(JJ's POV)
I hardly ever drove anywhere, let alone his giant diesel Ford. Back in the driveway, Jake was ugly crying. These big alligator tears were streaming down his face. Now, he just sat leaning against the window, tears still streaming down his face, watching the scenery that passed. I tried to talk to him, but he would only say a few words.
"Did the officer say anything on her condition?" I wondered.
"No."
"Well did he say anything about what happened."
"Not much."
"Well, did he-"
"JJ, can we just drive?" He disputed and reached to turn on the radio. He had a country music station playing, that happened to be playing a song by Tim McGraw called Please Remember Me. He changed the station and the song playing was Five More Minutes by Scotty McCreery. Finally, he just turned the whole radio off. I knew he was mad, and sad, and furious all at the same time.
"Jake, she's going to be okay."
"You don't know that!"
"I do know that! What does our family say? We do we practically live off of?" With his lack of response, I answered, "We always keep fighting, Jake. Your mom is a fighter. She will make it." He didn't say anything after that until we pulled up to the hospital. He walked around to the drivers seat door and opened it, blocking me from getting out.
"Hey," He rested both hands on my legs, "Thank you for coming with me. I probably would have wrecked or done something worse if I drove myself."
"Nothing would stop me from coming." I grabbed his chin and pulled him closer to me, "I love you." I said, right before softly pecking his lips with mine. He smiled and grabbed my hand to help me down.
We raced inside the hospital, and within minutes we were in his moms room. A doctor stood at her bedside. The scene looked horrible. She had a tube running in her mouth and down her throat. IV's were connected to her in so many places, and she had a monitor beeping with every heartbeat. Her hands were cuff linked to the bed as well.
"What can you tell us, Doctor?"
"Are you Jake?" He asked with the clipboard in his hand.
"Yes."
"Okay, you can stay and I will fill you in." He looked to me, "But I'm sorry, you'll have to step out. I can only have family in the room."
"She's my girlfriend." Jake stood proudly, not letting go of my hand so I could leave.
"I see. I can make an exception this time then." He began to explain her condition, but I couldn't listen to a word of it. All I could think about was Jake calling me his girlfriend again. Had we made things official again already? I guess so?
We sat together in a chair watching the news, as we waited for her condition to get better. I worried for Jake, knowing she was slowly getting worse. We hadn't even had the chance to talk to her yet, since she was still in a coma.
At eleven o'clock I turned to Jake and said, "Hey, the news is just filled with crap and drama. Let's turn it off and Just talk to each other." His moms room had her hospital bed, a small chair, and then a recliner facing the TV screen, parallel to the bed. He held me in his arms and wouldn't let go. It wasn't like a cuddle, but more like he was holding on for dear life. "Jake, loosen up. I'm not going anywhere."
He relaxed. "I'm sorry JJ. I know her time is just about up, and I can't bear to lose anyone else."
"Hey," I had tears glossing over my eyes now too, "I'm right here. I'm here for good. I'm not going anywhere." I kissed his forehead, and wrapped my arms around his torso as he held me close to him. We talked for about another hour about school, our friends, what he had planned for his next year.
He had just finished talking about his plans for his Junior year of college when he asked, "So are you going to move in right after graduation, or a couple of weeks before school?"
"Wait what?" I questioned. "Jake, I didn't plan on moving in with you until we were married."
"What? I specifically remember you saying something about moving in next fall a few months ago?"
"I know I didn't say that. It's been my plan this whole time to live with Hallie for a year or two until we get married. And once I move out, then Tom's going to move in with Hallie. You thought this whole time that I'm moving in right away?"
"Well, yeah?" He said innocently.
"Jake, that's a little soon. I'd be barely 18 then."
"But, I'd protect you." He smirked, pulling me closer to him.
"Jake," I playfully pushed him, "That's not what I meant. I mean, it's too soon for us to move in together. Especially if we aren't even engaged."
"What if I got you a ring?" He said so calmly. I completely froze, and had no idea what to say. "Come on JJ, it's not like you were planning on marrying anyone else, were you?"
"Well no-"
"So let's do it! What do you say? Marry me?"
