Tampons // PAUSED

F I V E

_Sapphire_

When I'm softly shaken, my eyes open automatically to find Ashton and his curly hair intruding upon my view of my surroundings.

"You're up, finally," he laughs.

"Shut up," I mumble. "Is Luke he---"

"Sapph!" a familiar voice shouts.

"Lucas," I call back.

He pushes Ashton out of the way, and I can hear him complaining about Luke's aggressiveness . Luke wraps his strong arms around me and whispers in my ear, "Let me be the good overprotective brother..."

"I love you Luke," I reply softly with the same sincerity, while silently crying.

"So, what's going on? What are you doing here with my idiot best friends?"

"It's... It's..." I'm unable to come up with a plausible explanation.

Because I wasn't able to say it, Calum turned around at the same speed Ashton had. We could clearly see tears in his "Asian" eyes, he was sad... We all were... Shay might be dead at this very moment, and we're all just standing around talking in a County jail cell.

"Why are you all crying? What the hell is going on?!" Luke asks, looking at each of us, becoming irritated with our unfinished answers.

"Remember Shay Stephan?" Calum questions, slightly above a whisper.

"Of course! She was, like, the smartest girl at Norwest," my brother responds.

"Remember Sofia Anderson?" Cal continues, as more tears threaten to fall.

"That bitch who cheated on you two years ago? Yeah," he seems angry at the mention of Sofia, "What's with all the questions?"

"Cal and Shay were walking when Shay stepped in front of Sofia's car," Ashton explains, "She took a bad blow to the head, and... Well, there's... There's a possibility that the brain damage could kill her."

"When she saw that I was on the other side of the street, she was probably hoping she hit me instead... But she didn't... She just hit Shay... What if I hadn't run?! What if I had pushed her out of the way?! She wouldn't be stuck in a hospital bed with so many wires attached to her that you can't even tell who she used to be... She wouldn't be alone..."

"Shut up Calum!" I scream, fed up with the self-blame, "Stop saying those absurd things. You might wish that you'd been hit, but clearly we don't want you to leave us... Ever... I'm sick of thinking of all of the possible things that could have happened. It's done... It's over... There's nothing that can be changed no matter how much you wish it could!"

"You're our best friend, Calum. Our brother... We couldn't let you go, and we never will," continues Ash.

Luke's eyes were empty. No tears, no emotion... Nothing. He simply stood up and left the room without another word.

_Michael_

[ From : Michael
Hey Trinity! Want to hang out with me? ]

[ From : Trinity
Sorry, but... Who is this? ]

The feeling that message gave me was worse than being hit by a train.