[Amara's P.O.V]
"We should throw a welcome home party." Someone speaks and I look up from my half-eaten caramel muffin to the source of the voice. Kate. I noticed how she cut her brown hair at the ends, just a small part but it looks really beautiful.
Her suggestion of a welcome back party sounds ridiculous when I think about it.
A party? I don't know how I really feel about that. I mean I'll just be out of hospital, I don't think I'll be able to handle a party even if I wanted to.
"Hell no." I'm about to answer her but someone beats me to it. I look from Kate to him. I am sort of agreeing with Justin, I'm just not fond of how harsh his words and tone were.
"Why? I think we should celebrate that she's out of the hospital." Kate replies and I see the annoyance mixed with anger that flashes in Justin's eyes. This can't be good.
"I fucking said no." He places the muffin he was eating on the counter, the side on his hand hitting against the counter with so much force that the coffee shakes but thankfully doesn't fall. Justin doesn' t even seem to care or notice.
"It's not up to you to decide Justin." Kate stands her ground and this argument of theirs is starting to make me feel a bit uncomfortable, not to mention that I'm getting a headache.
"Fuck Kate! It's my fucking house and I have a right to decide whatever shit I want. I don't want people coming to my house and that's that." Justin yells and Kate doesn't even flinch but glares at him. Both of them look utterly pissed off. I look at Levi, silently begging him to do something to stop this argument from spiralling out of control. I look away from him and Justin's eyes meet mine. He looks like he wants to say something but instead of doing so, he gets up and quickly walks out, taking my aching heart with him. Why did he just leave like that?
I have to go after him, he didn't look too good when he left. What if he does something he'll regret? Knowing his temper and lack of thinking before acting...
"How dramatic." Kate rolls her eyes and throws her hands in the air.
"I think you pushed him too far Kate." I being to say while pushing myself off the bed.
"Where are you going?" Leah asks once my feet hit the ground. I begin to detach the two drips from my arms but Nick, who was closest to me stops me.
"I have to go after him! Did you see how he was when he walked out of here? He was angry and pissed, he's gonna do something he'll regret, I have to stop that."
Nick still has my hands firmly in his and my attempts to pull away go wasted.
"You can't do that Amara. You're gonna hurt yourself. Justin is a big boy isn't he?" Kate says and I don't understand why she is doing this.
"I'll go find him." Levi announces and I nod to quickly dismiss him. I'm worried about Justin.
Nick lets go of my hands once Levi is out and I glare at him.
"Were you really gonna run after him in a hospital gown?" He asks before laughing, glad that he's finding humor in this because it sort of lightens the mood.
Nick excuses himself to the restroom and I'm left with Kate and Leah. I hate how we quickly dispersed.
"Justin was just being selfish. He's acting like he's the only person who is supposed to see you." Kate rolls her eyes again and I take a seat on the edge of the bed. I definitely have a headache now.
"What? That's not true." I'm quick to defend Justin.
Kate scoffs and I've never seen her look this annoyed in a really long time. "Yes it is Am. You won't believe how he was acting when you were still unconscious. Did anyone tell you that there was a time where he actually refused all of us seeing you but him? He always wanted you all to himself and acted like we are not supposed to give a fuck about you."
Wait, he refused my friends from visiting..."He must've had a reason."
Why would Justin do that? Kate and Leah are my best friends, we've been through so much and he knows it. How can he not want anyone but him see how I was doing? How selfish is that? This new information pisses me off and I don't know why I'm still defending him.
However, my heart aches at what he was feeling at the time. I'm sure Justin was blaming himself for everything that happened, I can't even begin to imagine the guilt that must have overpowered him at that time but he still didn't have the right to not want anyone visiting me.
"He had zero reasons." Kate counters with a louder voice and I look at her.
"Kate calm down a bit." Leah says, looking at Kate as well.
"I'm sorry, it just pissed me off when he did that. I am angry at the fact that when he got released from fucking jail, he came here and acted all possessive and made like we don't care about Amara, when we were here the actual night that she got admitted while he was behind bars."
Behind bars...
Jail...
Justin was arrested!?
"What?" I ask, my voice coming out low.
Kate looks at me confusingly before it clicks in her head that I didn't know anything to do with Justin and jail.
