Delicate ✦ Wilk

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Ellis rushed inside where the party was still fully alive and well. She scrambled through the crowd desperately searching for Sam. She found him talking to one of his friends with a red plastic cup in his hand. He downed whatever was in the cup and smiled when he saw her. "Sam, I have to go to the hospital," Ellis explained completely breathless.

"What? Why?" Through his drunkenness Sam still could sense when things were bad, or extremely bad, and he was feeling like something terrible had happened. "What's going on?" All of a sudden it's like the drunk side to him faded, and the Sam that Ellis was used to was standing in front of her.

"I don't know, my dad called me and said that there was an accident," Ellis had trembling fingers and limbs. Her heart was beating rapidly, and she felt like her throat was beginning to cave in. Her mind was racing trying to assume what could have happened, and who and what was involved. "I have to leave."

"Okay, I'll drive you," Sam said stumbling a little bit. He pulled out his car keys but Ellis shook her head.

"You're way too drunk to drive, I'll drive us," she took the keys from his hand and they slipped out of the house. Ellis had to help him to the car since his legs were practically like gelatin. "How much did you drink, Sam?"

"Just...you know," he was beginning to slur his speech but Ellis didn't have time to waste concentrating on that. She would deal with his over-drinking at another point. She slipped into the drivers seat and accelerated down the street, her heart was thumping so hard inside her chest that it was beginning to hurt. The small hairs on her arms were standing in fear that something terrible had occurred. The thought of one of her family members being hurt made Ellis nauseous. She saw flashing lights up ahead and a cluster of police cruisers, ambulances, and fire trucks. The whole intersection was blocked off and traffic was being guided every which way. Ellis felt her heart sink, and a few tears slipped from her eyes.

Sam heard her sniffling, but couldn't quite tell if she was crying or not. His head was spinning, he had drank way too much and he knew it too. He saw the lights up ahead too but he didn't put much thought into it, he couldn't put much thought into anything.

"Ellis!" Her grandparents were in the waiting room at the hospital, and they jumped up as soon as they saw their granddaughter.

"What's going on?" Ellis asked feeling frightened and frantic all at the same time.

"I don't know, your father called us and told us to get to the hospital and that there had been an accident," her grandpa, Rob, explained.

Ellis saw a group of nurses accompanied with different types of medical equipment rush by. She was a nervous mess, sobbing and begging the nurse at the front desk to provide her with information. Sam had slowly started to pull himself together and was trying to comfort Ellis, but it was hard since he had no idea what was going on.

"It's going to be okay, they'll tell us soon," Sam had assured her. She was leaning up against his chest and the strong smell of alcohol on his breath was practically intoxicating her. He held her close to him despite the fact that he smelled just like an underage party. Sam looked up from his crying girlfriend to see a familiar man and woman. They were both red in the face, with tear-soaked cheeks and mournful eyes. They were Cash's parents. "Hey, I'll be right back," Sam said to Ellis. He walked over to the crying couple, and Mrs. Dawson pulled Sam in for a long, tight hug as soon as she saw him.

"Sam, I'm so glad you're here, how did you find out?" She asked him.

"What? I'm here with my girlfriend, her family has been in an accident. Why are you guys here? What happened?"

"Sam, Cash has been in a car accident," Mr. Dawson said. Sam fell blank, his confused expression turned into one of horror, and his heart began to beat just like Ellis's heart had been.