His Butterfly

Chapter 22

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-Nikki xx

I wake up to the sound of beeping. My eyes slowly flutter open and I weightlessly turn my head to the side, watching my parents looking back at me.

"We trust you to go on a trip without us and we get a call to see this," my mom beings to complain, and I see my dad slowly sitting her back down.

"How are you feeling?" My dad asks, standing next to the bed.

I look around the hospital room and bring my focus back to him, "Fine."

"How'd you crash?"

Going straight into the details, aren't we dad?

I bring a hand to my forehead and feel a wire being pulled up alongside me. I eye the little device sandwiching my finger and scrunch my nose, looking back at my dad, "It was another car."

Both my parents watch me and I realize they're waiting for more.

"I don't know, we were just driving. It's not like we were drinking or purposely messing with the car steering. It just came out of nowhere. It was going really fast."

"Do you think they were drunk?" My mom asks more calmly, standing up from her seat.

I shrug and pull myself up.

My dad places a hand on my shoulder, laying me back and plays with the controls on the side. I feel the bed slowly sitting me up, "Thanks."

"Could you see who it was? A license plate?"

I stare at the white board on the wall at the end of my bed, "I wasn't really focused on that, I was more focused on, you know, living."

I hear a scoff from the door, "Even having a near death experience, you're still a sarcastic little shit."

My brother comes into view, and to be honest, I almost don't even recognize him. Since moving out, he's cleaned up. He sits on the side of my bed as my parents slowly exit the room.

"You clean up nice," I tease, glancing at his button up shirt.

"I wish I could say the same." He smiles at my hospital dress, "I feel like Ellie's going to barge in any minute, and if I'm being honest, I wouldn't argue with her. Apparently she's been waiting for hours. They wouldn't let her in because she wasn't immediate family, which also seemed to tick her off."

I smile and he pushes a strand of hair from my face, "Are you okay Brooklyn?"

I nod.

"I don't just mean from the crash. Is Jaxon bugging you? Do you want me to tell him to back off?"

"No, it's not Jaxon. It's school." I lie. Okay, well, technically I'm not lying because school has been on my mind. "But it's fine. Tommy said he would help me."

He gives a questioning look when he hears the name, but lets it go, "Did you think you were going to die?"

I pretend to ponder over the question even though I already know the answer. I really thought it was the end, I couldn't even keep my eyes opened. "No."