the state of denial

Part 7:

I see headlights coming my way. I scream and Cameron loses control of the car.

I twitch my body and I'm up. In a hospital bed connected to some monitors. Zack at my bedside, asleep.

My whole body aches. I look over at the TV. June 16th. I've been out for about a day and a half. My leg has a cast over it, and my nose feels broken.

A nurse walks in, "Good to see you up Ms.Merrick.

She checks my IV and all the other monitors. She asks how I'm feeling.

"Good." I look around to see if Cameron's anywhere around.

"You're brothers been by your side this whole time." She tells me.

I'm not very surprised. Zack's a really good brother. He'd never leave me alone.

The nurse hands me my phone. "He brought this for you. Said you left it at your place."

Zack takes in a deep breath and opens his eyes. "Hey, you're up." He says, his voice still half asleep.

"If you don't mind, I'll be leaving now." The nurse tells us. But I stop her on the way out. "Can you tell me where Cameron is? Cameron Stokes. He was in the car with me. Is he okay?" She checks my medical chart, then her face drops, like she's disappointed. "You'll have to wait for your doctor to tell you that sweetie." She tells me. Then walks away.

I ask Zack, but he says he doesn't know. Then he brushes his hair back. "Hay, I have to tell you something." He leans in and takes my hand. Cameron's dead. He's going to tell me he died in the accident and that's why he didn't respond to me. A shard of glass. went straight through his head and he died on impact.

"Dani and Tori where the car that hit you and Cam." My heart sinks. My throat begins to swell up. I tell him that it's not funny. I expect both girls to jump into the room and give me a hug. Tell me they're okay. But Zack doesn't say anything else. He keeps a straight face and says he's sorry.

He tells me that Dani's fine. That she's leaving the hospital today. But, Tori isn't that great. She broke her neck and he hasn't seen her since the day of the accident.

I get up out of the bed and put on a t-shirt and shorts that Zack brought me. "Hayley, your leg's broken what the fuck are you doing?" He tells me. But, I ignore the comment. I see a pair of crutches left in the room and hop on one leg to them.

I go to the front desk and ask where Dani is, but they tell me to go back to the bed. Zack tells me he knows the room she's in. We walk all down the hall and take a few turns to get to the elevator.

We get to small hallway. Zack walks ahead of me. I hear a familiar voice, similar to Dani's, but not quite. Alice. Dani's mom. My second mother. From then on I don't need Zacks help, I only need to follow the voice.

Finally reaching the room I peer in, knocking on the wall. Alice and Dani turn.

Alice opens up her arms and walks towards me. "I'm so glad you're okay." She keeps me in a tight hug.

Even though I hate being hugged and smothered, times like these make you want to be held in safety. "We'll need to put some serious makeup work on that lip and eye though." She adds in.

I laugh and she lets go of me. I walk into the room completely, Dani still in bed. "That's so funny." Dani tells me staring at the broken leg. "I broke my left." She continues taking off the blanket over her leg. I keep quiet. Not saying anything. I just look at all if them.

As glad as I am to see that Dani's okay, I want to see Cameron. Dead or alive. As bad as that sounds, it's true. I feel somewhat responsible for what happened. I could have said no. We could have just stayed at my place that night and none of this would have happened.

"You've been conscious this whole time?" I ask Dani. She nods her head. She saw everything.

"I had my seatbelt on, that's why I barely have any damage. I mean.... Well, atleast umh.. Not as bad as Tori or you and Cam.."

There's somewhat relief that not everyone was too hurt.

"Have you seen her? Tori? How is she?" Alice puts her arm around me.

"Well, she broke her neck. And she's on bed rest.. The surgery was right after the accident. It wasn't bad enough to leave her paralyzed, but she'll need to have a lot of therapy." I feel as if I don't know anything.

"Well I'm going to Starbucks to get a green tea frapp. You two want any?" Alice offers. I say no, but Zack says yes. Dani and Alice tell us they're leaving today at 4:30. The current time is 3:45.

I tell Dani that I love her, and that I need to get back to the room or the nurses will be pissed off.

It seemed as if I'd jinxed myself leaving the room. One of the nurses told me that I had to go to my room because 'it wasn't healthy' for me to be up, around and about. I tell her not to worry, that I would be on my way. She smirked and told Zack to keep me safe.

Once in the elevator, Zack presses the button back to our floor.

"No! We can't go back there!"

"Hayley, you need to be rested. There's a fucking gash in your forehead."

I look him in the eyes.

"You need to let me do this. I need to see Cam."

He crosses his arms and bites his lower lip as if in deep thought. "Okay." He finally says. "But you'll owe me." We go back to the floor I was on, but only Zack goes to the front desk to see where Cameron is.

Seventh floor; room C54.

I enter the room and stare at Cameron. Zack see's him and tells me it'll all be alright. But we all know he won't be okay.

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(A/N) sorry this one took long to upload. I've been busy. Hopefully I'll begin to write longer parts.