A/N: Thank you so much to Sparkle_And_Sunshine for the amazing banner! i LOVEEEE it!
So I did post this already but Wattpad locked it because the content is too mature?.... REALLY? NOW? i've had Mia and Drake bang in a middle of a bar, him do a striptease, them all being as high as the clouds and more swearing in the previous chapters than a bunch of old men sat around talking about todays generation and their lack of respect and NOW is when they think its too much?!
Me and Wattpad are going to fall out soon. BIG time.
Anyway, I've starred out the swearing, wouldnt want to offend Wattpads sensative ears would I, and im sorry for this rant and i really hope you enjoy the chapter!
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NATE POV
My night started at the shop, stacking up on beer and snacks. We had planned a night of getting slightly stoned, a few laughs and eating the munchies away.
How I ended up in the hospital while my sister was unconscious was beyond me.
To be honest when I first saw the flashing lights outside my house, I just thought they were there for our crazy neighbour who we spot running around naked in her garden chanting 'I'm a Falcon' at least once a month. I genuinely thought she had finally snapped and cooked her dog and husband of something.
I wouldn't have minded a woman running around naked just next door, but this woman was in her 50's and had breasts that you could use to tie a boat to the dock with.
When I saw Mia getting wheeled out to the ambulance though, I knew something very different had happened while I was at the shop.
I didn’t even switch the engine of the car off before I jumped out and ran over to her. There were paramedics putting her in the ambulance and I noticed a police car parked on the street as well.
“Mia!” I screamed as I ran over. Before I had a chance to reach her, there was a paramedic stood in front of me.
“Do you know her?” he asked me, his hands held up telling me I couldn’t go any further.
“I'm her brother, what happened?” I asked frantically, my eyes never leaving her.
I could barely breathe; my heart was pounding out of my chest. She had bruises on her face and I saw a few on her arms, sending my mind into over drive as I started thinking about what the hell happened to her.
“She had a bad fall, we are taking her up to the hospital now as she’s unconscious.” The paramedic informed me.
“Well I'm coming with you then.” It wasn’t even up for debate as I stormed past him and went towards the ambulance.
“We already have your brother coming with us.” He sort of ran after me trying to keep up, and I stopped in my tracks as I looked at him confused.
“What?”
“Your brother. He was here when she fell.” He told me.
I furrowed my brows “I don’t have-“
“I didn’t think you’d be back in time.” I heard another voice cut me off, and I turn to stare at Drake. Instantly my mood flips, and I was furious as I looked at his battered face “I told them I was her brother because they wouldn’t let me ride with her if I wasn’t family.”
I have never felt so much anger in my life because as I stared at the bruises on his face, his split lip and black eye, I knew there was a lot more to the story than just a 'bad fall'.
“What the f*ck did you do to her?” I seethe as I take a step towards him.
His face instantly looks disgusted “Not anywhere near what you're thinking Nate.”
“I swear to God if you touched her-“ I didn’t even realised I went for him until I saw a figure in front of me.
“Nate no!” Lacey ordered as she shoved me back. I had forgotten she was even here “There are police everywhere. Just go, we’ll meet you up the hospital.”
I clenched my jaw as I realised she was right. I could hear the paramedic shout at us that they were leaving, and I realised I had to be with Mia right now. I glared at Drake wanting nothing more than to beat the living sh*t out of him right now, but I knew I had to be with my sister.
The drive up the hospital was a blur, I sat there as the paramedics fiddled around her, saying a bunch of sh*t I had no clue about. I felt like they were talking a different language at one point, and whenever I would ask them what was going on they gave me short clipped answers that answered my questions about as well as a down syndrome plank of wood would have.
Before I knew it I was in the waiting room of the hospital. They wheeled Mia into this room and I got told I wasn’t allowed to go in with them, even after I threatened to kick his balls back into his stomach they still refused to let me go any further than the waiting room. They also threatened to have security escort me out, so unwillingly I realised I needed to stop threatening the hospital staff.
I sat on one of the metal chairs, my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands.
I had no idea what to do, the time was going backwards I swear and no one was coming out. The nurses were about as useful as a dick to a lesbian, so here I was, sat twiddling my thumbs as I waited on any news.
The doctors told me she had a pretty bad fall and she was still unconscious. They needed to do tests to see if she’s broken anything or fractured anything. I thought my stomach was going to fall out of my ass as I heard the doctor say there was risk she may have fractured her spine.
I don’t know how long I was sat there for, my estimate was about 4 and a half years, before I heard the doors open and two sets of feet come running through the corridor.
