We're Not Sleeping, We're Just Dreaming (Waterparks fanfic)

Sixteen - Awsten

My feet tapped against the floor as I waited in one of the waiting rooms of the hospital - people sat there, quiet, anxiously waiting for news of their loved ones. Nurses and doctors coming and going, sometimes people following them, sometimes taking people out of the room, sometimes people coming back and waiting longer. The absence of the sound we had heard all around us in the busier downstairs departments was loud and intrusive as the thoughts in my head continued to run around and around and around and-
"Awsten, stop."
I felt a hand in my knee. Geoff. I sighed.
"You're going to have another panic attack if you keep worrying like this. It's gonna be fine."
I sighed and nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat as I placed my hand in my pocket, pulling out coins and shuffling them in my hand, eyeing up the vending machine in the corridor through the window of the doors that kept swinging back and forth as people came and went. I sighed, getting up.
"Where...?" Otto began.
"Vending machine," I mumbled, scuffing my feet against the floor. "Clear my fucking head."
I trudged down the corridor, eyeing up the various things inside. You'd think a hospital would be stocking their vending machines with healthy food but clearly not - fizzy drinks, chocolate, all manner of brightly coloured confectionary, all on display and ready to be picked out by whoever was waiting for whoever was in the hospital. I pushed the coins into the machine with 2 fingers and heard a clunk as they hit the bottom inside, before jamming my finger into a number and a letter, watching a bottle of diet cola fall from the shelf. Squeezing the body of the bottle, the soothing to hear crack of the plastic seal and the familiar smell of the syrupy liquid calmed my nerves as I swung a huge gulp of it, before wiping my top lip with my sleeve and trudging my way back to the waiting room, back to the chair, back to the agonising wait - would we be allowed to see him?

*

I turned as I heard muffled shouting coming down the corridor, it's tone full of anger. Otto and Geoff turned to stare at the door I had just come out of, the yelling getting closer to where we were. I tightly gripped my phone and placed my toes firmly onto the ground - other people in the waiting room turned to stare before suddenly the door swung open, the shouting now loud as the woman who sourced the noise stormed in, hurriedly followed by a doctor and two nurses. My heart began to thump rapidly in my chest.
"I refuse to be the parent of a child like that!" The woman spat. She was pretty short, wearing a tightly pressed suit with a pencil skirt and pointed high heels, her brown hair pulled into an extremely tight bun.
"Mrs Parker, He is in the best hands. Please lower your voice in respect of the other patients and their families."
Wait - Mrs Parker? Keon's Mum?
"That boy is not my son, not anymore."
I stood up, the lump in my throat coming all the way to the top as I cleared my voice.
"You're his mum?" I strained. I felt Geoff stand up behind me and reach for my hand but I kept it firmly at my side as I formed two fists. The woman turned to look at me, her face steel with sternness.
"Say that again, little boy..." she teased but with fury in her tone. I tensed up further.
"Awsten, stand down...." I heard Geoff warn behind me.
"You're Keon's Mum?"
She scoffed. "What are you, his silly little friend? I'm not mother to that turd, not anymore."
I stiffened - I wasn't going to stand for this.
"Now, now...lets be calm about this. How about we take this to a private room..." the doctor warned as the woman took another step toward me.
"He's just like his father, pathetic...couldn't even kill himself properly, the ungrateful little-"
She didn't finish her sentence, as I reached for the bottle of Diet Coke, unscrewing the cap and throwing the contents into her face. She stood there for a second, and I felt the whole thing happen in slow motion, as she lunged for me. This was it, she was going to kill me, i told myself as I closed my eyes in preparation for what was coming: I'd end up like Keon-
I heard a thud. I cautiously opened an eye to find a member of security had pulled her to the ground. Transfixed, I watched as she struggled as a second member of security pulled her to her feet before dragging her off, shouting and kicking her way down the corridor until it became too faint to make out her words. I breathed heavily as I felt Geoff put his arm around my shoulder.
"You did good, Awsten."