It's easy to feel like you don't need help
But it's harder to walk on your own

Chapter 27 ~ Gift of a Friend

Owen Bailey

I woke like I had never rested before, like I didn't know the wonders of sleep until now, like I had slept for eternity and was just now being summoned back to life. I wanted to continue sleeping, and I probably could have, if it wasn't for the blinding rays of sun light seeping through the blinds and rudely smacking my face; I groaned. My eyes peeled open slowly as if they were trying to assess the potential danger of the sunlight, but they snapped open immediately after realizing that they didn't recognize my surroundings.

Above me was a harsh, bright, white light that forced my eyes to look away to something relatively somber; that object happened to be a blank flat screen TV mounted on the wall ahead of me. The room felt, looked, and smelt sterile, like it was thoroughly cleaned at least three times a day, and that scent discomforted me. To my left was a large window with a breathtaking view of the city with several single chairs strategically placed in front of it. To my right was a machine that beeped every few seconds and that held numerous plastic bags filled with an unknown liquid. Instantly recognizing the scene, I glanced down at my body to see that I was in bed, wearing what appeared to be a plastic gown, with a needle stuck into my arm, covered by a gauze bandage.

"No!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I shot out of bed. "Why am I here? I can't be here ... I can't—"

"Hey, hey," I heard a voice say from beside me, shortly followed by a pair of hands touching me and forcing me to stay put. My vision settled on the familiar brown-skinned boy whose deep eyes brimmed with concern. "Owen, it's okay, you're safe."

"What the fuck am I doing here!"

The corners of Trey's lips tugged into a slight frown. "You were hurt ... you need medical attention."

"Jonah," I said in an accusatory tone. "Jonah can get me fixed up—I can't be here!"

Despite my obvious disdain with my current predicament, Trey's hands remained on my wrists. "Jonah was the one who suggested it. He said your condition was too bad and that he couldn't help you because he didn't have all the necessary medicine. Owen, please calm down. You're okay. Everything's fine."

"No!" I yelled. "I can't be here. Lucifer's minions can find me here. I have to leave." I smacked his hands away and made a move to unravel the numerous sheets that I was situated under, but my efforts were met with resistance when Trey stood from the seat beside the bed and pushed on my shoulders to shove me back down.

"Everything's okay, Owen. You don't need to worry about Lucifer or his men ever again."

I pulled my brows together as I stared back at the boy, feeling slightly perplexed at his words. "What?"

"You're safe," was all he said which wouldn't have held much substance under any normal circumstances, but there was something in the way he spoke those words. It was more than just reassurance; it was certainty, and so I believed him.

My shoulders fell in defeat and I slumped back into the hospital bed. Silence swept over us for a while, and I used that moment to dwell on my recent memories of Lucifer and being held captive in his torture chamber. All the pieces started to come back slowly. I remembered trying to kill the bastard, but being too weak to accomplish anything. I remembered hanging from the ceiling and thinking that my life was over until I heard the ear-piercing sound of a bullet striking through the air.

Lucifer was dead.

I lifted my head to look at Trey, studying him.

"What?"

I shook my head. "Nothing," I said to ease the tension, even though it wasn't nothing. I had done many things in my life, but killing a man wasn't one of them. Trey had killed a man and there was a part of me that wondered how he was coping with this, but I quickly recalled how I had lied to Trey about Lucifer's death to save him from all the torments that the truth would put him through. But regardless of whether or not he knew about it, Trey had killed a man to save my life. No one had ever done that for me before.

"You were out for three days," he said.

"Three days?"

He nodded. "You were in bad shape. Doctors said that you would've died if we waited any longer. They had to pump you with a lot of blood."

My gaze slowly fell to Trey's arm which held a gauze bandage similar to my own.

"We're the same blood type. They didn't have AB Positive in stock and that it would take a day before they could get it, but you didn't have that kind of time." He gave me a small smile.

I returned the smile. "Thanks, kid."

