A little while later, there was a knock on my room door. “Yeah?” I said. I had finished crying about an hour ago, but I still felt like crap. My eyes stung from the countless salty tears that had fallen from them. Turning my head to my door, I saw Dylan, Vic, and Tony cautiously walk into the room. I allowed myself a small smile. “Hey guys.”

Vic’s eyes lit up at the sound of my voice. “Hi, Ashley. How you feeling?” He walked over to me and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead; my stomach fluttered with butterflies.

“I’m as good as can be, seeing as how I…” my voice trailed off at the end of my sentence, and I felt my heart sink. I couldn’t yet bring myself to say what had truly happened. You lost your baby. It’s dead, I reminded myself and shuddered at the thought. Vic put his hand on my shoulder and looked me deep in my eyes, as if to tell me that he knew what I was trying to say. I sighed, and he pulled me in for a hug, well as best as he could, at least, considering all the wires that were attached to me.

“We’re super glad you’re awake, Ashley,” Dylan spoke up for the first time, and I broke my gaze with Vic to look at her. She and Tony were standing at the foot of my hospital bed, standing at a very close proximity. I smiled and raised a curious eyebrow at the two, and I could see Tony blush slightly. He adjusted his head so that his hair covered about half of his face, probably to conceal his rosy cheeks. I let out a low chuckle.

“Me too. Thanks for coming, guys. I don’t really have many friends here in San Diego.” I dropped my eyes as I said this, my words bringing back memories of why I came here in the first place. Jack, I thought. I scowled at the little voice in my head as it said his name.

“Did your doctor tell you when you can come home?” Tony spoke this time, and I smiled at him. If things didn’t turn out the way they did, I probably would’ve felt awkward by him being here, after our kiss and all. But none of that seemed to matter at this point. Nearly nothing did, really.

“Tomorrow. I’m fine now, but I guess they wanna keep me overnight for further observation or whatever. Where are Mike and Jaime? How come they’re not here?” I said, changing the subject. I wanted to try to keep myself in high spirits as best as I could. I could feel my depression seeping in again, but I wanted to keep it away with all my might. I wasn’t gonna let Jack keep me down forever.

“They decided to stay home. I told them what happened last night, and since they knew the three of us were coming, they didn’t want to overwhelm you. They told me to tell you to get better, and that they’d come to see you as soon as you got out of here.” Vic said. I smiled at his words, and he did the same. It felt good to have these guys care so much about me after spending so little time with me. I hadn’t had anyone show this much concern for me in years.

“Well, that’s good…” We talked more for a while about basically everything and nothing. I figured that after this, they wouldn’t just forget about me, and I thought that it would be cool to get to know them while they were here. However, after some time, I frowned out of the blue, despite the brief happiness I had just felt. Depression’s a bitch.

“Ashley…” Vic’s voice came out quieter and less confident this time. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and he sat down in the chair directly next to my bed and sighed. “Can you tell me who did this to you, and what happened?”

He tried to look me in the eyes, but I avoided his stare. I swallowed the lump that had been forming in my throat, and sighed. “Um…”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he quickly added, cutting me off.

“No, I want to,” I said, still avoiding eye contact. I cleared my throat and began, already feeling tears threaten to fall from my hazel eyes. “Um, after Dylan dropped me off the morning after the party, I slept til the afternoon, and then I woke up with, like, the worst hangover. I tried to find Aspirin in my bathroom, but instead I found unopened tampons,” I could see Vic and Tony stiffen a bit after I said tampons, and I wanted to stop my story and laugh, but instead I continued, “and got scared. So I went to the drug store and bought a pregnancy test. I took it, finding out I was pregnant, and I didn’t know what to do. Vic, I was so scared.” I finally felt tears start to drip from my eyes, and I blinked hard, trying to slow them down so that I could finish. “I went for a walk, and when I came back, my crazy ex-boyfriend Jack had broken into my apartment, found the pregnancy test in the trash can, and tried to take me back, but when I said no, he pulled a knife. Then I woke up here.”

My tears were coming in full speed at this point, and I was grateful that I had finished my recollection of what happened, because I could barely even talk anymore. If I tried to speak, my words would probably only come out as choked sobs. I looked up, and through my blurry vision, I saw Vic’s brown eyes that were usually so full with life glossed over with a sheet of tears that hadn’t fallen yet. Dylan had her hand over her mouth, and I could see fresh tear tracks lining her cheeks. Tony’s facial expression was blank, and he had his arm Dylan’s shoulders, looking at the floor.

