The Butterfly Effect

Chapter 38

Saturday

Jessica marched down the hospital hallway following a dark-haired guy before her. When she had first seen Sean again just now after weeks, devastation and exhaustion on his face were clearly visible by her naked eyes. His hair was messy and black circles appeared under his cried-out eyes. When he talked to her, his voice was a little raspy with no excitement.

After having flown back to New York yesterday for starting spring semester next Monday, Jessica drove to New Jersey to visit Allison at the hospital today. It had been shocking news for her to hear about Allison lying in a coma a few days ago from Sean's Instagram Story.

The post had actually been a candid photo of his parents, but Jessica could tell from the background it was in a hospital. Not thinking twice, she asked him who was sick and Sean had told her about Allison's condition. Allison had gotten a severe asthma attack and it had been nearly seven weeks she was in a coma. Deep down, guilt grew inside Jessica to think she might be part of the cause of what had happened to Allison.

After a nurse permitted them, Sean pushed the ICU door open and Jessica tailed behind him into the somehow eerie, white room. Lying there in one hospital bed, a pallid-faced girl just looked like she was sleeping but with hoses and tubes surrounding her like the vines. The heart-rate monitor showed that her oxygen saturation was low.

Jessica eyed Sean hold Allison's hand even though it just lay there moveless beside her thigh. Lowering his body to Allison, he smiled gloomily and murmured, "Baby, Jessica's here to visit you."

The way he talked very patiently somehow sent goosebumps all over Jessica's body and tears started to fill up her eyes. She noticed the way his eyes fixated on Allison as his other hand rubbed her head lovingly was so bright and... in love.

"When a guy is in love, you can see it in his eyes."

All of a sudden, Ashley's words echoed in Jessica's head. It was incredibly mournful to witness how Allison was so rigid and didn't give Sean any reaction. From their last conversation more than a month ago, Jessica knew how much Allison meant to him. Furthermore, she didn't even know whether or not he already apologized to Allison. Regret for not reaching out sooner to ask him how it was going between the two of them increased inside Jessica.

She just wanted Allison to wake up and see how much he loved her. Imagining how hard it must be for him right now made her cover her mouth and start to cry.

***

Since last Thursday, Scarlett had flown back to New York for spring semester accompanied by her father and her sixteen-year-old brother, Lukas. Her father had taken two days off work and Lukas was still on winter break and they had said they wanted to explore the winter beauty of 'the City that Never Sleeps'. The three of them had sightseen to the Statue of Liberty, 9/11 Memorial & Museum, Times Square and Rockefeller Center, gone ice skating at Central Park and done a bit of Columbia campus tour.

Yet, for a hundred times today, Scarlett sighed. The day Harley kissing her in front of her dormitory just wouldn't leave her mind until today, even the warm coffee taste of his lips still lingered on hers. Why had everything had to be like this? At first, he had wanted to get her full attention by saying all those sweet words and texting her almost every day. He couldn't just expect her not to fall for him since he was so irresistible.

But when she had already fallen for him, it turned out that he had done all of those things just for the sake of his photography contest. The saddest thing was just as she tried really hard to get over him, he messed around other girls as if it was the easiest thing to do in the world for him.

"Scarlett, was ist los? (What's wrong?)" Scarlett's father sitting in her bed asked with his head cocking, splitting her thoughts.

Today was their schedule to visit the Met, catch a Broadway show and go on food tour in the city. Her father and Lukas had come to pick her up in her dormitory fifteen minutes ago while she was preparing some stuff for her new semester next Monday.