Page 16 of Four Times Saved

I told Ethan that we should be back this evening, but Eric was still lying in the hospital bed unconscious. Patched up with gauze and cotton taped to my forehead, I trembled. I had almost killed my best friend and set us back in our quest to find Lily. Tapping my feet against the tiled floor, I looked at my phone screen, slightly cracked. I had Eric's parents' number. All I'd have to do was call them and ask them for the contacts we lost, but then they'd ask for Eric, and I'd have to lie, not knowing whether or not he'd actually be okay.

There were no words to explain what was going on inside my body right then. For the first time, I understood why some people call the body a vessel, because I was detached from mine. It was like an ornament sitting in the chair next to Eric, and I was floating around the room. That might have been trauma talking, being stuck in limbo when I wanted to be running toward Lily, or it might have been the painkillers I got. Luckily for me, I got away with a few scratches and bruises. If Eric woke up, I promised we'd be a united front, even if he accused me again of being the reason Lily was missing.

The meds had me emotional, because I broke the fuck down again, head in my hands, wailing. He was right. Ethan and I should've been more careful. Whether Marco was the one responsible for her disappearance or her father, that visit should've served as a warning. We were too consumed in lust and the lightheadedness of falling in love, to take a fucking step outside of our wonderland. We should've never left her alone. That was the reason we'd moved in with her in the first place, to keep her safe. I was selfish, missing the luxury of space. Now I had unimaginable space and I'd do anything to turn back the clock and wake up in her tiny room on that hard and lumpy mattress, crushed against her body with Ethan on her other side.

"Bro, what the fuck?! Where am I?" Sluggish words jerked my head up and I exhaled in a rush.

"Woah, woah. Stay right there." I jumped to stop him from pulling the tubes from his arm. He swayed to the side and I pushed him back onto the bed. "We were in an accident."

"Lily!" He groaned, pushing me out of the way.

My heart tightened so much, I swore tiny holes had formed in the thin flesh and there were thin lines of blood spurting out inside my chest.

"Yes. Lily." I grunted. "You can't go after her like this. If we're going to find her, we can't run ourselves dry, clearly. Or there will be nothing left over to help her with. You need to get some rest." I told him as the hypocrite I was, knowing that sleep was as far away from me as the earth is from the rest of the planets, if that made any sense at all.

Calling the nurse in, I breathed a sigh of relief when they confirmed after running some tests, that he would be able to leave later that evening.

Ryan

"So, the notebook's destroyed? Are you fucking kidding me?" I yelled, looking through the rearview mirror at the two idiots who almost got themselves killed today. "Good fucking job guys. Now what are we going to do?"

Shame covered them like a wave.

"It doesn't matter now." Ethan gritted his teeth, even though I knew he shared my anger. I was about to pop off again. "I'll hire a private investigator or something."

"Okay, that's something. But how long is that going to take? Damn it! Fuck!" I lost my head, punching the dashboard.

"About as long as the search and rescue team would've taken, I assume." Eric groaned.

Pressing my lips together, I turned to look at him. I knew he almost died today, but I could kill him for daring to speak when we were so close, he had the damn contacts and lost them.

Matt locked eyes with me. "You aren't the only one furious here, so why don't you settle back into your seat, huh? Before you cause another fucking accident?" He challenged.

"Enough!" Ethan yelled. "Matt's right. You aren't the only one who's furious. We won't be of much help to Lily if we're at each other's fucking throats." "Exactly. We need to work as a team now more than ever." Matt added.

I let out a breath and turned away from him before I lost my fucking temper again. "I don't know why you're talking." I hissed at Ethan. "Of course the two of you agree with each other. If you guys didn't leave Lily alone..."

"Stop it!" Eric hollered, grabbing his ribs. "If we're going to blame Ethan and Matt, we have to blame ourselves too." He panted. "We left."

"Stop. Your parents needed you." Matt reassured him.

"Did they? I felt as useless over there as I do now." He choked.

My heartbeat hammered my eardrums. At least he had a valid reason for leaving. What was mine? A job? I should've stayed. Jobs come and go, I'd have gotten another one. But I'll never have another Lily. "I should've stayed." My emotions tumbled out of me.

Ethan pulled into the driveway of the Airbnb. I hadn't even noticed that we arrived. He turned off the car and reached over to pull me into a hug. The other guys reached across to comfort me as well.

"The only person who is to be blamed here is the scumbag who took Lily from us. We're all going out of our minds here, running low on sleep, panicking without any leads. We're going to drive ourselves crazy running around in circles if we don't get our heads right. So, why don't we go inside, get some rest and see if we can't approach this differently? I'll get my lawyer on the phone before I go to bed and see if he can find me the best private investigator money can buy. I know it's eating at us, but we don't have any choice but to wait and have faith that Lily is still safe," Ethan reassured us.

"Yeah, I'll do the same." Matt grabbed his head. "The best private investigator money can buy," he agreed.

With a plan and no other option but to rest and wait in agony, Ethan and Matt helped Eric inside while I grabbed my bags. As soon as we opened the door, however, a collective ding went off on our phones.

We all looked at each other in response to the strangeness of it. In hopes of some news, I dropped my bags and grabbed my phone from my pocket.

My eyes popped open. "It's Lily," I gasped.

Eric hopped out of Ethan and Matt's hold. "Is she okay? What's it say?!"

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