"I-I'm Paige Thompson, I was told to come here. My bo–, uhm, my friend, Braeden. Braeden Lemasters. Please let me see him," Paige pleaded, her hands pushing back her black curls which were damp due to the shower the rain brought amongst her. Her lips formed a thin line, and her heartbeat peaked at an unusual speed. Her head snapped up as she heard a woman start talking.
"Yeah, Mr. Lemasters will be found on the 4th floor– room 49D. He's not taking vis–," and with that, Paige was on her way towards him; there was nothing more she had to hear. She just wanted to get to Braeden and be by his side. Looking at the door numbers impatiently and tripping over her own feet, she finally found Michelle outside of Braeden's room, along with Dylan and Cole– his roommates.
"Paige, honey, thank you so much for coming." Michelle cried, joy shining through her eyes very lightly.
"I wouldn't have just stayed home with my ass on the couch not caring about him. He's my guy." Paige expressed as she smiled, her hand reaching up to wipe away a falling tear.
"Dude, you look like a mess." Dylan grinned. His cheeks were as red as his eyes, his lips imitating them in color.
'So he's been crying, too.'
Dylan was the one who saw Braeden faint back at their dorm; the way his face was slowly losing its color made him rethink about the phrase he was making him remember–"It's going to be okay; you are okay."
Dylan panicked as he heard his words slurring out, saw his legs giving up, and saw his body plummeting onto the floor. The only resolution that he thought of was to call the closest one he knew with a car, which was Cole. Cole arrived in just seconds; fortunately, he worked at a cafe a hall away from the dorm. Once they had arrived at the hospital, Michelle was called, and that's when Michelle thought of calling Paige.
"Yeah, finding out a huge piece of your life is hanging by a thread isn't soothing." Paige lazily lets out. She was in desperate need of any type of fluid to help ease the burn her throat had mustered up due to the heavy panting she was doing on her way towards the clinic.
'A drink of water wouldn't hurt,' she thought. 'But not now.'
"I get ya'. Seeing Braeden like that was heartbreaking. He looked so... weak. I don't know, I've never seen him like that," Cole mumbled out loud enough for Paige and Dylan to hear him. Cole's eyes focused on the floor below him, his lip starting to bleed from all the biting he's been doing; his mother was making him remember how Braeden lost his will to live in front of him when the ambulance got there. He wanted to forget, so he hung up and crossed his heavy arms over his chest, trying to think about anything other than Braeden– but of course, he failed.
"It scared me. He looked so white," Cole nodded. His eyes going up to meet Paige's red and puffy eyes. "And so dead," Dylan added, immediately sucking in his bottom lip between his teeth and slipping his cold hands into his tight jean pockets. Michelle was seating down on one of the blue chairs outside the room, her hands were cupping her face. Small muffled tears were let out by her, the thought of losing her son at only 22 slowly killing the last flicker of hope she had inside, but Paige decided it was best if she let her have a moment.
"Okay," the doctor sighed, his eyes glued on the clipboard on his steady hands, his face showing no expression making Cole grab tight onto Dylan's arm who grabbed onto Paige's wrist.
"Looks like Mr. Lemasters will be staying on our watch overnight. You can all go in and talk to him, but he will not be able to talk back, and it has to be one visitor at a time."
