The Troubled Ones | ✔

Chapter 22. Newly Found Frenemy

[a/n]: sidenote, nathan isnt gay - some of you have asked, but he isnt (he's just been best friends with dawson since forever) also, nothing against those who are, just trying to clarify.

PS// THE REASON FOR ARIA'S EXPULSION IS REVEALED NEXT CHAPTER.

Chapter 22. Newly Found Frenemy

                Approximately one hour had passed by since Dawson was carried away to the hospital. Nathan, Jasper, and I got to the emergency room ten minutes after Dawson arrived here first. All we had been doing was waiting for a doctor to tell us some good news. The three of us were seated in the waiting area with many other people - me being in the middle of Jasper and Nathan. Jasper had been on his phone in search of some diabetic answers to calm everyone down, Nathan had been shaking his left leg incessantly in worry ever since we sat down, and I had been praying for Dawson to be alright.

Dawson and I may not have always been the best of friends, or even casual friends for that matter, but he didn't deserve to die.

"Did you call Dawson's parents?" I inquired, breaking the intense silence struck between the three of us.

"Yeah, but they're out of town and can't be here until tonight," Nathan explained, not glancing up from the hospital flooring.

I nodded, "Hey, Nathan?"

"What?" he mumbled incoherently.

"He's going to be alright."

He peered up from the waxed floor and met my gaze, his eyes uncertain of my words. "Then why haven't we heard anything?"

No words came to mind, so I shrugged reluctantly in reply. We fell into an uncomfortable silence again as Nathan gazed back to the floor and I leaned back in my chair. Jasper kept scrolling through multiple websites on his phone to find some facts and details about diabetics who had survived from a collapse due to no insulin in their system. Clapping my hand onto Jasper's knee, I informed him quietly that I was going to get something to drink from the vending machine and he nodded as I stood from my seat.

Striding down the long hallway where sounds of heart monitors, coughs, and the mourning of those who had lost loved ones filled my ears. My feet led me to the vending machine and I pulled out two, one dollar bills. The crinkled green pieces of paper flattened when I rubbed them against the machine and fed them to the money receiver. Unfortunately, the machine threw my money back at me, refusing the crinkled money. With a frown, I yanked the money back out and tried to flatten it out by rubbing it on my leg.

I placed the dollar bills back into the machine and still found no such luck.

Groaning, I decided the drink wasn't worth it and turned to leave the stubborn vending machine, until a certain someone stopped me. Once spinning on my heel, I slammed into someone's chest and doubled back. Gavin stood in front of me, his tall demeanor towering over me intimidatingly as he slammed his hands against the machine behind me, trapping me with his arms on either side of me.

"What h–how did you find me?" I breathed out, perplexed.

He scoffed as though I was an imbecile for asking such a thing. "You and your friends aren't that keen on watching your surroundings. I've been following you for the past day and a half. Found you follow an ambulance here after crashing some party at a lousy barn. Thought I'd see what the commotion was about."

I swallowed visibly, frustrated with myself that I never saw him on our tail.

"What do you want?" I asked bluntly.

He smirked, leaning closer to me as I stepped back, hitting my back against the machine.

"There's a lot of answers to that question, baby girl, but I guess I can give you one of them; I want you back. We were good together, Ar... what happened?"