Fix You (Sequel to The Arts)

Prologue

Zayn's POV

The beep rings in the air every few seconds. The sound of patients' feet pattering against the cold tiled floors. Sounds of typing and shuffling papers travel from the receptionist's desk. The shoes of doctors and nurses trailing past the hospital room door. The sound of deep breathing coming from Sinu in the hospital bed. It never occurred to me how such simple sounds, that appear to be almost mute everyday, are actually so loud at night.

Of course, not even all those sounds combined could ever compare to the volume of Dinah's snoring coming from the hospital bed just near. 

Craning my neck to the side, I catch a glance of my beautiful girlfriend and her best friend sleeping soundly in the vacant bed right beside her mum's. She was eloped in Dinah's arms, her face barely peaking out of the blue blanket she had brought from home. Her head lay on top of Dinah's chest, snuggling her tightly like she does with me.

My neck, my back and every other joint in my body cracks the minute I get up.

"Zayn, are you eating chips?" I hear Dinah groan quietly, attempting not to awaken Mila.

"No," I mutter. "This is what happens when you force me to sleep in a reclining chair that doesn't recline."

"Not sorry!" She giggles.

"Shh!" I motion to my girlfriend. "She's been up all night worrying."

Camila stirs slightly in her sleep then goes to shove her face into Dinah's neck.

Dinah mouths an "oops!" but I only shake my head.

I stretch my arms out and pace around the room. We got here at midnight. Twenty-one minutes past that actually. Another emergency. The third one within the past two months.

I was at Alejandro's apartment. Our apartment. We got the call from Dinah. I could hear Camila freaking out, though trying to stay calm for the sake of her mom.

I didn't like the feeling. None of us did. With every call we got about Camila's mom being rushed to the hospital, the more real it seemed. The more scared we all got. Only to come back and see she was going to be alright.

For now.

Of course Camila knew the reality. It's like trying to get a hungry baby to go to sleep when she gets to the hospital. She won't stop crying and worrying about what could happen if she shut her eyes for more than a few minutes.

"She'll be okay, you know," Dinah whispers to me.

I turn on my heel and squint to look at her. The room was dim aside from the light of the hall outside; spilling into the room through the creak of the door. The sun outside was just on the edge of the horizon and let the curtains glow as if they were magic.

"I know, but you don't know how much it's gonna take until she explodes. You know her," I sigh.

"If there's anything she inherited from Sinu, it's that they're both stubborn," Dinah agrees and I let out a chuckle.

"I just hate how she still bottles her emotions up. She acts like she can't tell us what's wrong."

"Give her time. She's getting better than before."

"I know," I walk towards the window, and take the end of the curtain between my finger tips. "I mean, she's been sleeping on her own. No medication to help her."

"That's because you're always there to hold her at night. And if it's not you, it's me, and if it's not me, it's Sofi, and if it's not Sofi, it's Sinu," Dinah explains.