iridescent ↠ grayson dolan ✓

↠ s i x t e e n

{ c h a p t e r s i x t e e n }
lauren's pov ;

The first thing that Grayson asked for was her.

She could see the hurt in Ethan's eyes as he stared desolately into the ward. He was intently biting down on his bottom lip while he told Lauren to go inside. He said he didn't feel like intruding, but she knew that he had no idea what to do with himself now that his brother was awake. She felt sorry for him. The poor guy had been through a lot.

Lauren wrapped her fingers around the cold doorknob. Merely turning it took almost all the energy from her body. Her heart thudded in her chest as she pushed the door open.

Grayson was lying on the bed.

Awake, of course.

His cheeks were still pale and the usual rosiness to his face still hadn't returned. His eyes were dull; the iridescent flecks of green in amidst the hazel were almost impossible to find.

"Lauren." He said, but it came out more like a whimper.

Lauren couldn't speak. Her feet were planted just a little away from his bed, but she couldn't move much further. She simply stared at him.

He had changed so much.

The left side of his head was wrapped tightly in bandages. He had a cut above his eye which had now turned to the color of ground coffee- perhaps due to an ointment of some sort. He had the ghost of a smile on his lips, like he was trying to smile but he simply couldn't.

He looked like all the life was drained out of him.

Her breath was trapped in her throat, and she could feel a wall of tears forming that were ready to collapse.

Grayson looked up with a smile that was unfitting. "That was one hell of a power nap." He said with a lopsided grin. "Remind me not to have a slumber party any time soon; I'd be a horrible host."

Grayson laughed a little. A small, undeniably forced laugh that felt odd in the air. It was a dry sort of chuckle, one that differed from his usual obnoxious laugh. Perhaps he laughed to make her feel as thought everything was okay. All it felt was unnatural.

Lauren shook her head, trying to get rid of her tears. It was obvious why he was joking. He didn't want to talk about what happened. Grayson's smile fell when he noticed that she didn't like his attempt at a joke. He saw how upset she was and averted his gaze.

Her insides filled with rage as she could feel the foundation of her wall of tears beginning to collapse.

"You don't get to do that, Grayson." She said, her eyes filling up with tears. "You don't get to joke and laugh about what happened. Do you understand how scared I was?"

She took a deep breath, biting her lip to refrain from sobbing. "I thought you were going to leave me, Grayson. I heard some nurses talking about your excessive bleeding; how if they didn't stop it you'd go into hypovolemic shock.

"Shock leads to heart failure." She said in barely a whisper. "Those hours I spent waiting in that room and looking through this window seeing you completely still- all I could think about was what my life would be without you.