SAVAGE

17.

Nurses were everywhere-making squeaky noises with their clogs. The sound of someone being paged over the intercom made it obvious that the place was an actual hospital. Malcolm swaggered down the hallway-bypassing a nurse who was busy dealing with a sick patient. She stood there in her color-coded attire-blue, trying her best to deal with her patient, but her eyes fell on Malcolm.

He didn't seem to pay her any mind. Malcolm continued his stroll while casually sipping on his iced tea. Before coming to the hospital, he made a quick stop at the nearby coffee shop. When he made it to the correct door, he breathed in a breath of fresh air before going in. Malcolm pushed the door opened and noticed Ryder sitting on the bed. His chest was bandaged, which gave away the location of the bullet. He didn't seem horribly injured, so Malcolm was thankful for that.

"Yo, the fuck is you doing?" Ryder asked his girlfriend with venom in his throat. He looked at her with his eyebrows furrowed. Clearly, he was agitated, and every little thing managed to set him off.

Hope darted her eyes from left to right in confusion. All she did was grab his bag since she was going to pack his clothes for him.

"I'm trying to help you pack your shit." She blurted out with an eyeroll while dropping his bag on the bed. "Do it yourself since you want to be disrespectful about it."

"That's what I'mma do." He replied with a sharp tongue.

"You alive?" Malcolm questioned his friend as he stepped inside the hospital room. Instantly he was hit with the smell of cleaning products. Both Hope and Ryder looked his way, alarmingly. They had no idea that he had walked in, let alone opened the door.

"Them niggas barely hit me." Ryder responded as he stood up from the hospital bed. He grabbed the bag that Hope tossed on the bed and started piling random items in it.

Malcolm looked over at Hope and noticed the solemn expression on her face. She stood there scrolling through her phone. Obviously, embarrassed because she assumed Malcolm had witnessed Ryder being disrespectful to her-and he did.

"How you doing Hope?" He greeted her with respect.

She sighed, running her fingers through her curly hair. "I'm fine."

Her dry response let Malcolm know that she wasn't in the mood to be bothered, so he left her alone. Instead, he turned his attention to Ryder who was collecting his release papers.

"They're releasing you already?"

"Hell yeah." Ryder answered. "I've been here since earlier-I'm ready to get the fuck. They got police officers running in and out of this bitch."

"Damn." Malcolm cursed lowly while touching his beard. He figured that would happen. After all, Ryder got caught up in a horrible situation.

Suddenly, a knock at the door grabbed everyone's attention. Malcolm furrowed his eyebrows when he noticed the other person walking in. Ryder didn't have time to say or look a certain way. He was shocked that she even managed to show up.

"Hey." Kelli spoke sweetly while looking around the room. She was dressed casually, wearing a belly shirt with some jeans. She had switched her wigs around and was now wearing a black one. It was straight and parted down the middle. Kelli's face was bare-but she still managed to wear her lashes and lip gloss.

The room was quiet for a while since it was such a surprise to see her. Malcolm just stood back, sipping his iced tea. He was confused by the whole situation. Ryder inviting Kelli to the hospital with Hope present was a shady ass move in his opinion.

"Hey." Hope greeted her softly while cocking her head to the side, studying Kelli. "Who are you?"

Kelli did a doubletake, examining Hope as well. She didn't know how Ryder's girlfriend looked, but she assumed that the heavily pregnant girl before her was Hope. Kelli scoffed, furrowing her eyebrows. She had no idea that the broad was pregnant-Ryder never mentioned it.