"TRUE FRIENDS ARE NEVER APART. MAYBE IN DISTANCE, BUT NEVER IN HEART."

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┅ Ⓑ ┅

(NOTE: This chapter picks up right where 8 A left off.)

LIA 

Vee and I steadfastly ignored the elephant in the room and we were conversing about anything and everything not accident related, per my request. It was only halfhearted though.

Halfway through her enumeration of her recently updated 'potential boyfriends' list, we heard a commotion in the hallway, and Vee shot up instantly and went to check what's going on, only to be pushed back by the guard at the door and this time he was not taking no for an answer.

Not too pleased with her rejection, she trudged back to the bed with a very dissatisfied face expression.

"I don't know what's going on," she says, "but there are a lot of people running around in the hallway."

"Did you see William outside?" I ask. I don't ask about Miles because he hasn't been here all morning and when William passed by earlier he said he'd been caught up in some work emergency.

"I couldn't see clearly because of the not so lovely guard," she sighs, "but it's not like I would miss a very tall and sexy looking man running around, so no I don't think William was out there."

I roll my eyes at her.

"We could call him," she suggests and hands me her phone.

"William Terrell slash Lia slash question mark?" I look at his saved contact and laugh. "How many William Terrells do you know?"

She shrugs, "I didn't know what else to save him as," she says, "but now I do," she adds with a wink.

The best thing to do when Vee starts obsessing over someone new is to ignore her, let her do all the talking, drooling, fangirling and marriage plans, and when she's done and her hormones are back in check, we can resume right back where we stopped.

So I let her do that, and I dial William's only to be met by his voicemail.

WILL

My fist collided with the wall, right next to- I glanced down at his name tag- right next to John's face, he winced and tried to squirm out, but I had him trapped from both sides. The collision sent a rupture of pain through my arm and a flashback of memories through my mind.

William. William. William.

I could almost hear their chants again and for a moment it felt like I was back in the arena, back in the boxing ring.

Blood. Red. Rage.

Adrenaline raced through my system, and every nerve was alert. My mind was a battle between 'this feels good' and 'I should stop'.

Screw you, Miles.

I punched the wall again and again, and with every punch John visibly paled. My knuckles were bloodied and torn but that didn't stop me, until my fist collided with John's cheek, making a flat sickening sound and nostalgia coursed through me, satisfying my raging bestial self. I staggered backwards and he fell to the ground howling in pain.

Stop. Stop. Stop.

It was like the bridge from my mind to body was broken and whatever actions I carried on afterwards were of their own accords. The loud reasoning voice in my head that was telling me to stop was entirely ignored as I reached out and pulled John to his feet again, almost tearing the collar, and just as I was about to deliver another blow, my body was knocked to the side.

"What in the world are you doing, Will?" Steve was standing above me, with a grim expression on his face.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"He's crazy!" John choked. "Completely and utterly out of his mind!"

Steve turned to the wounded man, "You should go get your face checked."

"I'm going to press charges!" John threatened as he made his way out.

"I like this newfound courage, Johnny!" I sarcastically remarked. "You can pass by and I'll help you with your pressing charges papers."

He ignores me and walks faster towards the door.

"What was that about?" Steve demands as soon as we're both alone. "You were about to punch his teeth out of his face, what did this man ever do to you?"

I shrug, "Nothing. Apart from serving terrible coffee, nothing really."

Steve just stares at me and I'm aware of how bad the situation seems, yet I don't have any energy left to care.

"Look, I was angry, he got in the way, it wasn't intentional," I try to justify.

"Are you even listening to yourself? You beat the man bloody and then –

I hold a hand up interrupting him, "I'll apologize, okay?"

He's quiet for a few seconds, again just blankly staring at me. I was still on the floor, resting back on my arms, and looking up at him.

"You're clearly not in your right mind," he mutters and pulls a nearby chair, "did something happen to your friend?" he eyes me carefully as he sits down.

"My friend is alright, I was just blowing off some steam, like I said, and this guy came in the way."

"You know I could report you," he challenges.

"And you know I could beat you unconscious right now, piss off Steve."

He stands abruptly, and dusts his jeans, shooting me a look of disdainful judgement, "Sober up and find me outside, Alexis has been shot."

"What?" I scramble up off the floor.

He walks away without another word or explanation, leaving me dazed, worried and exhausted. 

.

I got up and steadied myself on a table, leaning heavily on my hands, they splayed across the wood, with my knuckles torn and crusted with dried blood, an ugly reminder of an ugly side of me.

My anger has now subsided and left behind it an intensified feeling of nothingness, I did not even feel guilty for hitting the blameless man nor did I get the calming sense of relief knowing that my friend is safe and well, but at least now I have a clear head to focus on the more pressing matters at hand.

