Heartstrings | Miguel Diaz

𝟬𝟭. aftermath

CHAPTER ONE
i'm the only one that hasn't walked out

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     𝐈t felt like yesterday when it had been two weeks since Miguel Diaz had fallen from the railings of the high school. Two weeks since he had been in a coma, two weeks since Raegan LaRusso had seen those warm brown eyes staring back into her own. It had been two weeks since she started having nightmares about the same thing all over again and again.

     Miguel was falling, and she couldn't do anything to help him.

     She shot up from her sleep, with bloodshot eyes and dark bags underneath. She looked like she'd faced death a hundred times, but that wasn't it. The sight of him falling from the second floor plagued her mind like a deadly disease no matter how much she tried to forget about it.

     "Raegan?" Carmen Diaz appeared in her line of sight, a worried frown on her face as she placed a gentle hand upon her shoulder. "Honey?"

     Raegan rubbed her face, straightening up on her seat. She blinked at her surroundings, the bright lights of the hospital room almost blinding her in the process. The only sound came from the beeping noise on the machine that reads the patient's vital signs. She didn't realize she had fallen asleep on the chair next to his hospital bed.

     Her tired eyes landed on him. Miguel was asleep, as she'd liked to say instead of a coma. It's much easier for her mind to comprehend than repeatedly say that he's in a coma, and there's a probability that he won't wake. She shook her inwardly. It was stupid for her to think like that. He will wake up. And Raegan will be there for him, no matter how long it would take.

     It's still hard to see him with braces around his neck, and that metal thing that keeps his head in place. But it was better than not seeing him ever again.

     She rarely went home, and she was always visiting him, staying there until someone actually forced her to leave. The news on the television didn't matter to her, nor the opinions of other people about the whole thing, nor the reputations going on around her. Why should she? It was only temporary. But a life? We can't take back those once it's gone.

     Miguel could've died, and that still scares her today because no one was sure when he would wake up. Or if he could even wake up. But Raegan knew better than to lose hope for her loved ones.

     "Raegan."

     This time, the voice didn't come from Carmen. Raegan glanced behind and found someone standing at the door in his usual suit and that worried wrinkles on his forehead. It was her father.

     "Dad." Raegan cleared her throat, carefully standing up from the chair. Looking back at the boy on the hospital bed, she bit her lips before untangling her hands from his cold ones. She looked back at Carmen.

     "It's okay, honey." The woman smiled faintly. "You are always welcome to see him."

     The girl nodded slightly. She grabbed his limp hands once more, giving it a light squeeze before leaving the hospital room. With a heavy heart, and tired eyes, Raegan couldn't bother to smile back at her father as she walked passed him. Daniel could only sigh heavily under his breath before he followed her outside the hospital.

    The next morning, which was the first day of school, Raegan woke up a little early than normal. Not like she ever slept properly anymore — it was easy to wake up. She sat on the edge of her bed, staring blankly into the empty cerulean walls of her bedroom. The only sound she could hear was the wind whistling outside her windows, and the constant beating of her heart.