Hannah in Wonderland

Chapter Nineteen~ Bad Decisions

Hannah

We were just getting off the plane when we got another call from Riker. His news made us get on the next plane back to New York City.

I felt nothing as we flew. I spaced out and went into a state where even the littlest things would make me cry, like Carissa falling asleep on my shoulder or them being out of peanuts.

After we got off, we went to the hospital immediately. Carissa and I broke down as soon as we found the whole Lynch family (Savannah and Ratliff included) in the waiting room.

Carissa fell apart in Riker's arms, and Stormie held me as I cried. Rocky Stayed as far away from Carissa and I as he could, trying to hide the shame on his face.

Ratliff was a down-pour, and so was Rydel. All I could think about were the last words he spoke to me on the phone.

After I calmed down, I took a seat next to Riker, where he was cradling a sleeping Carissa.

"When did he jump out of the window?" my voice cracked, directed to Riker.

He just stared at Carissa, not looking away from her, and kissing her forehead every now and then like he was scared she would run away and jump through the nearest window.

"Literally right after you said goodbye. I was just standing there, watching him talk on the phone like he was giving his life away. I look away for two seconds and when I turn back around, he's flying. He loves flying, and then he fell. He landed on a nearby tree, but his little blonde head hit concrete first as he fell through the tree branches," he barely got out in a half whisper.

I petted his head as he cried into Carissa's hair. I turned to everyone else to see them all staring at me.

Stormie's and Rydel's makeup were running, and they were both clinging on to the thing closest to them. Ryland was on his phone, Savannah looking at whatever he was doing, Ratliff holding Rydel and giving Rocky a glare, Rocky staring at me with remorse, and Mark's kind eyes turned grey as he looked at his weeping wife.

Carissa and I had changed out of the dresses in the car and into yoga pants, a baggy tee-shirts, and I put our hair up.

I drew my knees up and cried into them. I felt a hand rub my back, and I looked up to see Rocky sitting by me. His tears were rolling down his cheeks faster than a waterfall. In a sign of forgiveness, I hugged him.

And we all sat there, together like Christmas should be spent.

But not in a hospital, and not waiting to hear what would happen to the rest of my life.

So for the next three hours, we sat in that waiting room, and cried. If you could hear hearts breaking, you could hear eight of them breaking in one room at the same time.

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Carissa

My eyes opened and I saw Hannah in the arms of Rocky. Riker watched my facial expressions very carefully, ready to hold me back if needed.

The tension in the room could be cut by a knife.

"Hey, why are we all so sad? I mean, yes, a tragedy happened. But we shouldn't be sitting here moping like lost puppies. We should be remembering our time with him!" I said, sitting up.

Everyone gave me the deer-in-the-headlights look to me. They looked at each other amd then back at me. Then the least expected person spoke.

"R-ross, he always liked to pet my hair," Savannah spoke up, "It used to be so annoying, him telling me how soft my 'pretty lady' hair was."