After what seemed like an eternity of them sitting there taking what I had told them, Tony stood up and walked over to me. He sat next to me on my bed and wrapped his arms around me. I was stunned at first, but I hugged him back, sobbing into his hoodie. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that,” he cooed into my ear. “Everything will be alright.” Eventually I stopped sobbing, and he pulled away from me. He gave me one more reassuring smile, and stood up.
The door opened, and we all turned our heads to see a tall, skinny blonde woman wearing scrubs walk in. She was my nurse, and besides Dr. Paige and my friends, she was the only person I’d seen since Jack attacked me. “Sorry to interrupt, but visiting hours are over,” she gave a pleasant smile, and I nodded in her direction in order to tell her that she could walk out of the room, and my friends would leave shortly. She understood and turning on the ball of her foot, left the room.

“Thank you so much for coming, guys. You don’t know how much this means to me,” I said, finally able to speak clearly after all my crying.

I got individual hugs and kisses on the cheek from Dylan, Tony, and Vic, and then after our final good-byes, they left and told me that one of them would come to pick me up in the morning.
After they left, I started crying again. Part of me was crying, once again, due to the loss of my baby. The other part of me, however, was crying out of joy, because I just made some new friends. And not just any type of friends, these were the type of people that saved you on the first day of school from a bully, and they just stuck with you. These were the type of friends that you saw in movies with happy endings, the kind that you knew would stick with you even from your first few encounters. Dylan, Tony, and Vic were those friends for me, and I had never felt anything like this before.

Vic’s P.O.V
I drove home in the dim light of San Diego’s streetlights. The visit to see Ashley was…heartbreaking…and it took nearly everything in my power to stop myself from breaking down right then and there in her hospital room. But I had to keep my composure and stay strong for her.

Tony had decided to stay another night with Dylan, and I really began to question where their friendship stood. But tonight was certainly not the night for anything like that, there were bigger problems that needed to be dealt with.

I replayed the story Ashley told us as I put my key in my front door and walked inside. I heard voices in the living room, so I decided to go in there to see what was going on. I walked toward the entryway, and before I could even adjust to the change of lighting from the dark hallway to the bright room, I heard a female voice call my name. “Vic! Long time no see!” The girl chuckled, and I heard a guy laugh with her.

I blinked hard a few times, my eyes stinging from the discreet tears I shed during my visit to see Ashley, and looked at the woman sitting on the couch. “Drew? What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I’m just hanging out with my good ol’ buddy Mike here,” she laughed, or, rather, shrieked, and I looked at my brother sitting next to her.

“Sup, bro?” He asked, his words slurring a bit with a smile on his face from ear to ear.

I looked at the two in surprise and curiosity and looked down at the coffee table. There were a few empty bottles of whiskey scattered about the glass surface, and I looked at Mike with disappointment. I grabbed his hand and pulled us aside. “Mike!” I whisper-yelled at him, crossing my arms over my chest. “I don’t know what you’re doing here with Drew, but stop drinking! Get her back to her family in the morning. Don’t do anything stupid man, she’s engaged. And she has a son!” He looked at me with glossy eyes. “Hello? Are you listening to me? Mike!”

He blinked his eyes, and his familiar smile came creeping upon his face. “Huh? Yeah, I heard you! Drew’s a mom, cool. She’s actually kinda…hooootttt.” He breathed the last word in my face, and I smelled the alcohol on his breath. I groaned in exasperation, grabbed his wrist, and dragged him upstairs to his room, ignoring his sounds of protest. Slamming open the door, I threw him on his bed.

“No fair!” he slurred, crossing his arms over his chest while he laid on his bed like a child.

“Shut up, Mike!” I stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind me. I then went back downstairs to the living room to find a very angry Drew looking at me.

“Where’s Mike?” She said slowly, sounding upset, then giggled again.

I sighed. “Drew, come here,” I said calmly, extending my hand out for her to grab. She looked at me with a raised eyebrow for a second, then smiled widely and took my hand. Shaking my head in a disapproving manner, I led her upstairs and into the bedroom. No wonder she didn’t go out drinking, I thought. It would be so easy for someone to take advantage of her while she was in this state.

I put her on the bed and tucked her in, not bothering to undress her so that I didn’t see anything I wasn’t supposed to. I walked over to the door, and looking behind me once more before I closed it, I noticed she had already passed out. I chuckled slightly at this, and walked out of the room.
Mike is gonna owe me for saving his ass from doing something stupid tonight, I thought to myself. I chuckled again and walked to my bathroom to get ready for bed.