Don't Let Me Fall Again

Chapter Eleven - Alone

‘How is she?’ I asked James, who had slowly emerged from the doors of Gabby’s ward in the hospital. Through the little window I could see her dad holding her hand as she lay sleeping in one of those ridiculously uncomfortable beds. The doctors insisted on only letting family in to see her, even though I was basically her sister. I was worried sick, and to make things even worse, I was basically alone.

Ryan wasn’t with me because he and his friends went after whoever attacked the house before the cops arrived at Quinn’s door. Dan and Katie brought me to the hospital, but had to go home almost straight away when their parents started to ring them, presumably after they heard the news of an ‘unexplained’ shooting in a very quiet neighbourhood. Absolutely everyone was talking about it, even the nurses who were in a nearby room were sharing their opinions on it.

I couldn’t blame everyone, though. Roseville was a peaceful and trouble-free town where everyone trusted each other. No one would even imagine the possibility of a gang in such a respectable town, which was extremely convenient for the two gangs that were almost in some type of a war just because of me. A few months ago when three people were found dead in the woods, the cops had just confirmed that it was an assisted suicide for three people, even though Ryan had said that those three gangsters were shot by the other gang. It was annoying how oblivious the police were, or how bloody easy it was to wipe away evidence.

I was still in shock over everything – no matter how many cups of tea I drank. Gabby had got shot (luckily only in the arm) and it was all my fault. The other gang wanted to get revenge on me, and that got my best friend hurt. Was that the way things were going to go now? Were my friends going to suffer just because of me?

‘She’s going to be okay, Laura,’ James said, walking down one of the many corridors with me and to the room where he usually spent his lunch breaks. ‘I reckon tomorrow she’ll wake up … but she’s going to be in a mess. Not everyone just gets randomly shot when they’re at a party, Laura. Her dad is absolutely furious, too, but I keep trying to tell him that he’s lucky he still has his daughter …’

‘This is all my fault,’ I said, feeling rather faint as I put the kettle on for yet another cup of tea.

James shook his head. ‘Don’t you dare say that, Laura. It’s their fault, and they’re going to pay. This is the third time they’ve done something, and it’s going to stop. First was that idiot breaking into Ryan’s apartment, second was when Pete got attacked, and third was this. They’ve got to be stopped before it’s too late.’

‘How can you stop them? They’re not going to stop until they get their revenge. It’s not like you can kill them off, or something,’ I grumbled, swirling a fifth spoonful of sugar into my tea.

James frowned. ‘Quit taking so much sugar. That’s not good for you. You’ll give your baby diabetes before it’s even born.’

‘Right now, how many spoonfuls of sugar I take in my tea are quite frankly the least of my troubles,’ I deadpanned.

He pursed his lips, frowning at the sixth spoonful of sugar that I dolloped in purposely just to annoy him. ‘Maybe you’re better off talking to Ryan about everything … He knows more than I do about the whole thing …’

‘Well he’s not here, is he?’ I grumbled, annoyed.

‘Don’t be angry with him, Laura. Without him I’m sure you’d be gone a long, long time ago. He’s working so hard to protect you, and I hope you understand that. You saw what happened tonight. They all let their guards down for a few hours and they got shot at. From now on everyone’s going to be prepared for something like that. From now on we’re going to work towards stopping them.’