The Waiting Room
740 Words
EM’S POV
I stared at Cole, waiting for him to say Danni was home. Safe. That everything was going to be okay.
My eyes were wide, my voice barely holding steady.
“Well… what did Ruby say? Is Danni okay?” I asked, barely holding it together.
Cole looked at me with something I didn’t recognise—sorrow, maybe. Then he turned to Rixon.
“County Hospital,” he said.
Rixon floored it.
Tyres screeched.
My fists clenched in my lap, shaking.
Tears spilled over.
I couldn’t stop them this time.
Cole slumped back in his seat, fists pressed to his forehead.
His shoulders shook.
And we drove.
Fast.
Silent, except for our broken breathing.
All of us—
Terrified we were already too late.
The doors hissed open, and the cold hit me first.
Sharp.
Too bright.
Too clean.
Hospitals always smelled like bleach and heartbreak.
“We need to see Danni Burrows!” I snapped at the nurse at the desk, voice already cracking.
“Her family brought her in. I—I just need to know…”
My throat closed before I could finish the sentence.
Behind me, Cole hovered like a ghost.
His hands were shaking so badly that it made my stomach twist.
His eyes locked on the door, as if he looked away, the world might fall apart.
Like he might.
Rixon stood near the wall.
Pale.
Silent.
Eyes wild and red, like he’d already been crying.
Like he knew this was his fault, before anyone even said it.
The nurse blinked, wide-eyed.
“Family only,” she stammered.
And that’s when something inside me snapped.
“I am her family!” I roared.
My fist hit the desk so hard it rattled.
“I’ve known her since we were six. I’m her best friend. Don’t you dare tell me I can’t—”
My voice cracked.
The edges of my vision blurred.
I turned and locked eyes with Rixon.
And that was it.
The match to gasoline.
I lunged.
My palms slammed into his chest.
Hard.
“You did this!” I screamed, voice raw and ripping out of me.
“You broke her, and now she’s—”
My knees gave out.
I would’ve collapsed—
But Cole caught me.
Arms tight around my shoulders, pulling me back.
“Stop, Em,” he rasped, voice shaking.
“She’s not—”
His breath hitched.
“She’s not dead.”
But he sounded like he wasn’t sure.
Like he was trying to convince himself more than me.
Rixon didn’t move.
Didn’t fight back.
Just stood there.
Frozen.
Chest heaving.
Eyes glassy like he’d already crumbled, and there was nothing left to hit.
The nurse disappeared.
Probably off to get security.
Let them.
At least then I’d feel something other than this suffocating fear.
Cole’s hands stayed on my shoulders.
Tight.
Grounding.
But they were shaking too.
His whole body trembled against mine.
We stood like that—
Me, gasping.
Cole, silent but shaking.
Rixon, cracked open and bleeding guilt onto the sterile floor.
The nurse returned, Nolan and JJ right behind her.
“She’s in surgery,” Nolan said, his voice cracking as he pulled me into a hug.
“All we can do now is wait.”
Wait.
Like waiting wasn’t the same as drowning.
Like waiting didn’t feel like knives in my chest.
I let go of Nolan as he went back to console Ruby.
Cole led me to one of those stiff plastic chairs.
I collapsed into it, hands fisting in my lap.
My legs bounced.
My chest heaved.
I couldn’t stop shaking.
JJ must have sensed it.
He climbed into my lap without a word.
We sat like that—curled together, giving each other what little comfort we could.
Cole sat beside us.
His leg bounced too.
His fists clenched so tight I thought they might snap.
He didn’t speak.
Didn’t look at anyone.
Just stared at the floor.
Rixon didn’t sit.
Didn’t speak.
Didn’t move.
He stared at the double doors like he could will her to come back through them whole.
The silence between us was heavy.
Thick.
Loaded with all the things we’d broken between us.
And in that silence—
I realised something that made my stomach turn.
We weren’t just fighting over Danni anymore.
We were all trying to hold on to the pieces of ourselves.
Pieces are already slipping through our fingers.
- Writer
