friends - r.v.d

Part 16: the one where they cry

We arrived at the hospital an hour ago. Ruel had to go into immediate surgery and the nurse said it would take at least 3 hours. His family were just about to arrive when I was sitting in the waiting room, motionless.

"Lana?" I heard a familiar voice behind me but I couldn't move. I was in shock. No longer than 15 seconds later, his entire family were standing in front of me. I looked up and made eye contact with his mum and in that moment, I broke down in tears. Coco rushed up to me and hugged me tightly. I held onto her tightly as if I would never let go.

"Hey he is gonna be okay. Shh don't cry" Coco whispered in my ear trying to calm me down but it didn't work. The scene of Ruel laying there in pain, blood pouring out of his wound kept replaying in my mind. After a solid 10 minutes of crying on Coco's shoulder, I finally calmed down a bit. I pulled away from her and sniffled. I looked around to see Kate, Ralph and Sylvie standing together whilst Kate cried. I stood up and walked over to them, Coco shortly following.

"Kate, could I talk to you for a moment?" I say quietly. She looks up at me and nods gently whilst Sylvie, Ralph and Coco take a seat. I give Kate a quick hug before I start talking.

"Kate I just want to say I'm so sorry this happened to Ruel. I mever meant for him to get hurt, in fact I was the one meant to be shot but he stood in front of me." I say apologeticly.

"I'm gonna stop you right there. Honey, it's not your fault he got hurt. Its whoever shot him" she said sweetly, wiping her tears.

"Kate, it is my fault. I need to tell you guys what happened." I say grabbing her hand and walking over to the rest of them.

"Guys, I need to tell you what happened and the real reason why Ruel is injured." I say sighing. I let go off Kate's hand and she stood beside me. I took a deep breath and started my explanation.

"As you know Ruel took me too a party because I hadn't been feeling good the past couple weeks and I needed to get out the house. When we got there everything was fine until we saw both of our ex's who cheated on us with eachother. We avoided them for a while until Nikki his ex and the girl who used to bully me in school, dumped her drink on me. A fight broke out and one thing led to another I ended up slapping Nikki quite a lot. After that we went into another room and avoided them for a while." I decided to leave out the part were we made out because well that's a tad awkward.

"After a while we hadn't seen them and I needed to go to the bathroom so I went to the furthest one since all the others were occupied. Before I could get in the bathroom Luke, me ex, had pulled me into a bedroom and ended up handcuffing me to the bed. He tried to get me forgive him but obviously I didn't. He left the room and I ended up calling Ruel to get me out because I couldn't do it myself. When he got there he ended up breaking the door since Luke locked it behind him. He eventually get me out of the handcuffs and just as we were about to leave, Luke and Nikki came in. Luke told Ruel about something I haven't told anyone but Luke and I hadn't planned on telling him because I didn't see a need for him to know. Nikki then told Luke to stand with us and she pulled out a gun. She said herself she wanted me dead so she could have everything I had, meaning Luke, Ruel and my family." I started tearing up, the scene burned into my brain. Kate wrapped her arm around my shoulder, comforting me the best she could.

"N-nikki held the gun to my head but before she could shoot Ruel kicked it out of her hands. He pushed me in front of him so I could get to the door but the time I reached it, s-she shot him a-and I didn't know w-what to do. I-im so s-sorry." I broke down into tears and Kate engulfed me into her embrace. She was like my second mother and I knew Ruel's entire family and he knew mine. We knew everything and anything about each other.

"Sweetie its not your fault. I know you feel like it is, but its not. You couldn't help that psyco bitch had a gun." Ralph said

"Oi, language." Kate said slapping him on the arm making me giggle a little.

"Hey there is the beautiful smile I love to see." Kate said making me smile even more.

"Lana, come here. Come give sister Sylvie a hug." Sylvie said encouragingly. Sylvie did always give the best hugs, everyone knew it. I fell into her arms and I hugged her tightly, her doing the same.

"How long did the doctor say he would be in surgery for?" Ralph asked me

"They said about three hours or so, he has already been in there for an hour so we are gonna be here a while." I say into Sylvie's chest, hopefully loud enough for them to hear.

"Have you told your parents you are here?" Kate asked. She was always so thoughtful.

"Not yet, I will call them soon." I mumble once again.

"Can I have a hug yet?" Coco pouted next to me, making me giggle once again.

"Of course you can, Co'" I say letting go of Sylvie. I swivel to face Coco and she jumps into my arms making me laugh. I loved Ruel's sisters so much it was crazy. I've always been greatful to be so close with my own and Ruel's family. My dad was never really in the picture so thank god I had Ralph. My mum has been on a few dates but no one she really liked. I don't know if she will ever find someone, I hope she does because god knows we need help around the house sometimes.

"Okay, what we are gonna do is keep the most positive mind set we can because can not have any more crying and that's final." Coco says as she lets go of me and points a finger at me. She always knew how to lighten the mood, her entire family did actually. They all knew exactly what to say to make me smile or laugh. I've never met a family as positive and happy as Ruel's, my family was depressed compared to theirs.