Chapter 18
“Annabel...”
I didn’t know if I had really heard my name or it was just my mind playing games with me. I was trying really hard to open my eyes, but they felt so heavy.
Someone was holding my hand, and there was something resting on my stomach. I could feel the pressure from the weight, but I didn’t know what it was.
“Wake up. Come on, I know you can. You just moved. I didn’t imagine that.”
It was Aaron. His voice sounded distant, but it was there.
I tried to pick up my hand, to run it through his hair, but I couldn’t.
“I’m sorry,” he said, just before I drifted off.
My breathing was leveled, and I was fighting with myself to wake up. My throat felt really dry and I desperately needed a drink of water.
After slowly managing to crack my eyes open, I found myself in a dimly lit room. I took a moment to inspect my surroundings, before my eyes landed on Aaron.
He was asleep in a recliner chair right next to the bed. I couldn’t tell what time it was, but it was dark outside. Only a nightlight right behind my bed was lit on. The rest of the room was enveloped in darkness.
I was about to get up to use the bathroom, when Aaron opened his eyes.
“You’re awake!” He said and a bright smile took over his lips.
It was then when I noticed one of his legs was in a cast. His movements made the light hit his face, and I was able to see bruises around his eyes, which looked red and puffy. There was a small white band on the bridge of his nose, which was also bruised.
I could see few other bruises in his arms. No doubt there was more hidden under his clothes.
“Hey,” I said with a croaky voice.
“Are you thirsty?” He asked.
Aaron pulled out a bottle of water from his backpack, which was resting right next to his broken leg.
“I bought this one earlier,” he said, bringing up the bottled water. “It’s room temperature, but it should be good either way. They brought your dinner, even though you were asleep, but they took it back when they went around picking up the trays.”
“It’s fine,” I told him, gratefully taking the water from him.
He didn’t let go of the water though. Aaron helped me take a few sips. I was thankful that he hadn’t let go. My arms felt really weak, something that I hadn’t noticed until I picked them up.
“How do you feel?” Aaron asked, caressing the side of my face and then tangling his hand through my hair.
“I’m okay, I think,” I replied, unsure of how to feel about anything.
“Your parents are here.”
“They are?”
“Well, not here in the hospital, but they arrived early this morning. Your dad had to take your mom away. Nurses said you couldn’t have overnight visitors or something like that,” he shrugged.
I raised an eyebrow, only to have him grin at me.
“I’m still checked in here. I’m in the floor above this one, but I snuck in your room about two or three hours ago,” he said, his grin growing wider.
I gave in to a small chuckle. Too late I realized that laughing made my chest hurt, a lot.
“What’s wrong?” Aaron asked, getting up from the chair.
“I’m fine,” I groaned, which only made him aware that I wasn’t fine at all.
“I’ll get a nurse,” he told me, before pressing a button on my bed.
Aaron was kicked out of my room after the nurse arrived, although he didn’t get in trouble for sneaking in. He came back right after everyone left.
“It’s late. You should be in bed,” I told him.
It was almost three in the morning. I wasn’t tired, but I was worried about him. The doctor said it was the first time I woke up since the accident last night.
I had no broken bones but I did have a lot of bruising, which was what made several parts in my body ache. The doctor was also afraid I had a concussion, which I was yet to get cleared of.
“I slept too much already,” Aaron replied.
“When?” I asked, giving him a flat look.
He had strange sleeping habits. I wouldn’t put it past him to be running on no sleep at all.
“I woke up earlier, around midday. I think it’s the most I’ve slept at once in a very long time. To think it was all thanks to the accident,” he tried to joke.
“Does it hurt?” I asked, nodding at his face. It was several shades of purple and red in certain areas. His hair looked a lot messier than usual.
“Nope,” he replied. I couldn’t tell if he was lying or not.
“What about the leg?” I asked, looking down at his cast.
“Not one bit,” he said, shaking his head.
