[Chriseva] A Family We Chose For Ourselves

5. The Riot Club

"So, you and Chris, huh?"

William had asked while they were standing out in the hallway waiting for the nurses to finish getting Chris settled and finally be able to go in and see him.

Eva looks from the hustle and bustle of the room in front of them towards William, allowing a small smile to tug at the corner of her lips. Even through his worry William spares her a wordless smile in return. She didn't need to say anything to him and he didn't need to say anything in return. The silence they lapse into is a comfortable one and Eva is grateful.

For that one small moment everything felt almost calm and peaceful. Eva didn't think she remembered what that feeling was like.

The room feels dark and depressing even though it's completely illuminated by the white fluorescent lights installed all along the ceiling in the hallway. It must have been the overall atmosphere of the room that felt dark and depressing rather than the actual lighting. But then again, when someone you care about is laying unconscious in a hospital bed, connected to wires and drips and tubes and so completely lost to the world you'd think they were dead if not for the consistent beeping of the hospital machines and dripping, hissing sound of everything else in the room. Well then no amount of lighting could really make that situation seem optimistic in any way.

Eva is sitting by Chris' bedside in the ICU room watching the rise and fall of his bruised and battered chest. William is on the other side bent over the mattress with his head resting on his crossed arms, reaching out to grasp Chris' limp hand in a vice like grip, holding him close even in sleep. Eva really couldn't blame him. Within the last few hours, he's gone from being in London, thousands of kilometers away on a day that was supposed to be happy and merry, to being worried out of his mind over his missing best friend and the feeling of absolute helplessness after finding out that his worry wasn't unfounded, if nothing else, it was probably a worse outcome than he could ever have imagine. Eva's pretty sure he dropped absolute everything, sat on a place for hours without communication all while not knowing the status of his friend, how bad he was injured or if he was even alive. All while being gnawed at by the undoubtedly crippling feelings of guilt.

William wasn't the cause for the Penetrator's rivalry with the Yakuza, but he was the catalyst for their conflict this time. He wasn't the one who started the fight that caused all of this, but he was the one who finished it and Chris paid for it twice.

Eva only heard the school yard chatter about what happened the night of their infamous fight. Although calling it a fight was an over simplification; it was more like a one-sided ambush.

It was Chris and two of the Penetrator guys coming back from the party. William hadn't been with them since he was with Noora, as Eva would soon discover. It was at least a dozen of the Yakuza guys against the three of them, they didn't stand a chance.

Eva remembered watching them get out of Williams cars that morning, wondering why any of them were actually at school; Chris at the very least should have been at home resting, if not still in the hospital. She wasn't on talking terms with him at that point, so it didn't seem right to message him just for the gossip. But Eva's logical side and Eva's impulsive side never really saw eye to eye, so she ended up texting him that night anyway, while stretched out on her bed in her far too lonely and empty house.

It was a simple, straight forward and not at all flirty Hope you're okay. Not really a question, something between sympathy and empathy and honestly, she wasn't even really expecting an answer, much less 10 seconds after sending the text. But Chris must have been on his phone at the time because the vibration from the incoming message comes so sudden it startles Eva into almost dropping her phone on her face.