I tapped my foot anxiously against the waiting room floor. The cold metal hospital chair dug into my thigh, but I barely took notice, too consumed by worry.

I glanced over at Lucas on the chair beside me, to find him looking just as anxious as I felt. He had driven with my dad and me to the hospital, and just like me, he was refusing to go home and rest until he knew that Ethan was alright. He was his best friend, after all.

Not too long ago, my dad had stepped away to try to contact Ethan's mum. I didn't envy him one bit at having to deliver such horrible news.

Silence filled the air as we anxiously waited for another update. It had been exactly an hour, fifteen minutes, and thirty-eight seconds since the last one, and with each second, I grew more and more worried.

The nurse had briefly explained to us they were working hard to pump Ethan's stomach free of the drug. And to my absolute horror, she had also explained that the dosage had been close to fatal.

And that's all she said.

No information on his condition, his consciousness, if it was working. Nothing.

No matter how much I tried not to, I couldn't shake the horrible fear of the possibility of him never waking up. Of never talking to him again. Of never seeing him smile again. Or never hearing his beautiful laugh again.

The sickening feeling I felt inside was becoming insufferable.

Lucas turned towards me, and his eyebrows knitted together in concern.

"You should go home and rest, Mia. You've been through too much tonight," he said softly.

"He's been through worse tonight, and I will not leave him," I snapped with a stubborn determination.

Lucas' face softened. "Then, we'll wait," he sighed, not pushing the idea any further.

As silence ensued, guilt started to creep in as I thought about the events of tonight. I felt partially to blame for what happened. After all, it was me who had handed him over to Connor without a second thought. It was me who riled up April. It was me who did not call the ambulance as soon as he started to get unwell. I had made one stupid mistake after another, and now Ethan was paying for it.

I should have looked after him better. I was a crappy girlfriend.

At that moment, a middle-aged female doctor came into the room and walked over to us.

"Are you two here for Ethan Blythe?" she asked with a smile.

We nodded our heads slowly, and I sat up straighter in my chairs, anxious to hear the update.

"Well, firstly, I just want to put you out of your misery by telling you that Ethan is absolutely fine now and awake. He's a bit confused and doesn't remember much of what happened, but that's totally normal for someone in his condition," she explained gently.

I sighed in relief, feeling as though a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

"Can we see him now?" I asked eagerly.

She laughed. "Yeah, of course, I'm sure he'll be happy to have visitors who aren't trying to inject him," she joked as she gestured for us to follow her.

She led us around the corner of the hallway and opened a door, leading to one of the hospital rooms.

My eyes immediately drew to Ethan, who sat happy and awake on the bed. He had a pillow propped behind him and a hospital gown on. He hadn't noticed us walk in, and seemed pretty preoccupied fiddling with the wires coming out of his hand.

"Probably shouldn't mess around with that, Ethan, I'm pretty sure it's keeping you alive," Lucas joked.

Ethan looked up at us in surprise, and as soon as his eyes latched on us; he smiled.

"Relax idiot. I was just adjusting it," Ethan said as he rolled his eyes.

A massive smile stretched out onto my face as I felt so overwhelmingly happy, to see him acting like him normal healthy self. Ethan focused his attention back onto me, and he arched an eyebrow up at me as his eyes sparkled with amusement.

"Chubs, is there a particular reason why you're smiling all creepy like, or are you just bored?" Ethan teased.

I didn't even care that he just called my smile creepy, all I care about was that he was okay. I wasted no time and ran up to the bed and wrapped my arms around him.

"Wow, if this is the kind of reaction I get when I call you creepy, I'll do it more often," he chuckled as he returning the hug.

I pecked him on the lips and then pulled away. "I'm just really, really happy you're okay," I said as I smiled at him fondly.

"Wait, why are you happy I'm okay? What happened after the party? Did we get into an accident on the road? Are you okay?" he asked in worry as he scanned me from head to toe.

I shifted nervously on my feet and exchanged a nervous look with Lucas, neither of us knew the best way to break the news. It was a lot for anyone to take in.

I let out a heavy sigh. "Do you remember anything?" I asked slowly, wondering how much memory the drugs had taken away.

"Erm..." he said as he started to think. "I remember that we were dancing together, but everything after that gets a little hazy," he murmured.

"Why the hell can't I remember?" he asked quietly.

God, how I wish I didn't have to tell him, so he could just remain blissfully ignorant. But, I knew that's not what he would want. He would want the truth.

I took a deep breath in and in a kind enough way as I possibly could, I explained to him what happened to him last night. However, I don't think there ever would be a kind way to tell someone they were almost raped.

When I was finished talking, the look on Ethan's face sent a chill down my spine. His face had gone pale, and he looked sicker than I'd ever see him.

