Best Friend's Brother: Chapter One

Well... Crap...

I stepped into the elevator after the door opened. As I turned around, I saw Katie collapse as the doors were closing.

"Katie!" I yelled as the doors shut. I started hitting every button, trying to get the doors back open, but it wouldn't work. "Dammit!" I anxiously waited for the doors to reopen, and once they did, I bolted for the stairs. I got back to Katie faster than the elevator would've gotten me considering all the buttons I pressed. 

I knelt down to Katie and started patting her face, "Katie?! Katie, wake up!" I looked around for someone and saw a nurse facing away from us.

"Nurse! Help!" The nurse spun around and bolted over to us. He took the stethoscope off his kneck and checked a couple of things before picking her up and bringing her into an open room. He called for a doctor as he deemed her unresponsive.

"Sir, are you her relative?"

"Yeah, I'm her brother."

"Are you aware of any medical conditions she might have?"

"Uh, she was diagnosed with cancer about two weeks ago." I ran my hands through my hair, trying to calm down. "Is she going to be okay?!"

"We will do the best we can." A female nurse and doctor entered the room and ushered the male nurse and me out of the room. I ran to Jessica's room to tell Harry what happened.

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I cracked my eyes open only to squeeze them shut again from both the blinding lights and the splitting headache I had. I groaned in pain as I tried to sit up.

"Lay back down," I heard Harry say, and I obeyed, "Glad you're awake, how are you feeling?"

"Horrible," I said, my voice raspy, "My head hurts so bad."

"I'm surprised that's what hurts and not the cut in your abdomen."

"What cut in my abdomen?"

"They had to do emergency surgery to remove the bullet from your body. Nothing else seems to have been damaged too badly, thank goodness."

I looked around the room and started to panic when I didn't see Melody, "Where's Melody!?"

"Avyanna came in earlier and took her to McDonald's to get something to eat." Harry patted my arm, "She's in safe hands, don't worry."

I relaxed again before Nathaniel bust through the door.

"I thought I told you to go home!" Harry started, slightly frustrated.

"Katie passed out and I don't know why!" Nathaniel rushed out.

"What?!" I exclaimed.

"I-I think she passed out as a side effect from her cancer but I-I don't know!" Nathaniel was pacing at the foot of the bed. 

"Nathaniel, calm down." He continued to murmur to himself as he paced. "Nathaniel! Calm down!"

He snapped his gaze to me. "You're awake!"

"Obviously, but that's not important right now. Where is Katie?"

"Room two fourteen, I think." I pushed the blankets off me and got out of the bed.

"Jessica, stop! You can't leave the bed! Not without the doctor's okay!" Nathaniel said trying to get me back in bed.

"I need to make sure my sister is okay!" 

"No! You're going to make your stitches bleed and that's not good!"

"Then they can put a new bandage on! I need to make sure Katie is okay." I moved the IV pole with me to the door and opened it. Nathaniel picked me up, "Put me down! I need to make sure she's okay!"

"NO! You need to make sure you're okay first!"

"She's more important than I am!" Tears started racing down my cheeks as I fought against his arms around my waist. 

"Stop struggling!"

"No! She could die and I'll never be able to tell her how much I love her ever again! Damn it! Just let me see her!" I screamed and started pushing and kicking against him.

"Just calm down! She's going to be fine!" Harry helped Nathaniel put me back in the bed.

A nurse came into the room and saw me crying. "Are you in pain? Where does it hurt?" He came to my side and moved the robe aside to check my stitches that were bleeding. "Looks like you tried moving around?" He looked to Harry who nodded. He gently pulled off the gauze pad that was collecting the blood. He put a new pad on as tears continued to roll down my face. He put the tape on to keep it in place and covered it up again.

"Please don't try to move around today. You need to let your body heal." And with that, the nurse left the room.

I turned to Nathaniel, "Go to her room and FaceTime me so I can see her. I need to make sure she's okay."

Nathaniel nodded and walked out of the room. I took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling. "Why did I go out so late? I could've avoided all of this."

"You're right, it was stupid to go out late at night by yourself, but you can't control anyone else. You couldn't control that some dude shot you because you rejected him." Harry shrugged.

"And we thought crazy ex-girlfriends were psycho. This dude puts a whole new meaning to the word psycho." There was a knock on the door and Avyanna came in holding Melody.

"Hello!" Avyanna smiled warmly at me, "I'm glad to see you're awake! How are you feeling?"

"I could be better but my headache isn't as bad as it was earlier."

"Mommy!" Melody shouted and squirmed out of Avyanna's arms. Melody jumped onto the bed and flopped down on my chest. She forced her arms around my neck and I wrapped my arms around her small torso.

"Hi, princess, did you have fun with Avy?" 

Melody sat up and nodded showing me her toy from her Happy Meal. She told me about the friend she made when she was playing in the Play Place. Her name was Annabelle and she was really nice.

Eventually, I got Melody to calm down enough to take a nap with me so we could both recharge.