"Reecey!" I yelled excitedly as I entered his hospital room. He rolled his eyes as he sat up in bed, narrowing his eyes at me. It had been 3 days since Reece woke up and he was improving significantly.

"Stop calling me that." He hissed, but a small smile formed on his lips anyway.

I smiled back as I sat down on the chair next to him. This had been the first time I had seen him alone since he woke up. Amanda hardly left his side and Jake, Elliot and Will were here a lot to keep him company. Also, I had spent some time talking with the police over what happened as I told them exactly what went down.

I raised a brow. "You don't like that name, Reecey?" I teased as he huffed, eyeing what I had in my hands. I had a tin clutched in my hands as I chuckled in response and handed it to him.

A grin stretched on his face as he took the lid off to reveal about a dozen cupcakes. A bit embarrassing really but I spent hours making sure they were absolutely perfect. The first batch came out slightly overcooked, so I tossed them in the bin and started again.

"Thanks Sammy." He smiled, taking one out and scoffing it. He moaned into the cake which made us both laugh.

"How you feeling?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest leaning back on the chair and resting my feet on the end of his large bed.

He shrugged. "Fine. I don't know why the fuck I'm still here."

I laughed lightly. "You got shot 5 days ago. Of course you're still here." I didn't mention to Reece how those two days were complete hell for me. I had however spoken to Jake since and I apologised for how I acted. Jake didn't allow me to say sorry as he was just happy I was ok. He even said that he would keep my secret and I was shocked. I had completely forgotten what I had yelled in front of him.

"Hey Reece?" I asked.

"Hmm." He mumbled in response, halfway through eating another cake.

"Why did you do it?"

He finished his cake and looked at me confused. "Do what?"

I rolled my eyes. "Why did you take the bullet?" He looked slightly taken back as he swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing as he did.

Why was that small and normal movement so incredibly hot?

Oh for fuck sake Sam, the boy just got out of a coma 3 days ago and you are already pining after his attractiveness.

"It was my mess." Reece replied, averting me from my perverting thoughts as he gave me a sad smile. "I hated what he did to you. You were innocent in all of this, so I just did it."

I shook my head, grabbing his hand. "Don't ever be so stupid again, he could've killed you."

He rolled his eyes. "He also could've killed you." He said seriously. "I would never be able to forgive myself if I let anything happen to you."

I wanted to tell him so badly how I felt, but I couldn't find the courage. So I simply shook of the thought. "Are we good?" I blurted out instead.

He furrowed his eyebrows at me before something in his brain clicked. He looked down in shame. "I'm so sorry for how I acted after, you know." He paused, sighing. "Yeah, were good."

I gave him a small smile in return, more than happy that we were ok.

"So..." I stated, grabbing a cupcake of my own from the tin and gently peeling off the paper. "What did you get on the maths test?" I asked and he chuckled.

"A plus." He grinned cockily and I rolled my eyes in response. For the next hour, we just chatted about anything and everything. It was like pre feelings friendship and it felt good. It made me forget about everything as we laughed together like old times. Soon Amanda came back with the nurse as she did her hourly check on Reece.

I swear she fancied him the way she giggled whilst Reece spoke to her.

Glaring at the nurses back, I said goodbye to Reece and left the hospital. According to the doctor, he would be able to leave tomorrow but would have to rest at home in bed. I jumped in my car but instead of driving home, I drove to the beach instead. Parking in the parking lot nearby, I took my shoes off as I began to stroll down the beach.

I loved that feeling when my feet sank into the sand. The beach was pretty empty as It was beginning to get dark as I sat down on the sand, facing the calm waves. I held my knees up to my chest as I watched the beautiful sunset, with my chin resting on my knees. It was a mixture of orange, yellow and red.

I couldn't believe how much had happened in the space of a week. Where do I even start? Well, first there was Cole's party. The peaceful sounds of the waves crashing against each other was extremely calming and helped me to think.

Cole's party was pretty eventful to say the least. I feel horrible that his birthday was ruined as they spent the whole evening out searching for me. Cole had filled me in on what happened, and how Reece hadn't stopped searching.

My heart warmed at the thought as I found myself smiling because of him.

Ugh.

I chuckled to myself as I had gone from saying it was only a little crush a few weeks ago at Sarah's wedding to then realising I was falling for him on my mum's anniversary. And then there was the big milestone of realising that I was in love with him. I guess being locked in a room for days you begin to feel like you're going insane.

But there's also a hell of a lot of time to think.

