Previously on Her Safe Haven: Winter was stabbed by Sasha's accomplice following the mysterious attacks on her. Now she was in surgery and everyone was waiting. Her mother and her cousin Elijah finally came, too.
With Winter stable but still unconscious and all of them waiting and worried, Riley thought it was barely the most appropriate time to talk about this, but she couldn't help it. She was currently eating lunch with Rose in the hospital's garden, but it had been on her mind for the past few weeks, and she needed to say it out loud.
"I slept with Kai."
Rose almost choked on her sandwich. "You slept with— what?!"
"I slept with Kai," Riley repeated, her expression still flat yet her heart beating so fast with nerve and the excitement that yes, she had finally told someone that the guy she had liked for the past two years finally did something that indicated he saw her as more than just a friend.
Rose furrowed her brows in confusion. "But— I— why?"
Riley shrugged. "Because it was late. And we were drunk."
"So you slept with someone you're in love with but is probably in love with someone else because you were drunk?"
Riley winced back slightly at that. She had to admit, what Rose said kind of hurt.
Though Riley knew the fact that Kai liked Helena was probably supposed to be a secret, Rose and Riley couldn't help their female intuition that just lighted up every time they saw Kai helping Helena with school work in that overly-eager manner of his. And when Seth stuttered the moment they mentioned the topic in a passing comment, they both knew they had hit their mark.
She furrowed her eyebrows back and looked at Rose. "Do you really think it's that bad?"
"Of course it is!" Rose could almost yell at her best friend. "Riley, you like him. A lot. You know how he sleeps around. And he hadn't liked you in that way before, so the chances of that changing, to be honest, is very slim. He calls you his 'best bud'."
Riley sighed at Rose's comment and rested her chin on her hands, closing her eyes dejectedly. "I know... But still, you know. You should understand. What if Gray suddenly, I don't know, kisses you while he's drunk and says, he desires you?"
At that Rose looked far away. And crossed her arms.
"There is nothing between me and Gray," she said, and at Riley's questioning look, she added, "at least, not anymore."
+++
After Riley left her to take a walk "to cool off", Rose thought that she should take a walk to clear her mind off the complicated drama their friendship group was in, too. But when she walked into the hospital's cafeteria, towards her friends' lunch table, she decided that the drama just couldn't catch a break.
"—Well you should know why! ...Yeah, right. It's Riley liking Kai all over again because Helena has liked you for years and she would never—umPH!"
Tria was choking with how hard Rose suddenly covered her mouth, but as soon as she saw Rose's glare, and everyone's stares, she realised what her uncontrollable loudmouth had done this time.
'Oh, SHI—'
While Jonah was aware that Helena had some sort of feelings towards him, his mouth was still wide at Tria's first sentence, and everyone else in the group sat frozen and looked at Tria threateningly.
"Oh— Heh... You know, guys, that was a joke..."
At Tria's pathetic excuse of a cover, everyone's attention, as if on cue, quickly turned to look at Dylan anxiously.
Dylan, who was sipping his tea calmly, half boredly, noticed everyone's sudden attention and raised his eyebrows. "What?" he said almost in annoyance, and continued drinking his tea. After he finished another sip he observed everyone, then as quickly as his eyes had widened in realisation of why everyone had looked at him as if expecting an explosion at the statement of "Riley liking Kai", he turned to Seth, eyes wide in rage. "You told them—?!"
"No, no, NO! No, I didn't, I swear!"
"Then how the fu—"
Seeing her childhood friend started to blabber frantically in panic, Tria rolled her eyes and decided to just roll with it, since the cat was already out of the bag anyway. "Oh come on, Dylan. It's just us," —'us' being Tria, Rose, Seth, and Jonah who were eating lunch there— "We won't tell the others. It's not like you liking Riley was a big secret in the first place; and you're Gray's best friend. We're Winter's. Those two are twins. We're basically family!"
"Family my furry chicken ass," Dylan growled at them almost threateningly, and Tria almost eeped! at the sound but just chuckled nervously. Yet after a while, Dylan sighed in defeat and narrowed his eyes. "Fine. Just... tell me she doesn't know."
"She doesn't! I promise!" Tria was all too happy to walk out from this without a scratch, "She won't until you tell her yourself!"
"Well, he also wasn't supposed to know about this but since someone is unable to keep her mouth shut..." Seth murmured and Tria glared at him warningly.
Dylan blinked at him. "Know about what? Riley liking Kai? I know already."
"Wait, you know?!"
"Of course I do. Did you guys think I'm that clueless?"
And the others' mouth stayed open for a few seconds at the revelation before the group exploded into another round of accusations-and-interrogations.
And in all honesty, Rose thought this entire lunch conversation was deeply inappropriate considering they were still waiting for Winter, who almost died, to wake up. But then she thought about how hard the past few weeks had been for all of them, and sighed.
Maybe all of them also needed some sort of break.
+++
She was sleeping soundly. And watching her this way — bandaged and breathing through a tube — made his heart pained even more than it had been in the past twelve hours of waiting.
He was scared, and saying that he had never felt so scared to death in his life — not even when everything was over for him ten years ago as his father tried to kill him that one cursed night — was an understatement.
Because after so many years of not feeling alive, of not living, once he had tasted what life could really be for him, he could not, in all his power, imagine losing the one who gave him that life he had been searching for. Who gave him hope when he thought there was nothing else to this life than death. He could not lose her. Because her death would have been the final string, and it would mean death for him, too.
"Feeling bad about yourself, now?"
He would recognise that voice anywhere. And though the voice would usually evoke some sort of reaction out of him, he was apathetic with exhaustion and numbness and worry. "I could have prevented it."
"And how, exactly, would you do that?"
He shrugged. "I don't know." But I knew it was going on. I could have done something. "But I'm her friend. And a Garrison."
Dr Switzgerald almost scoffed at that as she walked to stand next to Rohan. "And she's a McHalen. Still doesn't work in her favour."
It was 4 p.m., eight hours after her surgery was over, and she still had not woken up. After about three hours of doctors declaring her stable, friends and family had been in this room to see her, yet none of their presence seemed to have coaxed her into opening her eyes.
"And just because you're her friend doesn't mean you can do everything. Look at all the people who care about her just as much as you do. They couldn't prevent it, neither could have you."
+++
Saturday night at six. Ten hours and she still had not woken up.
When he thought that he might never be able to see her anymore, he felt so sick to his stomach he abruptly stood from the dinner table and excused himself from her clueless friends.
In the restroom, after he was alone in the small cubicle, he vomited.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Kind of short, I know, I'm sorry. But this (and the previous 2 chapters) are just interludes, of some sort. The chapters starting from the next one should be longer and more exciting. Final arc starting next week and the last 10 chapters before the big finale!!! :D
As always, your comments motivate me to write better and improve. Tell me what you think <3