I nodded even though the little voice in the back of my head was thinking the worst.
Ricky downed the rest of the water in one humongous gulp and then filled it up again like he hadn't drunk anything in days. Seems like I wasn’t the only one who was dying of thirst.
"You have no idea how thankful I am for you, dude." He let out a strained chuckle as his grip on his cup tightened. "Seriously, you have no idea how much good you do for him. You genuinely care about him and everyone can see it. Everyone including Eli, even though he acts oblivious sometimes."
My nostrils flared. "I'll do anything for him."
"I know, me too." He tossed the cup into the trash can next to him. "I’m glad you had the guts to actually confront Eli about his drinking. If I would’ve been less of a pussy and talked to him about it earlier, maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess."
"Don't blame yourself for that. Elias is a master of deflecting and downplaying things. You've been there for him since the beginning and you haven't left, that’s saying something."
"Thank you," Ricky mumbled before his mouth opened to yawn. His head turned to Kailey down the hallway taking a nap in a chair. The girl was exhausted, and I could not blame her.
I was just as tired as she was, but my body was not going to let me rest until we knew Eli was alright. I hoped that the doctors would give us some updates eventually. Just because we were not biologically related to him did not mean we were not his family.
"I couldn't ask for a better boyfriend for my best friend—or whatever you guys are," he snorted. "But just know that if you do something stupid, I'm gonna have to turn on you."
I chuckled. "Don’t worry. I love Eli, so you don't have to worry about that."
Ricky’s lips formed into a closed smile, and it took me a minute to realize what it was that made him so amused. When I realized what I had just said my eyes went big and Ricky threw a hand over his mouth.
"Have you said that to him yet?" he asked in a hushed tone.
I shook my head, still shocked at myself. “Not yet…”
Ricky slapped my shoulder encouragingly. "You’ll get the chance."
A hand was placed on Ricky’s shoulder and he flinched. It was Paxton’s hand, he and Bella had arrived when Ricky and I were too deep in conversation to notice. Foregoing the part where we greet each other, Bella pointed a sharp finger in the opposite direction. We all turned to see what she was looking at with such malice.
Standing right beside the door of Eli’s hospital room were the twins. Emerson had a cloudy look in her eyes as she tried to follow the doctor's words. Easton showed no emotion whatsoever, and I could not tell if it was because he was in shock or simply did not give a shit. His state was very similar to Elias’ just a few hours prior.
“Who called them?” Bella whispered in disgust. “They’re the reason for this mess. Who the fuck watches their brother drink himself to sleep every night and doesn’t do anything about it?”
Kailey showed up beside us having just woken up with her power nap. She was already in tune with the conversation. “Yeah, and the only reason the drinking started in the first place is because they’ve convinced him he killed their parents. Assholes.”
Ricky ran a hand through his hair. “Macy is the real problem, guys. The twins are shitty, but they wouldn’t be like that if it wasn’t for their aunt's corruption.”
He was right. Everyone wanted to put all of the blame on Easton and Emerson, but they were victims in the situation too. Did that make me dislike them any less? No, I still wanted to fight them every time I saw them. Though, I could recognize that they had been hurt just as much as their brother had.
I let out a sigh of relief as the twins began walking toward us. I half expected them to ignore us, to leave all of Eli’s friends without an update because that was the kind of people I had made them out to be. They proved me wrong.
"Hi," Emerson greeted sheepishly. "I'm guessing you all want to know how he is."
Bella pursed her lips. “Who even called you?”
Emerson's nose scrunched at the disgust in Bella’s voice, but Ricky stepped forward to stop unnecessary drama. "Is he okay?"
Her glare lingered on Bella before she sighed. "He's alright, but he’s sleeping. The doctor said if his blood alcohol levels drop quick enough then he can be discharged today. They aren’t sure, though."
"Okay, what did they say about afterward?" Kailey asked impatiently. "Are they going to force him into something like AA? Will he need to go into special therapy?"
"I don't know," Emerson whispered.
Kailey had more questions. "Is your aunt going to be the bitch she is and try and force him back with you to make his lifeeven worse? Gosh, I can already see the alcoholic insults she’s going to make to him."
Emerson’s head hung low. "She said–"
"Is there damage to his liver?" Kailey was tearing up again. "Or anywhere else? He's young so there's consequences, right?"
