Sienna and I were at the hospital in what felt like no time. As soon as the words "Jeremiah" and "shot" left her mouth, I called a Lyft. I didn't waste any time asking questions. Instead, I stepped into my heels and raced downstairs, like being downstairs and clocking every car that passed would make the Lyft come faster.

Sienna was right behind me, her feet practically stepping on my heels as she hurried to keep up. She hadn't even had the opportunity to change—her scarf was still tied around the two pigtail braids of her hair, King's sweatshirt and sweats swallowing her body.

I lost all sense of time as I watched the streetlights pass outside the car window. My mind barely registered Sienna's hand on my shoulder as I chewed on my bottom lip. All I could think about was Jeremiah and whether or not he was okay.

I said a thank you over my shoulder and hurried through the hospital doors. I paused before I found the sign that pointed towards the waiting room. I pushed the doors open, and a few heads snapped up.

"Ara, let's not burst into waiting rooms like in the movies," Sienna said as she appeared behind me.

I ignored her as my eyes scanned the room, looking for King. I didn't remember most of the trip from King's to the hospital, but I did remember Sienna telling me King would be waiting right here.

"Where is King?" I whipped around to face Sienna. "He said he'd be here."

"I don't know," Sienna said with a shrug. "Bathroom maybe?"

I smacked my teeth and said, "He needs to hurry his ass up."

"Chill, Ara. He's gonna be right back."

"Nah, don't tell me to chill," I said as I shook my head. "Your boyfriend is the only person who can tell me what's up, so I need him to hurry his ass up."

Before Sienna could respond, King pushed through the waiting room doors, his phone pressed to his ear. Sienna and I shared a look before she crossed over to him, her arm wrapping around his as he spoke urgently into the phone.

The next few minutes were agonizing as we took a seat against the wall, King still on the phone. Sienna was now holding his hand, her thumb circling around the pad of his thumb. I, on the other hand, was staring him down, my leg jittering as I continued to gnaw my lip raw.

"King, I'm gonna need you to explain," I said as soon as he ended the call.

"Hold on a sec," Sienna said as she pulled King's attention to her.

"Si, I told you I'm tryna get answers."

Sienna's eyes flicked over to me, a glint of annoyance in them. "I get that, but can you chill just for a sec?"

I fixed her with an incredulous look. "What's the issue? I wanna know if Jeremiah's okay, and King—"

"Kiara, you are gonna give me a second," she said, an unusual firmness to her tone. "You're worried about your man, but I'm worried about mine."

Sienna left it at that, her full attention finding King. I was a non-issue right now as she checked in on him. I watched as she doted over him, something she didn't often do. Her hand rested at the nape of his neck as she continued to rub circles on his hand. She whispered as she spoke, so quiet I couldn't distinguish what she was saying from next to them.

I was so worried about Jeremiah I didn't even notice Sienna had every right to be concerned about King. He had this glossed-over look in his eye as Sienna talked to him like his thoughts were somewhere else.

I glanced down and noticed dried blood crusted on his hands. His fingers rubbed together, reddish-brown flakes trickling down to the matching stains on his knees. It was only then that I noticed traces of blood all over King. On his shoes, the cuff and collar of his shirt—there was even a little just above his eyebrow.

"There's blood all over you, Love," Sienna said as she looked at King's hands for the first time. "Why don't you go to the bathroom and clean up? I'll text your PA and have them bring you clothes."

King nodded. "Yeah, I'll be right back." He placed a distracted kiss on her cheek.

Sienna took a shaky breath and turned to me. "I know you want your answers, Ara, but—"

"I got it," I said with a dismissive wave. "I'm not the only one who's worried and cares about him. I know King's going out of his mind, too."

"He just needed to get in some clean clothes and clean off..." Sienna picked at her arm, her eyes failing to meet mine as she continued, "All the blood."

"Yeah, all the blood." My breath caught in my throat as my leg bounced. "All of Jeremiah's blood."

I looked into Sienna's eyes. She observed me as my bottom lip caught between my teeth in a vain attempt to keep it from quivering. Only now did time seem to slow down to its normal pace, and I slowed down with it. My focus wasn't on calling the Lyft and getting to the hospital or finding King and getting answers. There was no task to keep my mind from wandering, which left me to sit and think.