He swallowed. "Do you know if she.... if she..." Ethan said, struggling to get the words out."

Lucas walked closer to the bed and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "No, she didn't," he said softly, giving Ethan a weak smile.

Ethan let out a shaky breath of relief. "Thank God," he choked out.

My heart broke for him. It must be a truly horrifying thing to wake up and be told someone that someone purposely went out of their way to make you vulnerable, just because they couldn't take no for an answer.

"Jesus Christ, I had no idea she was such a fucking crazy bitch," Ethan groaned as he ran a hand through his hair. He scowled. "Like, who the fuck does that?" he snapped.

"I'm so sorry, Ethan, this is all my fault," I mumbled as tears started to well up in my eyes.

Ethan looked up at me and his eyebrows knitted together. "No, no, of course, it's not your fault. None of this is your fault. Why would you say that?" He asked in confusion.

"You don't get it, Ethan, I could have prevented this. I knew how obsessed she was with you, and I didn't tell you because I'm an idiot. We weren't having 'girl talk' the other day Ethan, she slapped me because she wanted you, " I cried, as I wiped the tears away from my face.

Ethan reached forward, wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me on to his lap on the bed. He pressed my back against his chest and resting his chin in the crook of my neck.

He kissed the back of my neck. "Please don't cry. It's not your fault Mia. You couldn't have known that she would do this," he whispered reassuringly.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure that bitch rots in hell for ever hurting you," he spat.

I let out a weak laugh. "She only slapped me, I think the fact that she drugged you unconscious is a little worse, don't you think?" I scoffed, finding it ridiculous that he was more worked up about her slapping me than his own assault.

"Yeah, but you're special, no one's allowed to touch a single hair on your pretty little head," Ethan said as he kissed my head softly, and tightened his grip around my waist.

I felt guilty as he said that, knowing that he didn't know the full story. He didn't know what had happened to me. A selfish part of me was hoping I could just keep it quiet forever.

Lucas caught my eye. "Mia, I think you need to tell Ethan about Connor," Lucas said softly. I looked up at Lucas in alarm.

"Wait? What's he talking about? What else happened?" Ethan said in worry as he twisted me around in his lap so he could see my face.

Lucas patted Ethan on the shoulder. "I'll give you guys so privacy so you can talk, I'll be back in a minute," he said gently as he got up to leave.

As the door closed behind him, Ethan looked back at me expectantly.

"Mia? Tell me what?" he said firmly as his eyes frantically searched my face answers.

More tears fell down my face as the horrible memory resurfaced, and I brushed them away in frustration, feeling so fed up of crying.

"He...erm," I swallowed, and looked down at my lap.

"He attacked me and erm... held me down...and," I trailed off not having the courage to finish my sentence.

Ethan shook his head slowly at first, then quickly as though he refused to believe what I had just said. He didn't need to hear the end of the sentence to know where it was going.

"No, no, this can't be true. Please tell me this isn't true, Mia," Ethan begged as his voice cracked painfully.

I broke his gaze once more and said nothing.

"No, No, No, fuck!" he screamed as he slammed a fist down onto the mattress. He groaned in frustration. "I'm going to kill him," he spat, his voice quivering slightly as though he was struggling to control his rage.

"This is my fault; he went after you because he hates me. If I just stayed the fuck away from you like I said I would, this would never have happened. I'm a joke," Ethan hissed, his eyes drowning in self-loathing.

I grabbed his chin and angled his face to look up at mine. "This is not your fault. Connor's issues have nothing to do with you. I would never wish for one second that you weren't in my life, ever. I love you," I explained strongly, desperate to slap some sense into him.

He hesitated for a couple of seconds before his face softened, and he pulled me closer. "You're right," he said simply as he sunk his head into my neck.

"I just-I just hate that I wasn't there to save you Chubs," he murmured against my skin.

"You were there to save me, I flipped him around just the way you showed me. Because of you, I got away, Ethan," I said, with a smile.

He pulled away and looked back and forth between my eyes in disbelief. "You got away?" he asked.

I smiled and nodded my head.

"Oh, thank god," he whispered with a shaky breath.

His mouth quirked up into a proud smile. "I clearly need to stop underestimating you," he laughed weakly.

"Yeah, you do," I smiled.

We sat in silence for a while, neither of us saying anything, just enjoying the silent comfort of being wrapped up in each other's arms.

"You know I'm pretty sure there's probably a rule against sitting on the patient's lap," I laughed as I realized, I was still sat on him.

"Well, this patient doesn't care since his visitor is extremely hot," Ethan teased.

It was probably quite weird to start making jokes when something so horrible had just happened to the both of us, but I guess that was just us.

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