This Old Coffee Shop - A Before You Exit Fanfiction

Chapter Eight; "None of us are going anywhere anytime soon."

-Clara’s Point of View-

 

Being stuck in this dictator-like, rule enforcing hospital for the last three days was really starting to affect me in the worst type of ways.

Every second was routine.

Wake up. Get my temperature checked. My Doctor writes some kind of progress report on his paper and he repeats the same damn line every time afterwards: “You still got a bit of a fever, maybe tomorrow you’ll be well enough to be released.”. Next Carter busts through the doors to visit me, three hours before visiting hours begin. The nurses attempt to make her leave. She comes up with some kind of joke to make fun of them. They leave us alone. Carter and I  talk for hours. She forces me to eat something. I take my daily nap, aka the doctors drug me to make me fall asleep. I wake up and it’s nighttime. I’m up until 2AM until I finally give in to sleep once more. And then the cycle repeats.

I am debating whether or not to throw myself out of the window just to escape this torture.

“Miss Bell, you have some visitors!” My nurse Veronica pipes up as I hear the door open and some footsteps shuffle among the glossed floors.

Sighing while facing the wall I bury my face in my pillow and squeeze my eyes shut. “Tell Carter she can go home. I don’t feel like seeing anyone.” I mumble.

“It’s not Carter.” I hear a familiar velvety smooth voice counter. I peer behind my shoulder to see Riley, Toby and Connor standing beside the door next to Veronica, who is glaring at me with a faint smile. “I’ll leave you four alone.” She says while turning and shutting the door.

“What are you guys doing here?” I ask, sitting up and flicking my messy hair behind my back.

“We missed you and wanted to see if you were alright.” Connor jumped in, smiling lightly.

I smile gratefully and rub my eyes away of sleep. “Sorry you have to see me like this. Hospital policies are that you cannot shower without someone with you and I sure as hell am not showering while someone is watching me.” I state while watching them chuckle to themselves. “It’s alright, you don’t look bad at all.” Riley smiles, sitting down at the table by my bed. Toby joins a few seconds later and Connor remains standing by the far wall.

“Have you talked to Carter lately?” I ask to change the subject.

“I think she’s ignoring us. I called seven times and each time her phone goes straight to voicemail.” Riley informs.

“Yeah and everytime we go to Starbucks she somehow isn’t “there” at the moment.” Toby snorts, looking at me.

I shrug my shoulders and lay back against the bed, facing the wall away from them.

I feel a tap on my shoulder a few minutes later and I gaze up into Connor’s aqua eyes.

“Riley and Toby went to get some food. You fell asleep, but since they aren’t here I just wanted to talk to you. Alone.” He muttered, leaning over me.

I inhaled his delicious cologne and felt my heart race pick up at the fact he was so close to me. Guys were never this close to me unless you consider Jordan. When he’s hitting or yelling at me.

“Mhm.” I mumble, biting my bottom lip. I catch him stare at the end of the bed, and I nod my head, allowing him to sit down. He sighs and clasps his hands together before speaking.

“How long has “he” been doing this to you?” I knew what he meant. Word by word. But I felt the strong urge to play dumb and act as if I had no idea what he was talking about.

“What do you mean?” I ask, chuckling lightly.

“How long has that creep, Jordan, been abusing you.” Connor spoke more powerfully. I gulped and turned away from him.

“I-he-it.” I lost the words and didn’t know how to answer.

“Clara, I’m here for you.” Connor whispered, placing a warm hand on my shoulder. I shuddered and gazed at it, feeling touched.

“You really shouldn’t stay in contact with me.” I spoke softly, keeping my eyes on his face. I caught a look of hurt in his eyes and I quickly added, “And Carter. You guys could get hurt. Jordan is crazy.”

“I don’t give a shit about Jordan, I care about yours and Carter’s safety, and if that means I have to knock out that psycho daily then I am willing to do it. It hurts me to see you hurt. And I know you’ve been hurt many times. I can see it in your eyes.”

I felt tears well up in my eyes and I fought the urge to cry. Sniffling I felt Connor wrap his arms around me and I nuzzled myself into his grasp, resting my head against his soft chest. He slowly traced circles across my back with his fingertips and I shut my eyes, trying to steady my breaths.

I pulled away quickly when I heard the door reopen and my eyes laid upon the figures of Toby, Riley and a very pissed off looking Carter.

“Hey, Connor, I just got done telling your determined little fucks of brothers that you all should stop trying to stay in contact with Clara and I. You know too much and the more you know, the more dangerous it is for all five of us.” She spoke without missing a single beat. She searched Connor and I up and down, his arms still around me tightly. Riley looked truly offended as he sipped on his tart hospital coffee, making a disgusted face afterwards.

“We’re going nowhere.” Connor stated confidently. Carter cocked a brow and smirked cooly.

“Is that so? I could always get a restraining order against the three of you, or something.”

“But you won’t.” Riley laughed, tossing his full cup into the garbage.

Toby stood, listening to the entire conversation, remaining quiet.

“Clara and I don’t even know anything about you three. How do we know you aren’t apart of some kind of gang or something?” Carter shouted, obviously getting annoyed and frustrated.

“Because if we were apart of a gang we’d really be sitting in a hospital right now when we could be doing our usual daily drive-by and robbing an old lady of her pearl brooch.” Riley rolled his eyes, stepping towards Carter. She walked towards me to get away from Riley and then she eyed Connor and I up and down again. I blushed, remembering his arms were still around me and I looked towards the wall.

“Riley, get away from me!” Carter groaned as Riley grabbed her into a hug.

“Oh come on, I know you love me!” He chuckled while swaying her back and forth.

“No, I hate you, now let me go!” She complained, trying to get out of his grasp, but he was too strong.

I felt his arms wrap around Connor and I then, and then Toby came running towards us, understanding what Riley was trying to do. We were now in a group hug, in the middle of my hospital room and Connor muttered, “We’re all in this together. None of us are going anywhere anytime soon.” And for the first time I felt like Carter and I were truly not alone.

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I AM SO SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN THE LONGEST TIME I WAS TOO BUSY WITH SCHOOL WORK AND THE BYE CONCERT AND PRIVATE BUS PARTY SUNDAY BUT I AM BACK AND POSTING. I also apologize that this chapter is TERRIBLE! I had no idea how to continue, I really hope you don't think it's too bad, Alicia and I will be updating again soon, thank you for reading! (: