Adopted By Dan Howell and Phil Lester

friendly stranger

The next two and a half hours are complete torture. Our train's running late, Dan's not answering his phone and neither is Phil, Austin's fighting for his life. I'm going through the train station with complete tunnel vision right now, I keep my eyes focused in London's direction. Alfie buys Zoe and I Starbucks. I couldn't possibly drink it, but I forced myself to. We finally boarded the train, all of my luggage in hand and sat down in our seats. Alfie and Zoe did a pretty good job of keeping my mind distracted. They told me the story of how they met, their first collab, everything. Their love story is amazing, but not as good as Austin and I's. I've tried to keep a brave face the entire time. It's hard though, the love of my life is fighting for his life and I can't bear the thought of losing him.

We finally get to the train station in London and I sprint to the hospital. "Ma'am? Can you tell me where Austin King is being held?" I ask her, out of breathe. "Um, what is your relation to the patient?" She asks me. "I'm his girlfriend and promised wife." I show her my left ring finger, she smiles at me. "Congrats! He is in Room 103 on floor 2." She smiles at us and we run to the elevators. "This has to be the slowest elevator in existence." I say, trying to make a joke. Zalfie laughs, it makes me feel a little better. Knowing I can still make people laugh. We run down the halls and straight to Room 103. "Dan! Phil!" I say, running into their arms. They kiss me and hug me back. I turn to look at Austin's still body. The only way I know he's alive is by the heart monitor. That's when I break down. "Austin. This is all my fault." I sink down next to the bed and grab his hand. Both of his arms are bandaged all the way up to his elbow. "My poor sweet baby. I love you so much." I lay my head down on the bed and cry.

Zalfie and Phan gather around me and try to calm me down. I fall asleep with my head on Austin's bed. I feel arms under me and then I feel myself being placed onto a couch. I go to sleep for a few hours. "So, what's going to happen with him?" I hear Dan ask as I begin to wake up. "Well, he is expected to be fine. But, he will need therapy and constant watch to make sure this doesn't happen again." I slowly sit up and everyone looks at me. I run back over to where I was just hours before. I move hair out of Austin's face. "He looks so peacefull." I say, breaking the silence. They smile weakly at me and then at Austin. "So, he's expected to be fine?" I ask the doctor hopefully, she smiles at me. "Yes, sweetheart. I hear that you two are dating?" She asks me, I nod with a smile. "Yeah, he even promised himself to me." I show her my rose gold ring, she gently takes my hand to examine it. "It's beautiful. I hope you guys are very happy together." I nod my thanks and she leaved the room. "How about you and Zoe go out for a bit? Maybe go shopping, get some breakfast, anything you'd like." Dan says happily, I look at Zoe. "Yeah! That's a great idea. Let's go shopping!" She grabs me and pulls me out of the room.

We walk down the streets of London and we're both vlogging. "Hello everyone! Nari here. Some of you may have heard that Austin is in the hospital right now and that is why he isn't posting anything at the moment. He's going to be fine though, don't worry. I'm here with Zoella and we're doing a bit of shopping right now. We've been up since about 4:30 this morning so we needed a break. Also, my meetup is obviously cancelled, but I will reschedule it based on Austin's condition!" I stop recording as Zoe and I enter a small breakfast cafe. I order a chocolate muffin with a latte and Zoe orders the same. "So, you want to go shopping?" She asks me, I nod with a mouthfull of muffin. We do a lot of shopping, go to the apartment to get some clothes for everyone, and go back to the hospital. "Thank you for taking me out today, Zoe." I say to her. She smiles at me and hugs me. "It's no problem. You really needed some fresh air!" She says, I laugh. "Alfie and I are going out to dinner tonight. See you tomorrow?" She asks me, I nod and hug her again. "Of course!" She waves goodbye and I go back into Austin's room.

"I'm back with clothes!" I say as I walk into the room, holding the bag up. Dan and Phil snatch the bag and then go to change. I sit in the chair next to Austin's bed and hold his hand. "Austin, I am so sorry for doing this to you. It's all my fault. I should have talked to you so that we wouldn't be in this situation." I start crying as I intertwine our fingers. He always used to do that because I hated when he did it, now I love it. I feel awful for this, he didn't deserve any of this. He didn't deserve this. I wipe my tears and kiss his cheek. "I love you Austin King." I get up and out of the room. I just needed to walk, I won't disappear again. You can't run away from problems. I find myself at the cafteria in the hospital. It's pretty empty since it's about 7:30 pm. I find a table and just sit there for a bit. All of a sudden, someone comes over to me. "Hey, is this seat taken?" The stranger asks, I shake my head and gesture towards the empty chair. "Nope. Go ahead." They sit down and I finally look up.

"Um, hey. I'm Scott. You looked lonely so I wanted to keep you company." He says with a friendly smile. "Thanks, I'm glad it's obvious how I feel." I say, forcing a smile. "Alright, what's wrong?" He asks me. "Well, everything really. My boyfriend is here and it's not going well." I say, he nods. "What happened?" He asks. So, I tell him the story. Yes, the whole story, no details left out. "Wow, um. You sure have had a rough day." He says sadly. "Yeah..." He reaches across the table and lifts up my chin. "Don't blame yourself for this. Not to be rude, but he did this. Not you, you didn't mean any harm." He says. It makes sense, he's right though. "Thanks." He smiles and nods. "Here's my number incase you need anymore self assurance." He says, I laugh. "Thank you very much, I will probably need it." I smile at him.
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