Love At First Roll

Sympathy to Empathy - Rewritten

“Rihana, what are you doing here?” I asked, staring at the girl in front of me, who I hadn’t seen in three months, since she lost her baby, since she blamed me. I had a strong feeling of hope growing inside me hoping that she had forgiven me. Lottie walked straight up to her and hugged her, to which she returned but when I stepped forward, her hand shot towards me, stopping me from coming any closer.

“I’m not here to give you my fake love Gabriella, I’m here to do to you what you did to me. You see, you’re sat here living the perfect life, with the perfect house, the perfect man and now I hear you’re with child. You see since YOU made me lose my baby, the only thing that was actually mine, the only actual chance I had at a family, which you took away from me. I’m broken Gabriella and it’s down to you. I haven’t been eating, sleeping, drinking. I’ve been kicked out from my house for getting pregnant in the first place. Then I realised that the reality of it all is that friends don’t last and their all fake. Not once did any of you bitches ring to ask me if I was ok, ask me how I was holding up. None of you. But don’t worry about sympathy, you’re going to feel empathy. You’re going to feel it too.”

Within seconds, before I knew what was happening Rihana had pulled out a gun, aiming it at my stomach. I was still in that moment, I didn’t move, I lost the knowledge of how to. I fell to the ground, clutching my stomach, but I wasn’t bleeding. Nothing happened, there was no pain. I snapped back into reality, noticing Lottie fallen in front of me, blood seeping from her  stomach. The shrieks were spreading through the house getting louder and louder each time and the gun shot was still ringing clearly in my ears. The tears were falling harder and harder as I shook Lottie’s limp body. I screamed and I screamed, squeezing Lottie’s hand and burying my head in her arms. The sirens were beginning to get louder and clearer. There was shouting but it was blurry, a sharp pain shot through my body as I stumbled backwards, being caught by somebody. The woman, the paramedic, she was talking to me, saying something that I didn’t understand. It went through one ear and came out the other. One of them was attending Lottie and I was still. The woman asked my name  over and over, I managed to tell them in between the sobs. I looked around the room, it was empty, Rihana had left and the only thing she left was the blood spreading across the hardwood floors.

Lottie was rushed from the room, followed by me. The woman had me on a bed but I didn’t need it, I was fine. With shaky hands I grabbed my phone from my back pocket and dialled the only number I knew.

“Aana, Lottie, shooting, blood. I need you. Please.” I cried, slamming the phone on the bed. My mind cleared up and the regularity of the sobs had decreased. I asked the paramedic if she was going to be ok but she ignored me, concentrating on my breathing. If I wasn’t so weak, I would have slapped her a few times. Didn’t she understand? I was ok, it was Lottie. I couldn’t lose her. We couldn’t lose her.

“Gabriella, I’m going to need you to calm down and stay still for me, because of the impact that you fell at, we need to ensure the health of your baby. I can’t do that if you’re stressing yourself out. It’s extremely bad when you’re only twelve weeks in to the pregnancy.” The paramedic said calmly, attaching the oxygen mask to my face. I breathed in and out, following her instructions and tried to think logically, taking in what just happened. I can’t believe Lottie took the bullet for me, for the baby. I assume Aana was trying to call me because I could feel the vibration but I didn’t have the energy to explain. I hoped she would have gotten the memo and called Mark or Nate as soon as she couldn’t reach me, I hoped she was here with me. I needed her strength and her reassurance right now. That was something that would always remain in her, married or not. Shortly after when we had arrived at the hospital, they set me down on a bed and changed my bloody clothes into one of those horrible hospital gowns. I could tell you first hand, the material was horrible and wearing no bottoms in this weather wasn’t something I approve of. It was summer but I don’t think England had cottoned on because the rain was still hammering down around us.