Four Reasons (ON HOLD)

Chapter 14

~ Elena's POV ~

Once again, I became conscious to a thundering headache and a light beeping noise by my head, and my eyes shot open. I shut them half way when I was once again blinded by the lights in the ceiling above me, but I reopened them fully as they adjusted to the brightness. I remembered everything that happened before I blacked out this time, but I still had no idea what had happened in the time that I had lost.
"Oh thank goodness," a familiar voice said next to me.
I smiled before I even looked at him. I turned my head to see a dirty blonde with a look of worry clouding his face. "Hey Grant," my voice was dry as I spoke and I reached for a glass of water that was on the table by the bed.
"Hey," he took hold of the glass and handed it to me. "I'm glad you're okay. Well... okay-ish."
"Yeah, me too. When did you get here?" I asked, taking a sip of water.
"About an hour ago. You've been unconscious for a few hours," he replied, taking the cup from me and setting it back on the table.
"Where's Tom?" I asked as I realized he wasn't even in the room.
"That prat is out in the waiting room," Grant gritted through his teeth, his expression changing from a look of worry to that of anger and annoyance in a split second.
"Reginald Grant Herris why the hell are you calling him a prat?" I grew angry, which made my head worse but at the moment I didn't care.
"Because, him and his friend are the reason you got hurt in the first place! I have a right to call him a prat! Honestly I could be calling him much worse things, but I have currently decided not to until he does something else that warrants a worse name," Grant folded his arms across his chest and let out an angry breath.
"Why do you sound so convinced that he will even do something else?!" I became even more angry as I watched him.
"Because he will, just you wait!" Both of us were almost yelling at this point, and we only stopped when the door flew open.
"What the hell is happening?!" A concerned Tom stepped into the room hastily, his expression unreadable except for the worry. "Are you okay El?" He came over to the opposite side of the bed from Grant, and to my brother's surprise and annoyance, took my hand into his own.
"I'm fine, my brother's just being an annoying prat," I glared at Grant, knowing he wanted to say something about Tom holding my hand. I didn't really think anything of it except that he was doing it as a form of comfort for me, and I didn't really mind either; his hand holding mine felt comfortable... and... right.
"I'm not a prat, he is," Grant suddenly burst.
"Grant!" I almost slapped him.
Tom remained calm and I noticed that he didn't even really look at Grant when he said something, but kept his eyes on me. I looked away from my idiot of a brother and over at Tom, who's worried expression had grown a little more.
"What?" I asked him gently.
"Nothing," he looked down, and, coincidentally, at our clasped hands. "I'm just glad you're awake, and at least slightly okay."
I smiled at what he said and gave his hand a quick squeeze to tell him a silent thank you. Then I looked back at Grant to see him even more mad.
"Is Zoey here?" I asked, trying to get his mind off of Tom.
"No, she stayed with Luk and Leo at home," Grant finally looked at me as he answered my question.
"Oh, okay. How are they?"
"They're fine, of course Zoey's tired as usual, but that's expected with keeping track of our crazy twin siblings," Grant grinned as he appeared to be thinking about them.
"How many siblings do you have?" Tom asked and I looked back at him to see he was watching me again.
"Four," I answered.
"What about your parents?" Tom asked another question that caught me off guard.
I tensed and looked at Grant, who was looking straight back at me, both pairs of eyes wide and glistening.
"Uhh," Grant cleared his throat and looked away from me to Tom. He knew I wouldn't be able to answer. "Mom's dead, and dad's gone."
"Oh," Tom gripped my hand tighter and I took that as his way of apologizing for bringing it up. I quickly squeezed back to let him know it was alright. But I didn't meet his eyes again for a while.
"What have you guys been up to since I've been gone?" I asked, looking back at Grant.
"Well, Zoey and I have been working, and," Grant hesitated before the last part. "Leo got a girlfriend."
"He did what?!" I sat up in bed and my head started spinning. "Okay, laying back down." I slowly set myself back down against the pillow, closing my eyes until the dizziness went away.
"Yep," Grant replied, shaking his head at my stupidity.
"You're serious?" I'm dumbfounded as I stare at Grant in shock.
"Uh-huh, completely," He starts to grin, probably because of how I'm reacting.
"What's her name?"
"Tori," he replied, still smiling. "She's quite pretty, and nice, and she was quite funny the first time we met."
"Wait, I haven't even been gone for that long, how long have they been together?" I started to get suspicious.
"A few months but Leo didn't tell us until Friday night when he brought her home with him. Apparently neither of them told anybody because they wanted to see if it would actually go somewhere or not."
"Oh... that makes sense," I fiddled with Tom's hand that was still holding mine.
"Wait, so let me get this straight, Leo is your brother, and he has a girlfriend named Tori. And then I caught the name Zoey, who I'm guessing is your sister. Did I miss anything?" Tom asked, looking like he was a little confused.
