Back at the hotel, I have never seen Nana so stressed and demanding of the hotel staff. I have never heard her so anxious about my well-being for a single night in the luxury hotel. She had everything replaced and restocked all the way down to our bathroom before she settled down enough to get me to an er. My head was spinning and foggy while she ranted about not trusting the doctor at the unit and ranted about the whole facility in general.

I wanted her to shut up, but I couldn't speak. My mind was replaying lunch over and over in a consistent loop. My body was shaking, and those alarms were ringing in my ears, replaying in my head. A knot began to constrict my throat painfully as I subdued to my mental. I remembered the blackness of the kids' eyes, their posture as they stalked towards me, the way they looked at me like I was…

I started sobbing again. The doctor checking over my arm looked up at me in panic with his gentle hands letting me pull my arm away. I leaned away from Nana when she came to my side to comfort me, Charlie tried too but I started sobbing harder and beginning to go into a panic attack. And as if he were a knight in shining armor, the boy slipped past Nana and Uncle Charlie and came to my side, as soon as he reached out his hand to me I took it, and he stood in my view of everyone. The look in his eyes said so many things that I couldn't decipher but I just… knew something.

"Let's give her a few minutes." The doctor says while leading Bella, Uncle Charlie, and Nana out of the room and into the calm hospital hallway.

It was ridiculous for me to crave comfort from him, it was ridiculous for me to refuse to leave his side even when he had calmed down to hiccups. It was ridiculous for me to feel so… dependent on him and I didn't even know his name. Nana was completely thrown at me not leaving his side with my hand in his firm grasp, Uncle Charlie and Bella didn't look thrown but gave her reassurances about the boy—Jacob, Jacob is his name, Jake for short. It was ridiculous to cling to him without so much as speaking to him but… there is something I can't explain, there was just this feeling that he just knew.

It was ridiculous to have a strong feeling that he just knew what I needed, wanted without speaking a word. I watched the city go by with myself tucked close to Jacob in the back seat where he sat behind Bella because of his long legs. It was so ridiculous to feel so safe in a stranger's presence, but he was no stranger. I… can't explain it. I should be in Nana's car listening to her old music and her rant about anything so she could fill the silence over the radio. A wave of heavy exhaustion washed over me, the day was catching up to me and the medicine they gave me in the hospital was kicking in, I fell asleep in Jacob's side for the remaining time of the trip back to the hotel.

A hotel. A hotel, why a hotel? Why were they in a hotel? How long have they been there? Why are they in a hotel? Dumbass questions I know but this was what was on my mind I walked with Jacob into the building behind the others.

Once we were in the hotel room, Nana opened to door to the other room. She was the one to get the rooms by her rambling, everyone else was quiet as she rambled and looked stressed out more than before. I decided to step in.

"Nana," I said, and she looked over at me. "What you do have planned for dinner?"

She took the subject change with grace; she began to babble about a restaurant in downtown before she looked at me again and suggested take-out and began calling the restaurant before anyone could agree. Bella went into the other room, she looked anxious, I watched her sit down on one of the beds and pick up the phone, Uncle Charlie went in after her with a heave of a sigh. I looked up at Jacob on my right side, even if my head craned back as far as it could go I couldn't read his face. I looked away before he met my eyes, I tightened my grasp around his hand and looked over at Nana ordering multiple items from the menu. I inhaled sharply through my nose, and it came out as a sigh/yawn and tears slipped from my eyes, I wiped my face.

"You okay, Vivianna?"

I turned to the call of my name from Uncle Charlie. He scrutinized me as he walked back into the room, I nodded. "Tired."

Nana hung up the phone then, "Of course you are. Come, come lay down." Nana started to loosen up one of the queen beds and her tone left no discussion.

Jacob looked at Nana when he went to help me get my shoes off, but she beat him to it, his facial expression was humorous as he watched my Nana take control of my care like both of my legs and arms were broken and in casts. It was a… odd feeling to have her worry over me, I was not used to this. I wasn't used to this care from anyone, especially her. For all of my fifteen years of being alive and aware, she has never acted this way out of genuine care; I wanted to cry again. I swear I had entered an alternate dimension from my own because this was ridiculously inconceivable.

I was so glad when I finally settled into the expensive mattress, sheets, and pillows. Nana was smiling when she recovered me, she looked at me hard for a brief moment with indescribable emotions. She inhaled deeply and smoothed out my hair and then they went in the other room; I laid there on my right side with my arms wrapped and covered in the freshly washed comforter and the weight of my exhaustion paralyzed my body to the bed, but I couldn't close my eyes. I laid there for a good three minutes trying to coax myself into a nap until the food arrived, but I was still queasy, and I really wanted to cry again. I felt that overwhelming craving for Jacob's comfort again, my chest clenched, and I murmured his name, I was too scared to move to go to him myself. I was too scared to say his name louder.

As much as I have always wished for Nana's care, and as much as I accepted Uncle Charlie's care or even Bella's. I didn't want them to be… worried… I didn't want to answer questions I didn't have the answers too, and I didn't want to… feel this way. So weak and so.. dependent. I didn't understand the way that I felt for Jacob, I didn't understand why I needed him so much.

