Justin's fingers remained busy on Mmachi's waistline, drawing small circles on her skin as his hands kept her steady on his laps. Mmachi tried—without success—to distract herself from the feeling of his hands on her waist. Her eyes travelled around the waiting area, moving from the bench opposite them to one of the large potted plants similar to the ones littered around their hostel.

It managed to busy her for just a second before her mind went back to Justin's fingers on her waist. She imagined them somewhere else and had to chew on her lips to prevent herself from moaning. Her brain rebooted and she paused the thought, almost smacking herself as she wondered what was wrong with her.

Before her intrusive thoughts could go any further, she got up from Justin's laps and sat next to him instead. She was hard-pressed for space between Amelia's thick thighs and Justin's legs. It didn't help that Paschal and Sky had also squeezed themselves into the same bench with them.

"Any problem?" Justin asked and she shook her head, assuring him that everything was alright.

Her eyes searched the opposite bench for any space but it was filled with Chikaima, Kamsi, Quinn—who had absolutely no reason for being there—and her roommate, a smallish girl with a square face and dimpled chin whom Mmachi struggled to remember her name. At the extreme end of the bench sat Kosarachi, the girl who had found Chidiogo's unconscious body at her feet and rushed to call for help.

Quinn claimed she was leading her roommate to Chidiogo to collect back her jacket Chidiogo had forgotten to return when they met the whole raucous going on outside the room. Amelia had been the one to call Mmachi after they rushed Chidiogo to the clinic while Chikaima broadcast the news to the rest of the group.

From what Mmachi could gather from the stories she heard, no one was with Chidiogo before she fell unconscious, neither could they give any account of what had happened to her or why she suddenly fell unconscious.

Mmachi stared at Kosarachi—who seemed to be sleeping—for a while. She remembered her more from the school's female football team than the fact that she had been in the same class with her every single year. She used to be much slimmer before she quit the football team. Shortly after she left, she gained a surprising amount of weight.

It was rumoured to be caused by medication for some kidney related sickness. Lupus or something of the sort, Mmachi wasn't exactly sure. She never bothered to ask. After all, they weren't even friends.

After staring at her for a few more minutes, Mmachi called her name.

"Kosara?"

Kosarachi's shut eyes opened when she heard her name, her head jerking towards Mmachi's direction.

"When you saw Chidiogo, she was lying on the floor unconscious, next to your . . . feet?"

Kosarachi nodded, her French curls swinging around.

"You didn't see her fall? And you have no idea how she got to where you were?"

Kosarachi's head tilted to the side before she responded. "No. My guess would be that she crawled to that spot because I would have heard something if she collapsed next to me."

Her voice was that of a strangled mosquito, reminding Mmachi why she never liked speaking to the girl. Before she could ask Kosarachi another question, the door to the emergency room flew open. The doctor emerged from the door, squinting like someone who was forced out of a dark room and into the sunlight.

His eyes moved around before landing on her.

"I need to ask you a few questions about your sister if you don't mind."

Mmachi stood up, moving closer to him. "How is she?"

"We've managed to stabilize her. After giving her the first dose of epinephrine, we could have sent her off to a hospital but the nearest hospital is about an hour away and the effects of epinephrine lasts about ten to twenty minutes. That would have required giving her multiple doses in between so we decided to go ahead and treat her here since we have the facilities."

"Epinephrine?" Mmachi repeated the only word that managed to stick with her throughout his explanation.

"Fancy name for adrenaline," the doctor said with a shrug.

She blinked at him. Wasn't that the fight or flight hormone? Why would they give her that? Mmachi wondered.

As if noticing her confusion, he went further to explain. "She showed symptoms of anaphylaxis. She probably went into anaphylactic shock after getting in contact with an allergen. That's where we need your help to prevent any such reoccurrences in the future. Do you know any allergies she might have?"

Mmachi moved her head slowly from side to side.

"Do you have any allergies?"

"I have an allergy to cold?" Mmachi responded, unsure why her allergies would matter.

The doctor's eyes drifted down to the beige sweater she wore, as if just realizing that the slight chill in the air didn't warrant the oversized turtle neck sweater.

