Smooth Sailing ✓ [Republishing]

21 | pumpkin and whipped cream

And even though you don't mean to hurt me, you keep tearing me apart.

-Shawn Mendes-
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happy new year! Thank you so much for reading this far, and continue voting and commenting <3 also, if you hate Gloria now, you're going to want to kill her in a couple of chapters ;)
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- L I L A -

For the whole day at school, everyone avoided me and gave me sympathetic glances every now and then. Even teachers were more lenient towards me since they knew Matthew was my boyfriend.

He was still asleep, and after two weeks in hospital, he wasn't showing any signs of waking up. The doctors were confused since everything was going well, and after the blood transfusion, his vitals were steady and he was showing signs of improvement.

But as soon as I stopped visiting - Mina was there almost every day and made sure I wasn't allowed in - it was like everything was going downhill. I knew Katherine and Angus were feeling resentment towards me due to the fact Mina had filled them in with what happened, only slightly more twisted.

I didn't want to know what they thought of me, but I was sure they had placed me right next to Vanessa. A cheater who broke Matthew's heart, when I was anything but.

Although, I was different.

Vanessa had only hurt Matthew mentally, but I felt an overriding sense of guilt at the fact that it was my fault that he was in that hospital bed. No matter how many times I'd tell myself it wasn't my fault, and it was Jackson and Greg's, the more I started to believe it was my fault.

I should've been with him.

I should've sat next to him at the party, I should've kissed him and told him how I felt about him, not sat next to Isaac and accidentally kissed him.

Matthew wouldn't want to believe that it was an honest mistake because I knew he would be done with all the heartbreak.

Greg and Jackson made an unbelievably stupid mistake of driving whilst under the influence of alcohol, and although they only received DUIs, they were going to get manslaughter charges if Matthew didn't wake up.

Everyone wanted him to wake up.

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"You did such a great thing," I whispered, glancing at Isaac.

He lifted his head silently, masking his frown with a half-assed smile. "I just want him to be okay, it's been two weeks, imagine if he doesn't—"

"He will," I interrupted, meeting his gaze squarely. "Matthew's not going to give up, Isaac. He has so much to wake up for."

"Like what?" he questioned, sighing. "He may have his family, but his friends are the whole reason he's in the hospital, and he might not even want to see you."

I felt a slight pain in my chest, a frown impairing my facial features. "He has to know it was all a misunderstanding, that I didn't kiss you and it was an accident."

Shrugging, Isaac placed his sandwich down. "We don't know how he's going to feel, we have to talk to him together."

Shaking my head, I caught a flicker of Gloria walking into the cafeteria, a sense of cockiness emanating from her. "You being there would only make him more angry, I have to be the one to talk to him."