Trey scoffed. "You're still calling me that."

"Well, what else am I supposed to call you?"

He paused, pretending to think. "How about my name?"

I, too, returned the favor of pretending to think about the issue at hand, and then shrugged it off. "Yeah, I'll just stick with kid."

Trey released a sigh. "Even after being tortured to the brink of death, you're still an asshole. Some things will never change, will they?"

Instead of entertaining him with a response, I observed the hospital room once more. I wasn't too fond of hospitals, mostly because being in a hospital meant that someone was hurt and it was expensive. "I don't have insurance to cover this stuff," I voiced aloud. "I barely have any money to live day-to-day now."

"Don't worry about it." Trey slowly stood from his seat and flashed me another smile except this one was much sweeter in comparison. "But, um, I promised I'd tell Raven as soon as you were awake, so I should probably get going. It was nice seeing you, Owen." His hand brushed over mine just before he leaned in for what looked like a kiss.

I snatched my hand away from him. "What are you doing?"

Trey blinked. "Giving you a kiss on the cheek?"

"Why?" I accused him with furrowed brows.

"Because ... I thought that ..." He squeezed his eyes shut and when he opened them again, his brown eyes had grown less transparent and more unfriendly. "Yeah, I don't know what I thought. Bye, Owen."

He was just about to exit the room when I stopped him in his tracks by letting out a loud cackle. "You're so gay."

Trey didn't respond, but somehow I knew he was smiling as he walked out of the room.

I settled into my bed and directed my attention to the TV screen as I clicked it on with the remote within arms reach of my hands. I flipped through the channels out of pure boredom all while I reflected on my newfound freedom and what I would do with it once I was out. This feeling was weird—I had never really been free before. For all my life, I was following the instructions of somebody, whether that be my parents, my teachers, or recently Lucifer, but now I was a free man. I didn't have to answer to anybody and that feeling was so foreign to me that it formed knots in the pit of my stomach.

A knock on the door pulled my attention away from the TV and to the fair-skinned beauty standing in the doorway. The faintest of smiles formed on her nude lips, which happened to be one of the few times I've seen her without her signature red lipstick. Once she saw that I had acknowledged her presence, Raven tip-toed into a room and took a seat on the chair that Trey was previously sitting in.

"Hey," she said, although it sounded like a breath of relief.

I nodded at her, trying my best to observe the purple bruises on her face without looking like I was staring at them. "You all right?"

She shrugged. "Could be better ... have been worse."

"At least it's over."

Her electric blue eyes gleamed with solace. "It's over," she repeated with a weak smile that was hardly convincing. Her hand dropped to her stomach where she began to draw circular motions.

"So it's true," I noted.

Raven quirked a brow. "Hmm?"

I flicked my gaze to her stomach and then back to her face again. "You're pregnant, and you didn't tell me."

"Oh." Raven's state fell to the floor as if she had suddenly became interested in the pattern of the tiles.

"Is it because it's mine?" The possibility had occurred to me ever since she broke the news to Lucifer, but I was in too much of a muddled state to think much of it—especially because I was under the impression that none of us were going to make it out alive.

"I didn't want to tell you," she said, "I thought it would ruin whatever you had going with Trey."

"I don't have anything going with Trey." She narrowed her gaze at me. "What? Don't look at me like that. I am a single man, Raven. You know how I feel about relationships."

"The kid saved your life. He saved all of our lives and you're still trying to tell me that you don't feel something for him? That you don't love him?"

I rolled my eyes at all her talk about love and relationships. It wasn't for me. Just because Trey saved my life, it didn't mean I needed to repay him wth love that I didn't possess. "I'm not trying to tell you anything and I can't believe that you would seriously try to hide this from me? After everything we've been through? You couldn't have told me that you're fucking pregnant with my baby!" My voice was rising to higher levels now and with each octave, my temples throbbed.