I looked up and saw Lacey and Drake, and instantly I was on my feet as I realised I had something to keep me busy now.
I was over to him in record time. I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and threw him against the wall.
“What the f*ck did you do to her?!” I screamed in his face.
“Nate stop!” Lacey’s voice ordered. I didn’t even turn my head.
“I didn’t touch her, you know I’d never do that to her!” Drake’s voice was almost a growl as he clearly knew what I was accusing him of.
“Well why the hell is my sister lying on a hospital table right now unconscious with a possible fractured spine and you’re face looks about as healthy as Mickey Rourke’s?!” our screaming, well my screaming, was attracting quite a bit of attention from the hospital staff.
“Nate stop or we will all get kicked out!” Lacey demanded, grabbing my shoulder and attempting to pry me off.
“Not until he explains to me what the hell happened!” I found myself pulling him away from the wall and slamming him against it again with my sentence, not being able to control my anger.
Apparently Drake couldn’t control his either. He pushed away from the wall and shoved me away from him.
“I never layed a finger on Mia and you know I never would, so don’t you f*cking dare accuse me of that.” He was raging, he was breathing through his nose and his glare could have made a serial killer sh*t his pants.
Fortunately, it barely fazed me because right now I was thinking the worst, and the worst didn’t put Drake in a very good light.
“Really? Wouldn’t you? I mean it’s not like you haven’t snapped before is it?!” I couldn’t help myself, all I wanted to do was beat the crap out of him and because everyone was stood around with the police on speed dial if I did, I had to resort to insults.
I swear his eyes turned black with rage within the second.
“Don’t you dare compare this to that…” his voice was low, threatening.
“I can do whatever the hell I want because I leave my sister alone with you for half an hour and she is hospitalised!” I was literally screaming at him, and I didn’t even realised I stepped to him again until I felt hands stopping me in my tracks.
“He didn’t do anything Nate!” Lacey declared, and I managed to drag my death glare off of Drake to the girl in front of me “He told me in the car it wasn’t him so calm down and stop acting like a psychopath!”
I didn’t say anything and just looked at her to see if she was lying to get me to calm down. I could read Lacey like an open book, and right now I could tell two things from her expression:
That she wanted to punch me in the face and that she was being completely honest.
I looked back up at Drake “What happened?”
He swallowed hard, and I saw guilt rise to his face which didn’t help the urge I had to stand on his face.
“They broke in.” His voice was low, and he didn’t look me in the eyes.
“Who broke in?”
He was still staring directly at the ground “Derek.”
I don’t know if the anger towards Drake subsisted or got stronger at this explanation. I don’t know if it redirected itself towards this Derek f*cker I had never met before, all I knew is I was still angry.
“I tried to get her out of the house. I tried to help her I really did Nate I swear, they had me handcuffed to the radiator I couldn’t get to her...” I didn’t doubt for a second he wasn’t telling the truth, his voice told me he was being honest. I could tell by his face he felt guilty, that he was pissed at not only Derek but also himself because he couldn’t do anything.
“What did he do to her?” I asked.
I saw him close his eyes and take in a breath though his nostrils as he pictured it again.
“He threw her down the stairs. I was cuffed to a radiator and he just picked her up and threw her down the stairs without even blinking an eye.” He informed me.
I swallowed hard as I pictured it in my own head, feeling sick to my stomach as I couldn’t imagine how a man could do that to anyone, let alone a 16 year old girl.
“He did that to you?” I asked him, referring to his beat up face. He just nodded, I knew Drake and judging by the look on his face his battered face didn’t even bother him.
The amount of times Drake would be sporting cuts and bruises from fight’s he's had pretty much got him used to having the shit kicked out of him. It got pretty weird seeing him without any battle scars on his face to be honest.
He used them to his full advantage, majority of them he was pretty proud of because I had seen Drake in multiple fights and never did he lose a single one. He used to go out and the amount of times he would pick up girls just because he’d say his black eye was given to him because he tried to save a little girl from a paedophile or something like that was incredible.
He once caught his arm on some barbed wire when he got into a scrap with some guy who stole his beer, and he threw Drake against a fence. Told this girl the weekend after he got attacked by a shark and ended up getting a blowjob in the bar toilets.
He was pretty proud of his war wounds.
This time however I knew by one glance at his face, he was not proud. These marks were a reminder that he had failed in protecting someone he cared about. I could judge the guy on many things, but I didn’t doubt for a minute he would have taken 10 times worse to protect Mia or anyone else he cared about.
