Crashing to Fall (Student/Teacher) (ON HOLD)

Chapter 26: Waking Up (For A Little While)

I don't really know what I'm doing with this one anymore, guys, seriously, I just randomly threw this in because it came to mind while I was writing...Also, how many chapters do you think I should do? I'm getting into another mood where I'm just like, Ugh, I love this one, but when is it gonna end, ya know? And I am finally officially 15! Yaaaay! Sorry I haven't been updating; I've been going through some major shit, but I should be updating my stuff more often by next year :D Okay, whew, here we go!

I woke up to the bright orange backs of my eyelids. I winced immediately, letting out a groan as I opened my eyes and they were flooded with white light. I blinked rapidly, my eyes watering. I reached to rub them but my arms felt too heavy to move.

I heard a gasp from beside me and felt the bed shift underneath me. "Honey? Are you awake?"

I opened my eyes again with a loud sigh, seeing my mom sitting beside me. Her face, already wrinkled from the stress of her everyday life, was tight as she stared down at me with worry and fear in her eyes. I smiled slightly at her, feeling my voice crack as I said, "Erm, yeah."

She exhaled quickly and grabbed me up from my pillow, pulling me into one of the strongest hugs I've ever been in. I felt my head immediately ache and groaned, "Uh, Mom, ow."

She nodded into my shoulder and pulled away, wiping her eyes slightly. I raised my eyebrows and my stomach tightened. "Mom! Wh--are you crying? No, stop, I'm fine!"

She cleared her throat and rubbed her eyes again. "I know, I know...I was just so scared, honey. They said you got head trauma, and I was just..." She exhaled quickly. "But you're fine, just a little wrist sprain, and you hit your head, although you didn't get a concussion, just a little cut and you'll get a headache now and then. You came out of the crash really well, actually, better than--" She quieted quickly, dropping her gaze.

"Better than what?"

She didn't meet my gaze. 

"Mom...Better than what?"

(A/N: it just occurred to me that I forgot about the air bags...shit, another something to edit later on, heh)

She brought her eyes up to meet mine and said, "He somehow got a concussion on impac--"

"No...Mom, where is he?"

She glanced behind me at a curtain, and before she could protest, I was out of my bed and whipping it back.

Jesse lay in a bed identical to mine, his eyes closed. His face was a terrible purple and yellow mass of bruises, and there was a bandage on his head. I went to his side, sitting on the side of the bed and trying not to brush up against him for fear of doing more damage than I already had. "Oh, my God, Jesse, I'm so..." I trailed off and took a deep breath, turning to my mother.

"Has he been awake? Aren't you supposed to keep people awake with a concussion? Oh, God, this is all my fault..."

"Shush, sweetie, none of this is your fault, everything's gonna be alright. A teacher at your school said that he'd collect all your guys' work for you and drop it by, saying he lived nearby. And they said that even though the crash was a bit...kinder to you, Jesse should be waking up any time soon, although...they don't think he'll be up and running by Homecoming."

I grimaced. "I was so looking forward to going with him..." I sighed heavily, standing. "When can I leave?"

She glanced to the side. "I'm not sure, I haven't seen the doctor very much. There're a surprising amount of accidents around here, ya know, tons of stuff. There's the man over in the ER who had a piece of rebar completely stuck in his--"

I winced at the sentence's beginning before clearing my throat and saying, "Heh, Mom, I, uh, don't need to know this. Where's Dad?"

My mother seemed to shrink at this question. She averted her gaze again, and I felt almost bad about asking when I remembered what a valid question it was. "He, um, he had a meeting to go to."

I nodded bitterly, my mouth a tight line. "Figures. I wanna go home now."

She nodded and turned on her heel, most likely to find a doctor to see if I was good to go.

I felt terrible. I'd made him drive me over there, and then gotten him into a wreck! And I hadn't even gotten to break up with my lover yet. Oh, god, that term, 'lover.' May as well have been saying it between 'meat' and 'pizza', I was no romantic.

I sat back on my bed, realizing I was in a hospital gown. Well, there went my backup outfit from Jesse's house...I couldn't help but feel grateful that my mother hadn't questioned why we'd been out driving that early. I couldn't cover for myself in this hectic desire to leave. I glanced around and felt my eyelids getting heavy again. I probably shouldn't have gotten up so quickly earlier...

I crawled back into bed and snuggled into my pillow, wondering where Stephen was as I slipped back into sleep before my mother had even returned yet.

OMIGOD YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HARD THIS HAS BEEN FOR ME TO FINISH. I NEED TO JUST END THIS STORY, DO SOME EDITING, AND BE DONE WITH IT, GOODNESS ME. Anyway, okay, so it's been years since I posted and I feel terrible, seriously, but I was really swamped with trying to get my mother to see that I wasn't really happy where I was, and then getting happier, and then finals, and now, I'm gonna be going to Colorado for a week or two, and I don't think my nana has wifi :O I know, totally gross, I'm terrible, yada yada, just...comment something motivational! Maybe I'll use some data or convince my mom to take me to the library (they've got to have computers there, right?). Anyway, school's out! And I'm super sorry, here's a long overdue update :/

--blurghtastic says BOO YOU, WHORE