Beneath Your Beautiful // Michael Clifford

21

Ali

I wake up on a shoulder hoping to see Michael. But it wasn't. It was Calum Hood. None of this was a dream, we were in the hospital waiting for Michael to wake.

I look over Ashton was curled up in a ball as he slept peacefully. Luke was sprawled out in his chair and Karen- she was nowhere to be seen. I got up, checked the time on my phone to see that it was ten on a Wednesday morning. It's been two days since the incident and only Karen has been able to see Michael, even though she's seen him only once herself. None of us wanted to go, scared of what could happen.There were a few others in the waiting room and a lady at the front desk.

I approach her as I slowly adjust to the light. "Have you seen the lady that was next to me?"

"Yeah, Karen went to see her son about twenty minutes ago." The lady informs me.

"C-Can I go back there?" I question.

"Of course, darling." She was warm and welcoming. The lady printed me a wristband showing I had access to visit Michael. "Room 402 in the ICU."

"Thank you so much." I smile heading to the elevator.

"Dear?" I stop in my tracks and turn to face her. She had a sympathetic look. "Good luck."

I was now in front of Michael's room debating if I should go in or not. I place my hand on the door knob and slowly walk in. Karen was sitting in front of Michael blocking my view of the injured boy.

She turns around waving me over. I slowly approach her, bracing myself for what I was about to see. I stop dead in my tracks once I see the- now -bleach blonde haired boy lying in the hospital bed.

"I'll give you some alone time." Karen stands up placing a hand on my shoulder before walking out.

I sit on the edge of the bed next to Michael. The energetic, bubbly boy was now laying there almost lifeless. Tubes where going in his arms and one down his throat with a mask over his mouth to help him breathe. A cast was around his arm and a much bigger one around his leg that was being propped up. There was also bandages wrapped around his torso and stitches on his forehead.

I grab his hand and collapse on the ground as I begin to sob. "Fuck. Why you, Michael? Why did a truck have to hit you? Why not me? It should've been me. You actually have a future in front of you." I begin to sob squeezing his hand.

"It's not fair. It's not fair!" I scream as I sob hysterically. "Every fricken person or thing I love is always ripped away from me. Fucking hell."

I sit in the chair beside him instead of the cold floor and wipe some of the hair out of his face. He looked beautiful with his newly bleached hair. Even with bruises, scars, broken bones, and tubes going through him, he looked beautiful. "I love you my little kitten. I don't deserve you, but I god damn love you." I say to his limp body and kiss his bruised cheek.

Luke comes in shortly. He began to break down into sobs as soon as he saw Michael. He slowly makes his way over to the other side of Michael. We sit in silence. Both of us had no clue of what to say.

It's weird because you never know when it's the last time you'll see someone. This very moment could be the last time you see someone or it could be in sixty years. It's just life. But right now I was hoping this wouldn't be my last time.

His heart monitor went haywire. I panicked. Michael could be dying right in front of my eyes. Luke's first instinct kicked in as he ran to grab a doctor while I held Michael's hand.

The doctor rushes in and instantly knew what was up. "Rush him to surgery!" The man shouts as a few doctors lift Michael onto a different bed. . "His lung is filling up with fluid again!"

I began crying as I continued to hold his hand and follow him as the doctors roll him out the room. "Miss you need to step back." Another doctor demands.
I did as they said but continued to watch Michael get brought to surgery.

"What's happening to my baby?!" Karen cries as soon as she sees Michael being rolled away.

"His lung- it has fluid in it again." Luke explains. The others caught up had just made it upstairs while Michael had been gone for five minutes.

I walked over to Ashton knowing he was hurting a lot. I hugged him and began to sob into my shoulder. His arms were wrapped around my head while mine were around his torso. We both lost it in the middle of the ICU hallway.