“How I wish perfect was enough, for my own heart”

~Nao_ Another lifetime

Weak

I felt numb. Even with everything that's happened, I don't think I've ever felt like this in my entire life. I thought I knew what pain and devastation felt like, but it was nothing compared to this, because this was much worse than everything. All I kept seeing was Nathan's face flashing before my eyes each time I closed them shut to blink, hence I stopped and chose to stare into space because I couldn't just bear it anymore.

After getting medical attention to the cut on my temple from being stuck on the head, Jamie was the only person who picked up when I called him using Nathan's phone and I let him know what had happened so that he could pass of the message to everyone as I assumed most of them were still at the party while it was going down and sat patiently outside not far from the ward Nathan was rushed in at our arrival at the ER. His dried up blood on my dress and arms made me think at how much risk he was in since he lost so much blood.

There was this huge burning lump growing inside my throat and breathing had suddenly become so difficult to do. I was in pain not even the strongest pharmaceuticals in this hospital could even cure, the kind of pain my heart aches so much it feels like it's oozing out blood, but I couldn't cry about it to make myself feel better. Crying wasn't going to help me in any way because I had to be strong for both Nathan and I. He asked me to be strong...that's what I was planning to do for as long as I possibly could.

“Olivia?”, I turned my turned to see Sidney running towards my direction with everyone else following behind her and I stood to my feet. She was already crying hysterically as she threw herself into my arms and sobbed onto my shoulder. Everyone's faces was full of concern and I dropped my eyes to Sidney's shoulder as I comforted her. Then we felt hands wrap around us and I looked up to see everyone has gathered together in one huge hug, and we remained in that position for a few more minutes, no further words exchanged between all of us in that moment

“It's going to be okay sweetie”, my mother cooed smoothly while gently stroking my hair as I rested my head on her shoulder and I held on tighter on the jacket Joe lent me to cover myself with. My parents arrived a few minutes after everyone showed up as Tristan called them to let them know about the incident, and it's been two hours of waiting.

The fear of losing Nathan forever, because of this incident was slowly becoming a reality the more none of the doctors showed up to tell us something and I didn't want that because it was really tearing me apart

“Here”, Jamie handed me a coffee cup and I quietly thanked him as I took a sip from it. Violet and Sidney were sitting right next to us and I could still her stifled sobs as Violet continued confronting her. As a mother, Violet was as equally distraught as each one of us were in this room, but she was good at composing herself. Even though I could see the tears fall from her eyes, the hope we all held on that Nathan was going to pull through kept her going.

“The woman that's responsible for this was apprehended not very far from Olivia's apartment block, and she was taken in custody”, my father notified us as he got off the call with the police station commander. They've been working together for years before my dad retired from the force.

“I really hope she doesn't get bail after what she did to Liv and my brother”, Sidney spat out as she wiped the tears off her face

“If anything she'll be transferred to the psych ward”, I heard my father say before he knelt in front of me. “I'll make sure that she pays for this, okay Pumpkin?”

I closed my eyes a little, tears starting to free flow down my cheeks, and he cupped my face into his hands to wipe them off as I slowly nodded my head at him

“That girl deserved to rot in jail, whether she's really mental or not”, Jamie deadpanned as he sat down next to Cass and wrapped his arm around her to continue consoling her. Tristan and Kevin were also not sitting very far from us, sitting so still and quietly they were not even drinking their coffees.

“Why aren't the doctors saying anything?”, Joe finally sat down from pacing up and down in the past hour. “They should at least let us know how he's doing in there”

“I'm sure they'll say something soon enough”, Violet responded to him as Sidney peeled off from her to hug me from the side and I intertwined our fingers together

About 20 minutes later, a doctor started walking towards us, and we all stood to our feet to meet his gaze

“What's going on Doc?”

“Is he going to be okay?”, questions started arising from each and one of them as they talked over each other. I took another stop towards the doctor to look him in the eyes as he broke the news to us. He had the sympathetic look on his face as he entwined his fingers from the back and from my own assumption, that was not a good promising gesture a doctor could make in a situation like this.

“Please tell me he's going to be okay”, I croaked out, stepping closer to him and my heart sank when I saw him draw a sharp breath, slowly shaking his head,

“I'm really sorry”

~•~•~•