Taking It

4.7

4.7

It's still dark when hands shake me awake vigorously. I half expect it to be Austin, but as I open my eyes I'm met with Blair's brown eyes glassy and layered with tears. Her face face is fuzzy in the dim lavender lighting of dawn.

Doing my best to not wake up Taylor I sit up, it's not until his hold tightens around my hips do I realize he's holding on to me. My hands find his arm but make no action to move it.

"Blair? What's the matter." I try to blink away the fuzzy, but soon realize that it's because of the horrible lighting and not my vision.

"It's your father." Her voice is weak as she speaks, her words causing my breathing to halt.

I blink a few times, somehow thinking that blinking could clean out my ears. Maybe I hadn't heard her correctly.

"Wh-what about my father?" Unintentionally my fingers grip a bit tighter at Taylor's arms. This causes him to stir a bit, nestling his face into my hip for a bit of comfort. I can't tell if he's awake or sleeping.

The tears wobbling in her eyes, Blair settles down onto my bed. She runs her shaky fingers through her hair a few times before speaking again.

"He's been shot." This time I don't blink and for a second I don't breathe.

In that second i'm falling. Falling into a dark pit with no chance of escaping or hitting the bottom. The only parent I had left, ripped from beneath me just like that. Gone in an instant.

Taylor gently stroking at the lateral side of my thigh brings me out of the darkness, grounds me in reality. He's awake.

"I-is he okay?" I recall another time he was shot and it was nearly fatal. I didn't find this out until weeks after his recovery. He didn't want to worry me, or my mother.

Blair shrugs her shoulders, wiping her tears with the tips of her fingers. There's a desperate need in her eyes, a deep fear of being alone. Her love for my father is consuming her every second and soon it will destroy her, just as it had my mother.

"But I have hope." She says softly after a moment of silence, her sinuses stuffed from her tears. "Your father's a strong willed man." Blair assures me as if I hadn't already known. "He will make it out of this." She nods her head and wipes her face again. I want to wrap my arms around her and absorb some of the optimism she posses inside her. She had not gone to the worse case scenario and I applaud her for it.

I strive to be in that mindset.

"Does Cassidy know?" I question, releasing my grip on Taylor's arm. There's no doubt little crescent shaped moons indented into his skin. Maybe my nails piercing his epidermis is what woke him.

Blair nods her head. "She's currently trying to get ahold of the hospital to see what's going on."

I nod my head in response. I'm not sure if i'm upset that she told Cassidy before me or slightly relieved, not knowing how i'd react if she told me first. I definitely would be trying to call a hospital to see if my father is still breathing or not. Nor would I have accompanied Blair in telling Cassidy, being too numb to the news she sprung on me.

By the look of various emotions displayed across Blair's face I can only imagine what she's going through right now.

I open my mouth to ask her if she's doing okay but she cuts in. "I'll let you get back to sleep, when you wake in the morning we can go see him if it's allowed." Slowly she peels herself from my bed, smoothening out the back of her shorts.

I want to tell her I wont be getting any sleep tonight but I don't want her to worry about me too. I'm fine, I think. I will be at least.

I watch her leave. It only becomes real when the door loudly clicks shut. As i'm taking in a shaky breath, Taylor lets out a deep one. His warm breath rushes against the exposed skin of my thigh. Gently he places a tender kiss on the nearest piece of skin. It's not an act of wanting to be intimate, but instead an comforting reassurance that he's here—something real,  something tangible—and he's not going anywhere anytime soon.