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I follow his nod, looking over my shoulder and feel my stomach drop when I see two cops standing there, eyeing us both.
Oh my gosh, Hunter. What have you done?
I bitemy lip to stop the tears when I see my brother lying in the hospital bed, feeling everyone else filter in behind me as I come around the bed and plop myself on the chair, reaching over and taking his hand in mine.
Squeezing his hand, hard, I hope the pressure will wake him up. I can’t stand seeing him lying there with his eyes closed, bruises over his face, a bandage over his head and a large cut on his nose, which now looks a bit crooked.
He looks broken and nothing like the brother I always had at my back.
I sit there, silently willing him to wake up, with people coming in and out of the room. At some point, Logan and Hadley arrive, looking worried, and later so does Lucy.
I continue to focus on my brother when everyone asks about food. I shake my head, not wanting to eat as I know I’d be sick. Riley remains by my side, telling the others that he'll stay with me, but I want some time with my brother. Just us like we used to, so I tell Riley to go and after some hesitation, he leaves with the rest, leaving me in a darkened room with my unconscious brother.
Once alone, I squeeze his hand again and let my tears fall, whispering, “What were you doing? What is happening with you?” I sob, taking in a breath. “Why didn’t you talk to me?”
I feel it first, his hand closing over mine, very subtle but enough for me to notice before I see his forehead crease as he frowns, groaning, “Mia?”
With newfound strength, I stand over him, my heart racing with hope as I mentally scream up a prayer when Hunter slowly opens his eyes. I smile down at him, finally letting out a breath, but my heart sinks when he continues to frown and grumbles, sleepily, “What are you doing here?” he winces. “What the hell happened?”
I let go of his hand, trying to hide some of the hurt as I exclaim, “What do you mean, what am I doing here? You had accident, Hunter. Your car hit a fucking tree.”
“Oh.”
“Oh? Do you have any idea-“ I step back, running my fingers through my hair, feeling the pain and stress from the past few hours hitting me and bubbling up within me until all I feel is fucking pissed off. “You could have died. Do you understand that?”
“Well, I didn’t, so how about you stop yelling at me because my head hurts.” He winces again, and I raise a brow, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Just your head? You broke your fucking ribs, Hunter! What the hell were you doing?”
“I was going for a drive. What do you care?” He narrows his eyes on me, and I feel my jaw drop at his words, my eyes widening.
“Why do I care? Okay, what the fuck did I do? Is it only because I didn’t call you every day when I was trying to get my life back on track? That can’t be it, Hunter, so you need to tell me why you’re acting like such a fucking dick and trying to kill yourself.”
His anger loses a bit of its flare but still remains as he grumbles, “I wasn’t trying to kill myself, Mia. It was an accident.”
“And what were you doing driving drunk?”
He rolls his eyes and my fists clench. “Mia, it was just an accid-“
“Mom and Dad died in a fucking car accident, Hunter!” He is frozen at my words, but they just kept on coming. “You are all I have left! I can’t lose you too because I won’t live through that.”
His eyes soften for a moment until he suddenly blinks and the cold disinterest is back. “You’re being melodramatic, Mia.”
All I feel is pain and alone. Seeing the only family I have look at me with such cold eyes… and I still have no idea what the hell I did. It was killing me, just driving the knife in deeper. He doesn't care how scared I was, he doesn't care about me, and it is because of that reason that I forced myself to back away from him towards the door, telling him, “Melodramatic? There are cops waiting to speak to you.” I hold his eyes. “How is that for melodramatic?”
I put my hand on my stomach as I leave the hospital room, leaving Hunter all alone, trying to suppress the nauseous feeling I have building within me, trying to silence the inner voice screaming at me to go back, but I know I can't. He obviously doesn’t want me there, so I won’t stay.
I lean against the wall in the hospital hallway, silent tears falling down my cheeks. That is how Riley finds me, running up and cupping my face in his hands until all I see is the soft comfort in his eyes.
“Mia? What’s wrong?” He strokes my cheek with his thumb, and I force myself to speak.
“I wanna go home.”
He furrows his brows, confused, but nods. “Alright. Are you sure?”
“Please, just take me home.”
Riley gives the others an excuse about me not feeling well, which I know Ava isn't going to buy, but she did not push. We drive in silence, and I feel Riley’s worry with every glance he throws my way, but I wasn’t ready to talk about it. Because what is there to say? My brother hates me for a reason I can’t understand. That isn’t the brother I know sitting in that hospital bed, and I'm so scared I won’t get him back.
