Not to be found

Chapter 32 - Out of the woods

"Here, put this on," Sofia says as she tosses one of Noah's baggy dark green hoodies for me to wear, it's so big it covers my butt. She then hands over a pair of leggings that I somehow manage to stumble into.

"Sit down," she points towards the chair that sits in front of his desk.
I do as she says as she begins to brush my hair out of its tangled mess.

"Thank you," I practically whisper, I'm so damn embarrassed. Why is she doing this for me?

She brings the loose locks of my hair and tucks them behind my ears, "it's okay you're my friend, I just want to help."

I barely know her. I would only call us acquaintances, but quite clearly it is more than that.

She opens the door to Noah's bedroom and gestures for me to follow her out of the room, I don't want to go downstairs though. Julie will judge me, I got far too drunk and nearly exposed my identity, I'm going to be thought of as a fool.

Sofia strolls down the stairs as if she owns the place, as if she sees it as her own home. I reluctantly follow her into the kitchen, I look around but Julie is thankfully nowhere in sight.
Sofia pulls open the fridge door and brings out the bread and butter, she puts the bread in the toaster and puts it onto the highest setting.
Soon enough the scent of burnt toast fills the kitchen, the toast pops up and she butters the two slices and passes them to me on a plate.

I take a bite into the toast and almost gag on the food that I am chewing. I swallow it quickly and take some water with it, otherwise I would throw up.

After I have finally finished the toast, we wash the plates up and head into the living room where we decide to put a movie on. I'm still not one hundred percent sure I can trust Sophia, but right now she is the only female friend my age that I have discovered since leaving and so I have to give her a chance.

We scroll through the movie categories and decide on a comedy, turns out she's not the kind to like chick flicks and rom coms just like me.
Julie walks through the living room with a binder in her hands, she smiles at me and Sophia then goes into the kitchen returning with a large bowl of popcorn. She places it down on the table but her mobile rings in her pocket,
"Hello," she says down the phone.

Me and Soph sit on the sofa and stare up at her as her expression goes from bright to worried in a matter of seconds, "yes....yes.....yes, okay we'll be there as fast we can," she breathes out her hands shaking as she presses the end call button.

Anxiety and panic bubbles in my stomach, I look over to Sophia and then to Julie who is grabbing her coat and handbag, "we need to go girls, now!"

"W-what's happened?" Soph stutters as she pulls her boots on.
I'm in muted mode, my tongue numb as my mind races with various scenarios.

"I can't explain," she says panicked as she takes her keys from the hook, "but we have to go now."

I pull my coat over my shoulders and pull my boots on, looking like a complete and utter mess wearing my black leggings, messy hair and my boyfriends hoodie.
Wait? Did I just call him my boyfriend? Oh my wow. Are we that? I guess so, I'm just gonna roll with it.

I  follow the two of them out of the front door as it shuts the faint sound of an alarm beeping fades as it sets. I get into the front passenger seat of the car. What is going on? I don't even know what Noah works as, this is ridiculous! What has happened that is so bad? The anticipation is killing me! How do I even know it's about him?

It's a twenty minute drive before we arrive at something that looks like a military facility, guards armed with guns stand on the front gates as we approach. Julie speaks to one of the guards and then pulls out some sort of card that looks like an ID. The guard nods and opens the gate, I stare back at Sophia who offers me a sympathetic smile.

The car is parked at the front of the formal looking building, I jump out following Julie as she practically jogs to the entrance. Sophia joins alongside me as we attempt to keep up.
"What the hell is going on?" I ask frantically.

Sophia sighs as she paces, "you can never guess when it comes to this place."

The large glass doors slide open and a man in an all black military style uniform is already speaking to Julie, she motions for us to come with her.
Her hands shake at her sides as we walk down the dark corridor, a corridor that she seems to be familiar with as she turns its corners before the actual guard does.
This can't be good at all.

Around the corner is another dark straight corridor, the walls grey and four chairs sit outside a door. Mike occupies one of them. His head bowed and his hands clenched together, he catches sight of us as Julie rushes over to him.

"Are you okay?" She asks her voice hoarse from the tears that's she's probably holding back.

Mike leans into her hand that is placed on his cheek, the two look like teenage lovers from a cliche love story after a tragedy has just rocked their world.
"I'm okay......he isn't though," his voice breaks at the last part.

He? Noah? Why else would I have been brought here? It's him. Oh god.

My body feels heavy as I look over at Sophia who has her head bowed, a tear slips down her cheek as she places a hand on my shoulder like she knows I'm going to be heartbroken.
"I'll wait here," she whispers, "he'll want you with him."
Will he? Will he want me?

The guard pushes the door open, I follow behind Julie and Mike, they're silent and their fingers are intertwined as we follow the guard. We turn another corner into a dimly lit room, people that I believe to be nurses and a doctor hoard around. And what I see next knocks the air clean out of my lungs.

There lying in front of me is Noah his face cut up, a nasal cannula giving him the oxygen that he needs, the once white sheets are stained a crimson red from the blood that he's lost. Nurses rushing to patch up his wounds, I peer over Mike's shoulder to see a deep cut just below his rib cage.
He's deathly pale and the more I scan my eyes over his body, I notice more and more wounds bleeding out.

I swallow the lump in my throat and just silently cry looking down at his broken body. Every sob that Julie lets out creates a new crack in my heart, I've got to be the reason behind this.

I pull one of the nurses aside, "will he be okay?"

She grabs some more bandages and some saline solution balancing them in her arms, "he's better than what he was, I mean he's not out of the woods yet; he's got a collapsed lung, several broken ribs and he's bled out quite a bit. But we can be hopeful," she smiles.

Julie sits down on the plastic chair that is by Noah's bedside, she holds his hand and draws circles with her thumb on his pale skin.
Mike moves to stand next to her, "c'mon, he'll want you here too," he says to me softly.
So I move to stand next to them, my heart aches as Mike places his arm around my shoulder trying to give me some kind of comfort.

I've done this, I've broken this family. I've destroyed their son and put him in a hospital bed. There is no other logical explanation as to why he's here.

As I stare down at him I can only hope with all the strength that I have that he'll wake up and be okay. He has to be okay. He will be okay. He's Noah. And I love him.