Along Came Ari (boyxboy; Open Novella Contest 2019)(Complete)✅

Chapter 15

By the time I got to the hospital, Danny was already behind the double doors of the emergency room. I couldn't just sit there and wait. Rather, I paced around the waiting room, frantically texting my parents. My mother was working a double today so she wasn't due to get off work until eleven. My dad wasn't home, but responded to my text.

'I'll be there ASAP,' he texted me.

My mother texted me twenty minutes later. She couldn't just take off and leave, but she said she'd be there as soon as she could. Too bad she didn't work in the same hospital.

Not long after I got there, Mr. and Mrs. Collins, along with John, showed up. Their parents immediately came after me, accusing me and blaming me for this accident. Mr. Collins, in particular, charged toward me.

"What'd you do to him?" Mr. Collins shouted at  me, making a big scene in front of everyone in the waiting room.

"Stop it, Dad," John said, grabbing his dad's arm, preventing him from getting to me. And to think I thought he was the nicer, saner parent. Even though John and I had been best friends for years, I realized I knew very little about his parents.

"I didn't do anything," I said, defending myself. "He ran after me in the parking lot and it was dark and a car came out of nowhere. You know how dark that parking lot gets and Danny was in all black and...and...I didn't do anything...I didn't do anything...I swear..."

"This is all your fault," Mrs. Collins said, pointing and shaking her finger at me. "He has enough problems. He doesn't need you causing more."

"Jesus, Mom, it's not Ari's fault he's gay," John said.

"This would never have happened if you just left him alone," Mrs. Collins said to me.

"I did," I said. "He ran after me. I told him to leave me alone. I told him..."

He just wanted to talk to me. I should have stopped and talked to him.

John brought his arm around my shoulders, walking me to the far end of the waiting room, as far away from his parents as possible.

"I should have stopped and talked to him," I said to John. "He just wanted to talk to me. I should have just stopped and talked to him, right?"

"It was an accident," John said. "It's gonna be alright."

"I'm totally freaking out," I said. "What if he's dead? What if he has brain damage or something? There was blood on the ground. I saw his blood. What if...?"

"Enough of the what ifs," John said. "Sit your ass down."

Reluctantly I did as he said. I wasn't sure how long I'd be able to sit.

Mr. and Mrs. Collins sat on one side of the waiting room while me and John sat on the opposite side. Every now and again they'd shoot daggers at me.

My knee bounced up and down, anxiously waiting for an update.

An hour or so later, we still hadn't heard how Danny was doing. Finally, my parents arrived. I ran to my mother and right into her arms.

"Mom, I think I killed him," I cried.

I started to believe Mr. and Mrs. Collins. Maybe this was all my fault. I ruined Danny's life. It all started because of a dare gone wrong.