My Brother's Gang

18 - Who actually wants to do sit-ups?

The next day when the storm had died down and it was all sunny and mostly dry outside save the hidden areas of grass, Quinn had finally had enough.

"This is my sister we are talking about. She's been gone longer than I know she would. She wouldn't come back this late. She should've been here this morning." I paced back and forth, my hand in my hair as my boyfriend tried to calm me down.

"She may have just been held up." Ryan suggested. "For all you know she had a really rough night and couldn't sleep because of the storm, just like Lamont couldn't. Give it a few more hours."

"I know my sister Ryan!" I cried in frustration. "And my sister would never come back this late with no note or message."

"Look, if she isn't back by the time we are eating dinner we can go and search for her. Deal?" Ryan promised.

"Fine." I grumbled as I grabbed my shoes, phone and a pair of headphones that were sitting on the coffee table.

"Where are you going?" Ryan asked, standing up to follow me.

"For a run." I curtly answered.

"I'm coming with you." Ryan automatically answered.

"I need to clear my head." I said, slipping on and lacing up his shoes, hoping that my tone would imply that I wanted to be alone.

"I'm coming with you." Ryan repeated, following my actions. "Now come on."

I dropped the headphones on the table, knowing that Ryan would talk to me on the run and deciding that it wouldn't be worth it.

I opened the door, allowing the slightly taller blond boy to exit.

I started to jog after they had exited the property, Ryan falling into step beside me after a few strides.

To my surprise, Ryan didn't try to talk to me.

He didn't try to counsel me, he didn't try to make me feel better, he didn't even ask how I was.

I wasn't sure if I liked that I didn't have to answer the questions or if I missed the familiarity and order of what was going to happen.

We finally came across a small park that no one really went to, it was run down, most things were broken, and it was hidden in a small spot alongside the road, unnoticeable if you weren't searching for it, making it the perfect place for me to clear my mind.

When I got there I dropped dead on a bench, my head in my hands and my hands resting on my knees.

My thoughts swam in my head, swarming it with every horrible outcome that could ever possibly happen.

I felt the comforting feel of Ryan's leg alongside mine as he sat next to me, one arm wrapped around my waist and the other tracing patterns on my leg.

I swallowed and tried to blink away the tears that were welling up, concentrating on the noise the wind made as it wove its way through the trees and the singing of the birds.

I heard a kid laugh in the distance and another person calling presumably the same person back to them, warning them not to go too far out onto the road.

"She'll be fine, I promise she will." Ryan finally spoke, his voice gentle and soothing.

"Don't make promises you can't keep." I muttered.

"Have I ever broken a promise?" Ryan asked me, tilting my head up so he could look me in the eye. "Hazel's a big girl. She can take care of herself. She'll be fine, I promise."

With those words all tears that had welled up in my eyes fell down, loud sobs escaping my lips and raking throughout my body.

All of the horrible endings and possibilities I had come up with leaked out through my eyes, staining Ryan's shirt along with my own, a few even escaping and making their way onto either of our shorts.

"You know I love you? More than anything in the world?" Ryan looked me straight in the eye.

I gave him a small nod.

"I would never lie to you, right?"

Another nod.

"So trust me when I say that Hazel will be perfectly okay, not a hair on her head out of place. Okay, maybe a hair out of place, but it was a thunderstorm, what do you expect?"

Quinn let out a small laugh.

"Now come on, I know you still want to workout today."

Ryan lead me away from the bench and onto the blacktop area after I had dried my tears.

"What do you want to do first?" Ryan asked him.

"Sit-ups if you don't mind." I said, getting into position.

A smirk made its way across Ryan's face as he sat down to hold his feet.

As I came up Ryan surprised me with a small peck on the lips.

A smile made its way onto both of our faces, our previous worried forgotten until my phone rang, interrupting out lovely moment.

I paused midway through my sit-up to search through both of my pockets before finding it on the blacktop beside me.

I fiddled with the phone before answering it.

"It's not a number I know." I mouthed to him.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Is this Quinn King?" The lady on the other end asked.

I put the phone on speakerphone so that Ryan could also hear it.

"Yes, this is Quinn King speaking. Who are you?" I asked.

"This is the Rose Wood Hospital calling. I'm sorry to say it, but we have a Hazel King with us." She said, fake sympathy leaking out of her mouth with every word.

Ryan's eyebrows shot up.

"I told you." I mouthed.

"Why is she there?" I asked, getting up and walking towards home.

"There was a car accident. We'll tell you more when you get here." She told me and hung up.

I shoved my phone in my pocket and ran home, Ryan right behind me.

"You're not in the right state of mind to drive." He insisted as I got my car keys. "Let me drive."

"This is my sister we are talking about." I growled.

"Give me the goddamn car keys Quinn." Ryan said as he stood in front of the driver's door.

With a sigh, I tossed him the keys and I took shotgun.

Not ten minutes later we were there and in Hazel's hospital room.

"I'm sorry, but she passed away only seconds before you two came in. There was nothing we could do. I'm sorry for your loss."

Word Count: 1215 words

Written on: 5/18/2018

Edited on: no

Well, I updated almost exactly when I said I would update. I'm currently in another state and had a six hour drive here to write this chapter and have another one ahead of me so maybe you guys will get another chapter before next friday. Who knows. Also, I have 600 reads which is absolutely amazing, and readers from America, the UK, Australia, Cyprus and Cambodia, which is so much more diverse than I had imagined. It's amazing that I have people I'm not even in the same country as reading my story. Thank you so much for all the reads, votes and comments. You guys are amazing.