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Tuesday 30th August

It had been a while since Dominic Richards had been truly scared. But standing in the car park of the Stonehall County Library as police and fire men milled about with faces of stone, he once again became aquatinted with that sinking feeling in the pit of his belly.

He'd been sat in his room, his arms still shaking with rage after a heated argument with his uncle when he'd got Kaden's frantic phone call. She'd been hysteric, barely able to form a coherent sentence as she begged him to pick her up from Mark's house and drive her to the library. He'd been hesitant but upon hearing Jordan's name within Kaden's drunken slurs, he'd swiftly picked up his keys and snuck out of the house.

Dominic rested his hands on the steering wheel before turning to the passenger seat where Kaden was sat. She'd been coiled up with her knees pressed against her chest for the whole journey, her sporadic tears dripping down her fairly sculpted face and trickling down her taut legs.

"Kaden..." he said quietly. She used her left arm to roughly wipe her tears from her face before answering.

"Yeah?" she choked out in a hoarse whisper.

"What's going on?" Dominic asked softly, his forehead creasing with worry.

"J-Jordan." Kaden mumbled, her gaze glued to her heels that her messily laid on the floor. "She--she was inside and..." Kaden trailed off, fresh tears streaming slowly down the dark skin of her face. She looked up at out of the car window, her gaze skittering over the different emergency vehicles parked around the library.

"Why is the fire brigade here?" Dominic asked as he followed Kaden's gaze. She sighed before closing her dark brown eyes and leaning her pounding head against the cold glass of the car window.

"Because there was a fire." she murmured.

"What?" Dominic hissed, glaring at Kaden. "Why didn't you tell me? Where's Jordan--"

"Shhh." Kaden interrupted, small creases forming on her forehead and between her eyes. Dominic rolled his eyes as he tried to suppress the remaining embers of his anger from earlier.

"Kaden." he said slowly. "Can you please explain what's going on?"

"You have to drive me to the hospital." she said as she sat up abruptly, her eyes reopening. "Now."

"Kade--"

"Fucking drive!" Kaden hissed. "She's in the hospital!" she added in a slur. Dominic let out a frustrated sigh before staring up the car again.

"I swear if you weren't drunk right now..." he muttered darkly as he softly shook his head.

"I'm sorry." Kaden whispered after a few moments. "I just..." she stopped speaking when she realised how fast they were going. Dominic was streaking down the motorway, the orange-tinted street lights blurred as they passed by in regular intervals. Kaden balled her fists in a weak attempt to control her growing anxiety. "We're going fast." she choked out.

"Yeah." Dominic replied without taking his eyes off the road. "There's no time."

"Can you slow down a bit?" Kaden asked as her jaw began to tremble.

"Kaden there's no ti--"

"You need to slow down." Kaden almost yelled, her chest rising an falling in an irregular pattern. Dominic glanced nervously over at her before obeying her request. "Thank you." she said in a shaky voice.

"Are you alright?" Dominic asked quietly, glancing over at her for a second.

"No." Kaden whispered as she brushed a hand over her tear stained face. "My baby sister's hospital; she could be dead for all I know."

Dominic's eyes widened at her brazen statement, his grip on the steering wheel tightening.

"She's not... Is she?" he clarified in a slightly panicky tone. "Kaden?"

"Fire isn't the exactly a life giver is it?" she bitterly, her words slightly slurred.

"Fire." Dominic muttered, his mind reeling. "A fire?"

"That what I said, isn't it?" Kaden sighed, resting her head against the cool window once again.

"Kaden, you don't make it easy to like you." Dominic said, trying to distract himself.

"You must really like her." Kaden mused. "To be so scared that she's hurt."

"I'm not scared." Dominic declined with a curt shake of his head.

"I can hear the tremble in your voice." Kaden mumbled. "It's painfully obvious." she sighed.

"Whatever." Dominic muttered, chewing his lip as he exited the motorway. "We're almost here."

"Thank fuck." Kaden sighed. "I can hardly breath in here."

"Why not?" Dominic asked casually, ignoring the way his heart was racing.

"Witnessing an accident does that to someone." Kaden mumbled incoherently. Dominic frowned slightly, wanting to know more. "Don't ask." Kaden added, her eyes stinging with unshed tears as they pulled into the hospital car park.

After Dominic switched off the engine, the pair sat silently in the car, lost in the labyrinth of their own racing thoughts.

"We should go and see if she's alright." Kaden said, her voice breaking on the last word. Dominic nodded and in a matter of minutes they were slowly walking towards the bright lights of the hospital.

Kaden's sporadic tears had returned and were raining down her face, curving round her pointed chin and down her slender neck. Dominic silently put arm around her waist as she tripped in her heels, her breath catching. As they were just outside the doors, Kaden buckled again but this time it was to impossible to tell whether it was because of her ridiculous shoes or the crippling anxiety in her chest.

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a/n: no Jordan in this chapter 👀.

Is anyone warming up to Kaden yet?