Crashing Colors

Chapter Four

When I woke up, Aaron and Ethan were throwing a tennis ball across the room to each other from the chairs on either side of my bed. Eliana was the first to notice that I was awake.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," she smirked and hit Ethan on the shoulder to get his attention, his eyes widened and his attention snapped towards me.

"Hey, baby," he scooted his chair towards me, reaching for one of my hands.

"How long was I asleep?" I tried to stretch my body, which was extremely difficult given my current state.

"Not long enough, it was nice and quiet," Aaron said sarcastically.

Ethan smiled but shook his head, "Only about an hour and a half. We were about to go get something from the cafeteria, do you want anything?"

I thought for a second. I was hungry, but the neck brace was in the way of my jaw, so chewing didn't seem like the best option.

"Do they have smoothies?" I raised an eyebrow.

Before I had even finished the thought, Eliana gasped, taking a step towards the foot of the bed, "They do, but you would hate them. The fruit is clearly frozen, not fresh. And their combination choices are terrible," she raised one side of her upper lip, expressing her distaste.

I couldn't really laugh, so what ended up happening was more of a forceful exhale, which even still was painful. I winced, internally noting to not try to do that again.

"The nurse did tell us she wasn't allowed to tell us to bring you outside food or stuff, but she said she's not allowed to tell us not to," Ethan tilted his head to one side, smiling.

"AND THEN SHE WINKED AT ME!" Aaron yelled, getting excited.

I smiled, looking back at Ethan, "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

He nodded slowly, "Banana Greek Yogurt like always?"

I smiled, answering the question silently, while Ethan and Eliana left to go to the mall. Aaron moved to the edge of the bed by my feet, looking at me with a smile still on his face.

"She really did wink at me," he nodded to himself.

"Oh, I'm sure she did," I smiled back.

"She also told me that you were lucky to have a friend like me around," he leaned his elbow on the sliding tray attached to my bed.

I licked my lips and tried to turn my head towards the monitor that was beeping to my heart beat, "Did she say exactly what was wrong with me? I mean I've gathered that I messed up that thing in my spinal cord and broke something in my left leg, but, like, what happened?"

"Well, when Eliana and I got here you were in surgery... And they said that when your car got hit, you flipped. And when you landed, it landed on your driver's side, shattering your femur and the top half of your tibia," he tried to keep his face straight, but I could tell he wasn't sure if he was using the right terms. "You also have a pretty severe concussion, which is why the lights have been off the entire time, and you have a fractured vertebra in your neck. And they said that while the damage to your spinal cord could have been a lot worse, there was still a chance that you could end up paralyzed from the waist down."

I could see the tears threatening to spill over when he blinked, but he held himself together, and I knew in the future he would say it was for my sake. I placed my hand on his shoulder for a moment, and then playfully hit his face a couple times, like he always did to me when I was upset about something. Except when he did it to me, it always cheered me up, but when I did it to him in that hospital room, he let the tears fall, grabbing my hand and sobbing.