Behind Shaded Eyes

Chapter 7: Of Accidents & Attention Spans P.2

Brayden

Before Christian left me alone in the room with Hazel, the last thing he said was, "We need you."

I didn't think Hazel would be clearing her mind out in the city. She usually keeps herself locked up in her room with a cup of tea by her side. All of a sudden she goes out to explore the world and she gets hit by a truck driver that obviously doesn't know their street light colors.

It broke my heart to see Christian in such a mess. Everyone was a wreck, but Christian, he was worse.

After his accident, Christian wasn't the same. He left Maya and changed back into the one we all knew to be the "old Christian." He grew the balls and talked to Hazel and he seemed to be so much happier after that.

Then this happened.

When he left to go outside, I took his seat and grabbed Hazel's hand slowly and carefully as if it was fragile.

"Hey Haze," I greeted  only to hear the monitors beep and beep.

My thumb massaged her hand as my eyes started to get misty and I blinked to stop the tears from shedding.

"You don't know how hard this is on everyone," I said. "Everyone came together for you, and believe it or not, James and Chris haven't fought."

I let out a weak laugh. "You're a fighter, Haze." I continued. "You can't leave us now."

James

I couldn't believe what I heard when Riley called from the hospital. Vanessa and I left to get a fresh set of clothes for the day, leaving us to have some tension.

I leaned my head against the wall behind me when Christian stated, "So you're the famous James Kallway?"

I chuckled lightly. "The one and only," I answered.

"You let an amazing girl slip away six years ago, my friend."

"I know." I sighed.

"But you like her?"

"I have for a while actually," I gulped. "But I know you're still in love with her, too."

"Guilty as charged." Christian threw his hands up in surrender.

"Has she, you know, told you anything?"

"You're a lucky guy." He sighed. "She's been head over heels for the East High kid that she thought she got over."

"I got to hand it to her though, she has some pretty great friends looking out for her."

When Christian didn't say anything else, I went in to go see Hazel. The Hazel I saw before had grown into a beautiful girl. She was as beautiful as the last time I saw her, even with the bruises and cuts.

I sat at the bedside when I saw her eyes flutter open and a smile form on her face.

"James," Hazel stated when her eyes landed on me.

"Hey beautiful," I whispered. "How are you feeling?"

"My head is pounding, actually." I handed over a glass of water for her throat, then pressed the red button for a nurse to come in.

"You left us for a minute, but you came back," I stated as a nurse came in and checked her vitals. "I'm glad you're okay."

Everyone else came rushing in and Hazel's attention was off of me, but the only thing I could think about was Hazel being okay. She's okay.