Jacob came into view from walking around the end of the bed, he looked down at me before he got onto the bed. He laid next to me on his stomach with his arms under his head, and he didn't need to say a thing and he didn't have to. Once he was settled next to me and met my eyes again, I was lost in the dark brown almost black color of his irises and the openness of his soul as he kept eye contact. The long minutes of gazing into his eyes I was relaxing again, and it was just his eyes that lured me into a nap.

I dreamt about us dancing around each other again, figuratively, pushing and pulling from each other. It was the same dream I've had for the past few weeks, but I could only see him and the last dance came faster than before. That slow dance that began a true slow dance, and all I could see was his eyes and the way his soul opened up to me. This dream was different. This dream seemed calmer than my memory of my others, which feeling in my chest when I woke up never settled in my chest leaving me to go through my day in a blurry haze. Which I had to admit was the only thing protecting me from anything else, like the events at lunch but that… numbness was gone, and it was subconsciously freaking me out. That feeling never came over me when I woke up to Jacob sitting at the end of the bed with Bella, they were watching a something on tv; Uncle Charlie was in one of the chairs with a water bottle in his hand with his eyes trained on the television.

In this moment of waking up… I had to lay there to process what was going on around me. Granted, I should be in the facility until tomorrow or Thursday but as I laid here… I didn't want to be anywhere else… the atmosphere of this room was sane… it was light and didn't linger with the dread of insanity. I was beginning to believe that… maybe, just maybe everything that I had wished for was unfolding before my eyes.

I didn't care what had gone down for me to here in this room. I didn't care. That hope that I had been looking for… it seemed like it was closer than I truly could process. I wanted to be here, in this room, in this hotel building, I wanted to stay in this bed forever.

And then I remembered… for the first time in my life, I stood up for myself. I managed to get myself free, for the first time in my life I finally protected myself. I wish I didn't have to use violence to protect myself but if I hadn't… who knows what those kids could done before security came. Who knows what could've happened with a group of mentally unstable kids would have done with the tools of kitchen ware if someone had caught on to that fact.

I began to feel less ridiculous for feeling safe with Jacob, I began to feel less ridiculous for clinging to him.

Because if I had to be honest, I don't believe I would've left that room with more than ripped open stitches, I genuinely believed if I hadn't fought for my safety… I could've ended up much worse. And yes, I was hinting at death. That kitchen was full of weapons of various types… I began to worry over the staff that had been involved. I wondered if they were safe now, I wondered what was going on in general.

Were kids arrested? Were those ambulances there because someone was critically injured? Were they there because someone had realized the weapons in the cafeteria and decided to take the advantage? I sighed heavily, which caught the attention of the three lovely people in the room. As if on cue, Nana came back into the hotel room with one of the bellhop boys with bags of take-out food, she gave him a generous tip which he had stared at with wide, astonished eyes before Nana, unintentionally rudely, shut the door in his face.

"Viviane," Nana says from the table where she was eating with Bella. "Would you want to see some of your friends from school? They have been persistently contacting me on Facebook to spend a day with you."

That was random.

I looked up from untouched meal, a burger and fried that Nana would've denied me months ago, to her, "Um…"

"We're here in Seattle until Friday morning. The weather is supposed to be decent until next Wednesday. We could set something up for the weekend." Nana suggested being rather calm.

I glanced over at Uncle Charlie who was looking at me gave a shrug and I looked back over at Nana. I didn't think too much on the topic, but I responded. "That sounds okay."

Nana smiled, it brightened her face made her look twenty years younger, "Okay." Nana looked back at Bella, and then the classic sternness of Moncia Karington came out on Bella, "Now, I expect you to eat that whole burger, Isabella. You haven't eaten anything today."

Bella blushed from the firmness of her tone; she choked but she didn't have anything in her mouth to worry about her choking. I was the only one who snickered at the interaction and then Nana turned her gaze on me and my food, the one gaze back on my face shut me up, suddenly.

I didn't need her to say anything to start eating. Uncle Charlie and Jacob looked like they wanted to laugh but with Nana's glance at them, their faces dropped, and they resumed eating. Nana rewarded us with the desserts of cheesecake and cookies she bought when everyone finished their meals, I think Bella mostly stayed at the table because she looked like she was going to burst if she did. Bella never finished one plate at home even with the small portion she'd give herself, everyone looked at Jacob hearing his stomach growl after all the food he consumed. I was expecting Nana to make an insensitive joke, but she didn't, I was surprised to see her unpack the other bag of food.

Nana and Uncle Charlie left the room after something about needing alcohol. I went into the bathroom and cleaned myself up and laid back down freshly showered and a clean outfit from my duffel bag.

Nana insisted that we all watch a movie before calling it a night, Uncle Charlie got himself out of it, surprisingly. Somehow, Nana had gotten premium channels just for this moment. Bella laid down on my bed with me, Jacob sat on the end of our bed during the first movie; we watched Dirty Dancing with Nana saying Patrick Swayze's lines back-to-back while sipping on her alcoholic drink. Nana joined Uncle Charlie in the room over by the second and I was asleep before the movie was a full five minutes in.