"Calum!" I shout, pushing the doors of the hospital open, "Fucking stop!"
He ignores me, opening up the door of his car, but I slam it shut before he can get in, "Jesus, dude, just take a step back for one second."
"What?" he snaps, looking at me with complete anger and even though he would never admit it, hurt.
"What happened in there?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows.
"I told her," he shakes his head, "She is in a state of shock, she just went through a fucking shooting, and I tell her possibly the hardest news you could hear, what kind of guy am I?"
"What news?" I ask slowly, getting a bad feeling in my gut.
His mouth shuts quickly as he looks down, staying silent. My jaw clenches before I take a deep breath, "Calum, what are you talking about?"
"I-" he clears his throat before looking back at me, "I"m going back to Iraq. I leave in a month."
"Woah," I put my hand up and take a step back, "You-You're going back?"
He nods, and I shake my head, "For how long?"
"8 months," he says, and I shake my head, running a hand over my face.
"You're leaving again?" I laugh, trying to mask the pain that I'm truly feeling, "How are you- what are you going to tell Grace?"
"Tell Grace what?" A voice behind me says, and I close my eyes, taking a deep breath. Shit.
"Grace," Calum says, and I turn around to see the beautiful, beautiful girl standing there, her short hair in a bun, pieces falling out.
"Tell Grace what, Calum?" She asks, her eyes already watering.
I look back at Calum, who is standing here completely speechless, before back at Grace who looks plain scared.
"God damn it, Calum, just fucking tell me," she snaps, tears falling onto her cheeks. She quickly wipes them away, however.
"I'm going back to Iraq," he says quickly, and Grace looks like she got punched in the guy, "I'm going back."
She opens her mouth to say something, but shuts it. She nods once before turning around and walking towards the hospital.
"Grace, wait," Calum sighs, but she completely ignores him, continuing to walk till she's inside.
"Why does she always walk away?!" He groans, hitting his hands against the top of his car.
"What do you expect her to do?" I ask, walking closer, "Her best friend is laying in a hospital bed after being in a shooting and you just told her that you were going back into Iraq."
He stays silent, "None of you were here very long after senior year, but I was. Luke went to Yale, he left before the year was even over. When Cat left, Grace was heartbroken. She wouldn't get out of bed most days. Then you left, to go train for the fucking military. Then Ashton left, and we didn't hear from him very often because he was at practice every day of his life. Then Ronnie got a fucking modeling job in LA. One by one, everyone left. She felt so alone and-and abandoned."
"You left her!" He shouts at me, "Maybe not literally, but you broke up with her, are you really the one to tell me about how everyone else left her alone when you did too?"
"I did leave," I nod, "And it was the worst fucking mistake I've made in my entire life," I shake my head at him, "But if there is one thing I know, it's that I'm not making that mistake ever again. I'm not leaving her, I'm never going to leave her, even if she doesn't know I'm there."
I walk away from him, following where Grace went inside and up back to Cat's room.
When I get there, she is sitting next to Cat, who is still sedated from her episode.
I sigh, taking the coffee off the table that I got for Calum and handing it to her.
She looks up at me and smiles slightly, taking the cup in her hands and bringing it up to her lips.
I silently walk around to the other side of the bed and sit down, drinking my own coffee.
Cat is now back in the same position she was in for the past few days, only now her eyes are closed.
"Dr. O'Connell said she had to be sedated," she says quietly, her eyes still trained on Cat, "Again. That's the second time. He told me that they need to take her to the psych ward, because she's a 'danger to herself and to others.'"
"She's not crazy," I scoff.
Grace is about to answer before her phone starts to ring. She pulls it out of her pocket and sighs.
"Hey Ashton," she puts it to her ear.
"Why do you sound like that? What's going on?" I can faintly hear his voice in the silent room.
"There was a little incident," she says, "Cat started to have a little bit of a panic attack. She thought Calum was a shooter and flipped out, they had to sedate her again."
I can't hear what Ashton says after that because Asher comes back into the room, his IV cart squeaking as he rolls it next to him.
Grace continues to talk to Ashton as Asher walks closer to Cat's bed, "Do you think she'll snap out of this soon?"
"I have no idea, man," I sigh, "I sure fucking hope so."
