Forget Me Not

Chapter 2: No Promises

Restless in the driver's seat of his sedan, Doug couldn't explain his emotions. They were gone. He felt numb.

Mal and Ben had called him once the news broke on the Auradon National News that the championship tournament had taken a turn for the worst. She had been identified as just a cheerleader much to his displeasure.

She had a name and identity outside of being a cheerleader, Doug had thought when he saw the headline. With the night spiraling out of control, sitting peacefully in the parking lot of the hospital would have to do.

He sat there remembering the moments after her fall. The marching band played softer music going along with the National Anthem that had been slowed. He stood on the field where she had once laid, hallucinating the red and blue lights of the ambulance, although they were long gone. He was escorted with Jay, Carlos, Audrey, Jane and the rest of the cheer squad off the field to the sidelines where police had arrived.

There hadn't been a crime, but they still needed an official report of the accident. Once he had been cleared to go, he gave both Audrey and Jane a hug and Jay and Carlos promised they'd see him later on that night.

Promised.

The same word he gave to Evie that he didn't hold true.

Shaking out of his thoughts, Doug blinked his eyes at the brights of a stretched limo in front of him that was painted a shade of purple. Getting out of the vehicle at the hands of bodyguards and service guards were Mal and Ben.

He opened his own car door and stepped out, Mal immediately rushing toward him and bombarded him with a hug. To his surprise, this was a first. The two of them both great friends of Evie's, but never really connected themselves.

He returned it, Mal letting go. "I can imagine how you feel. Wicked Apples, are you okay?" She asked as Ben came up alongside her.

"Just a little shaken up. I'm doing fine," he lied, trying to hold off on any true feelings. The fact of the matter was in whether or not Evie would be okay; not whether he was emotionally stable.

"Good," Ben said as Doug noticed Belle, Beast and two security servicemen all step out of the vehicle as well. Meeting up where the teens stood, Belle asked the same question, immediately opening her arms.

Her hug was much more familiar than Mal's, given that Belle had become something of a second mother to him since attending Auradon Prep. "Dear, are you alright? I bet you're a little shaken up, aren't you? Did you see her fall?" She asked softly, finding his slight nod to give way to a mess of emotions.

Feeling a lump in his throat, it was clear that the tears would start falling soon. As the relative of many people (not limited to his dad and uncles) with names that described emotions, he had never been the type to outwardly wear his heart on his sleeve. Crying was not something he did often, and when he did, it was hard to stop.

"Yeah," he said, trying to clear the lump in his throat as the others stared at him. "I, uh, tried to catch her but I couldn't make it in time."

That statement provoked Mal to cover her mouth with her hand, and tears to roll down her face. Ben enclosed her in a hug, Beast and Belle silently trying to take in how Doug was feeling. Knowing that Doug was raised to rely on non-verbals, Belle nodded her head toward the door and smiled. There were no words to say that could make him feel any less pain. This was simply a matter that required support. She pushed him along, walking next to him, as Beast walked behind Mal and Ben.

The last time he had been to a hospital was when his little sister was born. And that was nearly 13 years ago. The facility in his mind had the connotations of dire conditions and grave illnesses that made his stomach churn.