"It's that severe?"

Mmachi shrugged. "Happens often enough."

"Did you ever get any treatment?"

"I've gotten a shot once or twice after a reaction."

"Your reaction involves difficulty in breathing and passing out?"

Mmmachi hugged herself. "No, I just get really itchy and my skin swells the more I scratch it."

The doctor nodded, mumbling something to himself. "Has your sister ever reacted to cold?"

"No, she even loved playing in the snow whenever we travelled during winter."

"Has she ever reacted to anything else? Food? Insects? Medication? Flowers?"

Mmachi shook her head again.

"When I left her alone," Amelia spoke up suddenly, "she was with this bouquet I found outside our room. I had assumed someone dropped it on their way to carrying her birthday gifts to our room."

The doctor turned to Amelia. "What kind of flowers were they?"

"I don't know," Amelia mumbled, "I'm not really good with flowers."

"Can I see the flowers?"

"I'll go get it!" Chikaima offered, sprinting up and heading in the opposite direction before Amelia could reply the doctor.

The doctor asked Mmachi a couple other questions about Chidiogo's medical history before Chikaima returned with the bouquet. It was made up of purple daisies and Mmachi found it a bit odd that Amelia, who received flowers from different guys all the time, couldn't tell flowers as simple as daisies.

"Daisies! That makes sense. She probably had a reaction to the flowers," the doctor muttered more to himself than Mmachi and Chikaima who stared at him.

"Can we show her the flowers to be sure these were the ones that caused the reaction?" Chikaima asked, hugging the bouquet to herself.

The doctor stroked the stubble on his chin before letting out a hum. "I suppose. Just make sure you don't get close to her at all. If possible, stay at the farthest corner of the room from her and get rid of the flower as soon as she confirms it."

Chikaima nodded. "When can we see her?"

"The nurses will signal you when she's awake." His eyes moved around the waiting area, as if just noticing the number of people there. "Although all of you can't go in at once. You can go in two groups."

Mmachi thanked the doctor before he left them. About ten minutes later, a nurse came out to inform them that they could see Chidiogo. Amelia, Mmachi, Paschal, Justin and Chikaima entered first while the rest stayed behind.

They all took different positions, Chikaima taking the farthest position as instructed by the doctor. Mmachi also didn't go near, choosing to stand close to Chikaima. She observed Chidiogo from where she stood.

She was connected to an IV drip and looked extremely fragile as she lay on the bed. Her face and neck looked slightly swollen and her lips were bluish. Paschal knelt next to her bed while Justin and Amelia stood a few feet behind him.

He whispered something to Chidiogo which Mmachi couldn't hear from where she stood. After a while, he stopped talking and everywhere went silent except for the occasional beeping of the cardiac monitor.

From the few times she had been there, Mmachi noticed that the school clinic had been built almost to the standard of a regular hospital. She assumed it was just exaggerated like the rest of the school before.

But recently, she suspected it was due to the fact that the school was literally in the middle of nowhere and as the doctor had said earlier, the nearest hospital was almost an hour away without traffic.

After a while, Chidiogo spoke up, "Did the doctor tell you guys what put me in this condition?"

Her voice was a bit croaky.

Chikaima replied her, "He said you had an allergic reaction to something and went into shock."

Chidiogo managed to tilt her head towards Chikaima's direction, her brows lifting. "What does that mean?"

Chikaima just shrugged. "We suspected that these flowers were the cause of your allergies since Amelia said that was the last thing you were with and I found them on your bed. We wanted to confirm though. You started feeling dizzy after touching these flowers, right?"

Chidiogo forced herself into a semi-sitting position, squinting at the flowers. "No, those weren't the flowers I got. The flowers I got were blue . . ." She trailed off, her eyes narrowing at the flowers. "Delphiniums. They were dark blue delphiniums!"

Chikaima cast a glance at the flowers in her hand before looking at Mmachi. "Aren't these daisies?"

Mmachi nodded.

"And they're purple." Justin pointed out.

Chidiogo shook her head. "I can see that but those aren't the flowers I received."