I know as I say that I sound like a hypocrite because a mere minute ago I was accusing him of being the reason she was in the hospital, but for a minute put yourself in my shoes.
You see your sister in an ambulance unconscious, and then you see the guy you left her with bruises on his face looking as guilty as OJ’s lawyer. You would think the worst as well. If it even crosses your mind that someone has hurt your family, you’re ready to take that bitch down no matter who it is.
“Where did he go?” I quizzed him.
“He just left. He walked straight down the stairs, stepped over her and left.” I could hear the fury in his voice. I knew where he was coming from. My fists automatically bunches as I heard this.
I suddenly realised something “Who called the ambulance then?”
“I did.” He replied.
This just confused me even more “I thought you were handcuffed to a radiator? Unless they un-cuffed you, which I don’t think they were stupid enough to do were they?”
“I pulled the radiator off the wall.” He answered like it was simple, shrugging slightly.
My mouth fell open and Lacey actually let out a breath of stunned laughter.
“You ripped the radiator off the wall?” I repeat in disbelief.
He shrugged “I was p*ssed off. Adrenaline and all that. I just needed to get to her.”
I instantly found the anger calming down slightly as I heard the sincerity in his voice. I knew he cared for my sister, the last two days have surprised me because I haven’t realised just how much.
Lacey was the one to break the silence.
“The police know that someone’s broken in, but they don’t know who.” She told me, then gave me a look as if to warn me to calm down even though she hasn’t even finished speaking yet “If we tell them who it was, this guy won’t be the only one getting sent inside.”
“Look that doesn’t bother me okay, if you want I’ll go back to the police and tell them everything right now.” Drake tells me instantly, and I knew he wasn’t bluffing.
I thought about it, looking at Drake for a minute before my eyes met Lacey’s.
She was looking right back at me, and I knew she didn’t want me to say anything. She knew Mia wouldn’t want me to say anything because if we told them who it was, Derek would for sure be more than willing to sing to the police about Drake’s involvement with his firm, sending Drake another ticket to his 4x10 cell.
Lacey shook her head so slightly that if I wasn’t paying so much attention to her, I would have missed it.
“She will kill you when she wakes up.” Her voice was low and I knew I was the only one who heard her. She was talking about Mia, and I don’t know why because I know it’s not the thing to be thinking about right now, but I just wanted to hug the girl as soon as she said that.
Not because I'm an inconsiderate assh*le who thinks with his penis at all times, but because she said that without a single doubt that Mia would wake up.
I looked back up at Drake, who was waiting for my answer. He didn’t look nervous, he just wanted a confirmation of whether he needed to get on the phone to the police anytime soon to change his statement.
“Once she’s awake and I know everything’s fine, I want to know exactly where this prick lives.” I tell Drake, and he doesn’t smile because he knows full well I was not joking.
He nods once “Don’t worry, I’ll drive you there myself.”
And with that, he knew I wasn’t going to rat him out. I was going to let the police believe whatever Drake told them, but when this was over I swear to every single God there was, Allah, Buddha and Morgan f*cking Freeman, I would get my hands on this Derek and show him exactly what happens when you throw little girls down a flight of stairs.
Judging by the look on Drake’s face, I’d have to get in line.
I look back down at Lacey who gives me a faint smile, telling me I did the right thing.
With that one look from her, I had no doubt I did.
--
She looked like she was asleep.
Actually no, I’ve seen her sleep and she never looks this peaceful, that’s probably the only way you could tell there was anything wrong. Normally a night’s sleep for Mia involves being sprawled out on her double bed, arms in every direction and hair sticking out on her head like the needles on Hell Raiser's face.
The drip in her arm and the respirator she was on didn’t look good either.
I sat by her bed, Lacey sat in a chair besides me and Drake was on the other side of the bed, his fists over his mouth as he stared at Mia unconscious. I could tell by his eyes it actually hurt to see her like this, and I knew exactly how he felt because looking at my baby sister lying unconscious in a hospital bed was easily the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my entire life.
The doctors said they had finished running their tests and would have the results in soon. They had steadied her heartbeat which meant they could leave her in a hospital bed but warned us she would not be awake for a while yet.
To be honest, this still didn’t tell us if she was okay. For all we knew, her spine really could be fractured or maybe something even worse than that. So basically we were all waiting around for these freaking test results like they were the Holy Grail.
Which right now, they were.
Drake and I were upset, it was obvious but because we were men we tried to hold back from showing it too much. It was a reflex you couldn’t help it, I wanted to do nothing more than cry as soon as I walked into the room and saw Mia like this, but I held it back.