So there was Cole's party, which quite a lot of things happened. The number of people I had kissed went from 3, to then 4, to 5 in a week. Making Reece jealous felt riveting at the time but now I regret it. After that was the obvious fucking kidnapping. I thought about it as I briefly touched the back of my head. It was still slightly sore but only when I touched it. When I got to the hospital, they bandaged it up for me and now it was fine.

Then there was being tied down to a chair for 4 entire days, only given the absolute minimum amount of water to survive. My ass and lower back still fucking ached and I was slowly getting my appetite back although it wasn't fully there. I hadn't admitted this to anyone but I was finding it hard to eat. Even that cupcake I ate early I was finding it extremely hard to get it down. Thankfully, Reece didn't think anything of it when I said simply I wasn't hungry. Even though we would normally have finished all of them together in one sitting. I think when you don't eat for a long time it becomes very difficult. Not only did I not eat for the four days I was stuck in that warehouse, I hardly ate a thing the two days Reece was in a coma.

Then there was waking up to Reece calling my name, Peter about to kill me but had to go outside. I wondered what would have happened if we hadn't heard a bang, or worse, if Reece didn't have that pen knife. Of course there was then the actual escape. Reece was smart and i don't think anyone else would have got me out of there. What also helped was how fast he could run.

And then the worst possible thing happened. I watched the boy I was so madly in love with jump in front of me and take a fucking bullet for me. I would never forget the look on his face as he fell down in my arms.

Then of course the worst 2 days of my life.

Those two days were ten times worse than the four days I spent in that warehouse. Although every time I shut my eyes I see Peter's face and me being back in that room, which scared me to even sleep. The two days spent thinking that Reece was going to die was the worst thing I had ever felt.

It was pretty unexplainable and traumatising when I watched it happen and couldn't do a single thing to stop it.

I sighed as I hugged my knees tighter.

All I wanted to do right now was jump in my car and drive back to the hospital, go inside and tell Reece the truth. Tell him how I was so fucking in love with him and kiss the hell out of him.

But I was a fucking coward.

You'd think after the two of us being that close to death that we would say whatever to each other but it wasn't the case. If anything, it made me worship our friendship even more and the thought of jeopardising that again was just-

I couldn't.

What exactly would happen if I just straight up told Reece I was in love with him?

Would he laugh in my face?

Would he be disgusted?

Or would he say it back?

I chuckled bitterly. The last one was never going to happen. Reece wasn't a relationship type of guy and he had said many times that he didn't want one. But then again neither did I. When I broke up with Adam, I couldn't think of anything worse than getting into another high school relationship.

But then I also didn't plan on falling in love as hard as I did. Plus, Reece wasn't just some guy.

I groaned, kicking the sand. "Why is everything so complicated?" I complained, admiring the gorgeous view I had in front of me.

I grabbed my phone from my pocket and began scrolling through all of my pictures. Most consisted of pictures of me and my friends but there was few that stood out.

I smiled widely at a picture of me and Reece when the 5 of us went ice skating on Christmas eve. Jodie took it on my phone and it was a picture of me clinging onto Reece's arm with a look of horror whereas he was laughing looking down at me.

Then there was another photo and I chuckled quietly. It was an image of Reece fast asleep in maths, with his cheek all squished up against the palm of his hand.

I continued to scroll through multiple more, not just of me and Reece but of me and my friends. I burst out laughing when I came across a photo of Jake giving Cole a piggy back. But as Cole was quite muscular, Jake looked like he was wheezing beneath him. Next to him was Reece with Aiden and Ashton on his shoulders. The three boys had a large grin on each of their faces and it was absolutely adorable. The two were the ten-year-old twin brothers of Jodie who took a large liking to Reece. The twins were little shits really and liked to cause havoc, hence why they instantly loved Reece. I laughed even harder when I remembered the after math after I had taken that photo. Jake fell down with Cole and they both toppled over each other, taking down Reece and the twins in the process. They all fell to the floor, luckily the twins landed on the three, crushing them. Me and Jodie found it absolutely hilarious and couldn't stop laughing about it for a good hour. We were both fully crying and we both had tears streaming down our faces. It was taken about a month ago when Jodie's parents went on a business trip for the weekend so we had all gone to Jodie's on the Saturday.

Smiling so widely at all the photos of my friends, I grabbed my shoes and put them back on as I made my way back to my car. I drove back to my house and spent the rest of the evening texting Reece and spending time with my dad.