Pt. 2/2

The ride in the car on the way to the hospital was very awkward, to say the least.

Paola called me not long after Cyrus dropped the bomb and told me that she and Ryan were on a date, sitting in his car in the chick-fil-a parking lot when all of a sudden they heard gunshots coming at Ryan's side of the car. Ryan huddled over her to shield her.

I was sitting in the passenger seat of Jesse's Range Rover as we drive in silence. Cyrus is in the car.

I don't wanna assume but I'm pretty sure he doesn't really like me so much.

I watch Jesse's jaw clench as he switches lanes, moving into the right lane that would take him to St.James' Hospital that's less than 2 minutes away now as I start to see the front of the building.

We pull up to the parking lot a minute letter, as Jesse smoothly moves into a spot. When he parks the car, he sits in his seat staring out of the windshield silently. I go to place my hand on his shoulder. When I touch his shoulder, he quickly shrugs me off removing my left hand, and gets out of the car quickly, leaving me inside.

I assume he's gonna walk around and open my door for me but I was sadly mistaken since he was already walking towards the building. I stare out of my window in shock as I watch him walk away from the car.

He can't really be upset with me I-

"Are you gonna get out of the car or what?" I look to see him turned around looking at me in annoyance matching how angry and harsh he sounded just now.

He's so lucky his friend is in the hospital...

I get out of the car quickly and when he sees this he turns around and heads for the building again with me quickly scurrying after him.

Walking into hospitals is never fun. Looking around seeing people in pain either because of something they can't control or a loved one is gone.

If there's something my parents always taught me. It was to be grateful for my health because the situation could always be worse.

I can't imagine the kind of pain Ryan is in and I can only pray to God that he's okay. It's even more amazing that he was being shot at and his first instinct was to save Paola. If that doesn't show Paola how he feels then I don't know what will.

As we walk further down the hallway, me following behind Jesse simply because I can tell he's not in the mood to be around me for whatever reason, we reach the front desk as we walk to a front desk seeing a nurse hanging sitting at wearing black and red striped scrubs with a lollipop hanging from the side of her mouth, Her hair is brown and her skin is of a more pale complexion in comparison to Jesse. She looks to be in her mid 30's.

Jesse stops in front of the desk and says, "I need to know what room Ryan Simpson is in."

She looks up at him with wide eyes and says, "Ok first of all...Good Evening to you too." she rolls her eyes and says, "You're looking for Ryan Simpson? Are you immediate family?" she asks typing away on her computer

"Yes," he says harshly but I don't miss the way his voice cracks when he says it

"Can I see some I.D?" she says quickly and he sighs impatiently

"You don't need my I.D to tell me what room my brother is in," he says to her and I stay quietly behind watching this when I hear voices next to me and I look to my right to see Cyrus talking to this older woman. She was a white woman no older than 70, I believe.

They must've felt me looking when they turn towards me and I notice she's crying as Cyrus rubs her back softly. They both walk towards me and I notice they're on their way to the desk where Jesse is still arguing with the nurse.

She walks towards Jesse placing her hand on his shoulder, her head coming up to the middle of his arm, and I'm only now just noticing how small she is.

She rubs Jesse's back softly as he sighs and steps further away, "Do you mind telling me any information you have on Ryan Simpson." she says softly

The nurse removes the lollipop from her mouth and looks from Jesse to her, "Well unless you're a family member, no I do--" she gets cut off by Cyrus

"That's his grandmother, lady. Can you hurry up and tell her what she asked you." Cyrus says in annoyance looking straight at the nurse who jumps at his tone and proceeds to type on her computer.

"Ryan Simpson arrived at the hospital almost two hours ago. He was shown to have two gunshot wounds in the places of his chest and lower back. He was admitted to surgery upon arrival and is now resting in room 226. That's all I know so fa-" she stops when she sees Cyrus and Jesse run towards the room going up the stairs.

Ryan's grandmother shakes her head saying, "They do everything the hard way, those two." I chuckle softly and she looks at me to say, "Are you a friend of my grandson?"

I nod my head meekly and say, "Yeah. Something like that." She doesn't say anything but she gives me her arm and proceeds to walk towards the elevators. When we get inside she presses on the 2nd floor and we ascend upwards.

When we make it to the room, the door is open and we see Paola sitting next to him in a chair as he lays on the bed near her with his eyes closed. She has her head in her hands as she's sniffling softly to herself. Jesse and Cyrus are already in the room just standing next to him on the other side of the bed watching as Ryan's laying down peacefully.

His chest rises up and down giving me comfort knowing that he's still breathing and that he's okay. Ryan's grandmother looks at all of us releasing my hand that she eas holding and she looks at Paola who shoulders are shaking up and down from crying, "Excuse me, dear." she says towards Paola but Paola doesn't notice until I walk over to her and tap her shoulder softly.

