SO BAD [MXM] [MAFIA] ✓

43: THANK YOU

!!SMUT AT THE END!!

-

When Skylar wakes up again, he's in a hospital, which instantly sets off his fight or flight response. For some reason, despite the fact he hasn't talked to the man in god knows how long, he's terrified he's about to deal with the wrath of Vince.

So, he's immediately jumping up to a sitting position and trying to rip off his IVs. Luckily, somebody stops him before he can actually do much damage, and it takes him a moment to get out of escape mode. Once he does, he finds Evangeline standing in front of him, eyes soft.

Oh. That's right, his dad basically disowned him.

Skylar blinks a couple times, staring at the woman, before looking around the rest of the room. He finds two other people in here with them, but they're both unconscious. One is the person that saved Skylar's life, and next to Ashton is none other than Jessie.

Skylar's eyes widen at the sight of his brother. Jessie has his head resting on Ashton's shoulder, and Ashton is leaning his own on top of it. Both are fast asleep, Jessie with visibly dark circles under his eyes, and Skylar wonders if he's been sleeping well at college.

"How are you feeling?" Evangeline asks Skylar, and when he turns his gaze back to her, she's giving him a warm smile. Skylar blinks at her, before reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck while he thinks about this. He's hardly had time to gauge the situation of the hospital room he's in, let alone his own health.

Skylar isn't feeling any pain anywhere, but his throat does kind of hurt. Aside from that he's fine, but that's only surface level. Skylar has no idea what the status on him is internally.

Honestly, how the fuck is Skylar even still here? Sure, Ashton reached a hand down his throat and triggered Skylar's gag reflex until he coughed all the pills out, but still. That was a one in a million chance, and it's especially impressive that he was able to do so before any of it diluted into his system.

He had to have been there pretty quick, and now that Skylar thinks about it, he remembers hearing someone call his name right before he dumped the container in his mouth. So, Ash probably saw. How on earth is Skylar going to explain that? No way Ashton will believe that he fell into some sort of trance and talked to the cytozine wizard. Or whoever that lady was.

"I'm okay," Skylar tells her, realizing that the woman is holding his hand. She must've done so, since immediately upon gaining consciousness Skylar would've broken the contact. He was trying to escape, after all.

Before Evangeline can respond to that, someone else is entering the room in a rush. One quick glance up at the heavyset woman with fiery red hair and a mean expression on her face is all Skylar needs to instantly recognize her as his mother.

"Skylar!" She calls out his name, loudly, before storming directly at the hospital bed. Skylar's eyes are wide, unintentionally grasping Evangeline's hand tighter. His mother towers over his seated form and points a finger at him, eyes narrowed.

"Why the fuck are you trying to kill yourself?"

Skylar can't even stop himself from rolling his eyes. "I'm not."

Candace Hall makes a low, irritated noise. "I don't have a lot of time, but we need to talk about your priorities. Why did I hear this news from Ashton? You have a working phone, don't you?"

"No," Skylar replies simply, because he doesn't. It's caused a lot of problems as of late, but that's not even the main reason he didn't call his mother about the overdose. "Also, I just woke up."

Candace squints at him for a moment, before sighing and running a hand through her curly hair. She looks stressed as hell, and honestly, Skylar probably isn't even the cause of it. Her job has always demanded far too much of her. It practically runs her life, and Skylar has never found that surprising. He's always assumed the entire reason she took the job was to distract herself from the divorce, and then it just became a way of life.