The car ride was silent as the three of them began to take into account everything that has happened over the last couple of days.
Cameron was clutching the steering wheel as he felt his world began to disintegrate around him. His parents always treated him lovingly and kindly, so he always adored them with an equal amount of enthusiasm.
But up until recently, Cameron began to learn how his own twin brother was a magnet for their hate, bitterness, and resentment.
Cameron didn't know how he could even begin to possibly make it up to Jessie, for all of the neglect that he didn't stop. So he just clutched the wheel while he gritted his teeth, because he was at a lost on what to do next.
Jessie was sat in the back seat with utter disbelief written all over his face. The last 24 hours had been an emotional rollercoaster for Jessie.
He learnt that his best friend was pushed away because of his parents bigotry, and the hate he had for Riley was stemmed from his parent's coercing and secretly encouraging his behaviour.
That same best friend, along with his own twin brother, learnt the extent of everything his parents did to him - the physical beatings, and the demoralising, spiteful words.
The main good thing that came out of tonight was that Jessie didn't feel like he was alone in the world anymore. Jessie was apprehensive when they both took his side, and he was now realising that he didn't need to worry about their reactions in the first place.
These other two people in the car clearly understood him the most, and Jessie felt appreciative of how lucky he felt.
Riley kept tapping his finger against the dashboard out of anxiety and confusion. Riley discovered that one of the people he cared for the most, was a victim to his parent's abuse and manipulation.
Riley would occasionally look towards the back seat of the car, and he could never understand why and who would try to hurt that innocent, sensitive, and beautiful guy in front of him.
The bombshell that Jessie's parents drove a wedge between their families was still exploding like a cluster grenade. Riley had so many questions that were still unanswered, and he kept piling them up in his head so that he could eventually ask Jessie for some answers.
'How could they switch from liking me to despising me so instantly once they found out I was bisexual?'
'How much of a role did they play to make Jessie hate me?'
'What things did they do to drive us apart?'
It was clear to Riley that they were manipulative and calculating enough to orchestrate Jessie into hating him all these years, but there was just so much that Riley wanted to learn - without hurting Jessie in the process.
Right now though, Riley knew it wasn't the right moment. Everything was just too surreal for everyone, and Riley didn't want to be the one to surface the old, yet still raw wounds.
~~~~~~~~~~
After pulling over to the side for a 10 minute break, they were back on the road again as everyone was rubbing their eyes tired.
"Just another 20 minutes left," Cameron commented, "You guys alive back there?"
Not getting a response from everyone, Cameron turned his head around and saw both of them either nod or hum in agreement.
Riley pushed Cameron's head back and told him to focus on the road. "Don't want to get into an accident." He warmed Cameron, as he then turned to look at Jessie. "How are you really?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Jessie asked as he flipped the question towards Riley. "My parents said some extremely shitty things about you and your parents, why don't you hate us by association?"
Riley tried to laugh it off as he shared, "I've had to deal with worse than a couple of old, homophobic trollops. No offence..."
"None taken."
"Have at it."
The chuckling in the car was like a breath of fresh air for everyone. The three of them seemed to be happier slightly, as Riley answered. "I can't hate you guys, there's already enough of that in the world."
"I think I can speak for Jessie when I say we're sorry, for everything they ever said or did to you." Cameron's voice was strong and firm as he was dead serious. "We don't condone or support anything they said."
"Obviously," Riley laughed. "Otherwise we never would have still been friends."
Cameron slowed down at the traffic lights as it turned red. With the vehicle at a complete halt, he looked at Riley and gave him a small nod of confirmation before a small jab in the shoulder.
"I can't wait to go to sleep," Jessie groaned. "Hopefully they fixed my room so I can get a comfortable bed again."
When the light turned green, Cameron started the car again as he drove down the intersection. "Not long now, the school is up ahead."
Everything was about to change as none of them saw the driver that was heading straight towards them. With no possible time to react, the three of them was struck by the massive truck as they felt the impact of the vehicle when they flew around with the car.
The smaller car took the bigger impact of the collision, as the brute force crashed them into the street lamp, with the sound of their horn honking into the empty night.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Riley's eyes started to flutter awake as he felt his entire body aching.
"Riley!?"
