Trauma-ridden and adopted by matpat

The Waiting Room

I went and sat in one of the waiting room chairs. "Are you sure that you don't want to go home?" Steph asked. "Positive." "There are three bullets to remove. It will be six or seven hours until the procedure is finished." "If it were up to me, I would be sitting in the operation room right by their side. The least I can do is stay in the waiting room." "Alright, if you insist. Mat and I are going home. Do you need me to bring you anything? A charger? Snacks?" "I'm okay, I always have a charger in my purse and I don't really have an appetite right now." "You've barely eaten anything today, you really should eat something." "How am I supposed to eat while I know one of the most important people in my life might be dead on the operation table down the hall!?" "You can't just starve yourself for six hours." "I'll get something from the vending machine if I am hungry." "Okay..." She and Mat left.

Just as they left, I saw Nora walk down the operation hallway. On her face I saw nothing but worry and confusion. I waved to her and she looked surprised to see me. She came over and took a seat in the chair next to me. "Y/N, what are you doing here?" "Birdseed got shot. Three times. They are being operated on right now..." "Same with Marco. He got shot in the leg while we were trying to run away. I had to carry him out." "Where did you go?" "We hid in the bushes outside the school. I took off his hoodie and wrapped his leg in it to stop the bleeding while I called an ambulance." She took an uncomfortable pause. "The doctors said he might not make it." Tears started to run down her face. "Same with Birdseed." I also began to cry again and we hugged each other. "I'm terrified...I didn't even get a chance to talk to him before they put him under! I never got to tell him how much I loved him! It's possible I never will!" She said. "...you loved him?" She wiped the teardrops away and nodded. "We have been dating for two weeks." "And you didn't tell me!?" "I'm sorry. I wasn't ready to tell anyone yet." Then, Zach, Raina, Ellis, and Hailey walked in.

"Y/N, Nora. I am so sorry." Zach empathized. "They are both in surgery right now." I explained. "Do you know what happened to anyone else?" Nora asked. "On the news it said that 16 students and 4 teachers died. However, more were injured. I can't remember which students died but one of the teachers was Ms. Garny." "There...there is no way this is happening. This whole situation is insane. I woke up this morning like any other...and now everyone is either dead or on the verge of death!" I started to panic. "What is happening! Everything was supposed to get better! That's what everyone has been telling me for months! Why is nothing improving!?" My friends all stared at me as I ran to the hospital bathroom. I locked the door to the single, and slumped onto the dirty tile floor. I curled into a ball and cried, wishing that everything could be over. On the outside I was thirteen, in a hospital bathroom, but on the inside I was six. Six years old in this exact position, my adolescent face smothered in tears, because my Dad had been fired from his job at the hospital. I was eight, in my cramped closet, trying to muffle my crying so that my intoxicated father wouldn't find me. I was eleven, wondering why everything was so awful because my parents had officially split up due to my Dad having an affair with some random woman named Audrey. I had watched my life slowly get worse for years. This promised me a switch-up, but that switch had never come. It was still declining.

I sat there crying, panicking, for a rough twenty minutes. Then I heard some steps coming up to the door. I sprang up to splash water on my face and pretend I was perfectly fine but then I heard the knocking. "Y/N, I know you are in there. It's me, please let me in." Mat's comforting voice begged. I unlocked the door and let him in. He saw how upset I was and hugged me. "Are you okay?" "No! I don't remember the last time I was okay!" "Let's go talk about it." He ushered me out and to the bench across the hall. He sat down next to me. "Is this about Birdseed?" "No...well not exactly." "Then what is this about?" "My life is falling apart!" My voice cracked. "Everyone has been telling me that it will get better for months! It never has!" I wrapped my arms around his neck and continued to sob into his chest. He calmly put his arms around me in an attempt to make me feel safe. "Everything will be fine. I promise. Birdseed is going to get better and everything will return back to normal." "But what if it doesn't? The doctor said they only have a 30 percent chance of surviving the operation. I have just been stuck in a delusion to cope with it, but it's true. They are probably dead." "Listen, I'm going to take you back home and-" "I can't go back home!" "I'm not going to just let my daughter have a panic attack in the middle of the hospital, you are coming home whether you want to or not."

He made me follow him into the car and he drove me home. Steph was standing right in front of the door once I got inside. "Y/N, you need to eat something. You will feel better." I knew that I couldn't refuse it, she had been telling me to eat for the past day and it felt wrong to say no again. "Okay." I went to the kitchen with her and she offered to make me something. "I could make you a sandwich, eggs, what do you want?" "Can I have a PB&J please?" She fixed it for me and I planned to just spit out the bites into my napkin to avoid eating but she watched me like a hawk the whole time. I had no other choice but to eat.