She looks up at me with wide eyes grasping my hand tightly in both of hers and I nod my head towards Ryan's grandmother.

Paola quickly removes her hands from mine and wipes her eyes saying, "Oh! Hi! You must be Ms.Simpson." she stands up quickly and walks over to her, "I'm a--" she pauses awkwardly, "friend of Ryan's" she puts her hand out towards his grandmother.

Ryan's grandmother just stares at her hand for a few seconds leaving us all confused and scared to see what would happen next.

She grabs Paola's hands and pulls her closer wrapping her arms around Paola in a hug as Paola awkwardly does the same looking over her shoulder at me in confusion but quickly melting into the hug, "I've heard quite a lot about you." Ryan's grandmother says softly

I avert my eyes from them to look back at Ryan who's moving his fingers mildly but then opens his eyes later and moves his head shaking it slowly from side to side, blinking slowly.

Paola notices this and quickly says, "Ryan!" she whisper-yells and he quickly moves his eyes in her direction furrowing his eyebrows, smiling softly

Ms.Simpson releases Paola from her hold and Paola walks back to the side of the bed, standing near him grasping her hand. "Thank you." she says softly, "Don't ever do something like that for me again."

Ryan flexes his fingers that are in her grasp by gripping her as tight as he can, "What?" he shifts uncomfortably on the bed, "You mean take a literal bullet for you." he says keeping his voice low and groggy sounding as I'm pretty sure he's coming off of anesthesia

She nods and Ryan's lift curl up into a small smirk as the left side of his lip quirks up, "They don't call me simp for nothing." he says quietly smiling small when she slaps him on the shoulder softly causing Jesse, Cyrus and myself to laugh quietly at his antics.

He looks towards the end of the bed seeing his grandmother, "Gammy." he calls her softly as Paola moves aside to let Ryan and his grandmother converse softly.

Paola then begins to explain the whole situation as to how they had just gotten through the chick-fil-a drive-thru and all of a sudden after they parked in the parking lot for two seconds to check the stuff in their bags that they ordered, they heard gunshots out of nowhere and it some sort of drive-by shooting. They have no idea who did it.

But my concern is...who commits a drive-by shooting...in a parking lot?

Something isn't adding up.

I look up at Jesse to see he's quite literally fuming after she explains the story and he walks out of the door into the hallway.

Against my better judgment, I follow him as he walks outside into the darkness brought by the night sky.

I watch as he sits on the closest sidewalk near the hospital bringing his knees to his chest looking up at the sky in wonder.

Bending down, I sit next to him and I say, "I'm glad he's okay."

I don't really know what to do in these situations. I've never dealt with a heartbroken gang leader.

"Yeah," he says

"It could've been really bad." I offer

"No shit." he sighs and I'm taken aback at his rudeness

"Look I know that it's a scary situation but at least he's okay," I say irritated at his change in attitude. I understand that he's stressed but I didn't shoot that boy. I didn't do anything to anyone.

"You don't get it do you?" he turns and looks at me with harshness in his voice, "You know who I am. You know what I do. What happened tonight was a hit and run and it was on purpose. If I hadn't been stuck at that fucking daycare with you I might have been able to see this coming."

I move away from him in annoyance, placing my hand on my chest, "Excuse me? I didn't force you to hang out with me today, or yesterday or the day before. You did that on your own, Jesse." I say, "And yeah hanging out today was bad timing, I get it. But neither of us could've known. I could've lost my best friend tonight too!"

"She wasn't shot, Karma! It was fucking Ryan and how blind he is for that girl that he took those hits when he didn't need to!"

"He took those hits to save her!"

He scoffs, "Please. He probably took those hits so that she feels obligated to make up for all the lack of sex they've been having." I jerk my head back at his crude remark. I know that Jesse can be blunt but that was a bit much.

"That was a lot, Jesse," I say softly in shock and he nods his head.

"You know what else was a lot? All the time that I've wasted with you. The time that was valuable. The time that I could've fucking spent preventing that shit from happening tonight." he snarls and I immediately realize that he's blaming me, like actually blaming me for everything going on right now.

"Well." I swallow harshly feeling the tears start to well up in my eyes but I try my hardest to keep them at bay, "If that's how you feel then maybe we don't have to hang out anymore." I say wanting to curse myself for how bad my voice is shaking

He chuckles looking at the sky, "Works for me. If we're being honest, I just wanted to see how far I'd have to go before I get any from you. I didn't know you'd have me running a fucking marathon." he says harshly getting up and walking back towards the hospital door walking inside.

Leaving me out here alone, on the sidewalk as I look ahead, in front of me in shock that he actually said that to me. I blink quickly trying to stop the tears from falling but I'm too late as the dam has broken and the water falls effortlessly from my eyes in sadness and regret.

I knew in my heart that it would be hard to trust Jesse and I didn't know why.

Until he proved to me that he was no different than any other teenage boy.

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I'm crying in the club fr :(