SOTD: ALL I WANT BY KODALINE
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Naturally, I hated hot car rides; I mean, who didn't?
But you know what I hated more? Hot car rides accompanied by wailing women in labour and scared to death man boys.
"Keep your eyes on the road, Ethan!" I shouted for the billionth time as I caught his hazel eyes looking over the backseat yet again, "Don't worry, she'll be okay"
Ethan let out a bark, "Says the girl who didn't even know Trish was in labour! I thought all girls knew the warning signs, yet you didn't...I don't think your a girl"
"She shouldn't be going into labour!" I rolled my eyes and continued stroking Trish's long hair whilst, simultaneously, redialing Seth's phone number yet again, "Trish don't worry, I'll keep trying to get him, you just need to breath okay love?"
Her short bursts of air came quickly as she struggled to speak, "An..An...An...who...whoo"
"What?"
I furrowed my eyebrows and Ethan was quick to speak, "I think she's saying Andrew"
"No she isn't" I snapped gritting my jaw as Trish grabbed onto my wrist and shook it wildly nodding her head, "you want me to call Andrew?"
"She wants you to call Andrew" Ethan murmured solidifying my worst fear.
Great.
~
Watching your friend get dragged away in one of those hospital issued wheel chairs, while she screamed bloody murder, as you stood around staring helplessly was one of the scariest things on the planet.
"You should go in with her" Ethan whispered nudging me as a short nurse came around to Trish's side and began speaking to her in low tones, "you're the woman"
"I thought you said I wasn't a girl"
Ethan gave me a glare as another nurse approached us, "Are you her brother?"
"Pardon?" Ethan murmured.
The nurse gave a small smile, "She keeps saying the same names over again; Seth, Andrew, Talia and I figured you couldn't be Talia"
"I'm actually none of those people" Ethan stammered, "but...uhm, I can call one of those people"
The nurse, who had an air of maturity to her, smiled, "you have nothing to be afraid of, love, the baby isn't here yet and your friend will be fine. In the meantime, I suggest you try calling one of those names I mentioned before you witness what real horror looks like"
Ethan quickly nodded and practically ran away with his phone in hand, no doubt to call one of those people.
I stayed behind and stared at my phone for a long moment before the greater good won and I dialled Andrews number, "You have to come here"
"Harper I~"
I hardly allowed myself to register his sexy sleep voice and I gritted my jaw, "No you have to come here. Here as in County hospital"
"Are you okay?" Instantly, the sleep was wiped from his voice and the Andrew I knew and loved was back, "what happened"
"Not me" I sighed, "Trish"
"Trish?"
I nodded as if that helped with anything, "the baby is coming"
"Holy sh~" I heard a loud rustling and Andrew cursed, "I'll be there in five minutes"
And the line went dead.
"Harper!" I heard an intense shriek and watched as Trish, on a gurney, was being wheeled towards me, "I need you! I need you to come with me, please"
"But I~"
"HARPER!!"
Trish held a firm grip on my wrist and before I could say a single word, the nurse was ushering me towards a set of double doors alongside Trish's gurney.
I took quick breaths and looked down at my friend in labour, "Andrew said he'll be here in five minutes, can't you hold it?"
I heard a couple of the nurses snicker and I furrowed my eyebrows as I realized how genuinely stupid it sounded to ask a woman on the brink of pushing a human being out of her hooha, to hold it.
"No, Harper, I can't hold the child thats pushing against the walls of my vagina" Trish screeched as another wave of pain enveloped her.
"I'm here!" I heard the shrill shriek and turned around as Andrew struggled to push through the double doors, other nurses trying to keep him out, "No! That's my god kid in there! I have to go!"
Trish gripped onto my hand and breathed, "I need him"
I gave one of the nurses a pleading grimace as Trish's grip began to stop all blood flow and she quickly jogged back towards the doors and silently grabbed Andrew's hand and pulled him through, "It's okay"
From the looks of it, Andrew had been sleeping.
He was wearing his coveted flannel bottoms, an old LSU alumni Tshirt, and a pair of house slippers that looked like something a ten year old would wear....they had bear heads on the tops.
"Don't look at my shoes" He hissed coming to stand straight beside me as the gurney was pushed into a large room with beeping machines, "They were all I could find"
I nodded wordlessly as one of the nurses instructed me to help Trish out of the sundress she was wearing, while she held one of those ugly hospital gowns over her body so as not to blind Andrew.
Andrew still looked away regardless and once we were done she smiled, "I don't want you kids to worry, okay? You're friend will be perfectly fine. She hasn't fully dilated so I'm going to warn you that it may get a little crazy"
I furrowed my eyebrows, "Wait, she isn't about to have the baby yet? What the heck is with all the pain?"
"I'm never going to physically give birth but I can tell you right now that you sound like an idiot" Andrew harrumphed, "She's in labour, her walls are opening up. They haven't opened enough to allow a child to come through but I can imagine it probably hurts a shit load to have your child machine open without your actual consent, if you know what I mean"
I made a face at Andrews words, "Child Machine?"
Andrew shrugged, "Once you get pregnant, it stops being what you always thought it was...It's a child machine now"
"You're the stupidest person I've ever met in my life"
"Yet you didn't know about contractions and labour? I think you're stupider than I am" Andrew snapped giving me a glare, one which I easily matched.
