the new year

fifty-two

F I F T Y - T W O :
ᴍɪɴᴏʀ ᴛʀɪɢɢᴇʀ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢ: ᴍᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ᴅʀᴜɢ ᴍɪsᴜsᴇ, sᴜɪᴄɪᴅᴇ
 

Her ring-cladded hands clenched tightly onto the sink as she let out a series of deep shivering breaths, her eyes red raw from the amount of tears she had shed. They had arrived at the hospital around fifteen minutes ago and Oak was told that she couldn't be in the room as it could be painful to see. Just from when Oak had checked her brother's pulse and by the time he reached the ambulance his pulse was even lower and the second they burst through the hospital doors he was taken away to get checked over.

The ringing that echoed through her ears for the third time trying to get hold of Seb made her want to throw her phone on the floor, she didn't want to bother her mum or panic her but she didn't want to be alone right now.

"Seb, for fucks sake can you just pick up the bloody phone?" She breathed into the voicemail, her tone tense "Please, I need you here. . ." She sobbed again, kind of growing sick of the feeling, she was surprised she even had any tears left. "I'm at the hospital, so when you get this please just come here, it's Tom, it's happened again and I don't know what to do," She continued talking as her throat was held together with barbed wire.

The hospital was as bleak as ever, not one person had a smile on their faces, well, what was there to smile about? The usual reason someone was in hospital wasn't a good reason, in a way it depended how you took the reason you were in there.

Her legs felt weak, like she hadn't walked in months like everything around her was slowly but surely crumbling beneath her, she felt so sorry for Tom at the fact he felt alone and he resided to doing this to himself. What was going on in his head? Because whatever it was Oak and their full family would do everything in their power to help him get through it, it didn't make him any different having struggles, everyone does but the sheer fact his were too much to handle is what made the feeling in Oak's stomach clench like she was being repeatedly kicked.

"Oak?" The sweet voice of Tammy spoke softly in recognition of her sons best friend "Are you okay, darling?" She asked concern dripping from every syllable that left her mouth. Oak had forgotten Alex's mum worked on Sunday nights, she put on a brave face and turned to face the lovely woman stood by her side and smiled a faux smile.

"I'm good, you?" The brunette answered her question, trying her best with a cheery tone. It was abundantly obvious she wasn't okay but it was nowhere near the 'not okay' her brother felt, her eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks were painted red from the amount of crying she'd done.

Tammy tilted her head upwards at the tall girl before her and didn't answer her question, she just gently pulled her into a hug she could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't 'good'. She knew Oak and she knew that she was usually smiley, she was always shy but always genuinely smiley. At first, the girl didn't know how to respond because it was so sudden but eventually she eased herself into the hug and hugged her back just as tightly her eyes threatening to spill over again.

"Do you want to tell me what's wrong?" Tammy asked soothingly, keeping her short arms wrapped around the girl she called her non-biological daughter.

"It's Tom," She choked out into the crook of Tammy's neck. Tammy squeezed her back tighter in response assuming that the reason he was here was the same as last time because he never usually wound up here.