Standing in the Dark - Chapter Eight
"Carlos Garcia."
Camille jumped as the familiar name was called out into the lobby. It had been completely silent for the past three hours and the girl had hardly moved a muscle since she sat down after they took Carlos away. In her small plastic chair beside the double doors that lead back into the emergency room, she had buried her face into her hands and remained in that position for what seemed like years. The nurse had taken the hint and remained quiet behind her desk, tapping away at the keyboard every now and then and flipping through the pages of her magazine.
It had been around ten o'clock when Camille brought Carlos into the hospital and the obnoxiously bright clock on her phone told her that it was only slightly past one o'clock in the morning. Around midnight, she had started yawning and her eyes began to slowly droop closed. She was determined to stay awake, desperate for any news on her friend, but she couldn't help but feel exhausted.
The thing that really kept her awake wasn't her determination, though. Her stomach was twisted in knots and her brain was fuzzy with confusion. There was no doubt in her mind that Kendall, James, and Logan had done this. She had no idea why they would do something like this to their best friend since preschool, but she couldn't help the rage that coursed through her veins every time she thought about it.
Something bad was happening. Camille could feel it. When she was around Logan, whether it was in the company of James and Kendall or just him, she could tell he was hiding something. The way he avoided her eyes and when he gritted his teeth as if remembering something that he wished he didn't. She might not be nearly as smart as her boyfriend, but Camille Roberts knew when something was up.
As she sat in her plastic chair, she tried to think of reasons why Carlos' best friends would ever do something like that. He gave them absolutely no reason to hate him as much as they portrayed – at least she hoped. She knew Carlos wasn't the best at keeping secrets, but maybe something happened in the apartment.
Nobody really knows what happens behind closed doors.
The man standing in front of the double doors cleared his throat, "Carlos Garcia."
Camille immediately jumped out of her seat and faced the man who had spoken. He wasn't much taller than her, maybe by an inch or so, and had sandy blonde hair and skin that was unusually pale for someone who lived in California. His eyes were a pale blue and he smiled when their eyes met, extending his hand in greeting.
"Hello there. My name is Dr. Torres." He introduced himself, shaking Camille's hand gently when she took it eagerly.
"C-Camille Roberts." She responded absently, an urgent tone in her voice that gave away her emotions. Stuttering was definitely frowned upon for actresses like herself, but at that moment, she wasn't thinking about her acting coach. Her only desire was to find out if Carlos was going to be okay.
"You look tired, Miss Roberts. I apologize for making you wait out here for three hours without any news." Dr. Torres tilted his head to the side slightly and gazed at her with eyes glazed with sympathy.
"It's fine. Can you just tell me… how is he?" She pleaded, feeling a lump form in her throat. Don't you dare cry, Roberts. You don't even know his condition yet.
Dr. Torres motioned for the girl to follow him through the double doors as he made his way down the long hallway. They passed by a few x-ray rooms before they turned a corner and several doors lined the walls. Each dark green door had a silver number engraved into the front and Camille followed the doctor almost all the way to the end of the hall before he stopped abruptly in front of a door labeled 317.
"Before I get into the details, Miss Roberts, I want you to know that your friend will be just fine. He will need to stay in the hospital for a few days so we can monitor him, but he will be able to go home by the end of the week." Dr. Torres began, clearing his throat as he waited for the brunette's reaction.
Camille sighed in relief and glanced at the door, hoping that Carlos wasn't too banged up. Even if he was going to be all right, she knew that keeping him for a few days meant he was hurt pretty badly, but not enough to be fatal.
"We have concluded that Mr. Garcia has three broken ribs on his left side that, fortunately, did not puncture his lung. They will heal with time and he will need to refrain from any heavy exercise or excessive movement for a week or two. His thighs, torso, collar and facial regions are heavily bruised and he had a pretty nasty black eye, but we managed to bring down the swelling. The bruises will fade eventually but we want to monitor him to make sure that there is no internal bleeding." Dr. Torres glanced down at the clipboard in his hands that seemed to have magically appeared during the conversation, before continuing.
"He also appeared to be suffering from a minor concussion. Thankfully, we managed to stop his brain from swelling under his skull before it got too serious, but we want to be sure that he isn't suffering from any head trauma. There are bruises on his temples and the back of his neck, both very exposed areas of the brain." The doctor looked up at Camille with mischief in his eyes, "The bruises on his body seemed to carry a pattern. A pattern a car couldn't have conducted. Something tells me he wasn't in a car accident."
Camille looked down at her feet before mumbling, "The nurse didn't believe me when I told her he was hurt. I had to do something."