"How can you be so sure?" Mmachi asked. "I mean you haven't really seen delphiniums before. Plus purple and blue are easy to mix up."

"No, they're not. And I've seen a lot of delphiniums. We had them in our school's greenhouse and Las used to get them for me all the time when . . ." Chidiogo went mute.

"Who's Las?" Mmachi's brow was almost at her hairline.

"Doesn't matter. My point is that I know what delphiniums are. And I can tell the difference between daisies and delphiniums. Plus I'm not colour-blind. I know the difference between purple and blue. Amelia was there! Amelia tell them these aren't the same flowers you gave me!"

She turned to Amelia, her eyes almost gleaming as she stared at her. Amelia looked away, wringing her fingers.

"I didn't really pay attention to the flowers," she muttered.

Chidiogo's eyes narrowed at her for a second before she let out a scoff and looked away.

"I think we should just let it slide," Paschal said, "Maybe Chikaima got the wrong flowers. It shouldn't be that big of a deal."

"It is!" Chidiogo said, "I'm not even allergic to any of the flowers. My Grandma used to send us daisies every Christmas as children, Mmachi do you remember?"

Mmachi blinked at her for two seconds before shaking her head. Chidiogo let out a groan, muttering something under her breath.

"I didn't even feel dizzy after touching the flowers." Chidiogo ran her free hand through her hair. "It was when I was reading that note . . ." She paused, her eyes doubling in size. "The note!"

Everyone exchanged glances, worried about her mental health.

"Did you see any note on the bed? Next to the flower?" Chidiogo asked Chikaima.

"Yeah, I brought it along."

"What does it say?"

Chikaima pulled the note from her pocket, moving the bouquet so she held it with her right hand while she held the note in her left hand and read it out, "Happy birthday."

She looked up at Chidiogo who stared at her like she was expecting more. "That's all it says."

"No! No! No! It said, 'Happy death day' before. You're sure you didn't make a mistake? Check again. Whatever put me in this condition was done on purpose by whoever sent the flowers."

"So the person who sent the flowers knew you had an allergy to daisies?" Justin asked.

"I am NOT allergic to daisies! And they sent delphiniums! Why can't you guys just believe me?"

Chidiogo looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"We believe you," Paschal said, reaching out to hold her free hand.

"No, you don't!" she snapped, snatching her hand away from him.

Paschal let out a sigh, his pointer and middle finger digging into the side of his temple. "If you aren't allergic to daisies or delphiniums, then how did you end up here?"

Chidiogo's blue lips parted before closing, no words came out of them. She looked around the room to find all eyes trained on her. She held Mmachi's gaze for a few minutes when their eyes met and it seemed like she was pleading with her to believe her.

Mmachi looked away when she became uncomfortable with Chidiogo's stare.

"You know what?" Chidiogo's voice boomed across the room, drawing Mmachi's eyes back to her. "I'll just prove it you guys."

Before anyone could comprehend her words, she ripped out the butterfly catheter from her hand with so much force; Mmachi felt the pain for her. Ignoring the blood flowing down her wrist, she jumped down the edge of the bed with more force than was expected from someone who just woke up from a near death experience.

She staggered towards Chikaima's direction and it was just then that Mmachi realized what she wanted to do. Thankfully, Paschal and Justin broke out of their shock faster than Mmachi and Chikaima could and Justin held her back before she could get to the bouquet.

"Get those flowers out of here!" Justin yelled at Chikaima while Chidiogo remained thrashing in his hands.

Chikaima obliged, scrambling out of the room while Amelia screamed for a nurse. Mmachi was still grounded to a spot when they managed to hold Chidiogo down and inject her with a sedative.

Chidiogo's thrashing reducing and she grew lax against Justin's hands before finally blacking out. Mmachi watched them struggle to get her back on her bed and reconnect her drip with one thought in her mind: Was Chidiogo really losing her mind?

A/N: HEY GUYS, I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN THIS OUT SINCE MONDAY BUT I HAD TO DEAL WITH CRAMPS. I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE CHAPTER. PLEASE VOTE AND DROP YOUR COMMENT.🙃