Scarlett's standing in the hall talking to Jake when she looks to her right and sees Dani through the window sitting up and talking to Nick. She smiles and glances back at Jake. "She's awake." She quickly turns and hurries into the room to find Dani laughing at something Nick said. She notices Scarlett standing at the door and smiles while she rushes over to her hospital bed, wrapping her arms around her in a hug.
"Oh, thank God! Danielle Audrey Landon, you have no idea the scare you gave me!"
She chuckles as Scarlett pulls away. "Wow, my full name. I must be in trouble."
"You better believe it. Don't ever scare me like that again!"
She smiles up at her friend with an obvious motherly complex and shakes her head. "Never." She looks past Scarlett's shoulder and sees Jake slowly walking into the room, she smiles at him. "Hi, Jake."
He smiles, feeling heavy sympathy for her and walks closer to her bed. "Hey, Dani. How are you feeling?"
She shrugs and forces a smile. "I've been better." She gives him and Scarlett a saddened expression and glances down at her hands, which had been nervously gripping at the blanket across her body. She slowly looks up at them with hopeful eyes. "Have either of you heard from Joe?" Scarlett looks over at Jake for help.
"He'll be here, Dani. Don't worry." Jake assures in confidence.
She forces a smile and nods once in agreement before her eyes wander over to the door and she sees yet another familiar face. She smiles big and looks at him in confusion. "Logan Wade? What the hell are you doing here?"
He smiles and steps into the room with a cup of coffee in one hand. "Hello, Danielle."
Scarlett looks from Logan, to Dani and back again with wide and extremely curious eyes. "Okay...am I missing something?"
"I see a lot has changed since that night in Chelsea's closet." Logan blurts out as everyone in the room has wide eyes in extreme confusion and curiosity.
"Somebody better tell me what the heck is going on."
Dani laughs at Scarlett's expression and begins explaining. "Logan was one of my victims at Chelsea's fifteenth birthday." She looks over at Logan with a smirk. "We were playing seven minutes in heaven and Logan was the lucky contestant. We went into Chelsea's closet and he totally chickened out so I-"
"-Whoa, whoa, hold up there." He quickly interrupts her, stepping into the room a bit farther. "I so did not chicken out! You've taken up lying I see." He smirks at her and turns back to Scarlett, Jake and Nick's questioning faces. "She was the one who chickened out and being my kind, considerate self, I let her tell people that we did something. She was the popular back then, she couldn't have Chelsea and her disciples thinking she was a normal fourteen year old girl." He smirks and turns back to Dani.
Everyone focuses back on Dani and she smiles at Logan. "It would have been my first kiss. I didn't want it to take place in a smelly closet with someone I barely knew, even though he was a really sweet guy." She smiles at Logan, gratefully.
He smiles back and nods once, accepting her compliment.
The shock finally wears off and Scarlett looks at everyone in the room for a moment before shaking her head. "Damn, Bradley High has more connections than Ryan Seacrest."
~ One Hour Later ~
Nick walks over to the waiting area and sits down on the couch beside Scarlett. He stays silent for a moment and stares down at his hands before looking over at her with a serious expression. "How are you doing?"
She slowly looks over at him and stares at him in curiosity for a moment. "I'm holding onto hope." She forces a small encouraging smile and stares at him for a moment. "Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" She looks down at her hands with a barely noticeable disapproving expression. "After all, she is your girlfriend."
He smirks briefly at her expression. "She's not my girlfriend." He states it as a fact, his voice straight and sure, no emotion whatsoever.
"What?" She looks back at him quickly with a surprised expression. "But I saw you guys...I thought you worked things out."
He smirks and shakes his head, looking down once again. "Dani's great but...she's in love with someone else and...." he looks over at her with intense and honest eyes, "so am I."
She tilts her head to the side as her eyes widen slightly at his statement. The way he said that made her question the meaning but deep down she knew exactly who he was talking about.
"Hey, babe."
Scarlett looks up at the door to find Jake starring back at her with wide eyes of shock and embarrassment.
"Sorry, habit." He says softly before shaking his head and showing a small, apologetic smile.
