Pinky Promise

Twenty Three

Dad was right; there was a shower in the bathroom and damn did it feel good. I stood under the water letting in wash away all the dirt and grime from the past few months. I honestly felt disgusted with myself when the water turned brown before running down the drain. All there were were those little travel sized shampoos and soaps for me to use but I doubted Dad would mind if I used them all up. I was tempted to just shave my entire head right then after I found out how long it was going to take to wash and brush through my hair. I scrubbed at my skin until it turned red and I thought I was going to start bleeding--being careful around all my bandages.

I could have just stood in the shower contently all day, but I ran out of soap and I started to get cold. I pulled back the curtain and found a pile of clean clothes on the floor just inside the door. I assumed that meant Mike was here and he had brought them for me. I quickly got dressed and tried to make myself look at least half decent.

As I left the bathroom I heard a cacophony of talking and screeching. Mike, Tony, and Jaime were all sitting on the edge of Vic's bed frantically asking if he and I were alright. As the door closed behind me and clicked shut, all eyes turned to me. In a second Mike was off the bed and running over to me, closely followed my the other two.

"Oh my god, Audrey!" Mike cried as he scooped me up in a tight hug and swung me around. "What the fuck happened!? Are you alright? God, I missed you!" He continued. I couldn't help but laugh at him and the guys as they all started spit-balling questions at me.

"Guys!" I shouted over them. They all went silent. "I'm okay! It doesn't matter what happened, I'll explain it all later." I promised them. The nodded and returned to their seats around Vic and I followed them. I squeezed in the bed beside Dad and snuggled into him.

"Better?" I asked Dad. He chuckled and nodded.

"Much better." He told me. I rolled my eyes but just laid back against him. I shut my eyes and tried to fall back asleep since it was still so early. The guys continued talking and asking Vic how he was and I was was, but eventually I blocked them out enough to fall asleep.

The sound of a door clicking shut woke me up what must have been a few hours later. I opened my eyes and noticed all the guys passed out on the chairs against the wall. Vic was the only other one awake, doing something on his phone with his arm still wrapped around me. He did, however, look up towards the door when it caught his attention. I looked up too, noticing Alex just coming in.

"Hey." He said to Vic. Neither one had noticed I was awake yet. Dad smiled at him.

"Hey." He said back. Alex walked over to the side of the bed and sat down on it, facing Vic.

"How are you feeling?" Alex asked. He glanced over Vic's torso and frowned at the bandages. Vic shrugged and shifted a little.

"Not great. Better, I guess, with the pain meds." Dad told him. Alex nodded and looked away from him. "I'm more worried about Audrey, really. Do you think you could go get her something to eat? She must be starving." I rolled my eyes to myself. I had barely even noticed my hunger since I got out with all the drama. As good as food sounded right now, though, I didn't want anything from Alex.

"Yeah, totally." Alex said, jumping up from the bed. "I'll go grab something from the cafeteria." He said.

"You know, I'm really not that hungry." I finally spoke up. Vic and Alex looked towards me giving me confused looks.

"What? Audrey you're starving to death!" Dad began, giving me a squeeze just to emphasize how skinny I had gotten. I pushed his arm away and crossed my arms. I heard Alex sigh from the other side of the bed.

"Audrey, come on. Let me just take you down to the cafe and you can get whatever you want. You need to eat--"

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" I snapped, cutting him off. The look of hurt on his face almost made me feel bad about it, but I never forgot what he did to me months ago. He let out a short breath and looked away from me.

"Fine. Don't come. I'll just get you something myself." He muttered before leaving the room. He shut the door behind himself and Dad turned to look at me.

"Audrey, what's wrong? Why are you treating Alex like that?" He asked. I rolled my eyes and then turned back to him. He raised his eyebrows as if telling me to answer him.

"What? Did you forget? Dad, he cheated on me! What am I supposed to do?" I asked. He just let out an exasperated sigh and looked away from me. There was a moment of silence between us before Dad spoke again.

"You know Alex was the one who got you out of that place." He told me. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"What? What about you?" I asked. I thought for sure it was Dad. He always seemed to know what to do. But he just shook his head and looked sad.

"I was a mess. I was so helpless, Audrey, I felt like there was nothing I could do. I just gave up on myself. But Alex, he...he really stepped up. He felt so guilty about being the one there who saw you get taken but not being able to stop them. He spent every single day talking with police and sending out messages on social media. Nate contacted him. Alex found you, Audrey, not me." I felt my throat start closing up and my eyes burning, but the bitter feeling in the pit of my stomach forced the tears away. He only looked for me because he didn't want my blood on his hands. He didn't want me back, he just didn't want to be the one everyone blamed for my death.

Dad kissed the side of my head and I leaned on his shoulder. He knew I was still mad, but there was nothing he could do at this point to convince me to forgive Alex. Vic reached over me to the tiny nightstand next to his bed. He picked something up and put it in my hand. I looked down at it. It was my necklace. The one my mom gave me. The chain link where I snapped it was fixed and it was as good as new. I looked up at Dad and he shrugged.

"Alex fixed it." I sighed and handed it to him to clip around my neck.

"This doesn't make it better." I muttered.

"I know." He said. At that moment, the door to the room opened and Nate walked in, arms full of paper bags. He smiled at me and brought the bags over to me.

"I thought you might be hungry." He said. He put the bags down and started pulling out boxes of Chinese food. Instantly the guys woke up and started attacking the food. In all the commotion I noticed the door open behind Nate and Alex walk in, carrying a plate with hospital food on it. His expression sank when he saw what Nate brought and looked down at his own measly meal contribution. He placed the plate on the counter near the door and left unnoticed by anyone but me.

A/N: Heyyy you guys should go read the one-shot I wrote called Circles thankssss :)))