The Truth….Part 1
It was wintertime, and we were all on the stoop, bundled up against the cold.
“I heard the party got shot up,” Shante announced.
“Seriously?” Derek asked, leaning forward. “Who got hit?”
Shante shrugged. “I don’t know. I left at 9:30. I don’t stay late at parties—people don’t know how to act.”
Azaria’s phone buzzed. She looked down, then froze. Her eyes widened.
“My cousin,” she said, already standing. “I gotta go. She’s at the hospital.”
Before anyone could say another word, Azaria leapt off the stoop and took off down the block, running full speed into the cold night.
Azaria burst through the hospital doors, the blast of warm air hitting her face as the smell of antiseptic wrapped around her. The waiting room was packed—overflowing, really. People lined the walls, sat on the floor, stood in tight clusters whispering and crying. Friends. Family. Old flings. New ones. People she hadn’t seen in years but somehow always showed up when things went wrong. You name it—they were there.
Her eyes scanned the room wildly until she spotted familiar faces.
“What happened?” she asked one person. Then another. And another. The questions tumbled out of her, a million and one of them, each answer incomplete, conflicting, or drowned out by someone else’s voice.
“Was it the party?”
“Where was she standing?”
“Did the ambulance come fast?”
“Is she awake?”
Nobody had a straight answer. Some shook their heads. Some avoided eye contact. A few just stared at the floor, tears sliding silently down their faces. That’s when the panic really set in.
Azaria’s chest tightened. Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
Across the room, a set of double doors swung open. Doctors stepped out in hushed conversation, their faces tight, professional—but guarded. Too guarded. They glanced at the crowd, then at each other, like they were deciding who should speak, or how much truth could be given at once.
Azaria noticed immediately.
They weren’t rushing.
They weren’t reassuring anyone.
And they definitely weren’t smiling.
Her stomach dropped.
She pushed through the crowd just as one of the doctors cleared his throat, adjusting his coat. His eyes met hers for half a second—long enough for her to know.
Whatever they were about to say, it wasn’t good.
#redditstories #storiesread #apowellbooks #stories #truestories