"You didn't know? He didn't tell you?" Leah asks and I nod.
"Tell me what happened. Why was he arrested?" My head continues to pound.
"He...he got arrested the night you got shot." Leah speaks and I sigh, my chest tightening. My head goes through a million reasons why he didn't mention it, I feel like all of this new information is overwhelming me. I feel dizzy for a second and I need to lie down but I need answers more.
"But why would he hide it from me? When was he released?" For a second again, I see everything in double before my vision clears up. The pounding in my head can't seem to stop and I'll have to lie down soon. Why is it getting harder to breath? It feels like my chest is closing up.
I see the double vision again but I try to focus. Justin...
"He..." I can't make out the rest of the sentence...
The room feels like it's a 100° and it takes a moment for me to realise that the loud gasps for air are from me. My heartbeat is racing and something is taking over me. Moisture fills my eyes before sliding down my face. My chest is closing up.
"Am are you alright? Am!?"
******
[Justin's P.O.V]
Fuck!
I hit the steering wheel of my car with my palms. I don't know where the fuck I'm going but right now, I know I didn't want to leave the hospital. I was not supposed to leave.
I take a corner into a street and park my car next to a bike in front of a pub. What the fuck am I even doing here?
Actually, I don't care what the fuck I'm doing here, all I care about is to fucking forget all the shit that went down this week. From Bianca's shit, the Amara getting into hospital shit, the getting arrested shit, fucking Dr Ferguson shit and the Kate who won't shut the fuck up shit...
I need to forget all that and right now, this is what makes sense. I refuse myself to think of Amara...but the attempt goes wasted of course.
I wonder what she's doing now. Although she can't do much because she's in that stupid ward, is Dr Ferguson there? Is everyone still there with her?
I walk straight in the pub and notice that it's mostly older people in here but there are a few young ones, like the bartender.
I take a sit on the stool and order the bartender dressed in blue to give me a bottle of whiskey. He looks like he didnt appreciate the way I spoke to him but he didn't call me out on it. Good. He places the bottle in front of me along with a glass...
One glass leads to many as I sit by myself on the bar of an unknown pub, drinking to wash my thoughts off. Before I know it, I am getting drunk.
For the last hour and a half, I've been ignoring the constant vibration of my cellphone in my pocket. Whoever's calling me just won't give up and it's fucking annoying.
I pour myself another glass, leading to the bottle being empty.
I notice someone sitting next to me and when I fully look, I notice some blonde haired girl ordering a beer.
She looks young, younger than I am but they are still selling her alcohol even though she's underage. She looks like she's Amara's age, seventeen.
I look away when she turns her head my way.
"Oh hey there." She speaks and I look at her again. I attempt to smile at her in order to greet back because I really didn't feel like saying anything. I take another sip from my glass and continue to enjoy the alcohol flowing down my body like I've been doing for the past hour and a half.
"I've never seen you around." She says, skillfully opening the beer.
"Do you come here often?" I ask her. Maybe she does if she says she's never seen me around.
I look at her again to check if she's a whore. A whore would normally be trying to push up her boobs to her fucking face by now and judging by the baggy white t-shirt that she's wearing, I know that she's not. I guess. Fuck I'm drunk.
"My brother works here as the bartender so I do come here pretty often."
"That's your brother?" I ask her, ponting the bartender.
She laughs a little "No. That's Jared. My brother works during the day and Jared during the night."
"Oh." I don't really have much to say.
"So what's your story?" She asks.
"What? What makes you think that I have a story?"
She laughs again and I find it a little captivating...not as captivating as Amara's laugh though. This girl is pretty and if I was my old self, I'd show interest but now all I can think about is Amara...which is weird because I came here to stop thinking about her and the shit that went down but here am I.
"Oh come on, you're in a pub that you never come to, drinking a bottle of whiskey by yourself. Something obviously happened."
"We're not friends." I spit and look away from her to show my lack of interest in having any sort of conversation with her.
"I didn't say we are." Her voice changed from playful to a little harder.
"I was just offering to listen. There's no better thing than talking to a stranger you know. I won't judge you." She says and I look at her again. She takes a swig before placing the bottle in front of her.
