Zailey (Sequel) ✔️

Part Three

Thank you RachelBaker976 for your comment last chapter 😍

Bailey

Avoidance didn't work so well when you were holed up in a Motel Room an hour and a half from home and fifteen minutes from the York Town Hospital.
I pretended to be 'sleeping' until Amara came back into the room with a huge bottle of water in hand, ready to douse me in it.
Heath had somehow managed to keep everybody except Arian and Keegan away.
Keegan looked at my face and I had tear's streaming down my cheeks all over again when I saw his bright blue eyes fill with a torrent of sparkly tear's.
I saw his fists clench at his sides, but he was a little more willing than Heath to listen to the bigger picture of the situation.
His bloodshot eyes and the huge purple bags beneath them helped me to believe his tale about not getting barely a wink of sleep thanks to his nightmares of yesterday's situation.
He could completely understand Zander flipping out as he moved toward consciousness.
I could understand it too.
But I was still quite scared to go back to the hospital.
I know Zander didn't mean to swing a fist.
I know he definitely didn't mean to hit me.
But fear works in mysterious ways.
I couldn't seem to make my mind, heart and physical body agree on a method of what to do.
"I can't begin to imagine how you're feeling."
Amara told me in a gentle voice as she plopped onto the lumpy Motel bed mattress alongside me.
"Mmmm."
I honestly didn't have words.
Not for the first time, my phone lit up with an incoming call on my bedside table.
Zander was awake.
That much I knew.
Yet I still couldn't make myself get up, get showered, dressed into clean clothes and make my way to the hospital.
Amara leaned forward to grab my phone.
Wordlessly she handed it to me.
With lightly shaking hands and shallow breaths, I pressed the button on the side of my phone to light my screen.
- Keegan: iMessage: Zan wants to see you 😳
It wasn't the first message I'd received to say pretty much the same thing.
With slightly trembling fingers, I began to type.
Me: If Amara can hide some of the damage to my face I'll come over.
It might take me a while to fight my body and my fear's and force myself into the hospital.
But Zander's just been through the most traumatic experience of his life.
If he see's the bruise that was getting uglier by the hour, even if he didn't remember what happened, he'd begin to ask questions.
There's no way I'd be able to tell him that he punched me in the face.
He believed himself to not be able to hit a girl.

Amara tried twice to use makeup to downplay the ugly bruise forming on my eye and upper cheek.
We both agreed it by no means worked.
I looked more like a damn clown than anything else.
So I washed my face for the third time and had to brave letting people see the girl with the big ugly bruise on her face.
Arian would be here in a few minutes to pick Amara and I up and take us to the hospital.
None of them were letting me hide away any longer.
They were taking it upon themselves to force my hand.
I was still torn down the middle about what to do.
I wanted to see Zander.
But I didn't know if I could face him.
Even Arian, the singular strongest person I knew, had his blue eyes sparkle with tear's when he'd been here earlier and seen my face.
It was literally almost worse than seeing Keegan cry.
A quick knock rattled the Motel Room door.
Amara scuttled over to open it, revealing Arian.
"C'mon."
He told us, turning to head away again.
Damn it!
With my heart pounding, i grabbed my phone and my wallet and followed Amara out of the small living quarters.

Brogan, Corbin, Ethan, Heath, Izac, Judd and Keegan were all waiting in the ICU waiting room when Arian, Amara and I walked in, me trailing behind the other two in an attempt to keep my face out of peoples' view.
At least a dozen people had looked at us as we'd walked from the parking lot and their faces has morphed into fear and they'd moved as far away from us as they could.
They probably thought Arian was the cause of my shiner and that Amara and I were being forced to follow him.
"Holy shit!"
Izac and Judd whispered in stunned unison, their eyes bulging to almost double their normal size as they took in my face.
Amara stepped closer to my side and placed a supportive arm around my shoulders as my throat burned with the all too familiar thickness.
Heath was the one who'd seen my face first.
And he'd seen it this morning in the Motel room
Yet he still visibly clenched his jaw and his fists at his sides.
Ethan flinched, his face twisting in discomfort where he stood alongside Heath.
My heart was in my throat, pounding away as I forced myself to look at Brogan and Corbin through my tear filled, blurry visioned eyes.
Corbin visibly cringed, his tanned face twisting.
"I can't fuckin' do this."
Brogan was the one who attempted to speak, or at least speak the most.
And his voice cracked.
I flinched.
My second eldest brother turned and walked away.
Several huge, hot tear's splashed onto my cheek's and my body started to tremble.
"Brogan-"
I snapped my head to the side, not even having registered until now that Zander's brother's were also here.
It was Darwin who rose to his feet.
Brogan spun around, several paces away from the rest of us.
A fierce glare was plastered on his face.
"Don't you dare fuckin' try and tell me that-!"
He threw a hand in my direction.
"Is OKAY!"
He yelled.
The whole Intensive Care Unit waiting room fell into silence.
Corbin clenched his jaw and turned to go to his twin.
A uniform clad man and woman approached our group.
"Excuse me but we're going to have to ask you to-"
"We're going."
Corbin interrupted the man, placing a hand onto Brogan's shoulder and pushing him toward the nearest exit.