"I shouldn't have let them separate us..... I...", Savannah's tears rolled uncontrollably as she painfully sobbed in Lorraine's arms. "Nadia..... Nadia.... She's gone because of me..."
"No", Lorraine disagreed with a shake of her head.
"Me... Because of me..... Nadia.... Annie... I should have protected her.... I should have helped her." Her heart ached when she remembered watching her friend go through a painful death right next to her and how those people treated them like animals.
They never helped even when she begged them to in her helpless state. What pained her more was the fact that her sister, Nadia must have died pitifully and helpless as Annie did. She must have felt alone and the last thing she saw must have been those cold hearted scientists! Savannah cried harder at this.
"Stop blaming yourself", Lorraine sniffled. "There was nothing you could have done about it."
Savannah could only cry through the self blame and regret, and buried herself in the comfort of her best friend. The two girls cried for a while until they calmed down but remained in each other's arms. Lorraine was the first to break the embrace to wipe her friend's tear stained face.
"Your mom is....." She started, making a guess on why the older woman was not present.
"She left earlier to make funeral arrangements for Nadia", she sniffled as another tear slid down her cheek.
"Okay", Lorraine answered with a sigh. It must have been hard for her to leave her one hospitalized daughter to take care of the needs of her deceased one.... Life could be so unfair....
They fell quiet, with the only sound of the clock ticking and their sniffles being the only loud thing in the room. The ugly reality was settling in; it felt unreal to both of them. Savannah sniffled once more before she wiped her a tear from her cheek.
"Can I get you some water?"
"Sure, I could use some", she gave a small smile.
Lorraine moved to the night stand to pour a glass each for them both. Only when they drunk did they realized how parched up crying had left them.
"Thank you", Savannah returned the now empty glass.
"You're welcome." She moved to put them away.
"I thought you would be here with Oliver. Did you leave him somewhere?" Curiosity was evident on her face.
"He's at school, they haven't closed yet."
"Okay. Oh! And you? What about work?"
Lorraine gasped in horror at this reminder and quickly took out her phone. "Oh my gosh! One sec." She nervously chewed on her lip when she place the phone to her ear after dialing a number. "Hi, how are-.... Oh?....... Oh. Thank you....."
Savannah saw how her friend went from panic to relaxing and this got her curious. "What happened?"
"My..... My friend actually reported my reason for absence for me", she pointed to the door with her thumb and bit her lip to suppress her blush.
Savannah's curiosity grew as indicated by the rising of her brows. "A friend? Is he here?"
"Yeah, we came here together", she stood up and started walking towards the door remembering that he said he would give them the space they needed. She stopped to turn around when she realized something that embarrassed her. "And I never said it was a 'he'."
"You didn't have to", Savannah gave her a small smirk.
Lorraine felt butterflies in her stomach do some hardcore summersaults just thinking about the way Xavier's presence makes her feel. Her mind took her back to when he held her hand during the elevator ride....
She stopped at the door her feet unable to move forward from nerves. She was only going to introduce her new friend to her best friend but why did it feel she was about to introduce her boyfriend? Boyfriend.....
"Gosh", she whispered to herself when her stomach twisted into a knot.
"Yeah, take your time", Savannah commented.
"Shut up!" She responded embarrassingly and quickly opened the door only to find....
"Hello ma'am", a big guy in a black suit and dark shades greeted her with a polite nod.
"Hi.....", She looked around in confusion before looking back at the bouncer. "You are...?"
"Luke. Mr. Frost asked us to look after you while he attends to an emergency", he explained.
"'Us?'"
As soon as she said that, nine more men with similar built and same outfits appeared from the corridor to reveal and introduce themselves to her.
"This....." As perplexed as she was, she understood why he did so but, "You're too many..... Even if it's just for me."
She didn't want to draw any more attention however, Luke misunderstood her complaint for something else. "Don't worry ma'am, another team is looking after your brother."
"And by team, you mean ten more of you...?" Her jaw dropped when he nodded in affirmative. Without wasting a second, she took out her phone and dialed the culprit's number. She remembered a bit too late that he had left for an emergency and was about to terminate the already ringing call when he answered.
"Lorraine."
Nevermind how sexy his phone voice sounded when he said her name but she remembered to stay upset. "This is too much Xavier."
"I wouldn't feel at ease if I left you alone."
"But still, they're..... alot", she whispered as she looked down, avoiding their eyes as she complained about them to their boss.
"Just..... Pretend that they're not there", he coaxed her like that would be easy. "Your voice sound flu-ish. You cried a lot, didn't you?"
"Well....." She felt embarrassed and blushed at his attentiveness.
"You should drink lots of fluids. I'll get Like to get you some and for everyone too."
"Um-"
"Food. I bet you both won't have an appetite but you still need to eat to get through this. I'll have Luke get that for you, just let him know how many you are."
"Xav-"
"I have to go. There's something I need to take care of urgently here, but I'll talk to you later. Bye!"
Loraine's jaw dropped whilst Xavier on the other hand, had a smirk playing on his lips. He knew she was about to say no to both of his 'suggestions'. He just had to get his way. He sent the order to Luke through a text before going back into the guest room where his parents were.
"No Henry", Victoria frowned at him. "You're hurt."
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m