Girl Crush

Chapter 40

 "Dani," Robin urged, "Dani, sit down, please."

Dani paced back and forth in the waiting room of the hospital. It had taken all of them to get Eddie into Steve's car as he couldn't help a whole lot. He'd been barely conscious, his limbs hanging like a rag doll. Dani had ridden in the back with him, holding his head in her lap, begging him to be okay, telling him how sorry she was over and over again.

When they got to the hospital, Robin had run in to get nurses who brought out a stretcher and wheeled him in and through double doors no one else was allowed to go through. Steve and Robin had argued with Dani to get herself checked out. She'd refused and then had a complete breakdown, screaming in the middle of the hospital that she wasn't going anywhere until she knew how Eddie was. Nurses converged on her, giving her a shot to calm her down a bit. It worked enough for them to look her over. She just had a broken nose which they had taped up.

Dustin and Mike had arrived shortly after that. Mike's mom had brought them. Then came Dani's mom who ran in, grabbing her in a panic. Dani assured her she was fine. She wasn't the one they should be worrying about. Not long after Uncle Wayne had raced through the doors, his eyes darting around until they found her. He had immediately ran to her, pulling her into a hug and she had fallen apart all over again.

"Hey kiddo," Uncle Wayne said softly, placing his hand on her elbow. "You're going to wear a hole in this floor. Why don't you come and have a seat for a minute? You look dead on your feet."

Dani allowed him to lead her to a chair and sat, her leg shaking so badly that Steve reached out and placed his hand on it in an attempt to calm her. It didn't help. Nothing was going to help until she knew whether Eddie was alright or not.

"So, what happened?" Uncle Wayne asked. "A bunch of basketball players did this to him?"

"Yeah," Dustin answered. "We saw Eddie and Dani head off into the woods and then a bunch of those jocks went in not long after. This dick, Jason Carver, is like the leader of the assholes."

"Dustin, language," Dani's mom reminded.

"So sorry, Mrs. Miller," he said. "Anyway, we got a little suspicious so we went in too. It took us a while to find them because we didn't know where Eddie and Dani's spot was. When we did, three of the guys were holding Eddie on the ground and he was really messed up. And two of them had Dani and..." He trailed off, his eyes going to the floor.

"Two of them..." Dani's mom's eyes darted over to her. "Honey, what were they doing?"

Dani curled into herself, bringing her knees up into her chest and wrapping her arms around them. She buried her face against them, unable to answer. They hadn't done anything but her stomach rolled all over again at the thought of what they planned to do if the others hadn't shown up in time.

"Sweetheart," Uncle Wayne said softly, "did they...did those boys..."

"No," she said, shaking her head. "No. I'm fine. Eddie's the one everyone should be worried about right now. Not me. They broke my nose, that's it. They just held onto me so I couldn't help him. I'm fine..."

Robin and Steve both looked at her, concern written all over their face but she buried her face against her knees again, refusing to look at them. She knew they knew exactly what Jason planned on doing when they showed up but she didn't want to relive any of it. What happened to her didn't begin to compare to what happened to Eddie. It didn't matter. Nothing had really happened anyway. They had all shown up in time to stop the worst of it for her. She was fine.

"Mr. Munson?" a doctor asked as he stepped through the double doors.

Wayne jumped up, "That's me."

"Hello sir," he said. "I'm Dr. Waggoner. I have been attending to your nephew. He is going to be fine. He has a broken nose, a contusion around his left eye, two broken ribs and quite a few bumps and bruises. He will be in pain for a while and it will take some time for him to heal, but he will suffer no permanent damage."