The Fading Oddities of Nate Smith (A NateWantsToBattle Fanfiction) --COMPLETE--

Chapter Twenty-One

My hands were drumming nervously on the wheel.

As much as I insisted I was fine, Hunter still wanted to fly all the way from Florida to come visit me to see if I was alright. He asked me to pick him up from the airport, and at this point, it wasn't like I could say no.

"Hey, dude!" he smiled cheerily at me as he spotted my car, opening the back seat and tossing in his luggage and sliding into the passenger seat afterwards. "Haven't seen you in a while!"

I smile weakly and nod. "Yeah...thanks for visiting me."

I pulled us out of the airport and started driving down the freeway, weaving through the city traffic as I drove us to my house. At first, things were quiet; just the two of us sitting awkwardly in the car as the radio played quietly in the background. As we turned into one of the quieter parts of the road, Hunter decided to speak up.

"So, what happened to you, man?" he asked, leaning over in his seat as he pouted in concern, "I saw your tweet...is everything alright?"

My breath hitched. "...I-I told you I was fine..." I mumbled back, trying to hold back tears that were threatening to well up in my eyes.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Hunter give me a sort of "I-don't-believe-you" look, and I eventually sighed in defeat.

"Open the glove compartment," I instructed him quietly, my eyes heavy with sadness. Hunter obeyed, and he pulled out a small black box. He glanced at me, confused. "Open it."

"Dude..." he chuckled, opening the box to find a diamond wedding ring inside, "Oh, my God, I didn't know you were gonna propose to-"

"Keep it, if you want."

"...Wait, what?" Hunter stopped mid-sentence and glanced at me with a surprised look. Yeah, I was gonna propose to her...keyword "was."

I heaved a long sigh and kept my eyes on the road. "Or throw it away. I don't care what you do with it, honestly..."

I took a turn onto another road. A single car passed us.

"What happened?" Hunter asked again, this time more serious and straightforward than before, "Please tell me, Nate. I hate seeing you like this."

As I gathered the courage to speak, memories of the other night flooded back back to me. The fight, the slamming of the door...everything.

"I broke up with Morgan a few nights ago," I answered my best friend, "We...we got into a fight, and she just left. I waited a day or so, tried calling her, everything...she never came back."

A sad silence hung over us both as we kept driving. We passed another car.

"Aw, Nate..." by now, Hunter's tone was one of genuine sympathy, "I'm so sorry, man. You didn't deserve for that to happen to you."

"Yes, I do," I mumbled in regret, "I was an idiot for letting her go. I wasn't there when she needed me, and now I have to pay for it...!"

"Don't say that. You're a great guy, and you deserve much better than what happened to you. I won't pry if you don't want to tell me what the fight was about, but whatever it was, I doubt it was a good enough reason for her to walk out on you like that."

"Hunter, it was my fault!" I snapped, raising my voice at him. Hunter's face contorted in confusion for a split-second, his eyes wide in surprise. For a moment, even I was shocked at my sudden outburst, but my emotions were so bottled up already that it felt right to let it out. I knew I'd probably regret exploding in front of my friend later, but I needed to get it out of my system at some point. "I started the whole argument and didn't make any effort to stop it! Leaving me was the right thing to do for her!"

"Nate..."

"Hunter, I failed her. I failed her, and now I feel like I'm failing you. You shouldn't have ever flown here only to see me like this!"

"NATHAN SMITH, LISTEN TO ME!" now it was Hunter's turn to raise his voice at me. "Stop talking like that right now. You know you're lying to yourself! You're a good person and an awesome friend; I can't imagine anyone EVER leaving someone like you. You're not a failure!"

By now, tears were gradually streaming down my cheeks. My vision was blurred by the salty liquid welling up in my eyes, but I quickly wiped them away with one hand to make sure I had a good view of the road. We passed another car.

"...I just..." I barely managed, sobbing miserably, "I wish we could've ended that fight in a different way, you know?"

"Hey," I could feel Hunter place his hand on my shoulder reassuringly, "I'll help you through this, okay? We'll make it through this together."

I nodded and looked down to wipe my tears. Two more cars passed us, and I didn't realize my hand had turned the steering wheel a little to the left...

"...O-Okay," I agreed quietly, a small smile spreading across my face, "Thank you, Hunte-"

Suddenly, Hunter's hand gripped tightly onto my shoulder, causing the atmosphere to become dangerously alarming. I glanced confusedly at my friend, whose eyes were wide and frozen in terror. His mouth was open, but the words were choked in his throat.

"NATE, LOOK OUT!"

As soon as Hunter screamed, time seemed to go in slow motion. I turned my head, eyes wide in surprise. My foot left the acceleration pedal at some point, moving over to slam onto the brakes. I couldn't hear the screeching of the tires; everything was silent.

The car slammed into us head-on.

A piercing 'CRUNCH' rang through my ears, and my head was thrown forward into the wheel. The airbag popped out at that very moment, meeting me in the middle for a painful smack to the forehead. The car suddenly felt lightweight, and I barely had enough time to glance out the window to see that we were in the air, roof of the car facing towards the asphalt about ten feet below.

The car veered left, and before I knew it, we had hit the ground and were rolling. Shattering of glass and various crunching noises deafened me as the car jostled me this way and that, my head slamming on the airbag and the head of the seat with each and every impact. My heart was pounding in adrenaline and fear, and though I could feel the impact of debris and car metal piercing through my skin, I couldn't feel any pain.

After a moment or so of rolling, I heard a loud snapping noise, and before I knew it, I was flying. My surroundings suddenly got brighter, and for a split-second I realized I was in the air; I had been flung out of the car.

I landed hard. Something snapped, but I couldn't feel or tell what it was. Groaning quietly in pain, my eyes darted around the area to find that car parts and concrete littered the road all around me. Blood was dripping off my lips, and I felt the same warm liquid beginning to pool around my shoulders.

I rolled onto my back, and time reverted back to normal. Everything was blurred, and my body was completely numb. I could hear a blaring siren somewhere in the distance, and I realized that I'd just gotten myself into a car accident.

I tried to call out to Hunter, but stunned silence was all my body knew at this point.