The Rock Rollercoaster

30. Runaways

I'll speak to you properly at the end of the chapter, but for those who don't need my author's notes, THANK YOU SO MUCH! (Sequel news is at the end too)

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I glance at Charles and see that he has finally woken up. He raises an eyebrow and says, "Have you almost finished?"

I nod. "Yes."

"Did it help?"

I inhale deeply. "Yes. I still know it was all my fault, but remembering it all was nearly as good as it was the first time around."

He shifts uncomfortably, probably because he's been sitting in the same chair for hours on end. "Do you now see why your father made you come to these sessions?"

I nod again. "In the end though, you didn't help. It was me."

"Of course it was."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Freddie and I didn't say a word as we got into a car provided by someone from the arena who actually knew what had happened.

I was too scared to ask. I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer.

Dawn was breaking the sky into a million pieces of orange and yellow and purpley-blue. Clouds were scattered above clumsily, like the first strokes of a watercolour. Massachusetts looked beautiful, and yet I didn't care.

Finally, I asked. And I was right, I didn't want to know the answer.

"Car crash." Freddie said, shortly, his features tightening with panic and worry. "He was going above the speed limit, and his car flipped."

My stomach contracted. Freddie found an old paint tin in the back seat and shoved it into my lap. I threw up into it, too scared to think about being embarrassed. I leaned back, shivering and sweaty. "Is he...?"

"Critical condition." Was all he said.

We were speeding along the highway now, the sky a blur of colour from my window. The other cars beeped at us, some of them swerving out of our way. They were just a flash of headlights. I didn't notice any of this at the time - I was too busy trying not to throw up again and feeling my heart thump erratically.

We parked the car haphazardly across three vacant spaces and didn't even bother locking the doors. We just ran, ran into the building ignoring the cries of people who recognised us from the band and the disapproving stares of the staff.

The room was white, a disinfectant colour. It smelt like bleach. I couldn't picture Nate here - he was full of life, wild and free. He couldn't be here. He couldn't.

Freddie marched up to the desk and gave Nate's full name to the bored-looking woman sat behind the computer. She was too slow - I found him before she did.

A pair of double doors the other end of the waiting room burst open, and a crowd of doctors and nurses came rushing through, pushing someone on a hospital bed as they shouted.

"We're losing him!"

"We need oxygen stat! Try to keep his heart going!"

My head whirled as I saw the mop of dark brown hair on the pillow. I couldn't see the face. Everything seemed to

just

slow

down.

And then time caught back up with me and I was running across the waiting room. I grabbed his hand and then looked up at his face.