Taunt

Chapter 61- Taunting Needles

* WARNING: MILDLY TRIGGERING SCENE AHEAD *
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[] J A M A L []

It's been a week since Amelia left us all. And although that wasn't long, it felt like a century to us. Time almost seemed to slow down and none of us knew how to kick it up again.

Gemma had kept us up with Amelia's state, however, she wasn't giving too much away about what was going on. We only knew that it had to do with Amelia's brother's case, but nothing more than that. All of it was torture to say the least.

The most torturous days were when Leo was in the hospital.

Andre and I had stayed by his side every day. And every day seemed to be worse than the other. He would stare out the window for hours on end, barely moving. He'd then look at his phone, and then back out the window. His family stayed while he was there too, but even they couldn't help him. He reacted the most when Clara came, looking over and smiling assuringly at her.

As if that fucker could hide his sadness from us.

We knew what happened with Amelia broke him. Especially that she never called or tried to contact him in the hospital. That screwed us up too. We all wondered why Amelia was being so selfish, why she was only caring about her family when this boy here risked his life for her.

On the third day of Leo being in the hospital, I had a revelation. And that was that I couldn't be one to judge. Amelia always had a reason for what she did. I had bet that she was just feeling guilty and couldn't face Leo. When I had told Leo that, he merely turned to me, then looked away to look out the window again.

None of us knew how to get him out of his depression. Even with all our heads together, we didn't know what we could do. It seemed that only Amelia could help at that point. So it surprised us all, when the last day we walked into his hospital room, and Leo was getting out of bed. Andre and I had rushed to him, but he managed to break out of our hold, even in his bruised state.

It surprised us, but we regained ourselves and ran after him. We finally grabbed him and held him. He still struggled in our hold, but we didn't budge. At last, he had sagged in our arms, breaking down completely. He kept muttering, "I have to get her," over and over again as he sobbed.

Andre and I were helpless. James and Laura had entered the room then and were surprised to see Leo's state. At last, Laura pulled him into a motherly hug, and he continued to sob in her arms. We left the two then for a long time. After nearly an hour, Laura had come out of the room with Leo in tow. And since then, which was last night, Leo has been home.

Andre and I had been keeping a watch on Leo's stubborn ass. After leaving the hospital, he retired to his own apartment, saying he wanted to stay there. However we saw past him. He probably wanted to stay in his apartment because he thinks that's where Amelia will come the moment she steps foot in Lethbridge again. We couldn't argue with him, but could only support him. His family left last night after dropping us off at Leo's apartment. They all needed to go home. They looked as if they went through a train wreck in the last week. Laura had even slept on the uncomfortable chairs outside Leo's hospital room for the first two days. After that, all three of them crashed in Leo's apartment, and then came back to the hospital in the early hours of the morning. This had been going on the whole time and it was time they get rest. At last, Andre and I pushed for them to go home and that we'd keep an eye on Leo. They had begrudgingly agreed, and it wasn't until Clara said the same that James and Laura agreed.