I'll Survive You

Kennadee took a deep breath to steady herself to tell Alex their love story, though the wounds were still fresh in her mind. She tightly squeezed Alex’s hand before her fingers untangled from his and fell limply back to her lap. The door opened with a slight bang on the wall, a thin and frazzled nurse with her clipboard n hand and tick rimmed glasses on her nose hastily entered the room.

“Oh! Dear, visiting hours are over. I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave for the night” the nurse, whose name tag read “Tina” requested while reading Alex’s chart.

“But, I…I can’t just leave him alone. T-That’s what got him here in the first place!” Kennadee protested.

Tina fluffed Alex’s pillows and looked up towards Kennadee with a sympathetic note in her eyes “I’m sorry honey but I can’t break the rules for you. Now< if anything changes you’ll be the first person we contact, but until then you’ll just have to come back in the morning.” Tina hated relaying that message over and over again to heartbroken and mourning families, she hated the way he looked at her and she hated knowing exactly how the felt.

Kennadee reluctantly nodded her head and with a last glimpse towards Alex’s peaceful face she quietly left the room to search for the remaining ¾ of all time low. She wasn’t surprised when she found the three men strewn across the waiting room chairs in an uncomfortable slumber.
Kennadee suppressed her giggles and strode over to jack, gently waking him up before doing the same to jack and Rian. The four musicians remained sleepy and virtually silent as they left the hospital together. Rian pushed the door open and they were greeted with the harsh city breeze, cheeks reddening as the wind nipped their skin.

"H-how'd he look?" Rian asked, unsure if he was mentally or even emotionally prepared for the answer but walking in silence definitely wasn't what he wanted to do when he felt so vulnerable and Kennadee was the only one with insight on Alex.

Kennadee felt the tears that she had tried so hard to suppress, rush back to her eyes. Her bottom lip quivered, she sunk her teeth into it attempting to maintain her front but her emotions were swiftly betraying her.

"Like...like he was having an impossibly good sleep, the best of his life." She sniffled, her right hand quickly lifting in time to catch the traitor tear that dove from the tip of her eyelashes. Zack instantly wrapped his arms around her thin frame, tucking her head into the crook of his neck as the whimpers turned to earth shattering sobs; before long jack and Rian joined the hug and the city seemingly stopped around them in their moment of much needed comfort. It was the honking of car horns that eventually broke them from their group embrace, each wiping their own cheeks from the dampness that their tears had left behind.

"Kennadee, feel free to crash in one of our rooms for the night; our hotel is closer to the hospital...I mean, assuming that you want to come back tomorrow with us, it's more convenient for you." Rian politely offered as they approached the hotel that the guys were staying at.

Before Kennadee could even open her mouth to answer Rian’s offer, jack beat her to the punch.

"Yeah" jack chimed in "Alex was rooming with me and they don't have an open room so I couldn't change...I really don't want to stay alone tonight, Dee." Jack sheepishly admitted and Kennadee didn't have the heart to reject him, especially when she knew how vulnerable jack has to be feeling. She apprehensively nodded her head and made a mental note to call her tour manager at some point.

"I'd love to stay with you, Jack" Kennadee reassuringly squeezed his hand and followed behind him as he led the way to the room.

"Night guys!" She called out to Zack and Rian as they disappeared into their own room and Jack stood in front of a door that Kennadee could only assume was his and Alex's. She tentatively placed her hand on jack's arm, “do you want me to...?" She trailed off, glancing down at the key card that jack held in his shaking hand.

"P-please" jack whispered brokenly, allowing Kennadee to take the key card from him and instead wrapped his lanky arms around his body. She swiped it through the lock and waited for the green lights to blink before she turned the handle and pushed the door open. Kennadee slowly walked into the room, noting how it looked immaculate, as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever taken place in that room. However, the sinking feeling in her stomach reminded her why she was even there in the first place. She sat down on one of the ivory bedspread covered beds, the mattress sinking beneath her body and the complimentary chocolate tumbled down next to her hand; the mere thought of the artificial treat made her feel sick. As she sat there with the small gold wrapped chocolate in her hand, Kennadee fully understood why jack didn't want to be in that room alone. Everything was too perfect in that fantasy room when their reality was crumbling to pieces. Kennadee looked up from the chocolate only to find jack still stood in the doorway, his eyes blown wide and innocent reminded Kennadee of a small child.

"Oh, jack..." She whispered into the room, her heart aching for him. She quickly walked towards him and threw her arms around him, cradling his awkward frame as she walked them both into the room. With her arms still securely around him, she pulled him down to the closest bed and laid his head in her lap. Her nimble fingers pushed through his dual toned hair as his tears fell onto her jean clad legs.

"Shhhh, you're okay honey..." She cooed over and over through jack's whimpers until he wore himself out and the tears stopped flowing. Kennadee gently lifted his head and wiped his face clean of any remaining tears before beckoning jack to take his shoes off. Jack kicked his Nike’s off and onto the floor before tiredly crawling up to the too squishy pillows and flopping down in defeat, allowing Kennadee to tuck him in. Kennadee chastely kissed jacks forehead before she too climbed into bed and wished for sleep to take her worries away.

Notes

sorry that i didn't get this out when i said I would. my stupid laptop keyboard stopped working so I had to go buy a replacement so I could type what I had written out. I do have the next update almost done though, so expect that within the next couple of days. Also, please understand that I intern and work, so outside of writing I lead an adult life with job responsibilities meaning I dont always have ample free time to post....just please be patient, I promise this story will get finished!
<3 -K