Midnight Mayhem

Midnight Mayhem Chpt. 3

Regret And A Funeral

                The police were called and the party was cleared out before the body bag was brought for Pedro. An ambulance holding me, Rose and Koda was rushed to Edwards's hospital. Parents had been called and there was nothing we could do but wait. I remember pacing the waiting room, hoping for a miracle, and holding onto Rose, just letting her cry. It was at least an hour before a doctor stepped into the waiting room, looking grim but not hopeless.

          'Are the parents of Antonio Cabrera here?'

Rose and I stood but told the doctor that we weren't his parents but still family. We were walked down a hallway and were stopped at a door to a patients room.

          'This is Antonio's room, I must warn you though he may not be up for speaking. The bullet was lodged into one of his major arteries, but we got it out and stopped the bleeding before he could start hemorrhaging. His chest is bandaged very carefully, if he tries to sit up you have to stop him, if he does, the bleeding will worsen. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask that you make this a short visit, we still have to question both you two and Antonio to find out how all of this happened.'

We entered the room and stopped almost directly in the doorframe. Koda was awake, and his normally golden eyes were bloodshot and looked closer to an owl's sickly yellow than his beautiful gold. His face had a few scratches and there was obvious stitching above his left eye. He lay motionless in the bed but his massively bandaged chest rose heavily as he let out a sigh.

          'Hey Danny, I knew you two were back together.'

                   Rose let out a sob and clutched my jersey hiding her tears in it. We walked to the foot of his bed, closing the door as we entered the room. I stepped outside and let Rose and Koda talk for a few minutes. He's living, he's breathing, he's o.k. I finally let go of a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding. Koda was in much better condition than Pedro - Pedro my fun-loving, alcoholic friend that I'd known since the second grade when he moved to my neighborhood. Pedro whose body now rested on a lab table being probed by one of those guys that tried to find out those cause-of-death things.

           Sinking into  a chair across the hall from Pedro's room I finally let myself go back  to the party(mentally); I'd been about to grab my second beer of the night with Rose at my side when we all turned at the sound of some idiot driving way too recklessly for any neighborhood. We'd all been hoping it wasn't some drunk leaving this party when we heard the gunshot. Simultaneously Pedro became interested in the car and he leaned  over just to get a better look.

               None of us realized this of course we'd all looked at each other, making sure we were all fine so none of us saw as Pedro fell head first over the ledge. How could we have missed it? How could we not hear him? He must've cried ot or did something to try and get our attention and none of us saw or heard anything. It was our fau- "Stop. Stop it Danny I know what you're doing. It's not anyone's fault we were all a little incapacitated we were slow." Rose - she'd been standing at the doorframe of Pedro's room and she was staring at me with a worried expression. I halfheartedly wondered how long she'd been there. "Danny don't ignore me I -" "I'm not ignoring you Rose." I stood up and walked over to her before continuing to speak, I didn't want to give anyone else waiting here a show. "I'm not ignoring you Rose but it is someone's fault, someone is to blame tonight and it's me if  I hadn't -"  My sentence was cut off by Rose's soft lips gently moving against mine, her hands had stopped resting on the doorframe and now two of her fingers on her left hand were holding my head close to her and her right hand was knotted in my hair. I unconsciously pulled her closer to my body and was consumed by her kiss. The kiss must have lasted longer than Rose intended because we were both breathing raggedly when we broke apart. Rose was still gasping when she spoke again; " Danny...look you..you blame yourself  for...everything...It's rarely your...fault..so stop blaming yourself." Inwardly I smiled to myself because of how breathless I'd made Rose but outwardly I was grim. "Rose look, I blame myself because it's usually something I did that caused the problem. I can't help it ok Rose it was all my fault-"  "Damn right it's your fault. My boy wouldn't be here tonight if it weren't for you Mendoza." 

                    My adam's apple bobbed as I gulped air like a fish before turning to face Rose's dad, the man I'd been avoiding since seventh grade. Rose still spoke before me though; "Dad stop you know his last name is Mendez why are you being so hard on him?"  "Shut up Rose I don't want to hear another word out of  you I thought I told you never to see this guy again." Rose blushed a deep scarlet and it made my blood boil to see her dad treat her like she was still nine years old. "Mr. Cabrera you need to calm down - this isn't Rose's fault so don't take it out on her take it out on me though I think you'd like to wait until we weren't standing outside Koda's room to do so sir." Mr. Cabrera had been glaring at me ever since I mentioned Koda and now the spit was almost flying off his mustache as he tried to contain his shouts. "How dare you use my son's name!" Cabrera made to swing a big, meaty fist at me and again Rose intervened - if she didn't stop intervening I'd look like the biggest wuss to her father. "Dad stop it! Leave Danny alone!He didn't do anything -"  Rose slumped to the floor and gave a weak groan while raising a hand to gingerly touch her head where her dad had just hit her. "Didn't do anything! You little b**** my only son is in this hospital because of him and you say he did nothing? Get out of my sight Rosalinda Isabella-Sabrina Martinez Cabrera." Wow full name usage there. " Mr. Cabrera it's not Rose's fault you didn't need to hit her you could've landed her in this hospital right next to Antonio." "You'd better leave too if you know what's good for you boy - besides I'd rather have my daughter here than my only boy."  Tears were welling in Rose's eyes and I felt my blood beginning to boil when Rose pushed herself off the floor and gave me a small look that told me to just drop it. Suppressing a sigh I stuck my head in Koda's room to wave goodbye and walked away from the Cabrera's.

Rose (P.O.V.)

          Dad was leering down at me and I shrunk against the wall  I'd seen him like this before, it usually meant that he'd just lost one of his horse racing bets or he was drunk - again. I didn't want to be around when he lost it and was kicked out of the hospital so I copied Danny and waved a sad goodbye to Koda then ran off to find Danny. Luckily for me he was just shuffling his feet; looking deep in thought otherwise I never would've caught up to him if he was walking as fast as he normally did. "Danny wait."

             My voice seemed to pull him out of his thoughts and he turned to give me a shocked look before stopping completely. "I'm sorry about my dad he - he hasn't been the same since my mom got into that accident. He was just venting I think hospitals make him nervous now." Danny's face went from immediate concern to anger then resignation as he listened to me speak. "Your mom - how is she? Any changes? " "The doctors say she could wake up any day but - no - nothing new yet." "Rose I -" "Don't worry about it Danny."  Danny couldn't look at me for a minute then something else I said seemed to register in his mind. " Nervous - just venting- Rose how often does your dad vent at you and Koda?" It was my turn to look away, it took a while for me to control my blush enough to look back at Danny. " He - he, look it doesn't happen often ok, there's nothing to worry about we're fine." He saw through my façade immediately - he knew me too well that was one reason I had always liked him. "Rose, don't do this, don't stick up for him. Look Rose I know we haven't been as close as we were in seventh grade but I'm still here for you. I have to get out of here, if I'm not home soon my mom will freak but call me okay. My number is still the same and my feelings about you are too." Danny gave me one last wistful look before turning and exiting the hospital.

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Lame ending to a chapter I know and don't worry it's not the end it's just what I had time to upload - don't worry I plan on updating again tomorrow. ~ Happy Holidays

~Nicole