Jeremiah got shot. Jeremiah got shot and his blood was all over King, and that's all I knew. I didn't know how many times he got shot, if he hit his head on the way down, or where King was when this happened.

All I knew was that Jeremiah got shot, and there was a lot of blood.

I snapped back to reality when I heard Sienna's hushed voice next to me. I didn't even notice King was back; I was so caught up in my head. He looked refreshed, almost like he had somehow washed the night's events away. His bloodied clothes were replaced with a plain black tracksuit. There wasn't a trace of blood left on his hands, and there was no trace of the trail above his eyebrow.

"Kiara," Sienna called as a snap pulled me back to attention. "You ready?"

"To hear what happened?" I leaned towards them. "I've been ready."

King cleared his throat as he wrung his hands. "I went over to the hotel to talk to J about what went down. He was telling me all about it, but he was pacing, stressed and all that. I suggested we spark real quick, you know to calm him down."

Sienna placed a hand over his clenched hands as he paused. His attention was on his paled knuckles, yet he recounted the events with clarity. His body language screamed that he was distracted, but the way there wasn't even a quiver in his voice.

I listened with bated breath as he recounted what happened. A copper taste filled my mouth as my teeth continued to gnaw my lip. My legs bounced as if they were powered by the stress and worry coursing through my veins.

"We got outside and we realized we forgot a lighter, so I ran upstairs real fast." King took a deep breath and found my gaze. "I get downstairs, and there's a commotion at the doors. I step out and the next thing I see is J on the ground, blood all around him."

King's gaze dropped back down, his eyes no longer focused on his hands. He looked past them and found his shoes. He focused on the stray droplets of blood on the toe and the bloodied sole of his shoe.

King sniffled as he cleared his throat. "The rest...I don't know. I don't even know how I got his blood all on me."

King finished and, even though he told me everything he knew, it still wasn't enough. Who shot Jeremiah, and why did they do it? Did somebody see something? He was two steps away from the hotel entrance; somebody had to have seen something. Was he shot more than once?

"Thank you," I said with a sincere smile. "And I'm sorry."

King's lips pulled into a frown. "For what?"

I paused for a moment. "That you had to see him like that."

About an hour passed before a doctor dressed in surgical gear came out and called Jeremiah's name. There was back and forth after the doctor said she couldn't disclose anything until family was present—apparently, best friends and girlfriends don't count. A few minutes and one phone call later, we got an update on Jeremiah's condition via Malachai's permission.

I wanted nothing more for the situation to look worse than what it was, but hearing what the doctor had to say made my heart drop. It seemed the longer she spoke, the worse it got.

Jeremiah had been shot twice, once in the shoulder and in the chest. The bullet that hit him in the chest punctured his lung, which led it to collapse. Not only that, but they had to open him up to find one of the bullets because there was no exit wound. So basically, it was bad, and he was gonna be in surgery for a minute.

The doctor ensured she would check back in with us periodically with updates before she left for the operating room. Sienna, King, and I exchanged worried glances as we stood in the waiting room, a heavy silence weighing over us.

"His parents are on the way?" I asked nobody in particular.

"Yeah, I called them when I first got here," King said. "They hopped on the Long Range, so they'll be here in a couple hours."

I nodded gently. "Good."

Regardless of my feelings for Jeremiah's parents, their son was fighting for his life in the hospital. They had every right to be here every step of the way. And, I know he'd want to see them when he woke up.

We fell back into silence as we waited. We blended in with all the other worried loved ones in the room with us. A man across from us had his head in his hands, elbows perched atop his knees while the woman next to him rubbed his back. Sienna and King nearly mirrored them. King's head was held just like the man's, but instead of rubbing his back, Sienna wrapped King's head in her arms as best she could.

I was more like the woman a couple seats away from the couple across from us. We both had one leg jittering uncontrollably, these worried creases in our brows. Her fingers were tugging at one another as her eyes darted towards the door while I gnawed my lip. Her movements paused as she looked at the couple next to her. Her eyes fell to the floor a moment later. I guess we're both feeling the loneliness, too.

