𝐑𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

A L E X A N D E R

"You alright? I ask Charlotte as I grab her backpack from the back of her chair and the two of us walk side-by-side out of the lecture hall. Her face is paler than usual and she doesn't have any fun braid after showering, simply allowing her hair to air-dry. She still looks beautiful, but she also looks worn out.

She shrugs. "I wanted to join you for lunch, but I think I'm going to head back to my room and take a nap. I don't think I'm up for anything today." She admits.

"Shit. Well, I'll drop by later and bring you some takeout and we can watch a movie, how does that sound?" I offer and she rewards me with a small smile.

"That sounds really nice. Thank you, Alexander." She says and we sort ways. Almost as soon as she leaves my side, my overexcitable lab partner sidles up to me.

"Hey, Alex. You busy for lunch?" She asks and I check my phone for any messages but don't find any other than a few emails and reminders.

"For once, no," I give her a tight-lipped smile, trying to be friendly while my mind worries over Charlotte, hoping she isn't getting sick again.

"Join me," She says, not exactly framed as a question but I shrug.

"Sure, why not?"

When we get to the cafeteria, it's busy and difficult to find a table, so Kat saves us one while I get food and she does the same after I sit down with mine. "Be right back!" She skips away and I chuckle under my breath.

When Kat returns, I have to take frequent breaks from my food to answer her many questions, giving her slightly shorter answers than usual so that I can take bites of my sandwich in between.

Reed walks past and I smile, sticking my foot out to trip her but making it obvious enough that she'll see it. She rolls her eyes and stops by our table for a second, looking between the two of us with a little narrowing to her dark green eyes if I'm not mistaken.

"Whatcha up to?" She questions and I look ahead to see what she sees. Reed must believe that there's a possibility that I'm entertaining Kat the way I do Charlotte, although the two are on completely different levels. To a degree, I find Kat a little annoying, but she makes a good lab partner and only talks too much outside of class, so I tend to limit my time with her. Charlotte on the other hand, I could listen to her talk about an in-progress video game that she's creating for hours on end and never get bored of the way she speaks. Hell, we could sit in silence for that long and I'd be perfectly content.

I try to get that message across to Reed via eye contact, but she doesn't seem to want to take her scrutinizing eyes off of Kat. "Um, hi?" Kat says as soon as she notices Reed's staring, and my friend snaps out of it.

"Right. Hi. Have a good lunch, Xan," Reed says before walking off, presumably to join a table.

"Anyways..." Kat says as if that entire situation was uncomfortably long and not only lasting about a minute. She has barely touched the food in front of her as she continues on about something I'm only half-paying attention to. Trying to get out of here sooner rather than later, I pick up my pace and finish my food.

"Hey, sorry about this but I actually have an appointment with my advisor soon, so I have to get going," I say, pushing my chair back and standing up. Kat pouts but shrugs.

"No problem, I'm good here. Do whatcha need to do."

I nod. "Thanks. See ya."

"Oh my—I'm gonna pass out," Skyler looks up at me, his face pale and his eyes wide. I look down at him, most likely with a similar expression after he crumpled to the ground after what would have been a particularly good dive if his leg hadn't folded in on itself.

The trainer is guessing it's his hamstring, and that it's torn which leaves my team without its starting setter, and me without my best volleyball buddy. I follow as he gets loaded up onto a stretcher, tears running down his cheeks as he grits his teeth and grunts with each movement of the paramedics.

"Want me to come to the hospital with you?" I ask him and he doesn't seem to hear my question, but a minute later I get a small, jerky nod of his head and a second of eye contact with a pair of particularly watery blue eyes. "Alright buddy, no problem," I say, pulling out my phone to send a quick apology about potentially being late to Charlotte as I step into the ambulance, telling her I'll explain later.

After we pull up to the hospital, I simply follow quietly behind the paramedics as they lead us back past the emergency room. A doctor finds us right away and my eyebrows shoot up in surprise. I've never seen someone get to see a doctor so quickly, and when he greets Skyler by name, I tilt my head in confusion but I don't ask questions. Instead, I take a seat in a nearby chair and stay out of the way as they make quick work of assessing him, deciding that emergency surgery would be the best for him while on the phone with someone who obviously gets a say in Skyler's treatment.

His arm is over his head, shielding his eyes but I hear what he says despite is being slightly muffled. "You should go home, they'll keep moving me anyway and I'll probably be in here for a week," Skyler says, presumably to me and I stand.

"You sure? I could probably stay for another hour, man."

"No, my family is on their way and it'll just get too crazy. Thank you for coming though," He groans but doesn't seem to be in as much pain since the I.V. was inserted a while ago.

"Alright, well keep your phone on when you're awake. I'll update the team when you update me so you don't get a ton of messages."

"Nobody has my number anyway," He says and I pause.

"Oh, okay. Well, good luck, Sky. I'm sorry this happened to you," I say, not knowing what else to say in such a shitty situation. I would be devastated if I were him, but he seems to be keeping it together pretty well right now.

I'm out of the room and down the hall, getting somewhat lost with the identical walls and floors and endless turns. Trying to follow the signs to both the cancer ward and the emergency room, I'm unsure where I've ended up until I pass a room full of people with various hair lengths. Quite a few of them have none at all and all of them are in comfy-looking chairs with blankets draped over them and loved ones by their sides.

I pause briefly, my mouth twisting to the side as I take in the unfortunate situation and my gait is a little quicker as I attempt to leave this place, not particularly wanting to come back anytime soon.

My breath hitches as I walk down a hallway with an examination room containing what must be a patient or family member growing increasingly hysterical as I approach. The words "no" and "not again" leave her mouth repeatedly and her sobs grow louder, along with whoever else is in the room with her trying to calm her down. My heart aches as I hear the anguish in their voices, but I pause when the voice starts to sound familiar.

"I can't do it again," She says in between bouts of hyperventilating. My feet are frozen to the floor and all it takes is one more word out of her mouth to have me turning to face the closed door. My breathing is heavy and I grow increasingly confused, not at all prepared as I see the door open to reveal the woman sitting on a table in a hospital gown, facing a doctor who has her hand on her shaking shoulder. The patient's head is in her hands but I know without a doubt that it's her and the moment she looks up at me, she breaks all over again.

"Let me just close the door," The doctor says, giving me a small smile, obviously not noticing the way we've both paused as we look at each other. The patient doesn't stop the doctor, continuing to sob into her hands as her cries echo through the hall and haunt me with their tormenting sound and what they mean.

My body moves on auto-pilot as I stop the door from closing, pushing gently past the doctor to see her, wanting to hold her together as she falls apart.

"Alexander, don't," She cries, shaking her head as I approach, the doctor standing back. All I can focus on is the person in front of me and my hands immediately go to her own that hide her reddening face. 

"Charlie? Tell me what's wrong."