else 
she had ever met. I'll be there when she wakes up at least, Amy thought. It 
wouldn't be so bad to see her go. I mean, I haven't even spoken two words to her. 
Amy knew she was lying to herself.
A few weeks later, Amy was sitting in Jenny's hospital room, staring at the 
girl intently. She's very beautiful, Amy thought again for the zillionth time 
over the past month. I bet her face is smooth, and her lips soft, and...why am 
I thinking of her like this? I don't even know her, for crying out loud. She 
doesn't know me either, she thought then. It was a depressing thought. When the 
girl woke up, she would probably wonder who Amy was, and think it weird of 
her to be there. The thought screamed embarrassment to Amy, who then decided to 
leave. Just as she was walking out the door, though, she heard the girl speak 
for the first time.
"Don't leave me, please." She sounded weak to Amy, still hoarse in her 
throat, like she needed a glass of water. "You're so nice to come and visit me. No 
one else does."
Amy just stared.  Shock ran through her. How long had she been awake? Had she 
seen Amy cry? What was her name? Seeing as the last seemed more typical of a 
person you just met; she asked it, in a voice that to herself seemed shaky and 
uncertain.
"Jenny," She replied. "What happened?"

    Wholly crap, what am I going to do now, Jenny thought. She had nowhere to 
go, and didn't know how to pay the hospital bills without her parent's help. 
And she refused to go back now. She had come so far; she couldn't give up now.
    Amy seemed to be her only source of hope. In the weeks following her 
awakening, Jenny had grown stronger, and Amy had become more and more important to 
her. She was always with her, and very patient with her. Initially, when Amy 
had tried to explain the accident, Jenny had cried, not understood, and then 
told Amy the first lie. 
    "I have no parents." Jenny had said, when finally asked. It was weird, 
but if she wasn't mistaken, it looked as though Amy was relieved at this 
information. She couldn't be sure though, so Jenny said nothing.
 When Amy asked her what she was going to do, Jenny replied "I don't know. I 
have nowhere to go, no family to go to. It's hopeless. Maybe I could get a job 
around here and pay off these medical bills. I still don't know where I would 
stay, though."
"Come live with me! I mean, you could live with me and my family if you want. 
They wouldn't mind, and I certainly wouldn't. We even own a restaurant you 
could work at. We need another worker; my friend Kristie and I have had trouble 
keeping up lately. It's perfect!"
"Are you sure your parents wouldn't mind? They haven't even met me...?"
"They'll be fine with it. Plus, I've told them all about you. We'll wait 
until you're healed, and then you can start as a waitress."
"But, I don't think..."
"Come on, we'll be best of friends, and school got out a week ago, so it's 
not like you have to worry about that."
Jenny looked into this beautiful girl's eyes, and knew she could not refuse 
her anything. And when she tried to come up with more reasons why she couldn't 
move in with Amy, she couldn't come up with any that weren't pathetic. So she 
was 'forced' to agree.
"Mom, she'll work at the parlor for next to nothing, increase our business 
because she's very pretty, and won't cost a cent at home to feed. We always have 
leftovers anyhow. I don't see the drawback." Amy declared. She had been 
bugging her mom for the past three days to take Jenny in, and so far her mom wasn't 
biting. She felt she had to use her trump card, even if it might be early in 
the game.
"Plus, she doesn't have any parents, or anywhere to go. What will she do?" 
That's when Amy saw it, a hint of guilt in her mom's face. This was definitely a 
good sign. Amy's mom was a sucker for homeless children, ever since she saw a 
child fair, which tore her apart. Amy could see she felt for the girl, but 
was still uncertain. Give her a day, Amy thought, and she'll be begging to take 
her home with us.

Jenny was sitting up in the hospital bed when Amy walked in, a huge grin on 
her face, like a triumphant winner of a pentathlon of some sort.
"Can I come?" Jenny asked, in awaited breath. If she could not, she honestly 
didn't know what she would do.
"Of course, what did I tell you?" Amy said with a cocky smirk on her face. 
But after a few seconds of silence, both broke out in girlish screams of 
excitement.
"Oh my God, this is so cool! Thank you sooo much! This is great!"
"I know, I thought my mom was never going to give in!" Amy exclaimed as she 
stooped down to give Jenny a hug. She soon came to realize it would be very 
hard to get up. Jenny had almost entirely healed, and aside from the tiny scar on 
her head, she looked as normal as Amy did. Accept she's much more beautiful 
than I am, Amy thought. Amy could feel her heartbeat through the medical robe 
all patients were forced to wear. That wasn't the only thing she could hear, 
either. Jenny's soft breath against her ear, her neck inches from Amy's lips. So 
tempting. What am I doing, Amy thought? She's a girl, for crying out loud, 
and probably one of my best friends since I met her. I can't think of her this 
way!
While these thoughts were coursing their way through Amy's mind, similar 
thought were going through Jenny's. Amy smelt like roses, and in all of Jenny's 
years, she had never smelt such a wonderful scent. In her mind, Jenny said no to 
this beautiful, sweet girl whose presence had made Jenny's life worth living, 
but in her heart, Jenny knew she could stay in Amy's arms the rest of her 
life.