Unknown.

1- Getting followed.

"The doctors said they don't know what attacked him..." Gage whispers to me, hurt lacing his deep voice. I watch him as he leans over his father's still body that lies in the hospital bed in front of him, his head lowered with sadness, dark circles under his tired green eyes.

   I take a step towards him, dropping my black purse into one of the two open hospital chairs and trying to keep my mind on him and not on the unnerving smell of the hospital.

   "Why didn't you call me earlier?" I ask quietly, my hard voice reaching out to Gage and making him turn his head to meet my gaze. "I would've stayed here with you if I would've known..."

   "I found out late last night and didn't want to wake you." Gage replies vaguely before turning back to his father's body. Gage's blonde hair falls in front of his face, curls dancing before his eyes as he adds, "They thought he wasn't going to make it..."

    I make my way over to the hospital bed, gently resting a hand on one of Gage's broad shoulders as I inspect his father's limp body. His father looks just like him, his blonde curly hair with a few specks of gray, his dark green eyes that are shielded by his eyelids, and his thick eyelashes nearly identical.

His father has tubes connected to his arms, his body covered in the thin sheets that match the white hospital bed. Lines dot his face, scratches mixed in with aging wrinkles and even a few stitches.

"Is he going to be alright?" I question him, not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah..." Gage answers me, his voice cracking when he continues. "They found him on the side of the road, bleeding and nearly chopped up..."

"Hey!" I grab his round chin softly, his eyes lifting to mine when I tell him, "He will be okay..."

   And for the first time in my life, I look through the tears swimming in Gage's eyes and see such hurt in them I can barely stand to look into them. His head drops on my shoulder, his arms wrapping around me with the brotherly affection that he has shown me all the years we have been best friends. I can feel his heart beat from under his blue T-shirt and robust chest. His jeans brush against my black leggings.

   Because he never cries, I utter nothing, too speechless to let out any of my mixed thoughts.

   "When the doctor called and said my father was in critical condition, I thought I was going to lose my only parent." Gage's voice whispers into my ear, his tense arms shaking slightly around me. "I-I... I felt..."

"It's okay..." I coo to my best friend, brushing my left hand through his curls and holding him against my body with my right hand. "You don't have to explain how you feel, Gage, I know how you feel."

And the truth is, I do know. I lost my mother to a sickness that the doctors could not cure or identify, and my father to suicide. I've moved around from foster parent to foster parent, never fitting in with any of the kind parents who tried to take the place of the ones that gave birth to me. Obviously I grew up, and now live on my own without a set of parents...

   "Eve... Can you do something for me?" He lifts his head, releasing me from his grasp and returning to his father's bedside.

"Anything." I respond, my fingers flying up to my straight hair and raking the length of my thick brown locks all the way to my waist. At the end of my hair, I fix my mint-colored tank-top so that it lies perfectly above my waist.

"Can you go home?" He surprises me with his words, his eyes ignoring my gaze. "I know you have to go work and-"

"I already cancelled everything I had planned for today." I smile at him even though he hasn't looked up from his father's peaceful body.