Without meaning to sound stereotypical, a girl would not have done that.
And before you say you sound really stereotypical, the reason I say this is because as soon as we walked into the room, Lacey burst out crying.
Understand my point now?
I could still hear her crying now, sniffling as she saw her best friend. She wasn't sobbing but I knew she was crying, trying to hold it back slightly because the only noise in the room was the beeping of the machine telling us Mia’s heartbeat was still going strong, and her tears.
The crying didn’t annoy me or anything, but it made me worry. I know it shouldn’t but seeing someone else in a state about the way Mia was right now made me panic, because if she was crying was she scared that she wasn’t going to be okay?
I don’t know what I was thinking, but it wasn’t good believe me.
I leaned forward in my chair until my elbows were on the bed. I grabbed Mia’s hand, lifting it gently and kissed it. I kept it in mine as I looked at her face, the bruises had gotten darker and they looked so out of place on her little heart shaped face.
She shouldn’t be here, she was a pain in the ass and more trouble than a teenage pregnancy the majority of the time, but she didn’t deserve something like this.
When you picture Mia, you picture a little girl stuffing her face with chocolate cake and running around with her best friend after one too many drinks, laughing and having a good time.
Not battered and bruise only breathing because of a machine.
I suddenly felt someone place their hand on mine, the one that wasn’t holding Mia’s.
I turn to see Lacey looking at me, a half-hearted smile on her face. Her eyes were red and her cheeks looked wet from where she had been crying, but I could tell she was trying to make me feel better.
“She’s going to be okay you know?” She told me.
I find an ironic smile coming to my mouth “Oh yeah? Why are you crying then?”
“Because I'm a mess at life. I cried when I didn’t get invited to Megan Riley’s party when I was 13, I’m an emotional wreck.”
I find myself smiling. I didn’t quite have it in me to laugh right now, but I was surprised I had it in me to genuinely smile. What didn’t surprise me however, was that Lacey was the only one to manage to make me do this.
“Honestly, she’s going to be fine. This is Mia, she is strong. I’ve seen the girl kick the shit out of you, him, Jimmy and Sean many times. Luke is the only one smart enough to run when she threatens to hit him.” She tells me, a genuine smile on her face as she tries to reassure me “This is the girl who manages to beat the master of pool every single time remember?”
My smile widened slightly “She’s on a lucky streak, and I hurt my wrist.”
“What for over a year? I know you masturbate a lot but that’s just ridiculous.” She says with a playful smile, and I actually breathe a laugh.
Wow, turns out I did have it in me to laugh. Again, only one person I know who could manage this.
I glance up to Drake and notice he hasn’t taken his eyes off of Mia, I think he’s forgotten we were in the room so I knew he wasn’t paying any attention to our conversation.
I turn back to Lacey, who was giving me a reassuring smile. I felt her hand tighten slightly on mine, telling me she was there.
I suddenly realised, she was always there.
No matter what happened between us, she would forget everything I put her through and how I treated her to just be there for me. Last month when me and Drake had that big blow up and I was barely talking to Mia, she stayed with me all night. Listening to me bitch and watching me smash up my room in fury. She just stayed with me all night trying to calm me down and didn’t expect anything in return.
She never did.
I know it sounds bad, but every single time I feel I need to speak to someone, if I've had an argument with someone or just had a really shit day at work, the first person I want to speak to is Lacey.
I know you would think the first people to pop to my head would be my sister or my best friend, and majority of the time it is them I end up talking to anyway, but the first face that comes to mind is always Lacey’s. And I knew no matter what I went to her with, she would shut up and listen.
I wouldn’t call it an epiphany or anything, but suddenly as I went through all of this in my mind, I suddenly thought ‘what the hell is wrong with you Nate?’
I realised people would kill to have someone in their lives like Lacey. Hell, a fraction of the girl that she was. So what the hell was wrong with me? I didn’t want to be with her because I wanted to keep being a little slut and hooking up with girls who’s names I didn’t even care to find out, let alone see again. I didn’t enjoy it anyway. Well, the sex I enjoyed don’t get me wrong I still own a penis after all, but straight after I just wanted to get the hell out of there.
When me and Lacey used to hook up, I never wanted to get out of bed. Majority of the time we would spend hours just talking about complete shit with no relevance to life, such as what would you rather be, a block of cheese or a pepperoni (genuine conversation we had after sex, I am not lying) and I would be completely happy.
And I was risking losing that because I was an asshole.