A few hours passed with no updates. Sienna, King, and I were left to our own minds as we wondered what was taking so long. Was that just the way surgery went, or had something gone wrong?

On top of worrying whether or not Jeremiah was going to pull through, guilt began to weigh on my shoulders as I remembered the last thing I said to him. I'd been so caught up in if he was okay that it's like I forgot about our whole previous conversation, which was more of an argument. If everything didn't turn out alright, our last conversation would have been an argument, and our whole relationship would have ended on a question mark.

Not only would everything have been left up in the air, but one of the last thoughts on his mind would have been worries about us. The last thing I would have said to him was that I was done with him, and I couldn't live with that.

"Kingston," said a booming voice.

Our heads snapped up as our eyes found Mr. and Miss Diamond. They strode into the room, their heads held high. Even in high-stress situations, they were poised, but I guess that's part of the job.

King stood and greeted them with a hug. He leaned into them as he filled them in on everything we knew at this point. I watched as Mr. Diamond stayed stoic and Miss Diamond clutched onto King's arm, her face waiting in the same pinched expression.

"Have you been waiting out here?" Miss Diamond asked as she scanned the room, her eyes lingering over every other person in here.

Sienna got up to greet them as she said, "Yes."

"This won't do," Miss Diamond said as she turned to her husband. "I will not be waiting out here. It's so...dreadful."

As per usual, Mr. and Miss Diamond didn't acknowledge my existence. Unlike last time, I didn't have Jeremiah to mediate for me or call them out on it. Instead, he was on an operating table somewhere, and I was sitting in the waiting room by myself.

A few minutes passed before Miss Diamond said, "Kiara? Have you been here this whole time?"

I caught her eye as she peered at me over Sienna's shoulder. "Uh, yeah. I was gonna let them fill you in on what's going on with Jeremiah."

"You didn't think to announce yourself sooner?" Mr. Diamond asked, an air of curious judgment around him.

I averted my gaze as I said, "I figured you were worried about your son, so I didn't want to interrupt."

"And is announcing yourself and joining the conversation interrupting?" Mr. Diamond had his brows raised as he looked at me expectantly. "I'd think if you were worried you'd—"

"Don't try and say I'm not worried." I cut in before I could stop myself. All I had been for the past however many hours was worried; I didn't want the Diamonds of all people to forget that.

"Kiara, sweetie—"

I held up my hand. I didn't know if it was the absurd accusation that I wasn't worried that inspired my newfound confidence or if I was delirious from my lack of sleep these past few nights. Either way, I knew I didn't have the time nor the patience to deal with Jeremiah's parents right now.

"I cannot deal with y'all getting on my case right now. Not with everything that's going on," I said. "So, if y'all have something negative to say, don't say it to me."

Sienna and King exchanged wide-eyed looks as Miss Diamond sputtered in front of me. Mr. Diamond had his hands on her shoulders as he stared me down. Even with this new confidence, his gaze still made me want to squirm.

Before either of Jeremiah's parents could respond, his doctor pushed through the door and headed towards us. The Diamonds introduced themselves before the doctor updated us. A collective sigh of relief rocked the group as she said he was out of surgery.

"So when can we see him?" I asked once she finished.

"We want to monitor Mr. Diamond and make sure he's stable before he can have any visitors," she said.

"Well, when will he be stable?" Mr. Diamond asked.

"We're hoping—"

"I didn't ask what you were hoping for," he interrupted. "I asked when he will be stable."

The doctor blinked for a moment, a deep breath shuddering her shoulders. "We're hopeful he'll make it through the night with no complications, but with injuries like his, we can't say for certain."

A sigh shook Mr. Diamond's composure before he said, "Isn't your job to know for sure? What good doctor—"

"Sir, your son was shot twice, once in the chest. We had to extract a bullet. He had extensive bleeding and a collapsed lung. A machine is currently helping him breathe, and there is a tube in his chest to drain the blood. All that takes a massive toll on the body, and even the best doctors would tell you exactly what I did."

You could tell the doctor was used to parents like this with how she calmly read him. Her tone was matter-of-fact as her mouth subtly quirked. There was a raise in her brow as her arms were secured across her chest.