Now I was completely shocked. Did he just ask me to marry him in a hospital next to his unconscious mother? "Are you kidding me?"
He looked embarrassed. "I know you, you're mad. What did I do wrong?" He asked concerned.
"You just asked me to marry you, in a hospital, next to your unconscious mother, and I'm still only 17. How about YOU tell me what's wrong with that."
He chuckled, and grinned, "Okay you're right. I'm sorry. Let's just get some sleep and we'll talk about it in the morning."
"Ummmm... how about we talk about it in a year!" I laughed, but was also completely serious.
"Fine." He compromised and got up to grab a blanket from the small closet outside the room. He came back and turned off the lights, and climber onto the recliner, pulling me close to him. I cuddled under his arm and laid my head on his chest, while he held me in his arms. He kissed my forehead and started quietly singing the words to our song.
And now you're my whole life
Now you're my whole world
I just can't believe the way I feel about you, girl
Like a river meets the sea,
Stronger than it's ever been.
We've come so far since that day
And I thought I loved you then
He pulled me close one last time and kissed my forehead. I could feel myself dozing off to sleep, and the last thing I heard him say was, "And I thought I loved you then."
We had been asleep for only a few hours when the heart monitor started beeping insanely loudly. Two night nurses rushed into the room and turned on the lights. Another hurried to move us out of the room. We stood outside the window and watched as one performed chest compressions on his mom, and another prepared the defibrillator. Within seconds she was on top of her bed, trying to bring his mom back. We stood there for a few minutes, but it felt like hours. The monitor then had a steady line shooting across the screen and loud noise alerting us.
Jake ran back into the room, pushing the nurse off the bed. He held his mom in his arms and cried. "No, no. Please! You can't leave me!"
One of the nurses pulled him away from her, and brought him back outside to me. I took him as far away from the room as I could before he gently pushed my arms off of him and punched the wall. I think he thought he could have broken through, but they must have built them knowing people would try to do that. He punched multiple times before I could get him to stop. His knuckles were covered in blood, and his shirt was tear stained, as more fell down the side of his face.
"Jake!" I yelled, pulling him down to the ground. "You have to stop!" He fell and held his head in his hands as his arms rested on his knees. I tried to wrap my arms around him, and comfort him as well as I could.
"She's gone. I can't believe she's really gone." He said in between sobs.
"Jake, I'm so sorry."
"It wasn't supposed to end this way. She was supposed to see me graduate, and see our first baby be born, and see the opening of my dentist office. I just don't get it."
"I know babe, I know. I'm so so sorry." When things had just started getting bad I called my dad, and told him to hurry. He was to the hospital just minutes later and found Jake and I sitting on the floor. Just he and Jared came, because it was in fact 3am, and everyone else must have been out cold.
Jared grabbed Jake and held him tight in his arms. And I turned to my dad and finally was able to let out tears, and just cry. He started to cry as well, probably knowing how much this hurt me, and even worse, Jake. Jared was crying too, and tried to help Jake as much as he could.
"I didn't even get to say goodbye. I can't even remember the last time I told her I loved her. I don't even remember the last time I called her." Jake was rambling and Jared tried to get him to stop and to just calm down.
My dad and Jared had us get up, and brought us to the waiting room. We sat down in the chairs and when Jake had finally been able to talk again, he shared some disturbing news.
"My mom has actually been in a lot of trouble lately. She's tried to kill herself two other times before this, just this year. The doctor called me last time and said that if she tried again, she probably wouldn't make it. Her heart was failing and that many pills in your system is extremely damaging. I just didn't want to admit it. I wanted to think that she would pull through." He cried again now, and tried to talk in between the sobs, but couldn't.
"Jake I'm so sorry." I felt like I had said that a hundred times, but I wasn't sure what else to say.
"Hey buddy," Jared grabbed his hand. "Life sucks. It sucks so much. And death can come at the absolute worst times. But just know, that you have a family, and we all love you so much son."
"Thanks." Jake smiled and wiped his now cherry red, tear stained, face.
We all had tried to sleep for a few more hours, but it was impossible for Jake. His mom had just died. How were we supposed to expect him to sleep?
All I knew was that I needed to be there for him, to help him know that even though he lost his mom, he would never lose me.