Dark Eyed Dreamers

I smiled, walking up to him as he turned. I heard a few ‘how does she know him?’ and ‘who?’s being thrown about from behind me as he turned around. His eyes landed on me and a smile graced his face.

“How’s it going?” He asked adjusting the jacket and tilting his head.

“I’m good thank you,” I smiled. “Are you leaving?” I asked with a frown.

“Yeah I just finished,” he shrugged glancing quickly at the room full of people.

“Well that sucks, it’d be nice to have a cool waiter,” I complemented to which he laughed.

“Sorry,” he apologized as the others turned up behind me.

“Guys, this is Jake, he’s waited on us before,” Jack smiled placing an arm around me. Jake simply nodded and gave a small wave to the other people around him. “Wait, are you leaving?” He asked him frowning.

“Yeah, my shift’s over,” Jake nodded shrugging.

“Well why don’t you come and eat with us? You can eat at your own restaurant right?” Jack asked cluelessly tipping his head to the side. I rolled my eyes as the others laughed under their breaths.

“Well, only if that’s fine with you guys?”

“It’s fine, we’d love it if you stayed,” Alex smiled. “I’m Alex by the way,” he grinned extending his hand. As our friends got acquainted with the brunette another waiter had emerged and shown us all to a table. Zack, Rian and Jake had engulfed in conversation as Alex and Jack admired the girls talking.

“Yeah, he’s no good for her,” I rolled my eyes whilst shoving a carrot in my mouth. We had begun discussing the new popular couples of our former school.

“Oh my god I know,” Alex jutted in over-dramatically, hanging his jaw and placing a palm to his cheek. Jack found this amusing as Louise stuffed food in her boyfriend’s mouth.

“But yeah as I was saying,” I began only to be cut off by a slipping sound and a loud crash. As a series of plates crashed our head whipped around to the scene.

“Kara!” Rian screeched kneeling down next to the girl on the floor. Her chair was on its side and broken silverware were scattered around her, some broken porcelain had obviously hit her on the way down as a few small cuts blemished her arms.

“Oh my god!” I exclaimed bending down on the other side of the limp girl. Her hair was covering her face. Jack, who had been sat to her right, was stood in horror along with the guys on the opposite side of the table.

“Somebody call an ambulance!” Alex yelled jumping over the table as Louise frantically got around. In an instant Zack had his cell phone pressed to his ear as he rushed words into the receiver. I raised her neck with my hand, brushing her hair from her eyes and looking into her face. The colour was gone from her face and despite my attempts she wasn’t responding. Rian gently took her from me, cradling her in his arms, whispering things into her ear and trying to stay calm as I tried to provoke a reaction. As I glanced upwards everyone was now on our side of the table. People had rushed over, asking if there was anything they could do and making sure every precaution had been taken. Zack was soothing Carolyn who was in tears while Jack talked to him. Alex took over my position, trying to make her respond as I made my way to the three a small distance from the scene.

“What happened?” I asked bewildered. Carolyn’s face was buried into Zack’s neck his arms firmly around her rubbing soothing patterns against the back of her dress.

“I don’t know,” Zack sighed shaking his head. “She just turned really quiet and we saw her hands shaking. We just thought she was cold so Rian put his arm around her, then she lost all colour. When we asked if she was feeling okay she was on the floor,” he said the last part softly but I could see Carolyn’s hand tighten around his shirt. I looked up to Jack, his face was covered in just as much worry as the rest of ours and it was then I realised, these people were my family. I couldn’t ask for much more.

The ambulance had arrived in a matter of minutes, Kara’s parents also coming along. They rode in the back of the ambulance with her. We’d changed our seating arrangements and cut the dinner short in order to rush to the hospital. Jake was joining us, wanting to make sure she was okay. Rian was sharing a car with Jack who was driving, Jake and me comforting him in the back seat. The whole journey his head had been clasped between his hands, feeling to blame for not acting on her illness, however, as soon as we pulled up in a parking space he was the first from the car sprinting to the waiting room before any of us could catch up to him.

And here we were. Kara’s parents had left the waiting room, both silent whilst being followed by a doctor. We all gathered around the waiting room, Alex with an assuring hand on Rian’s back as I held Jack’s hand tightly.

“Is she okay?” Rian asked attempting to take to his feet before Alex stood next to him.

“We don’t know,” her mother answered truthfully. “We wanted you all to know, so we haven’t been told yet,” she explained as her husband took her hand.

“We know how much she means to you all, especially you Rian,” the elder man added placing a hand on Rian’s shoulder, who nodded in understanding and whispered a ‘thank you’.

“Thankfully, this isn’t too serious. She’s not in a coma and she doesn’t have a life threatening disease,” the doctor began addressing us all to which a few members gave a visible sigh of relief. “However, this was still quite serious. It was caused by low blood pressure. I don’t know if you already knew this?” He asked turning to her parents who exchanged a glance before shaking their heads. “Well in that case, I think you should know that a lot of precautions need to be taken to ensure this doesn’t happen again. If not then it could be worse, this isn’t just a short term thing,” he confirmed before exiting the hallway. I saw the parents bow their heads before Rian embraced her mother. I turned to Jack who pulled me into him closely.

“Jack, that could have been any of us,” I whispered only loud enough for him to hear.

“I know honey, I know,” was all he said before the room was engulfed in silence.