I wanted to believe him, but I knew Aaron would spare me his pain just so that I wouldn’t worry.
“What happened to the other people?” I asked after a few minutes.
Aaron had been holding my hand, which tightened after I asked that question. His face grew hard for the first time since I’d woken up and he lowered his expression down to his lap.
“Tell me.”
“Everyone involved is angry,” Aaron said, explaining, yet not saying a lot.
“Angry?”
“Six people died,” he solemnly replied.
I felt my chest constrict after hearing that. Six people had died.
“How did it happen?” I asked in a whisper.
I was trying to raise my voice, but I didn’t have enough strength to speak any louder.
“I still don’t know all the details. My dad was trying to find out what exactly went down, but the police is trying to keep everything in the down low,” he replied, his voice so serious.
“Why?”
“It was a fuel truck. The guy driving made a turn while there was a red light. He threw himself when a car was coming, thinking that he’d make the turn in time. He didn’t. The car that flew at us, it was that one. Everyone in that car died,” Aaron said, lowering his head on my stomach.
Now I knew what the pressure I’d felt earlier was, when I came to my senses for a few moments. Aaron had been resting his head on my stomach.
“The people that survived, the ones that are awake at least, they’re already talking about suing the company. At least that’s what my dad told me.”
“Wow,” I sighed.
My chest ached, so my voice sounded breathy when I spoke.
“That’s bad,” I mumbled.
“It’s worse than bad. Some of the people that made it,” Aaron said, letting the sentence hang.
His eyes looked haunted, like if he’d seen some horrible things.
“What is it?”
“I don’t want to scare you. Let’s just say that we were both really lucky we only got a few bruises and a broken leg,” Aaron said, and I caught the shiver that ran down his body.
The next day in the morning, when Aaron had left and my parents arrived to visit, I found out one of the girls in the accident had lost one of her legs. Another guy had third degree burns covering his arms and his entire back.
Where was the justice in that?
“Do you want anything, Anna? The doctor said we could bring you food from outside,” my mom asked.
She hadn’t left my side since she arrived, as soon as visiting hours had started.
“I’m not really hungry,” I told her.
“You haven’t eaten much,” my mom said.
She stared at the tray of food that had been brought in for lunch, which I hadn’t touched.
“I’ll eat later on.”
“But-” my mom was about to object, but my dad interrupted her.
“No, it’s okay. Annabel just needs to rest,” my dad interjected.
I smiled at him appreciatively, for not forcing me to eat. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to swallow anything.
My parents stayed with me all of Saturday. Aaron came down to visit when his mom gave him a breather. He was ready to get discharged, but after claiming his leg was hurting a lot, the doctor gave him another day or two in the hospital.
“I think I lost them,” Aaron said, right after shutting the door and resting his back against it.
He had his crutches, although the doctor had told him he shouldn’t be moving around so much so soon after the accident.
“Hiding from the nurses again?” I asked, attempting to smile. I was feeling really nervous, heartbroken.
It was just past eight, which was when visiting hours were over.
“Yup, I think they’re onto me after I snuck out last night,” he said, slowly making his way to the chair next to my bed.
“Well you made it.”
“I did,” he grinned, reaching out for my hand as soon as he sat down.
“I wanted to talk to you,” I said, distracting my gaze on the muted TV.
It was turned on in the only channel I was able to tolerate, but I wasn’t really paying attention to it.
“What’s up?” Aaron asked, scooting to the edge of the chair so that he was closer to me.
“The accident,” I started.
“It’s pretty bad. I was thinking about it too,” Aaron said, shaking his head.
“It made me think about my accident with Matt. It hadn’t been our fault either,” I said, trying to keep my mind blank.
I did not want my mind to drift off onto memories about that day. I hated that day so much.
“You didn’t deserve this,” Aaron said, leaning closer to my face, lightly brushing his lips against mine.
“No one deserved it,” I told him.