I knew I didn’t want to hurt her, and the majority of the reason I didn’t want to get in a relationship was because I was scared that sooner or later I would mess it up like the fuck up I am.
But as I sat here now at my sisters hospital bed, looking at Lacey with a tear stained face who was trying to comfort me even though I could tell she wanted nothing more than to burst into tears again with worry over her best friend, I realised I don’t think I had it in me to ever do anything to hurt this girl.
It’s amazing that it takes something like this to happen to finally make you see clearly, but then again when something this bad happens you see people for their true colours don’t you. You realise who is there and who is not.
The thing is, I’m not even surprised she was here.
I didn’t know what was going to happen, I didn’t know if it would ever work but I realised I didn’t care.
I let go of her hand, and automatically lifted it over her head to put around her shoulders.
I saw the surprise in her face, mixed with a smile at my action. After a few seconds of initial shock, she relaxed and rested her head on my shoulder. I turned and placed a kiss on the top of her hair.
“I love you Lace.” It came out so easily.
She didn’t move, and I couldn’t see the reaction on her face. I didn’t care if she didn’t say back right now either; I just needed to make sure she knew that.
I notice Drake had suddenly gotten a little more interested in the conversation, because his eyes glanced over to the pair of us as soon as he heard me say it. The corner of his mouth was slightly raised, but you couldn’t see if he was properly smirking because his fist was still over it, his elbows on the bed.
We stayed like that for a while. I don’t know how much time went by before the doctor finally came into the room.
We all instantly stood out of our seats, all eager to hear what he was going to say.
“Mr Hastings?” He greeted, looking my direction to confirm I was actually the brother.
I nodded “What’s the news doc, are the results back?”
He didn’t reply and just looked between Drake and Lacey before looking back at me.
“If we could have a word in private?” The doctor asked me, and my stomach sunk as this wasn’t a good sign.
I shook my head “They're family, this is private.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw the warm smile on Drake’s mouth as I said this.
The doctor just nodded “Well we’ve got the results in for your sister. She had a pretty bad fall, the impact of it left her with a few broken ribs and some pretty bad internal bleeding.” He told me, and I felt the sick rise to the back of my throat “But we’ve managed to stabilise her and the results show there is no sign of brain trauma or spinal fracture. She is going to be fine. We’re going to keep her in for a few days and she’s going to be sore for a while, but she is fine. She was pretty lucky.”
The sound of 3 people sighing with relief filled the room instantly, and Lacey turned to me with a smile on her face.
“Told you didn’t I.” She smiles, her eyes watering again but this time I knew it was with relief.
I find myself smiling as well, a weight being lifted off my shoulders now I know Mia is fine. I walk forward and put my hand out to the doctor. As soon as the man told me Mia was going to be fine, i instantly liked him. i was holding myself back from bear hugging the bloke for delivering the great news.
“Thank you so much doc, and I'm sorry for all that threatening your colleagues business by the way.” I give him a guilty smile.
He returns it with one of his own, but mine instantly falls as I notice the expression on his face.
He wasn’t done speaking yet.
My level of love for him was getting lower now.
“What is it?” I asked, panic back in my voice because I could tell it wasn’t all happy endings from the look he was giving me.
“Your sister is going to be fine, there is no lasting damage to her.” He reassures me, but I don’t say anything as I wait for the ‘but’ “However, I'm afraid there was a lot of internal bleeding and we were unable to save the baby.”
I thought I had zoned out then and slipped into some really fucked up daydream. It didn’t register, and I didn’t believe it. The words he just spoke were not processing in my mind.
“What?” I must have misheard him. There was no way he just actually said what I thought he did.
“She lost the baby Mr Hastings.” He repeated, and this time as much as I tried to reject the sentence from going into my brain, I knew it was there to stay.
The expression in my face must have showed how I felt because as I stared at him dumbfounded, he furrowed his brows.
“You did know she was pregnant right?” he asked, suddenly realising he was deliving two sets of news wrapped into one ugly little package.
Imagine being given a surprise box wrapped in pubic hair, shit and bits of dead fish.
That's about a fraction of how this felt like.
I couldn’t reply, all I could manage to make my body do was turn my head to look at the man in the room who would be equally as effected by this news, if not more. I looked at him waiting for an explanation, wanting to know why they didn’t tell anyone.
As I saw the look on Drake’s face though, I realised he wasn’t just processing the fact that Mia had lost their baby.
He was processing the fact that Mia was carrying it in the first place.
Turns out I wasn’t the only one who just found out my sister was pregnant.
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