I make my way out to the chaos that is this hospital but my heart, mind and entire being was longing to be in Lone Palm Bar, drinking myself senseless.

✿

I got my hand bandaged up and found Steve and the others on the third floor, where Lia's room is. The scene before me was all too painfully familiar; a mixture of doctors and agents, all in a distressing frenzy.  This floor was reserved mainly for the agents of ISIA but in cases of emergencies and overcrowdings, it was open for everyone.

"What happened? Is Lexi alright?" I asked as I approached Steve and two other agents he was with.

Steve looked from my bandaged hands to my face, and then shook his head, "We don't know yet, she's still under operation. The bullet went in and out of her shoulder but she bled a lot," he explained. "It was bad."

I kick angrily at the wall and Steve shoots me a warning look.

"I thought Alexis was with us on Lia and Talon's case, why was she out on a mission now?" I turn back to him.

Steve looks discomposed for a moment, "We got intel on Marcus, in one of the nearby hotels, I think he was meeting with someone there," he starts. "There was no time for us to inform another team, we didn't want to risk it so we took off ourselves."

Reckless agents at their best, but I was in no place to judge because if there was a legit title for that at The Agency, it would be alternating between myself and Miles.

"And then?"

"He was attending an auction there; we soon realized and followed him into the hall, we tried to get close as much as we could, he exchanged envelopes with someone named Matías Huerta, the CEO of a well-known Spanish publishing firm, a-

"What would Marcus Villiers want with a Spanish publishing firm?" I interrupt.

"We don't know. After that someone from security stopped Lexi and asked her for identification, some sort of pass word. We were outnumbered, unprepared and we didn't have the time to send for backup, so she did the only reasonable thing she could do and attacked the man, by the time the others noticed we were halfway out of the hotel but they caught up quickly. They opened fire in the car park, there were a lot of civilians and ... and a few of them were injured as well. They fled after they shot Lexi."

This day just keeps getting worse, I thought to myself. This statement, however, was not wholly exclusive to this day and could be perfectly fit to describe my entire life right now.

"She's going to be alright, Lexi is a tough agent, she wouldn't let one lousy bullet put her down," I put my hand on his shoulder as reassurance, "she's going to be alright," I repeat, even though I wasn't convinced by my own words, and the sick feeling inside me festered.

He nods in response and I inform him that I'm going to check on Lia and be back.

"How is she doing?" he asks, "You know we're all waiting on her statement, and we won't wait forever."

Steve wasn't heartless or unsympathetic, he's just a very punctilious and diligent agent, who puts his work before everything else and business meant business to him, so getting him to understand that the girl is not able to talk about it now, was a little difficult.

"We'll get to that after Lexi is taken care of, don't worry about it now," I assure him and leave.

✿

The two girls ask me what's going on outside as soon as I walk in, and I see no point in not telling them so I do.

"That's one badass female, I'd like to meet her," Venus comments.

"I heard you threatened Andrew to poke his eyes with your heels, I think you'd get along well with Lexi," I say.

She snorts at that, "He ran to you like a cry baby? Shame on his muscles."

"Excuse my friend," Lia speaks for the first time since I came in.

Venus shoots her a look and then says, "Yeah for real, excuse me, I need to make a phone call." She hops off the bed and leaves the room, sending a wink in my direction.

Lia puts her hand over her face, "seriously," she says, "excuse my friend."

I wave her off, "she cares about you a lot, that's admirable," I say honestly.

"She said she'd move here for me," she replies, a small smile tugging at her lips. "I don't want her to go through the trouble, but she's serious."

I smile at the resurfacing memory of a similar incident, "your brother moved here for me as well."

"Really?" her eyes widen, "I don't- Not everything is clear in my head still but I thought you looked familiar when I first saw you, you and Miles have been friends from school?"

"Not school, we met when we were sixteen; the same day we both joined The Agency, you probably saw a picture of us?"

"Maybe, I remember Miles deactivated his Facebook for some time, right? I remember bits and pieces of everything, Vee was just going through some pictures and stuff with me, to see if I recalled everything," she says in a low voice," I don't."

I know that.

There's a sense of vulnerability about her that's very much alike her brother's. Even though Miles covers it up by his tough persona and his infuriating sense of humour, I've always been able to see through it, that was sort of inevitable after living together for so long and he was my only friend for almost three years. 

Miles is impulsive and hot-headed, and most of his decisions are life-threatening, but in the face of danger, he's always the first to put his life on the line to save others. I used to validate it under his unrelenting death wish after losing Cami, but I was wrong, Miles is self-sacrificing by nature; he would rather die than lose someone he cares about, or just lose someone in general when his life could've been an alternative. But under all this determination, there's pain, vulnerability and fear of losing the people around him. And here I am, watching Miles's fears come to life. 

"Are you okay?" Lia's voice breaks me out of my thoughts.