The sound of someone calling his name was too loud as it began to hurt his ear. Riley opened his eyes to see an injured Cameron trying to call his name. Their faces were in front of each other as Cameron tried to get him to wake up properly.
"Can you hear me?" Riley barely heard Cameron ask that as it seemed like his voice was hollow and echoey. "We've been hit."
Riley looked at the front of the car and he could see the car bonnet wrapped around the blacked out street lamp, along with smoke coming from the engine of their car.
He moved his head away from the passenger window as he heard small shards of glass crumbling down from where he was resting his head.
Riley lifted his hand to the part of his head that hit the window, and he looked at the blood on his hand confused and scared. "This... this can't be good."
Cameron was tearful as his emotions ran high. "Jessie's not responding to me, I can't get him to wake up!"
Riley stopped looking at his own hand as he almost experienced whiplashed after his eyes saw a passed out Jessie. "No no no no..."
Riley rushed to undo his seatbelt and swung it behind him. He then stood on the seat as he attempted to climb through to the back of the car.
"You've hit your head Riley!" Cameron pointed out, "You shouldn't be moving so suddenly!"
Riley didn't care about his own injury when he saw Jessie lying there helplessly. He withheld the groans from the agonising pain as he reached for Jessie's wrist.
Checking for a pulse, Riley prayed that he could feel something. "He's alive," Riley announced. He then moved his head next to Jessie's mouth and tried to listen for anything. "He's breathing Cameron."
Cameron choked on the air he suddenly swallowed as his cries were blocking his airway. "Jessie! Wake up! Please!"
Gently resting his hand, Riley began to nudge Jessie's face to try and wake him up. "Jessie... Jessie hey, it's me..."
With no response still, Riley kept trying as he told Cameron to go get some help. "Can you move?"
Cameron tearfully nodded his head despite still being in shock. "Yeah, but I don't know where my phone is."
Riley felt the adrenaline course through his body as he began to calmly instruct Cameron around. "First, you're going to check on the other driver and make sure he's alive. Secondly, you're going to find any stranger or any phone, and then call an ambulance. And thirdly, you make sure you come back to us alive, got it?"
Realistically Cameron knew it was the best action of response, but guilt was stopping him from going. "I can't leave my brother-"
"Cameron!" Riley accidentally yelled at him with heavy emotions in his voice. "We don't have time for this, we need you to get help. I promise I'll stay by Jessie's side and try to wake him up, but we need you to help us by calling an ambulance. Can you do that for us?"
Cameron took two sharp breaths before he promised to come right back with help. He managed to shove the car door open, and left through it.
Riley watched through the window as he saw Cameron do everything he told him. He then returned his attention to Jessie as he gently held his face. "Please wake up..."
The sound of more glass shards scraping the surfaces were heard, as Jessie began to move his hand around aimlessly. With relief flooding through, Riley grabbed his hand as he continued talking to Jessie.
"That's it Jessie, just take it easy."
Jessie began to wake up slowly as his head was still rolled back onto the car seat. He leaned forward slightly and saw Riley looking back at him tearfully, but then he felt another surge of pain running though his own body.
"We've been in an accident Jessie, can you hear me?"
Jessie tried to nod his head but it was just too painful. "I can." He managed to croak out in a painful whisper. "Everything hurts."
Riley blinked away the tears as he then looked down at Jessie's body. He saw that Jessie's leg was pinned by some sort of debris, and he noticed the trickle of blood starting to run down his leg.
Riley was panicking as he didn't know what to do. Jessie was barely awake and he was still in shock, so he didn't know whether to tell him how bad the injuries looked or not.
Jessie cried harder when he realised he couldn't see his brother. "Where's Cameron?"
Riley was quick to assures Jessie that Cameron was safe and fine. "He's going to get us some help."
Jessie felt like he could relax until he saw the debris weighing down his legs. He kept cursing as he tried to wiggle his legs around, but he couldn't move them enough. "Please help me."
Riley tried to lift the debris off Jessie, but he was just too weak as the adrenaline started to simmer down. The impact of the crash was finally taking its toll on Riley, as he clutched his shoulder with pain running down it.
They both heard the sound of static electricity somewhere near them. The street lamp began to flicker on and off, and the smoke from the car began to grow.
