'Til We Meet Again Book 2

Chapter 50

A few days later, I sit by her bedside staring at her as she peacefully sleeps. The nurse told me she'll wake up soon because the swelling in her brain is gone and her vitals are fine. She has a few bruises on her arm from when she fell down and she bruised her ribs. I don't think she is gonna be healthy enough to tour with us in almost two weeks from now. I want her to go home and relax, I want her to get better and I want her to refrain from anything that'll cause pain. I just want her to get better.

I reach for her hand and give it a squeeze "Amanda, you probably can't hear me or you can, no clue how these comas fucking work, I was in one when I was ten years old, you know that already" What the fuck am I saying? Stop beating around the bush and get to the point "I love you, I didn't know how much until I saw you that night hurt, I didn't know how much until the doctor told me that it was up to you to wake up because that motherfucker was the cause of your brain swelling, I didn't how much until I was told you lost the baby, my dreams shattered" I look down "Having a baby with you was my cowardly way to say how much I wanted to be with you, I waited too long to tell you I fell back in love with you, well, not that I have fallen out of it" I sigh

"I hadn't known why you left me, nobody told me anything, I swore to myself I was gonna hate you no matter what but I couldn't do that, you have no idea what is like being in love with you, Amanda" I look back up at her "It was eating me alive when I couldn't see you every day, it was eating me alive every day when I had kissed Kim in your kitchen at your own graduation party" I chuckle "What kind of a selfish prick does that?" I rhetorically ask "Cole is always gonna be good for you, Amanda, he is there for you in ways I never was" I lean over and kiss her cheek "I just want you to get better" I lean back on my chair "You have no idea how afraid I was of losing you, I couldn't imagine my life without you in it, I never could" I squeeze her hand yet again "Just wake up, Amanda, don't leave me, don't leave us crazy motherfuckers, don't leave your sister" I just want her to fucking wake up already "Wake up, Amanda, man, you're stronger than this fucking coma, you gotta pull through"

Amandas POV:

It's hard to tell from a dream to reality, I hear talking, a male voice, but my brain is disguising the words in a form of a play, I feel my hand being squeezed but my brain portrays it as someone breaking my hand. I feel immense pain in this pitch-black room I'm in, I look down at my right hand, I see blood "What?" Why am I bleeding? I grab hold of my bleeding hand and place it right on my chest, giving it a gentle squeeze. I hear a male clear his throat behind me, I turn around and see Cole, he's wearing his suit, smiling at me "Baby, you have no idea how much I love you, come back to me" I see Cole reach for his hand "Cole, I-" I get interrupted when I hear yet another male clearing his throat.

I turn around and see 19-year-old Marshall "Seriously? You are gonna give up on us for this little bitch of a man" Marshall sounds angry "Oh my god, you and your boy trouble" I see Kristy glaring at me "Do you know what it's like having you for a sister now?" She rhetorically asks me "It seems like all you think about is Marshall or Cole, I can't have one decent conversation with you because you are playing tug of war with yourself" Kristy raises her voice at me "Kristy, that's not true" I try to walk over to her "Yes it is" I hear Nancy behind me yell "I want my best friend back, not the teenage version of her, I'm getting married, Amanda" Nancy raises her voice "Have you called me to ask how Philip and I are doing?" Nancy asks me "Nancy, I have been meaning to" I get cut off "Meaning to? Are you seriously gonna lie your way out of being a shitty friend?" She asks me "I'm sorry" My eyes fill with tears "You should be" Nancy yells

"You have to make a decision, girl" Shanice looks at me with disappointment "We all love you but you are letting us all down" I nod "I didn't mean to" I let a tear stream down my cheek "Oh my god here we go again, I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to" Kristy mocks me. They are all circling me, telling me how much of an awful friend/sister I am, telling me to make a decision "I love you, Amanda, don't give up on us" Marshall is now his current self, he looks at me with love in his eyes and I can't help but get lost in them "Amanda, don't please, don't leave me for this asshole" I hear Cole yell "He doesn't deserve you" Cole continues to yell and again they are talking all at the same time "Please" I sound so small compared to their yelling "I'm trying" I yell.

I'm trying to be a better friend, a better sister, a better girlfriend but it feels as if I'm failing everyone who loves me. This is all because of me, everything is because of me. I start to cry, looking down at the pitch black floor "Amanda" I hear a soft voice, immediately I recognize who it is, I look up and I see my mom smiling at me. The yelling is gone, everyone is gone. She looks just as radiant as when I had last seen her "You're in trouble" I walk over to her "I am, mommy" I nod and look down, I feel her cup my cheek and wipe a tear from my eye "I wasn't always there for you when you were growing up, I neglected you and your sister when I married Brian then I tried to force a luxurious lifestyle on you when you couldn't stomach it" She smiles at me "You grew up exactly who I wanted you to be, you're beautiful, smart, so strong, you raised Kristy better than I ever could" She giggles and I do too "You're in trouble, two guys in your life loves you very much but you have to listen to your heart" She cocks her head to the side "I don't know who I want" I sigh "You do, you don't see it yet because of everything is going on but you know exactly who you want" She smiles at me "What happens if I choose wrong?" I ask her "True love prevails, I just pray you choose wisely" She smiles at me and disappears "Mom" I yell.

I wake up from my coma and the first thing I see is the burning bright light "You're a wake" I look to my side and I see Marshall smiling at me, I can't talk, I have a tube down my throat "I'm gonna get the nurse" Marshall practically runs out of my room, a few minutes later, Marshall and the nurse bursts through the door. The first thing the nurse does is remove the tube from my throat, I gasp for air after gagging "How do you feel? Do you remember what happened to you, Miss Vanderwall?" The nurse asks me "I'm fine but I don't remember what happened" I sound groggy "What is the last thing you remember?" The nurse asks me "I remember going through my purse and then blank, what happened to me?" I ask her "You had an accident and have been out for almost a week" My eyes widen "You had a swelling in your brain" The nurse continues "I need to run through more tests to see if you are fit enough to go home" The nurse smiles at me.

Something is off about Marshall, he looks like he is not altogether like he knows something but can't tell me. The nurse leaves the room after running through more tests "You know something" I break the silence and he sits down "What actually happened to me?" I ask him "Your dad found you and he knocked you down the stairs, I think Jefferson told him you were back in Detroit" Marshall tells me. I'm in disbelief "The cops are working on tracking down your dad, I gave them all the information they need but there is something else" Marshall avoids making eye contact "What?" I ask him, I'm really worried since I have never seen him like this before "Marshall" He looks up at me with tears flooding his eyes "We lost our baby" My heart stops, my blood goes cold, it feels as if the blood in my veins were replaced with water.

My mouth hangs open, wanting words to flow out but nothing, nothing comes out of my mouth. My eyes fill with tears and all of a sudden I find myself crying like a five-year-old, Marshall crawls in bed and cuddles up to me. I hide my face in his chest and cry into it "I promise you he'll pay with his life for what he did to you" I grip on to his t-shirt. He holds me tightly as I'm having difficulty stopping myself from crying. I was so looking forward to being a mom but now that'll never happen.