“What about the accident? You okay?” Aaron asked.
He asked the question slowly, carefully. He probably thought the accident was getting to me, which it was, but not in the way he was thinking.
“Idon’tthinkweshouldbetogetheranymore,” I mumbled through incoherent words.
I wasn’t sure if he understood what I said, but the shocked look in his eyes and the way he loosened his hold in my hand made me feel he had.
“Why not?” Aaron asked, and I didn’t miss his jaw hardening, or how he narrowed his eyes at me.
“I’m leaving with my parents back home.”
“We’re in the middle of the semester,” he said with careful words.
“At this point, I don’t really care.”
“Why are you leaving?”
“I don’t want to be here anymore,” I replied.
“Because of the accident?”
“Yes, no, I don’t know.” I confused even myself with my reply.
“You didn’t leave after Matt died,” Aaron told me, completely letting go of my hand.
“I left after a few months.”
“The only reason you left was because he lied to you and you found out.” By then, Aaron had gotten up from his chair.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not changing my mind. I don’t want to be here anymore.” My voice cracked, but I didn’t think Aaron paid attention to it.
His eyes focused on me. I couldn’t tell whether he was mad or not, he just looked so detached.
“We don’t have to break up if you leave.” He was saying the words, but it seemed like he anticipated my answer, because his voice held no emotion.
I wanted to tell him that the reason I wanted to leave was because of him. I didn’t want us to be together. I loved Aaron. I had said it to him before the accident, but I didn’t realize just how true those words were until this morning.
I really loved him.
If I had woken up without him by my side, if something had happened to him just like it did to Matt, I wouldn’t have been able to handle it.
It scared me to think that I loved Aaron more than I had ever loved Matt. Because of those thoughts, I wondered if I ever even loved Matt, or I just loved the idea I had of him.
I had been in the accident with Matt, and I had made it. He hadn’t.
What if this second accident was because of me, my bad luck? I couldn’t stop thinking about that all day.
If it wasn’t that, then there was the fact that if I hadn’t been with Aaron when he visited his parents, he would have stayed longer with them. Aaron would have completely missed the accident and wouldn’t have landed in the hospital.
If something had happened to Aaron, I wasn’t sure I would survive it, not after what I went through with Matt.
“Annabel,” Aaron snapped, trying to grasp my attention.
I was so lost in my thoughts I had almost forgotten he was there.
“Huh?”
“I guess you already started to ignore me,” Aaron said. “Man does it bring back memories of the first days.”
I scrunched up my eyebrows at him.
“We started talking since the first day we met,” I told him.
“Exactly,” he said.
“What?” I asked, completely confused by what he said.
“Don’t do this.”
“Do what?”
“Dump me over some crazy idea you’ve thread out in your head about us or the accident or even Matt. We had an accident. It sucks but it happens, more often than people would like. It’s not some kind of freaky sign.”
“I’m not…” I started to say, but Aaron was shaking his head at me.
“You were going there. You started doing it right now.”
“So you’re saying I’m crazy?” I asked, but a smile was slipping onto my lips.
“You are if you dump me over this,” he said.
He hadn’t gotten closer to me, and his body still looked tense, but I could see he was starting to get comfortable again.
“It’s scary,” I admitted, allowing the waterworks to start.
“It is. When I woke up, I was scared something had happened to you,” he said, finally taking a few steps closer to me.
“I have bad luck,” I said, chuckling through my tears.
Aaron ran his thumb over my cheeks, wiping away the dampness in them.
“I think we all have bad luck once in a while.”
“Why do you still want me?” I asked, putting my hand over his, enjoying the warmth of having him so close.
“Annabel,” he whispered.
He leaned down and kissed my cheek.
“I’m crazy in love with you. I thought you would know that bad now,” Aaron said, resting his forehead against mine.
“So we’re both crazy then?” I asked.
“I guess we are,” he said with a grin, before pressing his lips against mine.
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