"Is this how I'm going to die?"
Riley couldn't help but chuckle, hoping some kind of laughter would make everything seem much less chaotic and dangerous. "You're being dramatic." Riley pointed out.
Jessie kept shaking his head as his panicking intensified. "What if there's a fire? What if we choke on the smoke? What if there's an explosion?"
"Then I'm staying here until an ambulance or a fire truck helps get us both out of here." Riley assured him as he tried to get Jessie's legs unstuck again.
"Don't be so stupid!" Jessie yelled, "You can't fucking die with me!"
"Because we're not dying!" Riley chuckled, "Any minute now, Cameron is going to come back and get us out of here."
Jessie shut his eyes closed as the tears were flowing down his injured and bloodied face. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for everything I did to you."
"The accident is making you more hysterical than normal..."
Jessie reached for Riley's hand so that he could pinch it - to show that he was trying to be serious. "I don't want to die with you thinking that I hate you."
"Jessie, I know you don't-"
"For so long, my parents told me that you were a parasite, that you were trying steal my life and then destroy it." Jessie whispered weakly. "I was stupid enough to believe them when I was young, and I'm mad at myself for pushing you away because of it."
Riley wasn't sure about what to say. After so many years of contemplating what drove them apart from each other, he finally got a partial response of why Jessie pushed him away.
He knew Jessie was manipulated into thinking the way he did back then. And Riley knew that the Jessie back then, was different to the one that was talking to him right now.
Jessie swallowed his guilt as he felt like he owed it Riley, to talk to him face to face. Jessie looked back at Riley with sadness and regret in his own eyes. "Please forgive me."
"I can't-"
"Please!" Jessie begged, "Everything hurts... My head, chest, legs, everything... I need some kind of acceptance because I feel like this is the end."
"You. Are. Not. Dying." Riley emphasised with pokes to Jessie's temple. "And I can't forgive you because there's nothing to forgive."
Reaching for Riley's hand, Jessie finally smiled as felt like he was at peace now. "I'm really tired now."
'Now is not the right fucking time to sleep...'
Riley slapped Jessie's face as he then flinched slightly from the pain. "What was that for? I just want to sleep Riley, I'm exhausted."
"Because you are so stupidly frustrating to deal with in the middle of a crisis!" Riley yelled. "You're so annoyingly insane, Jessie!"
"Fuck you!" Jessie cursed, "Don't hit a guy when he's just been in an accident, you are the one that is insane!"
'I think I am.'
Riley consumed the butterflies, irritation, and the content feeling whenever he was around Jessie, as he leaned forward and kissed him.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Riley couldn't explain why, in the middle of a car accident, did he finally choose to kiss Jessie. Everything just overwhelmed him, to the point where his barriers broke down, and Riley didn't care that both of their faces were decorated with dirt, blood, and tears.
Riley pulled away from Jessie as he looked back at him with his heart pounding away like a jackhammer. From all the times that they've known each other, Riley couldn't read the expression on Jessie's face - and it was excruciatingly painful.
"I- uh..."
The sounds of an ambulance interrupted the pair as they soon watched Cameron come back with the paramedics. They made it to the car as they all began to provide them both help.
Riley was dragged out of the car because he was in the way, and because he needed his own medical assistance.
Riley hated how he was physically stopped from hearing what Jessie was saying before they got interrupted.
'What did I do?'
Riley was forced into the ambulance, to seek medical care as he looked at the wrecked car from afar. He just watched at how everyone was helping Jessie get out of the car, and then he looked at how Cameron hugged his brother whilst he was being strapped away in the ambulance stretcher.
"We're going to take you to the hospital with your friends now, so that we can check the extent of your injuries." The paramedic told him, "It's pretty lucky that the three of you are in a much better state than the other driver."
Riley only nodded along as he was barely listening to what she was saying. The ambulance door closed in front of him as Riley just looked between Jessie, Cameron, and the deviating car accident.
With one last glance, Riley saw Cameron holding a sleeping Jessie's hand as they were both put into a separate ambulance together.
Although he was relieved that both of his friends seemed to be alive and well enough for the moment, Riley was terrified about what would happen next between them.
==========