"If you have any questions, you can ask for Dr. Musazi." With that, she turned on her heel as she tugged the tie on the back of her scrub cap.

Mr. Diamond huffed as she and his wife left for the desk to see if they could get us a private room to wait in.

"They both just got called out on their behavior," King said as he shook his head and smacked his teeth. "Now none of us are gonna be able to chill."

"You can't tell me they didn't deserve it," I said with a smug smile.

"No, you right," King said with a nod and a smile.

"Are they like that all the time?" Sienna asked as she looked between the two of us. "They were so sweet to me, I never would have thought."

"Be glad about that, baby," King said as we exchanged knowing looks. "But I'm gonna make sure Jalen isn't berating a nurse into getting us a room." He pecked Sienna on the cheek before he disappeared past the doors.

"How you doing?" Sienna asked once we were alone. "You've been real quiet, and that usually means your wheels are turning."

"Yeah, I'm just worried," I said with the shake of my head. "I know Dr. Musazi said it's looking good, but I can't help it. She did say he was on all those tubes..."

Sienna thought for a moment before she said, "She also said he's young and healthy, so there's no reason to be worried." She placed a hand on my knee. "He's gonna be fine, Ara."

"Yeah," I said with a forced smile.

"You don't think so?"

"I just had a lot of time to think while I was alone, so," I trailed with a shrug.

"You weren't alone," Sienna said with a slight scoff.

I sighed. "Not alone, but you were occupied with King, so I was here alone with my thoughts."

Sienna took a moment. I could tell she thought back on the last couple hours and realized that I was right by the look on her face.

"I know I can be a little in my own world sometimes, but you know you can always pull me into yours," she said, sincerity to her tone. "I've got you if need me."

"Thanks, Si."

"Of course," she said with a smile. "Now, do you need me to get you some new shoes? 'Cause I can't keep looking at these heels and sweats."

A smile popped on my face for the first time in hours as I rolled my eyes. "Are you forreal concerned with my outfit right now?"

"I can have King's PA grab you something real quick. I'm so serious."

"Oh, I know you are," I said with a small laugh. A beat passed before I asked, "Can you, though? My feet are killing me."

She laughed and nodded before she headed off to find King.

King, Sienna, and I headed back to King's penthouse to get some proper rest while Jeremiah's parents stayed behind at the hospital. They promised to call King with an update as soon as anything changed. Both King and I were skeptical about leaving, but Sienna all but demanded we leave. I was too tired to argue, and King knew better.

I dropped onto the guest bed and fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. I didn't bother to wrap up my hair or wriggle out of Jeremiah's clothes; I was so exhausted. I only realized how tired I was when I woke up, my body sprawled across the mattress as random lines formed grooves on my skin.

I texted Sienna to see if she was up, and she let me know she was on the balcony. I stepped into the slippers King's PA got me and wandered around until I found where to go.

"Hey y'all," I said as I dropped into one of the chairs.

"Hey, Kiara," King said with a far-off look in his eyes. He was focused on the city skyline, the sun just starting to set on the horizon.

"You know you have drool on the corner of your mouth, right?" Sienna said with a grimace.

I snatched her phone from her lap as I pulled up the camera. Sure enough, there was a crusty trail from the corner of my mouth to my chin.

"I know you slept real good, huh?" She shook her head with a laugh as she gestured towards the indented lines on my hand.

"Shut up. It's been a stressful couple of hours." I scoffed and continued, "Hell, it's been a stressful couple days."

A silence settled over us as the cool air whipped around us. I pulled my sweatshirt over my hands as King rolled up and sparked a jay. A few rotations passed as we all listened to the sounds of the city.

"How are you doing, King?" The jay was passed to me as I said, "I don't think I asked you that yet."

Now that we were genuinely mellow with most worries quelled, I had the time to worry about something other than Jeremiah and myself. King was there. He was the one to actually see Jeremiah laying in a pool of his own blood, and I know that's a sight he won't forget anytime soon.

"I'm doing 'bout as good as I can be for the situation," he said with a humorless chuckle. "I mean, how can I be doing good when this whole thing's on me?"

"Hey," Sienna called as she passed him the jay and