Mile High

Chapter 6

I rolled over experiencing more pain than I had ever felt in my entire life. I grabbed my shirt, yanking it up to see what the pain was. A large bruise formed over the entire left side of my abdomen to match the massive migraine I was feeling. I shook my head before attempting to look around the room, my vision was still slightly blurry. I felt relieved when I saw Dallas sitting in the hospital room chair next to me. When he noticed I was awake he jumped up from the chair and rushed over to the side of the bed, "Shit! I was so worried about you!" He grabbed my face and kissed my forehead. His lips felt warm but I could feel him shaking. When I went to grab his hand, he slowly moved back to his previous position, standing upright again.

"I called your house, but your mom must be asleep by now. I called Jen and Aidan to come through, I told them what happened." He shifted back and forth from one foot to the other and I could tell he was nervous about something.

"Babe, what's wrong? Did they check to make sure you were okay, too?" I looked him up and down but it looked like he hadn't even let them know he was in the fight as well. He still had some blood on his face and clothes.

"Nah, nah I'm good..." He rubbed his hands together and looked out the room door.

"Why don't you come lay with me..." I held my hand out for him, to pull him closer to me. I thought he was going to die tonight, all I wanted was to hold him. I saw him look at his shoes before walking over to me.

"I can't keep causing you pain like this." He spoke so low I thought he was whispering.

"You're not causing me—." He cut me off before I could finish my sentence.

"This happened because of me, Sara! He came after us, he attacked you!" He was gripping my hand tighter now.

"Dallas, calm down. He's a twisted ass dude! He was trying to seriously hurt you!" I waited for his eyes to meet mine but he never looked up at me.

"Nah, he wasn't always like this. I gotta figure this out..." He finally looked at me but by the way he bit his lip I could tell he was going to add more bad news. "I can't keep letting you get caught up in my shit." I was taken aback at where he was going.

"Keep? This was the first time something has ever happened, Dallas." I could feel anger rising inside of me.

"For now! Why would I want to sit around for more shit to happen to you?" He came closer to the hospital bed when he spoke. "I didn't even want to think this shit was gonna happen to you but I knew that look on his face. I'm stupid for even letting you meet him!" He let go of my hand and sat in the chair again while putting his head down in his hands. I could tell he was frustrated but I had never seen him as angry as he was right now. I didn't know what to say to him at the moment, but I knew he needed me there at this moment. I felt like I was losing him, losing him to his brother—not in the family oriented kind of way. I didn't want him to lose sleep and kill himself over a brother who would have literally done the job for him a few hours ago. I wanted Dallas to reach every goal he told me about when we laid in bed at 3 in the morning. Derek knew Dallas had dreams and goals as well, which is exactly why he did everything in his power to keep him away from them. Dallas used to sell drugs just like the others when he was younger but had made the hard choice to turn his life around. He would tell me how Derek was always upset with him about leaving that lifestyle and taking Omar with him, even their father expressed how "disappointed" he was in them. I didn't want him to be sucked back into that life but he always felt the need to try and save someone, no matter how far they had already fallen down. I rubbed his head, feeling his soft black hair under my palms. I always loved how he had his mother's hair. It softened him as a person. For 4 boys looking exactly like their father, they were sort of intimidating when walking anywhere together. When I met him he kept his haircuts so short you couldn't really feel or see what type of hair he had. After about 4 months of dating he started leaving it a little longer for me to play with, which I secretly appreciated in him. He never used to wear his glasses until he would see how much it made me smile to know he had them on. I had known Dallas in a much shorter time than Aston, but I already loved him so much more.