ɢᴏᴏᴅ ɢɪʀʟ, ʙᴀᴅ ʜᴀʙɪᴛꜱ (author's version)

fourteen

Rue didn't wake up for another six hours. Olivia met her at the hospital, Leslie telling Fezco he had to leave.

"You shouldn't be here. I don't need someone who was probably shoving drugs down my daughters throat at the hospital after her overdose."

Olivia sat on the edge of the hospital bed, watching Rue breathing. She found herself doing this a couple of times over the last few hours; making sure Rue's chest was still going up and down, just in case anything would happen.

As she sat there, she brushed a piece of Rue's hair from her forehead to behind her ear. She looked at all of the cords and patches the nurses had stuck onto her skin. The way the chords wrapped around her arms and body made her look uncomfortable.

As Olivia brushed her hair, she noticed Rue's eyes fluttering open.

"Babe." Liv called out to Fez, who was sleeping in a chair behind her. He came in when Leslie and Gia left.

Fez stifled in a breath and woke up.

"Can you get a doctor? I think she's waking up." Olivia told her boyfriend. He nodded and got up, leaving the room. When Liv turned back around, Rue was awake.

"Hey.." Liv said, carefully. Rue looked around, confused. It took her a minute to realize she was in the hospital.

"Who found me?" She asked after a second.

Olivia sighed.

"Gia. Again."

Then, Rue was the one to sigh.

Olivia slowly got off of the bed. She turned to look at Rue, who had a solemn look on their face.

"Look..I know you don't really need this right now, but...how many more times is this going to happen?" She asked.

She was mad and frustrated, and Rue could see that.

She could also understand why.

"Liv.."

"No. Rue, I need to know how many times this is gonna happen. Because..it's like this never ending cycle with you. And I thought you were clean, but you lied to me. And you did it again. After help. After rehab. You're always going to do it again, aren't you?"

Olivia didn't mean to ramble, and she didn't mean to put extra weight on Rue's shoulders. It all just came out, how she was feeling, and she wasn't able to hold it in.

Rue shook her head. She knew Olivia didn't mean to let it all out.

"You don't get it." Rue mumbled. Olivia nodded and looked at the floor. There were tears dripping down her face.

"I know." She whispered.

There was a heavy moment of silence between the two girls. There were still things left unsaid, and they knew that. They just didn't know how to approach it.

"Rue, I can't..I can't have anyone leave me again. Especially not someone I love so much." Liv tried to explain. Rue nodded.

"I know, but..."

"I can't love someone who's just gonna fucking kill themselves."

Liv's voice kept cracking when she talked. She didn't know how to correctly express how she was feeling. She was frustrated, but she was trying to figure out where she went wrong as a friend.

She tried her best to wipe her tears as a couple of nurses came in. Fezco stayed outside, watching the room from a big window.

"Could you take..."A nurse started, looking at Olivia and politely asking her to leave the room. But, before she could finish her sentence, Olivia was already walking out.

"...a minute out. Okay, then. How're you feeling, Rue?" She said, watching Liv leave and then turned back to Rue.

As soon as Liv got outside, Fez started rubbing her back. He saw she was upset.

"I want to go." Liv whispered. Fezco looked down at her, then at Rue in her bed. The nurses were already fixing little things, like her IV.

"Like, home? What about-"

"They'll call her mom. Please, can we just go? I don't know what else I can do for her." She sighed. She started to tear up again, but Fezco helped wipe her eyes.

He then nodded his head.

"Okay. Alright. C'mon. Let's go home." He mumbled.

He then touched her lower back and led her out of the hospital.