It's Complicated

Eight

Archer's POV

Darkness. Darkness and unintelligible voices.

Then, there was light and a shadow. More shadows. The shadows started to dance.

Darkness came over me again.

I awoke feeling numb. I looked at my blurry frame. There were contraptions all over my body, restricting it. A more defined shadow came into view. A voice spoke to me. I shook my head. I couldn't understand. The figure left and came back with two others. The were speaking to each other. I stared up at the light above me. It was bright. Not as bright as the first one, but still pretty bright.

The figures were looking at me. I looked at them. My vision was still not clear, and the voices were still meaningless to me. A smaller figure approached me. I desperately wanted to know who they were and where I was. I closed my eyes again, falling asleep.

The next time I woke, the light was much more bearable. The figures were people. The voices were not in a foreign language. One of my fathers walked up to me, his face tired and sad.

"Padre." My voice came out as a croaky whisper. Tears filled in his eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, mia amata." I didn't understand why he was so upset.

"Wh-Where am I?" My voice was still forming, but my words were somewhat clear.

"You're in the hospital."

"Why?" His face fell. Tears starting streaming down his face. He was unable to speak. My other father approached us, embracing the sobbing man. He looked at me, his expression also sad.

"You were hit by a car." My father started to sob harder; his wails filling the small room. My other father tried shushing him, reassuring him everything would be fine. Slater was next to approach me, rubbing his eyes.

"Hey, Arch." He looked up at our parents sadly before refocusing his attention on me. "How do you feel?"

"Numb. Please tell me what happened." He looked at me. He frowned, hesitating. "As Dad said, you got hit by a car. The driver said you came out of nowhere. He also said there were some boys standing where you came from. They ran off after he walked out of his car. He found our contact info on your backpack. After calling the ambulance, he called the number. We got there, and the people in the ambulance lead us here."

I looked at him, all of the memories flooding back. I felt my face get wet. I was crying. He frowned again. He looked like he wanted to hug me, but something was holding him back. He went to where our dads were and joined their hug. I closed my eyes, wanting all of this to be a terrible dream. I opened them and now the doctor was there. I looked at her. She seemed tired.

"Hello, Archer. I'm glad to see you are awake. How are you feeling?"

"I can't feel my body." A sob escaped from my father's mouth as my other father escorted him into the hallway. Slater sat back down. The doctor finished writing something on her clipboard and asked, "Is there anything you need?"

"I want Madison." She looked at me.

"I'm sorry, only family can visit you at this time." My face became wet again. The doctor reassured me, "You can have friends in a couple of days, when your body is a bit more healed."

I croaked out, "Okay." The doctor walked out. My brother walked up to the bed and sat on it.

"Who's Madison?"

"A friend."

"How come I've never met her?" Our parents walked in as he said this.

"Slater, leave her alone. Let her sleep."

"Fine." Slater grumpily sat back down. My fathers were both dry faced, but their eyes were red and puffy.

"Why are you sad?" My statement triggered the tears from one of my fathers again, but he was able to hold them back a bit.

They embraced again, and the father that was not on the verge of tears spoke. "We didn't want to lose you, tesoro."

"I'm not gone."

He laughed. "No. You're still here. We are very grateful for that. Now, get some rest, amore." I obeyed him, closing my eyes and falling into a deep sleep.

My dreams were mostly filled with old memories. There were some weird ones, too. Those included Madison. I wanted her to be here. I knew we hardly knew each other, but I missed talking to her.

I woke up disoriented. It took a moment for my brain to figure out where I was and why I was there. I tried, and failed, to see my sleeping family. From what I could see, my little brother was curled up on a chair with his head on my dad's lap. My other father's head was on his shoulder. The man in the middle of the two was gently caressing my brother's hair.

"Babbo?" He seemed shocked to see that I was awake, but relieved to see I was able to speak clearly.

"Yes, gioiello?"

"I want Madison to come." He frowned.

"The doctor said only family for the first couple weeks."

"How long will I be here?" He looked at me with sad eyes.

"I don't know. Hopefully not long." I nodded. I closed my eyes again, falling back asleep.

My days were filled with sleep, Jell-O, medicine, and doctors. Lots and lots of doctors. I pretty certain that I got a new only every day. They told me I had three broken ribs, a fractured arm, and deep cuts and bruises throughout my body. Apparently the car that hit me was going around 80 MPH, and there was broken glass where I ended up (which is how the cuts happened). The boys who had chased me had been found and expelled, and the driver had agreed to pay all my medical bills.

I was thankful to be alive, but Madison never came. She never came to visit. And that was what made my progress slow. My body was in such a depressed state that it stopped repairing itself.

Then one day, she came. And after that day, she never missed a day.