"There's Lukas who's Leo's twin brother, but yeah, you got everything else. Well, there is Iris too, who's dating Luk, but other than that," I answered him, smiling a little at his confused expression. "Speaking of," I turned to Grant. "How are Luk and Iris?"
"They're doing great, they just had their 6 month anniversary yesterday, so that's a thing," Grant smiled even bigger.
Both of us were proud of our 18 year old little brothers for getting girlfriends, even though neither of us had a significant other and we were significantly older than them. Well, I'm 21 and Grant is 22. But still. I was proud, at least.
Honestly... I kind of envied them. They both had someone to go to that wasn't actually part of the family. Someone who could understand them because they knew them in a different way than family. Someone who knew what they wouldn't tell their family. Someone who would be there when their family is gone.
I wanted that.
But I would never have that.
Not with being who I am.
Grant and Tom talking brought me out of my thoughts and back into reality.
"So how old are you?" Grant was asking Tom.
"Twenty-two," Tom replied civilly.
"Mm," Grant hummed in response, looking at his hands in thought.
"You?" Tom returned the question.
"Same," Grant muttered out.
There then came a silence that I could now tell was thick with tension, and the longer it stretched on, the more intense it became and I felt like I was swimming in it. After almost five minutes of complete silence besides the beeping of my heart monitor, I couldn't stand it anymore.
"So what actually happened to me?" I just came right out with it, and the moment the words registered in the atmosphere, Tom's head snapped up to look at me. His eyes were wide and they were glazed over like he was reliving something horrible.
There was another pause as both Grant and I watched him in anticipation of his explanation. When he finally looked up at me, my breath caught in my throat at the look on his face. Then he looked at Grant and finally spoke. "Could you leave us alone for a moment?"
Grant looked shocked. "Hell no! I'm not leaving you alone in here with my sister, not anymore than you already have been because for all I know, you were the one her put her here in the first place!"
Tom stiffened and stood up, walking around the end of the bed to stand nose to nose with my brother, a dangerous look flickering in his eyes.
"How dare you," Tom's voice was low, and his fists were clenched tightly at his sides as he stared my brother down. "How dare you even think, let alone accuse me of hurting her in any way. I would shoot myself in the head before I would hurt her. You can think or say anything else you want about me, but when it comes to Elena, you don't get that right. I don't care if you are her brother."
I gulped.
Grant was holding in his anger as best as he could, but he was struggling. "How dare you talk to me like that. You hardly even know her! How the hell would you even think of shooting yourself first before hurting her, when you've only known her for THREE DAYS!"
Both boys were seething at this point and I had to do something or else fists would start flying. But if I tried to say something they wouldn't hear me because they were so caught up in their argument. The only other option involved a lot of pain.
Screw it.
The two were at the yelling stage by the time I slid out of the bed, my head spinning and a jackhammer pounding inside it. I made it over to them without falling over, and I pushed them apart from their previous less than five inch threat stance.
"Both of you just..." I started to feel lightheaded. "Just-"
My knees gave way and Tom's arms shot out and caught me, Grant's a split second behind him. Anger replaced by concern for me.
"Elena!" Tom helped me gently back to the bed as he spoke, deliberately cutting Grant off from helping at all by the way he did it. "What were you thinking?" He was concerned, but there was still a hint of tension in his voice. "You have a severe concussion, and the doctor said not to let you get up."
"I had to keep you two tense boys from killing each other over me," I gave a weak smile, but dropped it a moment later as I laid back down, holding my head as I closed my eyes in a feeble attempt to get the thudding against my skull to stop.
"Sorry," Tom muttered and I heard Grant mutter it a moment later.
"Reginald, can you give us a minute, please?" I looked at Grant with a pleading look in my eyes.
"I... I—fine," he gave in and walked out the door, closing it behind him.
There was silence again as Tom sat on the edge of my bed, facing the wall and looking at his hands clasped tightly in his lap. After a minute I reached forward and separated his clenched fingers, bringing his hand into my own lap and holding it gently.
"What happened to me?" I repeated my question from earlier.
There was yet another long pause before he seemed to pick up the courage to speak. "Harrison. Harrison is what happened to you."
He looked at me when he said it, and the moment the sound of that name hit my ears, I froze. Images and memories flashed. And I could no longer breathe. My heartbeat thudding in my head and my blood rushing in my ears were the only things I could hear. Time stopped.
And I remembered. I remembered everything.