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I leaned back against the wall of the building, my already useless legs giving up underneath my body. “I don’t… I don’t understand. How… what happened?”
“Babe, I don’t know yet. I think we need to just get to the hospital and then we can-”
“Is he okay?” I stared at her. “Freya… is he going to be okay?”
She shook her head, her face paling. “I don’t know. Bryce didn’t have any answers. He just told me to get you there as quickly as possible.”
Reality pushed its way farther through my drunken haze. Stabbed. My Radleigh had been stabbed. But… how? He was just out
with his friends, just like me, just like the thousands of other people on this Saturday night. How would he have gotten into a situation where someone would have stabbed him? And… oh God.
“Wait there,” Freya said firmly. “I mean it. Do not move until I get back, okay?”
I nodded because there was no way I could stand up unaided anyway. I was hammered and suffering major shock.
Blurred bodies passed by me as I waited for what felt like an eternity for Freya to come back. When she did, she handed me my bag and said, “I’ve told Bree to explain to the others what’s happened, and also told them not to tell anyone because we have no idea what we’re dealing with yet. Bree is going to come to the hospital as soon as she can but we need to go right now.”
Nodding again, I straightened but stumbled into Freya. Christ, I am too drunk for this. She held me up even though she wasn’t so sober herself, and we hailed the first cab that came near.
All the way to the hospital I said nothing. Just stared out of the window while the bright lights stung my eyes as we sped by. With every second it was like the alcohol was evaporating from my blood stream, and by the time we rushed into the hospital and found Bryce, I almost felt sober again.
Bryce paced the waiting room, wringing his hands, and Jude, Miguel, and Cody waited with him. They looked up at the sound of our hurried footsteps and I ran to Bryce but stopped abruptly when I took in his blood-covered shirt. The whole right side of his grey shirt was soaked.
Bright red. Still wet. Radleigh’s blood.
The colour red was the only thing I saw as I dropped to the ground and the world went dark.
Chapter Eight – No Macarena or Electric Slide
I heard someone mumbling a string of incoherent words as I blinked my eyes open. Oh. That was me. And where the hell am I?
I was looking up into the face of a man I didn’t know. He had sandy-coloured hair and was dressed in a white shirt. He smiled kindly at me. “There she is.”
A blinding ache in my head made me breathe hard to try and ease the pain as I slowly realised where I was. Waiting room. Hospital. On the floor.
Radleigh.
I tried to sit but the man held his hands up. “Stay there for just a second,” he said gently.
“Is she okay?” I heard Freya ask.
“She’s fine. She just needs a minute to come round. Could someone please get her a cup of water?”
Freya’s heels clacked across the floor, and I said, “Where’s Radleigh? Is he okay?”
The doctor’s lips set in a firm line. “Let’s get you a drink, and then-”
“Please!” I shuffled away from him a little and sat up. The pain ricocheted through my skull and I wondered if this was my hangover setting in or if I’d hit my head on the floor. “I need to know.”
“Okay,” he said calmly. “I understand. Right now the doctors are still with him and they’re assessing the extent of his injuries. As soon as I know for sure what we’re dealing with, I’ll let you know. I promise. I’m sorry I can’t tell you anything more right now.”
“But… is he going to be okay?”
He shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry. I just don’t know yet.”
Right in the middle of the floor, I pulled my knees up to my chest and let out a deafening shriek of pain. What the hell was happening? A short time ago, I’d been dancing and singing and celebrating, and slowly getting drunk with my friends. That’s what’s supposed to happen at a hen party. It’s supposed to end with a posse of inebriated girls laughing their arses off all the way home as they talk about the fun they had, then collapsing in bed, only to wake up to a colossal hangover.
This?
