Then Alice walked over to the bureau, she picked up her glasses so she could see herself in the mirror above the drawers. They had removed her contacts in the ER while they were checking for eye injuries. So until that moment Alice really hadn’t had the chance to fully look at her face or her other injuries.

She couldn’t believe her face, her eyelids were swollen, red and purple, and she knew in a few days they would become black. Her nose even though taped because of the Doctors resetting it back into place was also swollen and red. Her lip was split in several areas, but she guessed she was lucky because her teeth were all still intact. She noticed all the bruising on her arm, and in some areas you could almost make out the shape of a shoe, were she had been repeatedly kicked. The Doctors had bound up her chest because of the broken ribs, so she really couldn’t see much when she tried to look under her T-shirt to see the injuries to her chest and back.

Dana walked into the room while Alice was appraising her injuries. The look on Alice’s face broke her heart. Though she could tell Alice was trying to be strong about her looks, Dana could tell Alice was almost to tears. “Al, all this is superficial, it will heal.” Alice just turned to her friend, once again trying to cover the pain with humor. “Well the least they could have done was given me a nose job while they were there, I’ve always wanted a nose like Gwyneth Paltrow.”

Dana walked over and gently wrapped her hand around Alice’s upper arm, moving her toward the bed. “Come on Al, why don’t you lie down for a little bit, I’ll bring you something to drink so you can take your medicines.” As she was removing Alice’s shoes so Alice could lie back down, she noticed that even Alice chins were bruised. She wondered to herself, just how many times did that man kick her. Looking at all the bruising, this beating went beyond wanting to hurt another person, too someone trying to kill another person.

After finely getting Alice settled in Dana decided to go into the kitchen and fix herself something to eat. She realized the last time she had eaten was when she had dinner last night before going out with the gang. With her high metabolism she was starting to feel the drain on her own body. It felt like forever ago since that meal, but she knew it had only had been about 20 hours. Just in a blink of an eye everything can change, and no longer is your biggest worry what time are you meeting your friends, but how you were going to help your best friend get past this crisis.