Trouble Times Two

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Monday

We're awoken by a blaring alarm and I check the time. It's two in the morning.

I listen to the alarm. It's a ringtone.

It's Donovan's phone and I see that it's Dacre.

I answer it.

"Hello?" I ask.

"Oh. Gia? I could've sworn I called Donovan. You and Donovan need to come John Taylor Presbyterian, Maisie's going into labour." He doesn't need to tell me twice.

I wake Donovan up and tell him. We get ready.

I throw on whatever I can find, which consists of Donovan's hoodie over my pyjama top and his sweatpants over my shorts.

I grab my belt bag, stuff my phone, charger and power bank in and then run around the house waking up everyone up.

I tell everyone to stay put but awake, as we're going to the hospital. We scurry along to my garden and go to my garage.

I turn on my car and then take a few deep breaths.

"Uh are you okay?" He asks and I shake my head.

"I haven't driven in so long. No. You know what. It doesn't matter. I can drive, let's go." This was important.

The whole garage lights up when the garage door starts to open.

"Woah. Those cars epic? Are they yours?" He says and I shrug.

"I guess so. Everything that was in the house was for sale so yeah, it's mine but they belonged to my dad. He loved his cars but no one else shared the same enthusiasm with him. I assume anyway, I don't really check up on my siblings." That was putting it lightly. I drive out of the garage, lock it, and start the journey.

Donovan's siblings said they'd be sure to be on lookout for my house. My orders were strict. Anyone comes in, call the police.

I didn't want any of them getting involved and getting hurt.

"Why didn't your siblings get anything from the house? I remember them, they were all older than you. You were always gushing about them but they didn't ever seem that great to me." He really touched a nerve there because he's correct, I was always worshipping the ground they walked on and they were never as great as I made them out to be.

"They abandoned the house and the value of it declined massively. The house went into foreclosure and none of my siblings paid for it back. I bought the house with some money I had. I gave it to my aunt, she bought it, put it in a trust in my name. I moved in when I turned 17 and I started owning it when I turned 18. I renovated the whole thing. It's mine now but ever since Vincent came back, they've been trying to get the house 'back' when it's now mine and only mine." I truly wish it wasn't.

"Why don't you invite them back?" He asks and I start laughing, laughing like a crazy mad woman at the wheel of my car but I compose myself.

"My siblings are not good people, I guess it ran through all the way to me but they are not good people. We are not good people." I sigh as we pull into the parking lot. "I'm a bad person." I whisper .

We get out of the car after I buy a ticket and we walk in.

"What do you mean you're a bad person?" He says as we walk to the reception.

"Really not important Donovan. Hi, how can get to Maisie Rosling's room? We're on her list, Donovan Shepherd and Giana Blackwell." I say and she smiles and searches it up.

"Yes she's on the eighth floor in room 83. Are you guys able bodied?" She asks and I nod. "Okay there's a bit of an issue with the lifts so we're kind of only taking patients and those who aren't able bodied into the lift, I'm really sorry but if it's possible, can you take the stairs as far as possible?"

"Yeah that's fine. Thank you." Donovan says and grabs our visitor passes. He drags me the back of the corridor we're in, behind a damp, smelly flight of stairs. Even though there was a set of stairs where we just were. "What do you mean, you're a bad person?"

I shrug.

"It's not important." I say and start making my way up the stairs. He tries to grab me but I run up the stairs and don't stop running until I'm far enough away. I walk casually and eventually I'm ambushed and pulled through a random door. Ambush is a strong word, Donovan simply grabs me.

We are definitely not meant to be in this floor. There's plastic wrap everywhere and a pungent smell which can only be a mix of paint, spirit and actual literal alcohol. I can see bottles of all kinds of stuff.

He drags me to a work station and sits me down on a spinny chair, sits on another and scoots as close as physically possible.

"You're not a bad person. You, despite the way I treated you, were insistent that I stop drinking and never gave up."

"Maybe I just told you to stop because maybe I just like your family. I don't want them to be hurt." I know he doesn't believe that.

"You should get an A for that top notch bullshit. You help me when I cry. You saved me from a rapist! I could've been killed if not for you! You helped me with my schoolwork, I mean you did schoolwork for me despite your struggles with English. You completed that whole partnership booklet for the exchange and did the whole baby project despite struggling to read and write and there was a lot of reading and writing and all of that jazz. You are not a bad person." He holds my hand.

I think for a moment then pull back.

"I am a bad person. I've done bad things. I was an alcoholic and a drug addict, I was part of an underground fighting ring. I'm a delinquent, you want to know why Howlett put us together? We're both delinquents but I've committed crimes. I'll just drag you down with me into the mud. I'm a bad person. I went to juvie, I went to military school, hell I was in wilderness because I'm a bad kid and I always will be. I let my parents down. Oh I let them down. I'm a bad kid." He scoots closer again and puts his hand on my knee.

"You were a dealt a bad set of cards, your parents pass, your siblings aren't nice. I don't know your full story but you're not a bad person. You're one of the best people I know and you're destined for great things. Come on. Maisie needs to see us." He says and we stand up leave.

I stop as we're walking back towards the staircase.

He stops as well.

I, for the first time, willingly, hug him first.

He's startled at first but then just hugs me back, tighter than anyone has hugged me in years.

We go back to staircase and make our way to Maisie's floor and room.