"You would've told me to get rid of it," she spat bitterly. "You would've told me that this world is no place for a child, especially not with Lucifer on our backs. You would've told me that you didn't need the added pressure of a baby, so you would've forced me to get an abortion. So yes, I kept it from you, and for a hell of a good reason, too."

The way she spoke made it seem like I was the villain here. Like we weren't trying to get through everyday without getting captured by Lucifer. Like I wasn't doing my best to take care of all of us and make sure we were all okay. "I wouldn't have told you to do that. It's your choice."

"Yeah," she gave a bitter laugh that cut the air with its sharpness, "and you would've made my choice into your choice just like you did with everything else I've ever wanted to do. I'm taking back my voice, Owen. Our baby—my baby—is going to grow up with a loving parent that'll give him or her the world, and then some."

Sighing, I fell back onto the bed, allowing the silence to force a wedge between us. This was a lot to handle—Lucifer, my health, Trey, and now this baby. Sure, if this happened in the past, I would've believed that a baby would be way too inconvenient for the lives we lived. But ever since I was able to comprehend it, I knew I wanted a family. I wanted a cohesive family, one that stuck together through the thick and the thin. Maybe I didn't have that with my parents, but I had that with Raven.

"It's going to grow up with loving parents," I corrected her.

Raven's lips stretched into a wide grin. "Yes, I suppose it will." She breathed a long sigh before slowly rising to my feet. "I expect that you make things official with Trey by the end of this week, okay?"

I gave her a bewildered look. "Stop talking about this, please. I can totally live my life without you being so pushy."

She squinted at me just before jabbing a finger into my arm. "I can push all I want." A light-hearted chuckle sounded from her throat as she continued to violate my personal space. It persisted until I verbally snapped at her in which she rolled her eyes and told me to go fuck myself. But when all that was over and done, I was left alone in my comfy hospital room to do something that I haven't really been able to do in a while.

Dream.

* * *

"Just because you've been in a mini-coma for a few days and just because the doctors say that you have to take it easy doesn't mean that you have to demand that Rita does everything for you," Trey reprimanded me once he shoved me into my guest room and closed the door behind us. "She's my housekeeper, not yours. You don't order her around."

I plopped onto the edge of the bed, reveling in the softness of it as compared to the hospital bed that I was stuck in for the past few days. "But I live here now, so that means that I get to reap the benefits of living a rich and luxurious life—including having a five-star restaurant dinner in the comforts of my own room."

"No," Trey scolded, his brown eyes wild with irritation. "You don't need five-star food. You need to continue eating soft foods just like the doctors said, or else—" He stopped speaking once I threw a pillow at his hand, "—what the fuck was that for?"

"You're annoying," I commented with a shrug as I crawled into bed and assumed a starfish position.

Trey approached the side of the bed so that he could hover over me and stare at me with his scrutinizing stare. I didn't need to see him to know that he was doing this, but I decided to enjoy the moment by grabbing onto his wrists and pulling him on top of me. He protested for a bit by starting to blab nonsense about what the doctors suggested I do, but I shut him up when I planted a soft kiss on his lips.

The kiss didn't last long, not that I wanted it to,  anyway. Trey studied me for the longest time before rolling his eyes. "Why is it that every time I want to kiss you, you shut me down, but when you—"

I pressed our lips together once more, wanting nothing more than to make him stop talking.

"I'm convinced that these pain meds have made you a little bit—"

"God, do you ever stop talking?" I shoved the boy away from me and scooted over to the edge of the bed, creating a distance between us. "You ruined it."

"Well, what can I say? I'm much more fond of the asshole Owen than the overly-adorable one." He sat up in bed and brought his knees to his chest while he stared straight ahead. We stayed like that, in silence, for quite some time. I found myself wondering what Trey was thinking so deeply about, but I didn't have to ponder for long because he said, "I'm glad you're all right."

I laughed at that. "I'm like a cockroach, kid. I never die."

"Yeah," he laughed softly, "right."