"I came here to forget about shit. Not talk about shit."
"And it's working out pretty well isn't it?" She smirks and I want to fucking punch a wall.
"Obviously not."
"Then talk about it."
"Why are you so adamant to hear my shit?"
"I'm not adamant, this is what you need."
"How do you fucking know what I need?" I get up and reach for my wallet in my pocket but she stops me.
"Okay fine. You don't have to leave, if you don't want to talk about it then you don't have to." She says and I sit back down.
"You're obviously a hard nut to crack." She laughs and I can't help but join seconds later. She really has a nice laugh and I can tell she likes laughing.
"I don't fall into shit easily." I counter.
When the door opens and a man walks in, I notice how dark it is outside. I take out my cellphone and ignore all the missed calls and texts to check the time. Eleven p.m.
"I think I should get going." I say and notice how I stumble when I begin to walk. I place some money on the counter and then a thought comes to mind.
How the fuck will I get home. I obviously won't drive.
"Shit, I don't know how I'll get home." I verbalize my thoughts.
"Did you drive here?" The blonde girl asks and I nod.
"It's fine, I can drive you back." She suggests and I look at her crazily.
"You also drank." I point out. I should just call a cab...
"I drank half the beer, I can drive. You on the other hand finished the entire bottle of whiskey."
"I'll take a cab." I say and take out my phone.
"It's okay I really don't mind. Plus, do you really wanna leave your car here for the night? I can come back with a cab."
I think...or at least try to think about her point and it makes sense.
"Okay fine." I give in...and then notice the contradiction between this and a statement I made earlier.
I laugh to myself when we walk out the pub into the cold night air.
The blonde girl looks at me, a small smile on her face. The air blows her hair to her face but she moves it away.
I lead us to my car, meanwhile trying to not fall as I walk. The blonde girl keeps laughing whenever I stumble and I laugh with her.
Once we reach my car, I take my keys and hand them to her. I hop into the passenger seat of my car which feels weird and she starts reversing out of the driveway.
"So where do you live?" She asks once we are on the road.
I don't give her an address but give her directions. As she continues driving, I then notice that I've been giving her directions to the hospital...instead of my apartment.
"Fuck" I cuss and she looks at me before looking to the road.
"What?" She asks
I don't reply and I'm thankful she didn't say anything else.
"Alright you can just...park here."
I point to the entrance of a hotel that is in the same street as the hospital. It would be weird if we stopped right in front of the hospital and I don't feel like explaining shit to her.
"You live in a hotel? Let me park in the parking lot because we can't park out here." She says and drives into the parking lot. I let her park the car and we hop out the car and we stand in the lot.
"Okay let me just call a cab. You can go inside. Nice talking to you...I guess." She says and laughs. God she's always laughing. It's sort of annoying but because her laugh is...at least okay to listen to, it's not as annoying.
Me and my drunk ass.
"No it's fine I can wait with you until your cab comes." ...you know I can't really go inside because I don't really live here so I'm gonna go to the hospital down the street once you leave and visit my girlfriend. Oh and not to mention the security I'll have to find a way to get through being this drunk but anyway...I hope you are having good night, because I certainly am not.
"Okay thank you." She agrees and we lean against my car, waiting for her cab. I'm literally counting the seconds that pass.
"So what's your name? I didn't catch your name all night." She says.
"You don't have to know my name." I reply curtly.
"Oh come on, I just drove you to your hotel, using your car. I at least have to know your name." She tries to reason.
"Justin" I tell her and she nods.
"I'm Tiffany, but you can call me Tiff." I adore the name but won't tell her.
"This is the last conversation I'm gonna have with you, I don't need to call you by your nickname." The air out here is kind of sobering me up but I'm still drunk. I want to sober up quickly because I don't want to see Amara still this drunk. I'm so fucking drunk I can't walk fucking straight.
She laughs "You never know Justin."
"Yeah whatever." I say just in time her cab comes.
I just thank her for driving me when she has to leave and she waves before the cab takes off.
I'm left alone, drunk, in a parking lot of a hotel I don't even live in. And now I have to fugure out how I'll get to Amara. This is great. Real fucking great.
******
A/N:
I think this is the longest chapter I've written so far. Almost 3 000 words. **
!!
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