"Asher Phoenix's family? He's awake." The nurse nods her head towards Asher's room.
All three of us stand up and make our way towards the room.
"Thank god you're okay!" Alyssa runs over to her brother and hugs him.
"Alyssa...you're squeezing me too hard." He wheezes.
"Good! That's what you get for ditching me for two days and not texting or calling me back!" She lightly slaps his arm.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry." He mumbles and hugs her again.
I honestly feel bad for Alyssa, while we were waiting for Asher to wake up, she was pacing around the waiting room and praying that her brother wakes up.
Now that he's awake I see that her color has returned to normal and she's finally allowing herself to take a breather.
"Do any of you need anything? I'm gonna head down to the cafeteria and get some food." She says.
"A coffee please," I say.
"Same here," Xander says.
"No thanks, Lyss." Asher smiles.
She smiles back and heads out of the room.
That's when all hell breaks loose.
Xander walks up to him and grabs him by the collar of his hospital gown.
"Are you fucking stupid, man? Do you know how fucking scared she was?! What the fuck were you doing that you couldn't even text her back?" He glares down at him.
Jeez, I've never seen my brother this pissed at someone who wasn't me.
"I know I fucked up man. Something happened before I left and she was pissed at me so I had to leave and-"
"I know what happened...with your dad. She told us."
"What?"
"Well, what did you expect? You left her in the dark for the last two fucking days! And we all know that it takes a lot to get you pissed enough to storm out of the house. Where the fuck were you man?"
"I- I went to Madison's but-"
"Madison? As in your ex?" I ask.
"Yeah, why the fuck do you care? And what the fuck are you even doing here?" He snaps.
"Shut the hell up Asher, unlike you, he was actually there for YOUR sister and he helped save your life tonight!" My brother yells.
Asher just stays quiet.
"Look, right now all that matters is that you're okay. But clearly, something is going on with you and we'll talk about it later." Xander says and lets go of Asher's collar once Alyssa walked in again.
She pauses at the door for a second glancing in between the three of us.
"Here you go." She smiles and hands us our coffees.
Suddenly there's a knock on the door.
"Come in!" I yell.
The door opens and I notice three people walk in, Xander's girlfriend Arya, Jesse, and another girl I've never met before.
"Fuck." I look behind me and notice all the color drain out of Asher's face.
"Hey man, how are you doing?" Jesse asks.
"I'm okay, just sore." He replies but his eyes mainly linger on the girl sitting with Arya in the back.
I walk over to her and introduce myself.
"Hi, I'm Axton, Xander's brother."
"Wow, I didn't know Xander had a brother. I'm Catalina." She smiles.
Damn, I guess Xander really doesn't mention me to his friends.
Catalina is very beautiful, I don't blame Asher for constantly staring at her.
"Ah, so you're Catalina..." Alyssa says while eyeing the girl from head to toe.
"Um yes, and I'm assuming you're Alyssa?"
"Yep, it's nice to meet you." She hugs her.
Catalina was clearly not expecting it because she goes stiff for a second but then hugs her back after a couple of seconds.
They start talking about whatever it is girls talk about and I hear Alyssa let out a small laugh.
It's nice to see Alyssa laugh again, especially after everything that's happened tonight.
I look around the room and see Arya sitting on my brother's lap talking about something and Jesse talking to Asher.
Jesus, I'm a 21-year-old in a room full of high schoolers.
"Knock knock" We all turn our heads and see the doctor walk in.
"Hello, My name is Doctor Christian Moore." He introduces himself.
I jump a bit when I hear a cup fall on the floor.
We all turn our heads and see Alyssa standing by the door frozen, her eyes never leaving the doctor.
What the-
Catalina and Arya quickly walk up to her, help her clean up the mess, and walk her out of the room. Leaving all the guys in the room.
"Anyways, Asher, you have quite a few bruises and a fracture in your right hand and your rib cage but other than that, you should be okay. If I'm not wrong, I'm assuming you got into a fight..."
I begin to doze off and think about why Alyssa just reacted like that. She was totally fine talking and laughing with Catalina. What the fuck changed?
The door opens again and both Catalina and Arya walk in but no Alyssa.
I walk over to my brother and tap him on the shoulder.
"You saw Alyssa's reaction to the doctor too, right?" I ask.
"Yep, I thought I was the only one." He mumbles.
"Should we go talk to her?"
"Yeah"
We both quietly head out into the hallway and see Alyssa having a tug of war with the vending machine.
"Stupid machine!" She mumbles and pounds on the glass.
"Woah there Mohammad Ali, calm down." I walk over to her and hit the glass once causing the bag of chips to fall.
"The stupid machine is sexist." She says and slumps down against the wall.
Xander and I look at each other before taking a seat on each side of her.
"What's wrong?" He asks.
"Nothing, why would you think something's wrong?" She mumbles.
"You looked shocked to see the doctor and dropped your drink all over the floor," I reply.
"It just slipped."
"What's wrong?" Xander asks again.
"I- please promise me you won't tell anyone. Please." She looks between us with pleading eyes.
