Give In

worrying

I've never before had been in the waiting room, not in this kind of situation at least. I can mostly remember waiting at the hospital with my grandma when my mom was in labor and my sister was born, but that's a completely different story. The fear, the uncertainty, the anxiousness was nothing like I had experienced before and I already wanted to go away and never come back.

I saw Melissa and Dave holding each other in silence. Connor was on his phone and Brian kept staring at the floor. He had great friends, I could see that and in this moment, they felt less like "his friends" but more like "our friends".

My butt was starting to hurt when a doctor in a blue gown appeared. We all stared at him but didn't move, we'd already seen many people approach the room but none of them had talked to us so far.

"Are you with Shawn Mendes?", he asked our group and we all jumped from our seats. His parents were immediately by our side telling the doctor who they were.

I felt my heart in my throat. I was so nervous I was about to be sick, but first I needed to know how was Shawn.

"How is he?", his dad asked.

"He was admitted with multiple injuries and wounds from the accident. We've managed to stop the bleeding and clean the superficial cuts. However, because of the car crash, he hit his head and we're monitoring the concussion. His ankle also suffered a fracture and it'll take weeks for it to heal", the doctor finally said.

"But...", Brian murmured, "he'll be ok".

"It will take time, but so far we're expecting for a full recovery".

"Oh my God", Karen sobbed and Manuel wrapped her in his arms to hold her quiet crying.

"Can we see him?", Shawn's dad asked the doctor.

"He's being taken to a room, as soon as he's all settle there, someone will come to get you to see him", the doctor said and after smiling to all of us, turned around and disappear down the hall.

I took a deep breath and fell on the chair behind me. I was so relief that he was ok. He was alive. The moment my brain realized that, I couldn't hold my tears anymore and they started to fall unapologetically while I had trouble keeping my breathing steady. Melissa came to my side and wrapped me in her arms while I let out all my fears.

Few minutes later, a nurse came to take Shawn's parents to his room and I saw them walk over there. The rest of us waited in our seats, a bit more relaxed this time.

Half an hour later, they came back and said two more people could go see him but then visits were going to be over until the next day. Dave and Melissa smiled and took their seats, letting us know that they were ok with not seeing him right now. Connor and Brian looked at each other, trying to decide which one of them was going with me, because apparently that wasn't even a question. I was glad for that. It wouldn't have felt right to be arguing with them about who was admitted to see Shawn. Finally, Brian and I made our way to Shawn's room, following Mr. Mendes' directions.

"Shawn...", I whispered when Brian and I stepped into his room and I saw him laying on bed with bandages on different places of his body and his right food resting up with a cast on it.

"Are you awake buddy?", Brian asked and we stood on each side of Shawn's bed.

"Yeah", he said with a husky voice, keeping his eyes closed. "My head hurts a lot though".

I looked for his hand and held it in mine, he squeezed it a few times and I kept rubbing my thumb over his tattoo. I saw him smile.

"Hi baby", he said softly.