BAD BOY SAVED (male pov)

Addictions

We sat here for hours, Olivia and I. She refused to leave me and secretly I was thankful for that but I did offer her several times to leave but she declined each one. I hated the hospital smell, like cleaning products and ill people. We sat in a waiting room on uncomfortable blue, plastic covered chairs. People came and left before we heard a peep from any doctor.

I wasn't even sure why I decided to stay, I spoke to the police officer and told him everything that I had witnessed since coming home. I was free to leave but I just couldn't leave without knowing if my mom pulled through her surgery.

So I sat, watching the waiting room with tired eyes as it filled with people and then emptied, then filled again before emptying again. It was exhausting but not because I hadn't slept and it was now the early hours of the morning and not because I was going out of my mind with worry. But because I was still trying to think of a single good memory I shared with my mom.

I imagined the doctor walking down the corridor wearing his blue scrubs and a white over coat, maybe he had a pen in his pocket and a mask still over his face. He would look at me with sympathetic eyes and then softly tell me my mom didn't pull through. That they tried everything they possibly could but it just wasn't enough. In that moment I wanted to be able to cry, mourn the loss of the women who gave me life, even if she didn't particularly give me a good life. I still wanted to be sad about her death, she's my mom.

But I couldn't think of anything and any time I got close to a decent memory it would be overshadowed by the horrific events that surrounded it.

I tapped my foot against the glossy floor, it made no sound but it kept me busy. A rush of bodies crashed through the door with a guy on a stretcher and I watched the hustle and bustle of the emergency going on all around me as Olivia slept peacefully on my shoulder, blissfully unaware of everything.

J: Hey, I'm home. You all coming round?

L: I can't, I'm at the hospital. My mom got into an accident.

Z: Shit Liam! What happened? Hope she's okay, shall we come?

J: :O Liam! What hospital we'll be there asap??

L: NO! DON'T COME. I'm fine, she's fine. Liv's here.

J: You don't talk about your mom much... are you close?

Z: Let us know how she's doing.

My eyes looked towards the corridor and a doctor was making his way towards me, green scrubs and white blazer. I wasn't far off with my predictions.

"Liv" I nudged her awake gently and stood up, mentally preparing myself to hear the worst.

"Your moms in recovery, she lost a lot of blood. It's lucky you found her when you did." I blinked at the doctor blankly, trying to process his words in my slow reacting brain. It wasn't what I had rehearsed in my head. I didn't know how to react now that the one I had spent hours practicing wasn't going to be used. The doctor kept talking but I stopped listening. My mom had survived her surgery and was recovering. How did I feel about that?

"She's asking for you though." He finished up with and my eyes widened, I think I stepped backwards with shock, trying to remove myself away from the situation. This isn't how it was supposed to go. She wasn't meant to survive and if she did she wasn't meant to ask for me. I was just supposed to wait to hear from the doctor and then leave.

Why was she asking for me?

"She's asking for me?" I questioned, making completely sure I was hearing him correctly and it wasn't just my dumb subconscious inventing scenarios in my head that I wanted to be true. Did I even want this to be true? She was messing up my mind, confusing me.