Dr. Torres chuckled and placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it encouragingly as he spoke, "It's fine, Miss Roberts. If you hadn't been such a good actress, your friend's condition would have been a lot worse by the time we got him back here."
Camille smiled at him before glancing back at the door, placing her hand on the doorknob gently. "Can I see him?"
Dr. Torres nodded and tucked his clipboard underneath his arm and took a few steps to the right so that he was standing in the middle of the hallway. "Sure. I'm going to go give these papers to the front desk and then I'll send in a nurse to check up on him. If he wakes up, make sure he doesn't get over excited. If his heartbeat increases or you think he needs attention, just punch the button on the side of his bed."
Camille nodded as the doctor walked away, leaving her standing alone in front of Carlos' hospital room. She shouldn't be the first one to see him. It should be Kendall or James or Logan. They should be standing here, trying to find the words to apologize for everything they had done. Trying to tell him that he was loved and welcome in Apartment 2J. But they weren't here. Camille was the only person who would be there when Carlos woke up. The only person who still cared about him.
Turning the doorknob, she pushed the strangely heavy door open and peered inside the dim lit room. There was a small lamp on the table beside Carlos' bed, the only thing offering light inside the room. Stepping inside the room, Camille quietly shut the door behind her and let her gaze travel to the person on the bed.
There was a bandage wrapped around Carlos' forehead, extra padding placed where the cut on his eyebrow to ease the bleeding. She could make out the bruises on his tan face that was shaded purple and slightly green. His black eye was only slightly puffy but from the multicolored bruise on his eyelid, Camille knew it would be difficult for him to open that eye. He had a dark bruise on his jaw that traveled down his neck to his collarbone and several band-aids had been applied to his collarbone where the shoes of his tormentors had lefts scratches.
The blanket was only pulled up to Carlos' waist and his shirt had been removed, so Camille could see the real damage the monsters had inflicted. There was a bandage wrapped around the spot where his abs should have been and she could see the bruises peeking out from under the white gauze. A few spots on the gauze had been turned a pale red but she could tell that the bleeding had stopped. A thin, tape-like bandage was placed on the bridge of his nose and Camille guessed that it was broken. One thing that Dr. Torres had failed to mention.
Crossing the room to stand beside the sleeping boy, Camille couldn't help but let the tears fall. Her heart felt as if it was being torn in two. The sympathy she felt for Carlos. His best friends had broken him beyond repair. The people who were supposed to protect him had turned into monsters that would plague his dreams for a long time. His entire world was shattering around him and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Camille couldn't help but feel her heart break as she felt for the boy on the bed in front of her. He didn't deserve this. Nobody deserved this.
Silently sliding into the cushioned chair beside Carlos' bed, Camille just gazed sadly at the Latino. Her tears rained down her cheeks freely and she made no move to stop them. There was nothing that would make her stop crying. Not unless she could go back in time and stop this from ever happening. She placed her hand on top of Carlos' and sighed when she felt how cold it was. As if all the warmth and love and soul had been stripped from his body. If it hadn't been for the heart monitor beside the bed, Camille would have thought he was dead.
She rubbed circles into the back of his hand with her thumb, hoping that he would feel comfort. After all that had happened, he needed some comfort. She wasn't sure if he was dreaming, in whatever state his mind was in at that moment, but she wanted him to be happy. At least in his dreams, he could run away from reality for a while.
At least, in his dreams, the monsters couldn't touch him.
"Camille?"
For the second time in the past twelve hours, Camille Roberts jumped in her seat. She had been almost asleep when the voice rang in her ears, jerking her back to full consciousness. At first, she had no idea where the voice had come from. There were no nurses or doctors in the room and Carlos was still asleep. He was a asleep, right?
Turning her head to face the Latino on the bed, her eyes widened when they met a pair of brown orbs. They stared at each other for a minute before Camille began to feel herself tear up once more and instinctfully; she brought a hand to her face to hide the tears. Just as the pads of her fingers brushed against the base of her eyelid, she felt a warm hand gently grab a hold of her wrist.
Carlos slowly pulled her hand back down and examined her eyes, frowning sadly when he realized that she had been crying. He also noticed the dark circles that were beginning to bruise her under eyelids. He had no idea how long she had been sitting there, but it was obvious that she hadn't slept at all.
"Don't cry, Camille." Carlos whispered softly, letting his hand slide away from her wrist to grip her palm instead. Holding the girl's hand, he watched as she blinked a few times, trying to chase away the tears without any luck.
