Stand By Me, Chris

Chapter 10

I turned around expecting the hand on my shoulder to belong to Ace, but I was relieved when I saw Will standing there.

"Wow Lauren, you looked really scared," he said laughing.

"I thought you were Ace," I said.

"Sorry. Where are you two going?" He asked Gordie and I.

"We're going to visit Daniel in the hospital," I told him.

"I'll join you," he said as we started walking again. "And who might you be?" He asked Gordie.

"Gordie Lachance."

"Well hello Gordie Lachance, I'm Will."

Will was being oddly nice to us, and that made me nervous. He was never nice to me unless he was planning some sort of prank, but then I remembered what Mom had said about sticking together as a family. He must have listened to her for once. We got to the hospital a few minutes later, and we were lucky to find the cranky nurse from yesterday was sitting at the front desk.

"Can we see Daniel?" I asked her.

"You know the room," she replied.

We walked down the halls to Daniel's room. When we got there I immediately regretted coming. My dad was standing next to Daniel's bed. I looked over at Will and saw that he looked terrified.

"Show him that we're better without him," Will said putting his hand on my shoulder. We walked into the room and my dad looked up at us. He almost looked sad, but he also looked angry.

"What are you doing here?" He asked angrily.

"We're just here to visit Danny," Will said.

"It's okay Dad, they've helped me since we've lived here," Daniel said.

"Whatever. I'm going to get something to eat," Dad said leaving.

"Sorry about that," Daniel said. He looked better than he had yesterday.

"It's okay. Not your fault," Will said as he sat in a chair next to Daniel's bed.

"What's it like being here?" I asked.

"I don't know, it's boring," Daniel replied. "Have I missed much at school?"

"Haven't missed a thing. Except boring lessons that no one pays attention to," I answered.

"All you missed was Chris getting mad at Lauren," Gordie said.

"Shut up Gordie!" I said playfully pushing him.

"I don't shut up. I grow up. And when I look at you I throw up, bleh," Gordie said laughing.

"When do you get out of here?" Will asked Daniel. Thank goodness he changed the subject.

"Probably sometime next week. I guess I lost a lot of blood. Gordie, can you bring some of my schoolwork here for me?"

"Yeah, I'll get it tomorrow," Gordie answered.

"Wait, do you guys have any classes together?" I asked.

"We have all of the same classes, except for the one I have with you," Daniel told me.

"I think you kids better leave," Dad said walking into the room.

"Why?" I asked.

"Forget it Lauren. Let's just go," Will said putting his hand on my shoulder.

"No!" I said getting angry. "He left us, but he treats us like it's our fault, that's not fair!"

"Get out!" Dad yelled.

"See ya Danny," Will said dragging me out of the room.

"Why didn't you back me up? He should be sorry!" I angrily said to Will.

"It's not worth it, he's not going to change. Why don't we go get some ice cream or something." Will suggested.

"Yeah!" Gordie said.

"I'm okay with that," I said grinning.

We walked to the ice cream shop quickly, I guess we were all pretty hungry. We all ordered our ice cream and Will paid. We found a bench out front and sat down. I was having a great time, but I had a bad feeling in my stomach. I saw Beth walking towards us and soon realized that she was with Chris.

"Oh no," Gordie said as licked his melting ice cream, but that wasn't what he was saying 'oh no' about.

Chris and Beth walked right past us, they didn't even acknowledge us. Will could see the disappointment on my face.

"We should head home," Will said.

"Okay. I'm off. See you tomorrow Lauren. It was nice meeting you, Will." Gordie said as he left.

Will and I walked home in silence, thinking about our afternoon. Although it was a bad day, it wasn't the worst day I've had since I moved to Castle Rock.

We turned on to our street and saw an unfamiliar car in our driveway. I nervously looked at Will, but he didn't even seem to notice the car. We both heard the yelling once we got to the driveway. Will ran inside and I ran after him. When we entered the house we saw Dad yelling at Mom, who had tears streaming down her face.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Will yelled.

"Getting my divorce papers," Dad yelled back.

"Here you go," Mom said as she handed him a stack of papers. "Now please get out of my house."

"Just teach your kids to stay away from me and my family," Dad said as he walked toward the door.

"They're your kids too!" Mom yelled.

"I wish they weren't," Dad said, slamming the door behind him as he left.

Mom collapsed onto the floor sobbing.
Will and I ran up to her and rubbed her back.

"It's okay," Will reassured her.

"But I still love him," she cried.

"We all do," I said.

The three of us sat on the floor crying for most of the night. I guess it was a good thing we had gotten ice cream because Mom was in no mood to make dinner. It was a terrible ending to a terrible day.

A/N

Sorry for the short update. I really love writing this story, and thanks to everyone who is reading it.

-Maddie