The Girl Who Worked In A Music Shop

Chapter 51

Phoenix POV
We head to the main entrance and call a cab, after around ten minutes of arm waving one finally notices the odd couple outside of a large venue.
The guy was old, but kind. The type of person who asks the
'How are you?'
'What's your job?'
'Oh how lovely! Thinking about your future?'
'When I was your age..'
'My son was like you'
Kind of questions, but he really is interested.
We spend most of the ride talking about our lives and our hope for the future, he's intrigued by the fact we live on buses... and that people still play guitars..
He lights a cigarette and proceeds to smoke it out of the window, he reminds us that smoking is never a good idea with every breath.

I fall asleep. I dream of being the smoke in the cigarette and where it travels to. I watch all my friends carry on with their normal lives while I have to watch as I float away from them...
"OH SHIT"
I awake suddenly to hear a huge screeching noice of struggling tyres on the road.
My heartbeat increases dramatically as I open my eyes fully and see the road ahead...
But instead of it being on the ground it's in the sky.. and the sky is on the ground.
Oh my god.
I'm upside down.
I spin my head to the side and see no pete, instead I see a shattered window and along the road is red. Blood. A dark figure is lying on the ground.
I fumble for my seatbelt and fall to the felling, or the ground in this flipped cab, as my eyes adjust I see that the dark figure is...
it's Pete. He's sprawled along the road and the blood from the car is his.
I try to scream but nothing comes out, I try to stumble towards him but instead of moving I get a sharp pain in my stomach and legs.
I look down quickly only to find that half my shirt is ripped and so is my scar. Only it's not a scar anymore, it's wide open spilling blood.
My legs are covered in blood and shards of glass, I look over to what used to be my window and see the nice old man now in pieces under a fallen van...
I try to scream again. Nothing.
My heartbeat increases as rapid as the pain in my lower half as I try to lift myself up. Eventually I was in so much pain all I could see was white then instantly black.
I passed out.

Josh POV
I slam the laptop shut, I don't really know why, I guess it was the mix of anger and sadness we all know too well.
I was watching her first concert.
Someone filmed it, the worst part of it all is that right at the end she does her cute smile and then runs off stage into his arms, like nothing happened.
Suddenly my door swung open.
"Josh you should be asleep!"
Tyler's been on my case ever since he picked me up from the airport waiting area, he made me stay at his for a while so he could watch me and make sure I don't 'do anything stupid'.
"Are...you..crying?"
I realise my entire face is filled with wet tears.
Oops.
"It doesn't matter" I say bluntly,
As I carefully begin to close the laptop he jumps over and grabs it before it locks into place, launch myself over to grab it back but he spins around so I end up crashing onto the floor.
"AGH"
"JOSH!"
I lift my head to see him angrily shoving the screen in my face,
"What?.."
"This ISNT going to help your situation!"
He carefully places the laptop on the bed before resting his head in his hands.
"I was just watching her concert..."
"I've seen it Josh. I know what happens at the end."
I roll my eyes and stare at the ground.
"I'm trying to help you, this isn't helping either"
he says looking back up, there's a mix of pain and disappointment in his eyes.
"Yeah I know.."
He nods and before he could say anything else the room is filled with the phones ringtone, we exchange puzzled looks as it rings through out the apartment.
I check the time, 2am.
Who would ring at this time?

We both race to the phone as of its our last chance of survival. Tyler wins.
"Hello?"
It always sucks when you have to watch someone on the phone, you see their facial expressions change, or they say something like "really!" Or "yes I'm sure he'd love to hear!" And it sucks because you have to wait for them to finish the damn conversation to hear the news.
This time was slightly different.

As the person on the other line begins to talk Tyler's face turns pale, he drops to his knees.
Instead of saying "oh really!" Or "he'd love to hear" he just answers with a faint mumble.
"Tyler..?"
He's dead silent now, listening to everything this persons saying, when the call ends he drops the phone and leans against the wall with his knees up to his head.
He begins to cry, but not a little cry, the kind of cry that tells you something terrible is about to add to your day.
Just what I need.
"Tyler?..." I repeat, still no answer.
I join him in leaving against the wall.
"Tyler..? What the fuck happened?"
After a few more sobs he lifts his head gingerly,
"She....she's....she...."
"WHO?" my heart begins to pound.
"She's.. been...Shs... she..."
"TYLER"
"SHES IN FUCKING HOSPITAL"
Silence.
"Who.." I already know who... I just pray I'm wrong.
"WHO"
"PHOENIX, JOSH. PHOENIX IS IN HOSPITAL! ALONG WITH PETE" He buries his head back in his hands.

I sit there, starting at the wall I front.
I can't breathe,
I can't move,
I can't feel,
I'm numb.
"What... happened" tears burn through my eyes.
"No one knows. First they where leaving in a cab, the next thing we know is the cars been flipped over, the drivers dead, Petes unconscious on the road... and..."
"AND"
"And Phoenix is in unconscious in the flipped car, her surgery scar has been opened and... and she's paralysed from the waist down"
He bursts into tears on the floor,
"Who else knows"
"Just Patrick and us... that's who called, he called me because he knows I'm her best... I'm her best friend"
He cries harder this time.
"... he called you."
He stops.
My tears start.
"What do you mean?"
"I MEAN he called you not me... I would've never known"
"Don't be stupid I would've told you" he says following his eyes.
We sit in silence again.
"...surgery scar?"
Tyler freezes in place, as if I'd just bought up the forbidden subject..
"Yeah..."
"Did she have like.. an illness"
"You could say that"
Then it all made sense... the pills... they weren't for an illness. They where for her head.
"What did she do Tyler"
Silence again.
"She overdosed..."
it was my turn to be silent now.
"Her mother just died and she was already struggling and-"
"I don't need to hear anymore"
"Okay..."

"You up for travelling to New York?" He says after a long pause.
"Do I get to see her"
"DUH"
"Then let's go."