"How can I not cry, Carlos?" The girl choked, her red eyes resting on the bruised body of her friend. He winced at her words but shook his head, his lips turned up into a faint smile. She could tell her was in pain, but he was somehow managing to remain his normal happy self. The two sat there for a few silent moments as Camille let a few silent tears travel down her rosy cheeks until she finally spoke the words she had wanted to ask since he showed up outside her apartment.
"Why did they do it?"
Carlos seemed taken back by the question as his eyes widened and he looked down at his hand that still held on to hers. He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed before letting his gaze travel back up to her face as he spoke.
"You said it yourself, Camille. They hate me." Carlos whispered, wincing as he spoke the last sentence. Saying it in his head was one thing, but saying it out loud made it seem even more real. His best friends – well, former best friends – hated him.
"Carlos…" Camille whispered sympathetically. She didn't want her friend to be experiencing this much pain, but there was nothing she could do about it. He shook his head and she felt a warm tear fall onto the back of her hand. She hadn't realized Carlos was crying – a fact that broke her heart even more.
"Why though? Why do they hate me so much?" The tone in Carlos' voice was enough to rip Camille's heart completely in half. He sounded so broken. So betrayed. So hurt. "Did I do something? Did I do something that made them hate me? I-I don't remember getting into a fight with any of them. I don't remember doing anything to make them mad."
Tears were streaming down Carlos' face now as he spoke. He looked up at Camille with swollen eyes and a heartbroken expression that caused her to tear up as well. He stared at her with a pleading look, as if begging her for answers. She shook her head and looked away, never letting go of his hand the entire time. "I don't know, Carlos. I don't know."
As she stared at her feet beside the bed, she could hear him choke back tears as he began to sob. She wanted to tell him that this was all just a horrible nightmare and that he would wake up soon, but she couldn't. This was real and there was nothing she could do to stop Carlos' world from shattering. She could only sit there and hold his hand as he cried, muttering questions that she couldn't answer.
"Camille?"
The finally tore her gaze away from the ground below to look up at Carlos, surprised to see that he had stopped crying long enough to speak to her. His eyes were still red and swollen, but his eyes told her that there was something else that was bothering him.
"Please don't make me go home." His voice cracked halfway through the sentence, the fear so obvious in his eyes that even a child would know how scared he was of the monsters he used to call his friends.
"Of course not, Carlos. You can stay with me." Camille smiled softly, squeezing his hand slightly as he sighed with relief. There was no way in hell she was going to let Carlos return to Apartment 2J. "When I go there to break up with Logan tomorrow, I'll grab your things."
Carlos' eyes widened at her words. "N-no, don't break up with Logan! You make him so happy… I don't want to come between such a good relationship."
Camille felt her own eyes widen, "Are you crazy? I'm not staying with him! He beat you up!"
"Camille, you have no idea how happy you make Logan. Every time he talks about you, he glows. He loves you, Camille. Don't break his heart." The broken man on the bed whispered.
"But… he hurt you…"
"Even if he hates me, he's still my brother. I don't want to see him heartbroken." Carlos blinked away the tears that began to form in his eyes.
Camille felt her jaw drop softly. She knew that Carlos always tried to find the good in people, but she never thought that he would still be protecting someone who had almost killed him. Even though his former best friends had turned into monsters, he still wanted to see them happy. "Carlos…"
"Promise me, Camille?" Carlos pleaded, "Promise me that you won't break up with him unless he hurts you personally. Don't let someone like me ruin something so great."
Camille opened her mouth to tell him that she wouldn't be able to forgive him after this, but something stopped her. It might have been the glint in Carlos' eyes that pretty much begged her to make that promise, or the fact that she was so tired, her eyelids felt as though they were being weighed down by sand, but she nodded. Even though she could still feel the rage in her veins every time she thought about what the monsters had done, she had to make this promise to Carlos. She couldn't hurt him anymore than he already was.
"I promise."
Hooray! A wild update appears!
I've been working on this chapter since Tuesday and I'm so happy that I finally got the computer long enough to wrap it up. I'll get started on the next chapter as soon a possible, so keep a look out for updates soon!
I'm really grateful for all the reviews you guys leave and I apologize for not responding to them personally, but I know that a lot of you guys have been asking for Bradley to come back. Don't worry, your Bradlos heart will be getting it's fill soon. Probably not in the next chapter, but most likely the one after that. He won't be a minor character for very long, so those of you who really like his character will be able to get a spoonful of him soon.
I love all of you and your inspiring reviews!
Smoochies! -Carnie