Our Beautiful Mistake

Hospitals Are No Place For Best Friends

"Dad!" I rushed up to him in the waiting room and fell into his arms, "where is he? What happened?"

"Alli, calm down," my dad grabbed me and sat me down in a chair to stop the scene I was causing. I looked around the waiting room and saw that it was practically filled with sick or injured people and people who were just like us, who were waiting to see what is wrong with their loved ones. Justin sat next to me in one of the chairs, also worried and wanting to hear what my dad had to say. We had rushed here from the park, right after my dad called us. I was still in my dress and heels and Justin was still in his suit. People were staring at us and I couldn't figure out why until I remembered that my boyfriend is an international pop star. I mentally slapped myself.

"Dad, tell me what happened!" I ordered. "If someone doesn't tell me what happened in the next minute, I swear to God-"

"Alli, you need to calm down," Cameron's soothing voice said to me, "Remember, the baby?"

"Then someone tell me what the hell happened!" I snapped.

"Alli, Austin was in a car accident," my dad finally told me, "he left when I got home and I got a call from Michele asking me if I'd seen Austin." I shook my head, "No, Austin's a good driver. He would never get in a car accident. For heaven's sakes, he goes under the speed limit on the highway and sits at a stop sign for a good ten seconds than he supposed too. That boy takes every damn precaution in the handbook."

"Alli, it wasn't his fault," Cameron said, "The cop said he was at an intersection and as he was driving through a drunk driver T-boned him and sent his car spinning into another car. None of it was his fault."

"Where is he?" I asked standing up.

"Allison..." my dad warned.

"I want to see him, god dammit. Where is he?!" I finally snapped and started shouting. My best friend was in the hospital and I didn't know if he was alive or dead; I wanted to see him. My arms were flailing, tears were rolling down my cheeks, and my throat was sore from yelling. I started for two large double doors when suddenly I was yanked back. "Let go of me!" I yelled, "I need to see him."

"Alli," Justin's calm voice slowly came through my shouts, "calm down." He held me against his chest and I tried to push away, but I didn't have the strength too so I just broke down and sobbed into his chest. Justin just held me as my body was racked with sobs. "You'll see him soon enough Alli," Justin soothed. He slowly moved us to a couple of seats and placed me on his lap.

"Michele is in with the doctor now," my dad told me after I calmed down. I was still crying, but not as hard, "we'll find out about him soon enough." My dad placed a soothing hand on my back. I looked up and saw Cameron sitting in a corner, his head hung low. I wiped the mess under my eyes and climbed off Justin. Both my dad and Justin started to get up, but when they saw where I was going, they sat back down. I slowly walked over to where Cameron was sitting. He looked up and I saw he was also crying. We didn't say anything; we just knew. Our best friend could be fighting for his life right now and we couldn't do anything about it. I sat down next to him and we cried into each others arms

****

"Alli," my dad shook me awake. I opened one eye, and groaned. I opened both eyes to the brightly lit waiting room. I groaned again as I stretched; my back was killing me. I fell asleep in one of those hospital waiting room chairs, and lemme tell you, they are not made for comfort.

"He's awake," those words woke me right up. I jolted out of my seat, but I was seeing stars. I grabbed onto my dad to steady myself. "Woah, calm down." I shook my head, trying to clear the sleep from it. "Allison, I want you to listen very closely to me." I nodded. "When I had Justin take you and Cameron home to change, Michele came out and told me that Austin had to go into surgery. The car accident cause an internal eruption. He needed surgery." My eyes were big and I was about to yell at my dad for not telling me this, but he beat me to the punch, "I know you are probably upset with me for not telling you, but it was for the best. The success rate for this type of surgery under Austin's conditions were not very good and Michele and I decided not to tell you guys just in case." Tears started to form in my eyes. "Sweetie don't cry," my dad wiped away a tear with his thumb, "he's awake now. That means the surgery was a success." I felt a small smile make it's way across my face. "Do you wanna go see him?" I nodded, biting my lip to keep myself from crying tears of happiness.

My dad lead me to the double doors I had charged at a couple hours ago, except this time I was allowed behind them. I turned to get a reassuring smile from Justin before pushing the doors out of my way. Michele was standing behind. She looked tired. Instead a bright smile on her face, she had bags under her eyes. Instead of her skin always giving off a mothering glow, she look like she had been crying for hours on end. She greeted me with a warm hug.

"How have you been?" she asked as we started walking down the white hallway.

"I've been better; not feeling so hot right now," I admitted.

"The baby?" she asked. I nodded, "I'm five and half months pregnant and I feel like I'm constantly going to puke. I can't move without hurting, and the baby has started to move around which is just weird and uncomfortable, and I don't like it."

"Sounds like a boy," Michele said.

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow.

"That sounds exactly like Austin," she told me. "I could never be comfortable in one position for too long, and if I ate anything Austin didn't like, he immediately let me know." I chuckled, "You mean, just a younger version of his current self?" We laughed nervously at the joke I made, not knowing how much longer we could be making these jokes for. "We're here," Michele said. I noticed we had made our way from the empty hallway to a bustling area filled with nurses and doctors. Looming in front of me, was a large wooden door. "I'll be out here if you need me," Michele placed a small reassuring hand on my shoulder. I gave a small smile in return as I grabbed the door knob and twisted.

I walked in and was greeted by at least four different machines hooked up to my best friend and constantly beeping. Austin was lying in this huge bed that made him look so small and fragile - like if I were to touch him, he would break. His eyes were closed, but I knew he wasn't sleeping, just resting his eyes. I shut the door behind me as quietly as I could.

"Hey," a small voice came from the bedside.

"Hey," I squeaked. I walked, slowly, over to his bedside. I could see all the individual cuts and bruises across his face and the cast on his right arm extending all the way from his wrist to the middle of his upper arm, covering his elbow. He had blankets covering the rest of him, but I knew there was more than what meets the eye. I grabbed a chair that was against the wall and dragged it over so I could sit next to him. I didn't say anything as we held eye contact; instead I broke down. I leaned my head down and started sobbing into the covers.

"Hey," Austin started running his fingers through my hair.

"You scared the shit out of me Austin," I sobbed.

"Alli," his voice was scratchy, but stern, "look at me."  I brought my puffy eyes up to his brown ones. "I'm fine. I'm alive and breathing. You didn't think you could get rid of me that easily now, did you? Now come here." I smiled at how he still had his humor. I pushed the chair back as I climbed into bed next to him. He wrapped his arm around me as I pushed my face into his chest.

"Don't ever fucking scare me like that again," I told him. We stayed quiet and soon I could hear Austin's snores. I knew I needed to get some sleep, but those damn machines would not stop beeping....

****

I was awoken by a very loud beeping. I groaned and rolled over to try and block the noise out, but it got louder. Soon there was a bunch of shouting. I turned over and nuzzled my face into Austin's chest, hoping his heartbeat would drown out all these sounds. But as I placed my ear to his chest to hear the sound I had gotten so used to hearing, I heard absolutely nothing.