Scarlett stands up quickly, trying to get her head in order but feeling as if she couldn't even stand on her own two feet with the dozens of things flying through her head in this one moment. She shakes her head and speaks without looking at either one of them. "I need some air." She quickly walks past Jake, out of the waiting room and towards the hospital exit.
Nick stands up and exits the waiting room as well, walking in the opposite direction of Scarlett.
Jake stands there in confusion and looks from where Scarlett left to Nick and back again. "Gee, it was just a slip of the tongue." He shakes his head and sits down on the couch with a sigh.
~~~
Dani turns her attention away from the window, where she was just hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of Joe making his way in to see her but no such luck. She hears a small cough and turns to see Taylor standing in the doorway. She smiles softly and sits up in her bed. "Hi."
She walks over to Dani timidly and stands beside her bed. "Hey...how are you feeling?"
"Great." She smiles with no sarcasm or humor whatsoever. Taylor could tell she honestly wanted to believe she was doing great, she was holding onto every ounce of hope she could find.
"That's good."
"I'm glad you came, Taylor."
She gives Dani a look of surprise. "You are?"
"Yeah...I owe you an apology."
She shakes her head and glances at the ground. "Dani..."
"No, I do. I have been horrible to you these past few months and you didn't deserve it. I let my jealousy get the best of me and I ended up taking it out on someone who honestly couldn't be a nicer person. I'm sorry." She smiles up at Taylor sincerely.
Taylor smiles and shakes her head. "I'm not angry with you, Dani. I understand the situation you were in. You were hurt and heartbroken, it's not hard to understand why you wouldn't be too fond of the girl who was dating the guy you love." She chuckles at her choice of words.
"Yeah...well, you could have been just as petty towards me; I mean, I was dating your ex-boyfriend."
She gives Dani a look of confusion. "Was?" She asks in confusion by her use of the past tense.
"Uh...yeah, we...came to a...mutual agreement to...not be...coupled."
The both laugh at her choice of words. "I wish I could say I'm surprised but...I'm not. How are you supposed to stay with one person when you're in love with another, right?"
Dani shakes her head and glances down at the sheets she had been fiddling with in her hands. "I do love him....but...I've ruined everything. It's my fault he's not here...I lied to him and I pushed him away. He's never going to look at me the same."
Before Taylor can respond or try and comfort Dani her hospital door opens.
Mr. Landon walks over to Dani and smiles down at her, putting a hand on the top of her head comfortingly. "Hey, Dimples, how you feeling?"
"I'm okay." Her focus turns from her dad to the doctor as he stands beside Mr. Landon with a serious expression. This was the doctor she had been coming to for the past two years, she felt like he was a friend. He was a great doctor and she knew if something could be done he would be the one to discover it. The problem was that two letter word that was so loud it was overbearing; if.
~~~
Scarlett steps outside, thankful for the cool breeze and a break from the stuffy hospital. She sits down on a bench located near the hospital entrance and slouches down, tossing her head back and closing her eyes for a moment. She feels someone sit down beside her and glances over to see a man in his thirties seated beside her. She gives a small polite smile and returns to her previous position.
“Sick family member?”
She wasn’t sure if the man was speaking to her so she lifts her head and turns to see the man starring back at her. “Um…no, a friend.” She nods politely, still a little unsettled by the fact that this strange man was trying to make conversation with her.
“Same here. A friend of mine overdosed on pills. She told everyone she had it under control…guess we should have been paying more attention.”
If the man didn’t seem completely unaffected by the fact that his friend was in the hospital she may have been more sympathetic but all she saw was a solemn expression and a frightening calm that made her skin crawl.
“I’m sorry.” She says softly and stands up from the bench after grabbing her cup of coffee from the ground.
“I didn’t get your name.” The man says before she can walk away.
Scarlett stops reluctantly and shows a small polite smile. “Scarlett.”
The man holds out his hand and gives a crooked smirk. “Brad. Nice to meet you…Scarlett.”
The way he drew out her name shot a chill up her spine and it didn’t help that his name struck a strange chord somewhere in the back of her head.