We Come Out At Night 2

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2 Days Later
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When Gates got to the hospital he’d gone to see Zacky first. There was no change in his condition and all those tubes and machines were still what kept him alive. For the first time in his life, Gates was helpless. There was nothing he could do to help his friend.

He had 15 minutes and 15 minutes isn’t a whole lot of time to say how you feel when one of your best friends is dying before your eyes. As he sat on the edge of the bed, he rested his hand on his friend’s stomach. “So, fancy meeting you here” he smirked at Vengeance “Yeah, yeah bad joke. I know”

Gates was a strong man, but even the strong have weak moments and this was his. No one would judge him for the tears that fell from his face right now. “So, the doctors told me that you aren’t even fighting and that breaks my heart.” The hand he had rested on Vengeances stomach was now balled into a fist and gripping Vengeance’s hospital gown. “You’re my fucking partner in crime and I can’t do this without you, so if you die, I’m gonna fucking kill you.”

He brought both hands up to his face and wiped his eyes before looking back at Vengeance. “You better fight and you better fight hard. We need you. I need you. So, come back. Please. I’ll beg if you want me too” all his pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears. It wasn’t easy speaking to someone who couldn’t answer and it was anyone’s guess as to whether or not Vengeance could hear anything that he was saying. “I have to go see Ruby, but I’ll be back and you better wake up.” When he stood up he kissed Vengeance on the forehead. “I love you, motherfucker. I mean it, you better wake up”

As he was about to leave, he stopped in the doorway and turned back to look at his friend and wipe the last of the tears out of his eyes. One last glance and he walked out of the room and down the hall heading towards the opposite side of the ICU where Ruby’s room was.

He managed to calm himself down by the time he reached the hall that led to Ruby’s room. There were voices and as he got closer they got louder. It was evident to him that they were coming from Ruby’s room. Rather than going inside, he stopped himself and listened outside the door.

“I’m 23 years old!” her voice still wasn’t as strong as it usually was, but it seemed somewhat sad today.

“And you’re still stupid. One would think you’d have learned something over the years, but obviously you haven’t. You’ll always be that whore who got knocked up at 15 and the only difference between then and now, is that now you get paid for it.”

Outside the room, Gates balled his hands into fists.

“Daddy!” the more he heard the tears in her voice, the more he wanted to walk in there and punch her father.

“Don’t call me that. No child of mine is this stupid. Your sister went to Harvard and you went to shit! Are you proud of yourself?”

“I’m not stupid,” she sobbed.

“Yes you are! Not only are you stupid, you are ignorant and you have no common sense. You have no idea how you’ve embarrassed your mother and me.”

That was all Gates could take. He walked in to the room as calm as he could.
“I think you better leave”

Ruby’s father stood there with a stoic face looking at him “and just who are you to tell me what to do?”

There he stood cracking his knuckles with that ever-loving smirk on his face. “Im Synyster Fucking Gates”

Ruby’s father turned his attention back to her. “This is what you want?” he pointed at Gates. “That! Is that your pimp?”

“Daddy please” she pleaded with him, but he just shook his head in disgust.

“You’re not my daughter” after he denounced her, Ruby’s father walked past Gates and out of the room. It would probably be the last time she would ever see her father.

Ruby couldn’t bring herself to not cry. She was sitting up in her bed with her head hung low and started sobbing immediately after her father left. When the bed shifted she turned her head and looked in to sad brown eyes. All he could do was put his arm around her shoulder and let her cry into his chest.

“I’m not stupid, Brian” she cried.

“Of course not. You’re the smartest person I know and that’s the truth.”

“You must have some really dumb friends” he knew she wasn’t making a joke, but he couldn’t help but laugh anyway. It seemed to be infectious, because she laughed too. Maybe, laughter really is the best medicine.

“I have a surprise for you”

Ruby pulled away and looked at his face. “What is it?”

“I’ll be right back, have to go down to the car for a second.”

“ok”

She watched him walk out of the room and while he was gone she smiled to herself at the thought of him coming to her rescue. When he returned it was nearly 20 minutes later. Popping his head into the room he looked over at her. “Close your eyes”

She laughed and put her hands over her eyes. Ruby could hear him moving around the room, but had no clue what he was doing. “Can I look now?”

“Not yet!”

He continued on getting everything set up for her surprise and when he was done, he sat on the bed beside her and pulled her hands off her face. “Now you can look”

The comforter from his bed was covering the two of them and he had changed in to sweat pants and a t-shirt. Next to the bed on the table was a big bowl of popcorn and in front of the two of them on a tray table was a laptop.

“What’s going on?” she asked him, still unsure what the surprise was.

His face bore a fake shocked expression. “Don’t tell me you forgot it’s movie night” he brought his hand up to his chest pretending to be hurt. “and here I bribe the nurses so I can stay with you all night and you forgot! I’m insulted!”

“You brought a movie here?”

“I did” he nodded. “I picked a movie just for you that I think you’ll really like and guess what?”

“What?”

“It has Matt Dillon in it”

She laughed and grabbed his arm. “and Patrick Swayze too?”

He shook his head. “Uh no. Not this one, but it is from the same person who made The Outsiders. It’s called Tex.” To her, he was giving her a movie night with one of her favorite actors. She had no idea that he was giving her all the movies that she would have read in books if she went to high school. He was educating her through movies and that would be a secret he would take to his grave.

“Thank you” she smiled and hugged his arm.

“You’re welcome” He leaned forward and turned on the movie and after it started to play he put his arm around her neck and set the bowl of popcorn on her lap.

“Brian?”

“Hmm?” that was all he could manage with a mouthful of popcorn.

“Is this how it feels when you have a best friend?”

And up went his eyebrow. “Hmmm lemme see” he put his hand on her leg and squeezed making her laugh. Then he moved his hand up to her arm and squeezed it too. Next he touched her face and then pulled her hair.

“Yep, you feel like a best friend to me”

She laughed at his silliness and grabbed on to his arm again. “You’re a brat”

“Hush, watch the movie” he winked at her and she put her head on his shoulder and turned her gaze to the computer screen.

They watched the movie quietly and just like when they watched The Outsiders, she fell asleep just before it ended. Never getting to see the lesson he was trying to show her about a teenager who was left to grow up on his own and never gave up on himself.

After laying her head down on the pillow, he looked at her sleeping face and smirked.

“I am way better looking than Matt Dillon and Patrick Swayze.”