My Brother's Gang

15 - Secrets don't make friends

"Alexis lay dead on the floor, followed by an unconscious Ryder and Jason." I concluded my story.

Tears threatened to fall from Hazel's eyes as Quinn charged into the room.

"What did you do? Why is she crying?" Quinn frantically asked, glaring at me as I held my hands up in the air. "Ryan."

"I didn't do anything." I defended myself. "Well, I told her about what happened that day."

"Ryan!" He scolded me, giving me a light whack on the back of my head.

"Sorry." I sheepishly grinned at him.

Hazel choked out a sob which brought all the attention back to her.

Quinn glared at me as he slid onto the hospital bed with her, his legs dangling off the side.

Hazel leaned her head on his shoulder as he put his arm around her shoulder.

"I- I was going to ask her to marry me." Hazel hiccuped. "I had a ring and every- everything set up. I had even asked her family, but I didn't really care about their answer."

We stared at her, shocked that she would make such a big decision at only the age of seventeen.

"We had already finished our senior year, that was another thing I hadn't told you. We did it online. We- we were supposed to go to college together. I was going to ask her to marry me this summer. Quinn, we had our whole future planned. I loved her. I really, truest loved her and I'm not sure I want to be here if she isn't.

I wanted to be the one what she woke up next to, I wanted to love her forever with all my heart. I wanted to be with her forever, Quinn, and now I can't."

"Hazel," Quinn trailed off.

"Don't you dare say it will be alright because I know it won't." Suddenly, she gasped and more tears rolled down her cheeks. "I had promised not to let any harm come to her. Oh my god, I promised her father to never hurt her, I promised to always protect her. I failed that Quinn, it's all my fault she isn't here anymore."

"Hey, hey, hey, it isn't your fault. No one could have predicted that. It isn't your fault." Quinn reassured her as I got onto the bed on the other side of Hazel and rubbed her back.

"I'm sure they don't blame you for anything. Actually, I'm sure." Quinn continued. "They can't blame you because it wasn't your fault."

Hazel leaned her head on Quinn's shoulder, her crying now slowed down and silent and he lay his on top of hers.

"What about me?" I joked, feigning hurt.

"You're not part of the family." Hazel said and stuck her tongue out at me despite the tears still running down her cheeks.

"Well," I started.

"He may as well be your brother in law." Quinn said as I hesitated.

"You guys are dating?" Hazel asked, not sounding half as surprised as I had expected. "Finally. I thought Ryan would just obsess over you forever."

"Why is this the first I've heard of this obsession?" Quinn asked, placing a hand over his heart. "Have you been keeping secrets from me?"

"Yes, all the deodorants are in a locked drawer in our bathroom." I joked.

"You guys also live together? Or is this a gang house again?" Hazel asked.

"We love together, but the whole apartment building has been bought out for our gang." Seeing Hazel's shocked face, he added, "it's not that big of an apartment building. It's a smaller one."

"When can I get out of here?" Hazel sniffled.

"I dunno, we should ask a doctor."

"We should've done that in the first place, idiot."

Three weeks later the daily tests they had been doing had gone back to normal, or as normal as they could get, but Hazel's muscles were still building back up, so she had been instructed to go to physical therapy thrice a week and to take it easy until her muscle's built back up.

It wasn't like Hazel was going to do anything much though, she was still torn up about her first love's sudden death.

Both gangs did everything they could to cheer her up, but most people stopped trying after the first week. The ones who stuck around though, Nick, Jake, and Lila, did more to help Hazel than anyone could ever imagine, sacrificing their free time to help Hazel become happier and more at peace with Alexis's death.

Naturally, everyone was still friendly and kind to her and despite the gang's rivalries, they all worked together as one.

Hazel's path to recovery was slow and shaky and most definitely not paved, but with Lila's cheery personality and hyperactiveness Hazel laughed more, Jake made Hazel move around and do things, and Nick made sure Hazel was never alone at a low point by herself.

The wear and tear was hardest on Ryan and Quinn, seeing as they still had to run their gangs, which didn't allow them to spend their free time the way they wanted.

"Come on Hazel, it's summer again and you need some cute summer clothes!" Lila pleaded. "Even Mariah said she would come with us and you know how attached she is to training, everything she buys is online."

"Fine, if it will get everyone off my back about this." Hazel groaned.

"Yay!" Lila cheered, giving the air a fist bump as she did a weird dance around Hazel who was peeling some potatoes in the kitchen as she helped Nick with dinner.

"Do you guys want help?" Lila asked after she had finished dancing around.

"Sure." Nick said. "You can arrange all the potatoes in that," he pointed to a big clay bowl, "so that they are overlapping slightly and then I'll put everything else in."

"Okay." Lila nodded, happy that the Italian boy with hair the color of chocolate and eyes to match would allow her to assist the pair in the kitchen.

Lila hummed while she arranged the slices of potato in the bowl as Nick and Hazel met eyes and exchanged a small smile at the younger girl happily working behind them.

"So," Lila eventually said. "How's life?"

PLEASE DONT BE A GHOST READER, VOTE AND COMMENT

Word Count: 1041 words

Written on: 4/8/2018

Edited on:

First of all, I am so sorry for the long wait. I didn't write even half of what I had expected to write during the long car trips simply because it wasn't coming to me. The further this story goes on the harder it is to write because I run out of ideas and because I have writer's block, but I do have a plan for the next chapter and am in the mood to write so it may come out rather fast.

Also, wow we're already at part 15. That took me a lot longer than I expected it to, and also it was a lot quicker than I expected it to for some reason.