"Ana, how could you?" An angered, gruff voice in the darkness yells at me. Darry, definitely. Now's not the time. Slowly, I try to open my eyes, but become dizzy and slam them shut.
"Are you okay?" He asks, softening a bit as he puts a comforting hand on my shoulder.
"Yeah. I'm fine," I say, but my voice comes out in a rasp, like I have a sore throat. After a moment, I'm able to open my eyes.
"Where am I?" I ask.
"Hospital," he says. I blink, thinking hard.
"The accident..." I whisper.
"How could you have been so stupid?" He demands, suddenly angered again.
"What do you mean? I wasn't the one driving!" I tell him. He rolls his eyes.
"That's not the point, Annalise. The point is that you willingly got in the car with someone who was drunk. You could have died! And with your injuries, you're lucky you didn't!" He yells at me.
Before I have time to even ask what my injuries are, someone in the bed next to me yells, "Shut it, man! I'm tryin'a get some rest."
"Why should I care, Dallas? You could have killed my sister!" Darry screams. With every word, his voice rises a bit louder, and my head pounds a bit more. The two of them yell at each other for a while, until I step in.
"Will you two shut the hell up already? You guys are friends. So what if I got in the car with him? It was my choice, Darry! I don't know what your problem is!" But I do know what his problem is. And he's too speechless to even attempt a response. He stares at me instead.
"Look, Dar," I say, lowering my voice. "You're my brother, okay? I love you, and you're welcome to stay, but if you're going to scream and yell about what an idiot I am, you can just get out now because I don't wanna hear it!" And with that, he walks out. I don't try to stop him, either.
"Thank god, man! He was annoying me," Dallas says with a laugh.
"Yeah. He was loud... Hey Dally?" I say, a wave of courage washing over me to ask about what he was babbling about in the car before the accident.
"Earlier today... or yesterday or whatever... When we were in the car? What were you talking about?" I ask him. He looks down the side of his bed, not meeting my eyes.
"I dunno, Ana. Probably didn't mean nothing, anyways," he responds. I stare at him in disbelief. It seemed to take everything for him to say anything that night, and now he's pretending that it was nothing. He plays with his hands, probably hoping I won't say anything else, but something inside of me makes me ask the next question.
"Dallas? Are you... gay?" I ask him. Immediately, his head shoots up, he stares at me.
"What are you talkin' about, man? Who said that?" He asks. I blink, a bit shocked. Not that I had really expected him to say yes right off the bat, but had I been totally off? Was that not what he was saying in the car?
"No one... Well, you did, kind of," I remind him. He doesn't say anything.
"Who do you feel different around? You said you feel different around 'him' than you do with girls. And you were gonna tell me, but then I screamed. Remember?" I ask him.
"Yeah. Yeah, I remember," he says, a bit quieter than expected.
"But I'm not gay, man, hell no.... Maybe... bisexual?" He asks. I'm momentarily stunned, and I'm almost unable to respond. He cuts me off before I even find anything to say.
"It's just... Johnny, man," he says, his New York accent making the name sound more like 'Jhanny'.
"You like him?" I ask, lowering my voice to about the sound of his. He nods.
"That's great," I tell him, honestly. I could tell this has been something he thinks about a lot lately, but was this the first time he's admitted it?
"Man, I've never told anyone that," he practically reads my mind.
"Well, are you gonna te-" but before I could finish, I was cut off by a scream of "Annalise!" from the doorway, and then someone running towards my bed.
"Annalise Curtis, what the hell did you do this time?" Leesha says, faking her annoyance.
"Got in a car accident," I respond, gesturing around the hospital.
"I heard. Flew out as soon as your brother called. He said you got lucky, your only injury was a slight concussion," she says. I nod. Not that I exactly knew that, but it at least explains the throbbing in my head.
"So," she says, sitting next to me on my bed. "What were we talking about?" I shrug.
"Nothing really," I respond.
"What has Dally never told anyone? Hi Dallas, by the way," Ana says. I would have laughed, but before I have a chance to, Dally shoots me a look that says, If you tell anyone, you're a dead man.
"I honestly don't even remember," I say, fake laughing. She raises an eyebrow, knowing that I totally do, but doesn't pry anymore.
"Well, I'n glad you're okay. How're you feeling?" She asks, running over and jumping into the hospital bed next to me. Like I said before, we're really close.
"I'm fine," I laugh, hugging my best friend close.
"I'm glad. God, you left two days ago and I missed you so much!" She squeezes me and I make a small grunting noise.
"Sorry," she says, getting up.
"It's cool," I say with a shrug. From the other side of the room, Dallas glares at us.
"Not with me, ladies. God, can't a guy get some sleep around here?"
"Ghawd!" Leesha mimics Dally's thick New York accent. I laugh.
"Jesus, just shut it already!" He yells. I roll my eyes and Ieesha walks over to him, closing the curtain inbetween us.
"Gosh, I feel better now. Your friend wasn't wearing any clothes and I was starting to get nauseous," she jokes, plopping down at the foot of my bed.
"I can still hear you, babe," Dallas says to us, rather rudely. I roll my eyes when I hear him calling us babe.
"Yeah, so?" Leesha challenges him.
"Yeah so if you don't shut your damn mouth in the next 10 seconds I pull this friggin IV out and shut you up myself," he says.
"And how ya gonna do that?" Leesha responds. I laugh really loudly, and realize after less than a second what a bad idea that was, and hold my head in my hands.
"I've got my ways," he says and I can almost hear the wink he probably did after. Ieesha rolls her eyes.
"Yeah, I bet you do. Too bad I don't go that way," she says. Lightly, I smack her arm.
"Esha!" I yell, laughing. Leesha is in hysterics on the edge of my bed and so am I, but why, I'm not exactly sure.
"The hell's going on over there?" Dallas asks.
"Nothing, Dallas. Just go back to sleep. We'll be quiet," I tell him, scooting over for Ieesha to lay down next to me. I pull the covers over her.
"You must be exhausted," I whisper.
"Pretty much. I flew out at 3:30 this morning. Darry picked me up and drove me here after," she says.
"What time is it now?" I ask her, not looking for any type of clock.
"Like 7:30 am ish," she tells me. I yawn.
"I know I've been out for a while, but I'm still pretty exhausted myself," I say, closing my eyes.
"I know, baby. Get some sleep," she whispers in my ear, kissing the top of my head before I drift off.
A/N: So you're still reading? Nice to see you again! It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm going to try and update this story somewhat regularly from now on. I'm really happy that Ieesha is finally there, and that'll make things a lot more fun. She's so sassy and energetic... I think I like her more than Ana. But can you believe they're not dating?? What are your thoughts so far? Do you like her? Do you want them to date?
-Katy