Group Therapy

6 - Carter.

You Said You'd Grow Old With Me ~ Michael Schulte

° ° ° °

The paramedics rush in and start pulling out cables and injections and different liquids that I don't really know and start injecting alex with multiple shots of these different liquids.

I feel a tap on my shoulder and hear a male voice ask "Hey, you're Laynie right?"

I look over my shoulder and see an outline of a police man crouching down behind me with a hand on my shoulder.

I nod in response.

"Okay Laynie I'm gonna need you to step away from your friend so the paramedics can help him faster alright? Can you do that for me?"

"O-Okay" l mumble.

"You're doing great, now do you think you can answer some questions for me?" the police man asks.

I simply nod and kiss Alex's hand before letting go and standing up.

The police man leads me outside where I'm greeted with hunter sobbing, when he sees me he immediately runs into my arms and quietly sobs on my shoulder, "Are you okay?!" Hunter asks.

I think I'm too much in a state of shock to reply at the moment, I can't make out a single word, I keep trying to process it in my mind but it just doesn't make sense.

Everything is slowly becoming more and more blurry, my hearing is fading out, like something out of a movie, you know when slowly everything starts going blurry and voices start fading out as if they're moving far from you? then everything goes black.

° ° ° °

I slowly began to open my eyes and everything is white, slowly sitting up and rubbing my eyes to realize I'm in a hospital bed.

"Where am I...?" I ask to make sure I got it right.

A familiar guy in a nurse's outfit looks over at me "Oh you're awake."

Then l realize who that is, Carter.

Carter is a nurse that works at the hospital we usually go to and he's also my neighbour's son.

"Carter? How long was I out and where am I?" I ask.

"You were out for a good while now, and you're in the hospital. You passed out while you were with hunter and we brought you here to run some tests and make sure you're okay." he says, writing down something in the notepad he's holding.

I shouldn't be here I should be with Alex.

Just as I begin to stand up Carter gently pushs me back down. "Woah there, not so fast. You need to rest you were out for like an hour or so."

An hour? Shit.

"No you don't understand Ale-"

"Yes laynie I know all about Alex, he's in surgery right now and you need to rest. He'll be okay, I'm checking in on him every few minutes."

"Thank you but I'm okay, can l please go?" I ask.

"I'll see what I can do alright?"

I smile and nod in response and he walks out of the room.

Not even a minute later he comes back in with a huge smile on his face, good news I'm guessing so I smile too.

"So we finished up some papers and got your sister to sign it as your legal guardian since your mom isn't here and you're free to go now!" he says enthusiastically.

"Wait, when did she get here?" I ask.

"I asked hunter if he wanted me to call anyone and he said he told me to call Hannah so I did. Everything alright?"

Hannah is my older sister.

"Yeah.. Thanks Carter, you're a great nurse."

He smiles and says "Just doing my job."

I smile back and walk out of the room.

I glance around when I feel a tap on my shoulder, I turn around to be faced with Carter again. "I'm assuming you're looking for Alex, second floor to your left." he says.

I thank him and head up stairs.

I stop right in front of the OR and hunter immediately runs into my arms. I crouch down so I'm the same height as him and hug him tightly.

"Are you okay?" I ask as we pull away from the hug.

"I'm alright, but I don't know about Alex." he says.

"He will be okay soon, don't worry." I tell him.

he nods and I stand up.

Hannah comes over after I stand up and there's a moment of silence before she awkwardly asks "Are you okay..?"

"Yeah, thanks for the concern.." I awkwardly reply back.

Things were never great between us, we're just way too different to get along.

She sits back down and l walk over to Alex's dad, Mr Arrington. He's is always one to have hope and never give up, even when his wife- Alex's mom -died, he still had a smile on his face for her and for Alex. To see him looking so hopeless is heartbreaking.