"You're wearing bear slippers, you dumb shit" I countered as a low wheezing sounded, "you even breath louder than you need to, to compensate for your dumb shit-ness"
Andrew made a face, "You're the dumb shit who cheated and needed a way to deflect from the fact that she cheated by coming up with some bogus reason to break up with me and make me feel like crap in the process...Your the queen of dumb shit"
"You've got to be kidding me, right now!" I shouted practically ripping my hair out, "Your the dumb shit who believes everything that's coming out of his crazy family's mouth! In what world would I ever cheat on you with my brothers best friend! Trent is the same one who fled the country when the going got tough~"
Andrew's face morphed into straight anger as he took a step towards me, "I don't talk about your family, don't talk about mine"
"YOUR FAMILY WANTS TO RUIN EVERYTHING YOU HAVE GOING FOR YOU!!"
"At least I have a family" Andrew snarled, "Here you are jumping from adoptive parent to real parent and back again whenever it makes you feel better. Dana gave you up for adoption? Run to the adoptive parents. Adoptive parents didn't let you stay out past ten? Run to the real parent...You don't know what family is, Harper"
"At least my brother isn't in love with me" I snapped standing directly in front of him, "At least my family isn't so obsessed with me so as to try to fuck every single relationship I have in my life, up! You think your imagining the fact that Ethan didn't invite you to the screening of the trailer for 'unknown'? You think your imagining that Chandler didn't tell you he hit two million subscribers? Andrew, you aren't imagining any of those things...they're happening"
Andrew's eyebrows furrowed for a second, "Wait what?"
"Yeah, while your hanging out with daddy and that lying snake you call your brother, they're purposefully pulling you away from the other people you call family too...and if your too stupid to see that, then you have a lot more than daddy issues to deal with"
The wheezing sound came back and I gently pushed him away from me, "And before you think Ethan and Chandler have just fallen off the face of the universe, I want you to sincerely think about all the people who have access to your phone...cuz you and Trent sound a hell of a lot alike, to me"
The confusion lit his bright eyes up, again, and he shook his head, "Is that what you like to do, now? Deflect from your own shit by bringing mine u~"
"WOULD YOU QUIT WITH THAT?!" I shouted losing my cool, "You always say that I'm the one who does that but it's YOU! All of it is YOU!"
"So everything's my fault right?" Andrew let out a dry laugh, "I love that your finally taking responsibility...wait, you aren't. Classic Harper, right?"
"I hate you" I ground out.
"I never stopped" he whispered bringing a finger under my chin and tilting my head upwards, "Harper the Heathen"
My breathing caught at his proximity and the wheezing sound came back, "Drop dead"
"You first"
"I'M PUSHING A HUMAN BEING OUT OF MY VAGINA!!!! SHUT UP!!!" I instantly jumped at the sudden noise and I quickly realized where we were.
"Trish" I whispered jumping out of Andrew's touch like it was fire.
Andrew blinked and gritted his jaw, "Where the hell is Seth?"
I noticed the way Trish's ears perked up at the name and I slowly made my way to her and did the only thing I knew to do, "Have you seen 'What to expect when your expecting'? You know the scene where they go to the lamas class? Let's do that, that breathing thing"
Instantly, I began blowing out short puffs of air and grinned as Trish followed suit, "Is it helping?"
"A little" She nodded before howling as another wave of pain engulfed her, "NOT AT ALL!!!"
I jumped back and I felt a strong body behind me, "All of that lamas crap can take a hike"
As if he didn't notice how close we were, Andrew reached over me and held Trish's hand, "Trish, don't worry, okay? The pain is secondary when you focus on the kick ass little girl thats going to be calling you mom; its all going to be worth it and you know Harper and I are here for you....we love you"
I almost rolled my eyes and wondered how he could act as if we hadn't just been seconds from killing each other, seconds before.
Trish's lip quivered slightly and she nodded, "I l-l-love you OH MY GOSH WHAT IS THAT?!!?!"
Trish's ear splitting scream made me jump back and if it weren't for Andrew's secure arms coming around to balance me, and instantly let go of me, I would have tripped over a wire and probably brought the entire operation down.
"Call the doctor! Call the doctor!"
Before my very eyes, I watched as nurse after nurse ran around the room pressing buttons, all rushing to TRish's side as her hospital bed slowly, yet surely changed colour.
"What's happening?!" I shouted over the chaos.
"We're going to need you two to wait out in the hall" a smaller nurse grunted already turning away from us.
Andrew looked down at me and tried to get a good look at Trish, "Can someone please tell us what's going on?!"
"You're friend is bleeding more than she should be" the same nurse from before murmured to us directly, "This could be bad for the child and, in any case, we have to get the child out or this could have fatal consequences for both the child and the mother"
"Someone get DR. Singh on a code red!" another voice shouted completely drowning the first nurse out.
Without speaking, I felt a light force on the small of my back and noticed Andrew slowly pushing me towards the door, "We can't leave her, Andrew! We can't"
"Harper, did you not freaking hear what the nurse just said?!" Andrew snapped once we had entered the bright hallway, "FATAL CONSEQUENCES! That means death"
I sucked in my breath at having hear him say it out loud, "Please don't say that"
"Don't cry, Harp" Andrew's voice softened as warm tears spilled down my cheeks, "Come here"
Without a second thought, I stepped into his embrace and focused on steadying my breath, "I Want her to be okay"
"We all do" he whispered awkwardly tightening his arms around me and rubbing the small of my back.
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