"Promise," We say.
"Ok...the night when I called you and Jess asking if you've seen Ash, Macy had someone over..."
"Macy, as in your step-mom Macy?" I ask.
God, I hate her, the second I turned 18 she started to hit on me.
Fucking cougar.
"Yep."
"What do you mean by 'someone'?" Xander asks.
"A man." She mumbles.
"Oh shit." I gasp.
She takes a deep breath and then continues.
"Anyways, the man showed up after Asher left and I wanted to see who he was so I glanced through the railing and it was the doctor. He and Macy...did some things and during it, he looked up and stared at me. Without looking away." Her explanation is messy but it's pretty easy to understand what she meant.
"So you're saying that the man your step-mom is fucking behind your dad's back is Doctor Moore?" Xander asks.
She nods her head.
"And while they were having sex, he was staring at you like a fucking creep?!" I asked, my voice beginning to rise.
She nods again.
"Please don't say anything guys." She begs.
"We won't. But, you have to tell Asher once he gets better." Xander says as we both get up and offer her a hand.
"I will, I promise. You have no idea how great it felt getting that off my chest." She sighs.
We all walk back over and into the room. Alyssa walks over to where her brother and Jesse are and lays next to him on the hospital bed while Xander sits next to Arya and Catalina.
I feel my phone vibrate and look down.
Incoming call: Dad
Fuck.
I quickly pick up.
"Hello?"
"Where the hell are you guys?" My dad yells.
I hesitate for a moment until I feel someone grab my phone.
"Hey, dad," Xander says.
Thank god.
"Alyssa was bored so we took her to the movies." He lies easily.
"Probably in an hour."
"Ok bye."
He ends the phone call and hands me back my phone without another word.
I don't know how he does it.
Ever since we were little, Xander has never been affected by my father's words unlike me.
All I've ever wanted was to make him and my mom proud but everything I do is never good enough for them.
For god's sake, I pushed myself way past my limit in high school by taking too many AP and honors classes, I go to the same college they went to, I study film production just like they did.
I don't even like film production!
But I do that shit for them.
And what do I get in response...a nod or sometimes if I'm lucky, they'll ask me about school.
Never about myself.
Just school.
I would never say this to Xander in person, but I do admire him...sometimes.
He's an incredible athlete, he has a personality that draws everyone to him, he doesn't take negativity to heart, he's a great friend...and brother.
I do regret everything I did to him when we were kids and even what I said to him in the car but I just don't know how to apologize.
I look over at him and see him smile big at his girlfriend and laugh at something his friends said.
Looking back at everything that happened tonight, I don't know what I would have done if I were in Alyssa's position and something bad had happened to Xander.
We argue constantly but he's still my little brother and I would hate for something bad to happen to him.
I quickly open up my notes app and write something at the top of my list.
Goals for 2022:
-Fix relationship with Xander
-Travel the world
-Finally tell mom and dad about how I feel about everything
-Try dating (you lonely fuck)
Some of these things have been on my list for a while.
A nurse walks in and checks on Asher.
I smile when I see Alyssa asleep next to her brother.
"Alright everyone, visiting hours are over." The nurse says.
We all bid Asher farewell and I carefully carry Alyssa to my brother's car.
Xander quickly unlocks the doors and opens the backseat for me to gently lay Alyssa down and buckle her up.
She mumbles something incoherent and turns a bit but falls back asleep quickly.
Xander and I both make our way into the car and we begin to drive home in silence.
"Hey man, thanks for coming tonight," Xander says.
Holy shit! I don't think Xander has ever thanked me.
What the fuck do I say?
"No problem," I reply quickly.
I'm an idiot.
And the silence returns.
"You're a great friend to Alyssa and Asher. I don't think I would have ever had the balls to do what you did." I say.
"Jeez man, I don't think I've ever heard you compliment me before." He laughs which causes me to let out a small laugh as well.
As nice as it was to hear him laugh, I couldn't help but feel bad about what he said.
It's true, I don't think I've ever complimented him.
"Don't get used to it Xanny." I laugh.
"Ugh please stop calling me that...Venice." He gives me an evil smile.
Yes, my fucking middle name is Venice.
My parents were really "creative".
"Fuck off Florence." I laugh.
We continue a bit of awkward small talk but for us, that's a big ass step.
Eventually, Xander parks the car and I unbuckle Alyssa so we can make our way upstairs.
Once the elevator doors open, the penthouse is pitch black which means my parents are fast asleep.
Xander walks over to the door by the kitchen and turns on the lights so we can head upstairs.
I open the door to the guest room and slowly lay Alyssa down and pull the blankets on top of her while Xander walks over to the window to shut the blinds.
We were about to head out when we heard a muffled "goodnight"
"Goodnight"
"Night Lyss"
I walk over to my room but pause when I hear my brother say.
"Night Ax." He says while giving me a small smile.
"Night Xanny" I return the smile and shut the door.
Maybe I'll finally follow through with one of my goals this year.
----------Author's Note----------
Awwww we stan the Mitchell brothers.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!
-Pradabagg
Word Count: 1942