"Sorry, I was ... I zoned out," I admit. "Are you feeling well today?" I add, lamely. Very lamely indeed.

"Tell me about Miles moving here," she ignores my question. "Was it like ... an impulsive decision or did you two plan it out?"

I chuckle, "Miles planning something out? I have yet to see that happen."

She smiles but it fades as soon as she starts talking again, "I don't know what to tell Vee, she won't change her mind about it, I don't think she realizes how big of a deal it is to move from one country to another, leaving her whole life behind but like I said, she's very persistent. Did you try to talk Miles out of it?"

"He didn't really leave any room for discussion at the time," I reply and my mind flashes back to the eventful day.

"I'm assigned to London," I miserably announced as I threw myself on the bed. "I leave in two days."

Miles's grin came into view, "I know."

"Why are you happy about it?" I was terrified. At the age of seventeen, I was a boy still angry at the world and all I had was one friend who was now going to be on the other side of it.

"Because I'm coming too," he replied, still with his obnoxious grin.

"No, you're not. I checked the list, you'll be staying here."

"Although your mournful display over leaving me is very flattering and amusing," he places his laptop next to me, "I'll have to cut it short to tell you that I've got my hands on the list, which means I'm coming too."

"You did not!" I gasped and sat upright, pulling his laptop from his hands to check for myself, and true to his words, Miles had hacked the system again and updated the list, adding his name. "Bloody hell! They're going to kill you for that."

He shrugged, "I'm relying on your killer boxing skills for protction," and he held out his fist.

I bumped knuckles, "are you quite sure though?"That you want to move to London?" 

"Hell no, I'm not, but I'm very very excited. I heard the chicks in London are all in for a sexy American accent," he beamed and I swatted his arm. "No seriously Will, I don't think I'm ready to let you go now, not until you admit you have a crush on me," this time I pushed him off the bed with my foot.

I don't tell Lia how exactly Miles was 'magically' assigned to London as well, instead I switch topics to something completely not brother related; school.

"So this is your senior year right?"

"What happened to your hand?" once again, she dodges my questions and redirects the conversation towards me.

I can't precisely tell her I decided to punch a wall and beat the cafeteria man bloody because her brother was pissing me off, so I shrugged it off as some minor accident outside. I also refrained from asking her any more questions and instead let her do the talking and asking. We talked mainly about The Agency; she was entirely fascinated by it and kept asking question after question. It was an effective way to take my mind off of what's going on outside for some time. It also gave me an opportunity to try and know my best friend's sister better, so far she doesn't seem to be a madcap like Miles.

One could only hope. 

VEE

I stood outside the door for some time, resting my head back against the wall, with one hand on my chest as I breathed in and out a couple times to calm myself and then I slowly unstuck my hand from my wildly beating heart. "Calm, Vee." I told myself. "She's fine; everything is going to be okay."

Except that everything was far from okay. I had to be calm and collected for her, but it's hard watching my best friend's life fall apart and not break down. It's hard knowing nothing is ever going to be the same again, and pretending that it is going to be okay. And on top of that, she doesn't remember.

I wipe at my eyes and dial Adam's number before I change my mind. It wasn't even eight a.m. yet there, but I couldn't care less if I woke him up.

The line rang five times and then a groggy voice answered, "What the fuck?"

"Sorry, did I wake you up, princess?"

There was a long pause and then, "Skye?" he sounded surprised, as he should be.

"Yes it's me and it's Venus for you now, we need to talk."

"At seven a.m.?"

"It's three p.m. where I'm at."

Another pause, "Where are you?"

"In London," I hesitate, "with Lia."

I think he chokes on his breath and I wait him out, can't blame the guy, it's way too early in the morning for that kind of news.

"She's ali- ... I mean... she's okay?"

"Alive? Yes, okay? not really but she will be," I reply. "She's been in an accident ... and she doesn't remember everything at the moment."

"What?" his voice becomes louder and I almost regret calling, maybe I should've just texted. "What accident?"

"We can talk about that later, she wants to talk to you."

I'm really hating his long pauses now, "me?" he asks dumbfounded.

"Aren't you Adam Wade, doting and loyal boyfriend? Yes you!"

"How?"

"I told you she doesn't remember," I answer irritably.

"And you haven't told her?"

"Of course I haven't, because you will. I won't be the deliverer of bad news."

"I won't either," he says and hangs up.

I'm going to kill you, Adam Wade!

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

A/N  

Hello!

Is it a writers block if you have the ideas in your head but whenever you try to type it, it comes out as absolute garbage? If so, then I had the worst whatever it's really called for the past two weeks and with uni just starting, it was hell.

Anyway, opinions please??

ALSO HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW COVER MADE BY @These4Seasons!!! I LOVE IT AND I LOVE HER! Thank you so much xxx

Thank you for reading! x