"Hey," I called out to grab his attention as I turned on my side to face him. He brought his gaze to mine. "Now that I don't gotta worry about drug lords anymore ... I wanna ask for a re-do on our date, and the date before that. We got all the time in the world now."

Trey raised an eyebrow as though he didn't believe what I was saying. I might have been hooked on a bunch of pain medication that had me a little bit more joyful than usual, but I meant what I said. I didn't want to admit it at first, but Trey had become an important part of my life and I enjoyed his company.

"We don't have all the time in the world," he said with a sigh. "I'm going away to school in the fall."

"Like, college?"

"Like college," he repeated with a slight smile.

"Oh, where?"

"Summer Hill."

My brows pulled together. "You mean community college? Why would you do that? You got money. You can go anywhere."

Trey shrugged. "SHC has a good physical therapy program." He spoke with a complete and utter lack of enthusiasm that it made it hard for anyone to believe him.

"That sounds like bullshit," I spat rather blatantly.

"That's because it is." Trey heaved a sigh after rolling off the bed and moving towards the exit.  It was clear he wanted to conversation to be over, but I didn't really give a damn about what he wanted.

"Why are you staying here when you can go anywhere else?" I continued to pry.

"My best friend's here," he said softly.

I had to narrow my eyes at him and refrain myself from not bursting into laughter. "I am not your best friend."

Trey fiddled with the door handle and rolled his eyes. "I'm not talking about you."

"Answer me this ... do you want to go to the community college?" I questioned. Trey looked stuck, like he wasn't quite sure what the right answer to that question was. When he didn't respond, I followed up with, "Where do you want to go?"

"Notre Dame," he answered. "They've got a great football team, great coaches, great location, great academics, and everything I ever wanted in a school."

"Then go there," I urged him. "Look, I had the chance to go the college, but I blew it off to become a psychopathic drug lord's lackey and look where I am now. Without a degree and without a real job. You have the chance to do something great with you life and you shouldn't let anyone try to stop you from doing it, not even me."

Trey lifted an eyebrow. "Why would you stop me? You don't care about me."

I pondered the thought for a moment. "You're right, I don't. That's why I'm telling you to follow your dreams and go to Notre Dame ... because I don't care about you."

"Hmm," Trey hummed to himself, but it didn't look like I had convinced him to change his mind. "Have a good night, Owen." He ran his hand along the wall to flick the switch off and left me in the darkness.

* * *

a/n: Hey everyone! I hope you guys are doing well. I've given you guys another chapter of BTR and I want you to know that there are only three more chapters left in this book. It was a wild ride and I'm definitely going to miss Trey and Owen's adventures. I hope you'll stick around for the ending of this book and the start of the following book in the series.

So my question to you guys is ... do you think Trey is going to change his mind about his school choice? Of course, the ideal book would have him change his mind and go to the school of his dreams, but this is a Lara Verne book, so....

In other news, I want to tell y'all that I have tons of projects that I'm going to be working on this summer. I do have a summer job so I will be occupied most of the day, but there are several things I want to accomplish before the summer is over...

1) I want to have the new rewritten and improved version of Kissing Booth finished so that I can make it available for you guys to purchase.

2) I want to complete Breaking the Rules and start on the fourth, and final, book of the KB series—The Only Exception.

3) As some of you may know, I have created a beauty YouTube channel where I'll be doing makeup, hair, and all that stuff. I've wanted to do this for a long time because I love makeup and I've always wanted to put my looks/personality out there. If my channel goes far, I can even earn some chump change that can help a college girl out tremendously. If that's something that sounds interesting to y'all, then feel free to check out my channel. (The link is on my page in my bio).

As I embark on these projects, I hope to have your support since you guys have been nothing but good and loyal friends and readers. And I love you guys!

Did you like this chapter? Hopefully your answer is yes and if it is, then vote and leave a comment! I live for you guys' comments!

Until next time,
Lara <3