Silver Screen Romance (Book 3)

36. The Chronicles of Life and Death

Joel's POV

I hung up with Julia and walked into the living room where everyone was gathered talking about Benji.

"I just think he needs to go to rehab." Johnny said.

"That's gonna have to wait." I spoke.

They all turned to look at me.

Linzi sighed. "You can't protect him from this Joel. He needs help."

"I'm not trying to protect him from anything. He does need help, but we have bigger problems right now." I answered.

"What's going on?" Alex asked walking downstairs with Ben in her arms.

"Mandy collapsed at the kid's school. We need to get to the hospital."

Everyone immediately jumped up and started getting things together to go. We were all so used to the hospital routine and I honestly hoped that this was stress related and we would just bring her home and have her relax. The only thing that was giving anyone peace of mind right now was that Matt was with her.

"Tal I'm gonna need you to pick up Robin for me when you get Nate. Keep her busy please."

He nodded. "You got it. Spence you going with me?" He asked her.

She shook her head. "I'm going to stay here with Alex and Ben."

Concern washed over his face and he was about to argue with her, but Zacky spoke first.

"Me and Gena will stay here with them. Don't worry about it."

Tal relaxed and we all went our separate ways.

Matt's POV

I woke up to the sound of Mandy's laughter.

"What's going on?" I asked rubbing my eyes adjusting to the light.

"Well hello there sleeping beauty." She smiled.

I tried to adjust myself and almost rolled off the bed. She grabbed my hand.

"Remember were on a hospital bed and you're already taking up about ¾ of it." She laughed.

I looked around and everything came rushing back to me. We were in the hospital because Mandy had collapsed at the school. Mandy has cancer.

"Are you okay?" She asked worriedly.

I nodded. "Just bringing myself back to reality."

"I'm going to be okay Matt. I will fight this." She assured me.

There was a soft knock on the door and Carey peaked in, his face flashed with anger upon seeing me with Mandy.

"Care. What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I just came to check on you. Matt called me."

She looked back at me for confirmation. I nodded and got off the bed. "I'll give you two some time to talk."

I decided to go out to the parking garage and see if Joel or Linzi were here yet.

As I reached the front, my tahoe pulled up, followed by Joel's truck. Linzi's car, and Johnny's SUV.

Everyone parked and I watched to see who was driving my car. Val opened the door and at the moment I wasn't sure if it was instinct or just the familiarity of her, but I ran up to her and wrapped my arms around her and cried. I didn't care that everyone was watching. I didn't care that this was probably doing more damage than good.

"Matthew, what's wrong?" She whispered softly into my ear as I pulled away from her, calming myself down.

"Is Mandy okay?" Jimmy asked and when I didn't answer he took off running into the hospital.