Been You

Chapter 78: Stay Alive With Me

JUSTIN'S POV:

I was having an amazing dream about fucking Ely in her short little cheer skirt, when I'm roughly shaken awake. Needless to say, I'm mad as hell. I sit up abruptly, bumping foreheads with Za in the process. "What the fuck, man?"

"Get up, get dressed," Za says, distraught.

"What? Why?" I ask, still half asleep. I'm still naked under these covers from following through on my promise to Ely last night, so I'm hoping whatever Za answers with isn't as urgent as he's making it out to be.

"Ely's hurt, we gotta get to public health like twenty minutes ago," Za answers, too overwhelmed to look me in the eyes. I jolt out of bed worriedly. "Oh my god," Za says at my exposed body. I pull my sweats on immediately.

"What happened?" I yell, pulling him out the door, stepping into my adida slides as I go.

"She was skating, her skates weren't tight. She -" he explains frantically.

"Shit!" I execrate, walking briskly out of the door, still pulling Za. He's way too overwhelmed to keep up. "I should've remembered she doesn't realize how tight the skates have to be. I should've known! God, Za, why didn't I wake up?" I say, more to myself than to Za. I don't expect him to answer, but he does.

"Justin, don't do this right now," he says firmly, making my eyes go wide. "You're not helping yourself and you're sure as hell not helping Ely by beating yourself up over this. You need to focus all your energy on getting to her. What if she wakes up and you're not there?" I stop dead in my tracks.

"She's unconscious?" I yell incredulously. "You think you could've told me that?" I let go of Za's arm, breaking into a sprint. Thank god nobody on campus is up this early on a Saturday. Za runs to catch up to me, and we both make it to public health sooner than anyone could expect. Out of breath, trying to find out where they're keeping Ely is a hassle. That is, until we find the right floor. Za and I speed walk over to the room with the entire cheer squad, sans Atifa and Ely, waiting outside. We walk up to the hospital room, but a nurse stops us.

"We ask that only immediate family come in, seeing as she's in a critical condition," the nurse informs.

"I'm her fiancé, we live together," I embellish, desperate to get to my woman. A series of awws come from the girls behind me. I roll my eyes impatiently. This nurse is not moving. "Please, let me in, this is the love of my life here, ma'am," I beg. She looks at me reluctantly before allowing me to enter. I let out a sigh of relief as I walk over to her grasping her hand immediately. I look up to Atifa, who's at the other side of her bed. "How long?" I ask worriedly.

"Thirty-two minutes," she strains. "I'm so sorry, Justin. I should've never pressured her to cheer."

"No, don't say that. She loves cheer. It's my fault. I knew she couldn't tie her skates," I reply, guilt ridden.

"Justin... you can't take responsibility. How can you be expected to remember every single little thing? It was a freak accident. Ely wouldn't want you talking like this." She's right about one thing. This kind of talk probably is upsetting Ely, so I drop it.

"How'd you get in here?" I ask, trying to lighten the mood.

"Sister," she smiles. "You?"

"Fiancé."

"Ooh, good one," she replies. It's quiet for a moment before she breaks the silence. "You know, they say talking to people sometimes helps. I don't know if you wanted to try it or -"

"Yeah, that makes sense," I answer.

"Okay. I'm gonna go check on Za. He gets all disheveled when it comes to stuff like this. Let me know if anything changes?" She asks.

"Yeah," I assure. After Atifa leaves, I get down on my knees, holding Ely's hand between the two of mine. I think carefully about what I should say.

The only thing that comes to me is the memory of yesterday, when Ely was so ready to give up on skating. Christian said, "Motivate her." Suddenly, I know exactly what to say. I take a deep breath, needing this to come out perfectly.

"Ely, my love, I know you're probably in a lot of pain right now. I know it probably seems easier to sleep through the pain, to just not fight through it. But I need you to come back to me, okay? I need you here, Ely. I don't know how to live without you, Ely. It's always been you. It's been you who makes my life worth living. I need you to marry and move into a New York City apartment with. I need you to have three beautiful babies with. Solana, Luna, and Little Justin need you. The students you'll have when you become an amazing teacher - the kind that changes kids for life - they need you. We all need you. I know it's going to be hard. But this is just like yesterday. Remember when you wanted to quit? It felt like sticking around and fighting for what you wanted wasn't worth it? It felt easier to just walk away. But you didn't. You stayed, you fought, and you did it. By the end of the day, you were skating like a pro. Remember that feeling? Remember how good it felt to have the wind blowing through your hair as your skates glide over the ice? Baby, I need you to fight for that feeling now. Stay on the ice. Please, baby. It's always been you," I plead, squeezing her hand. Suddenly, her hand squeezes back, and I swear it felt like the best feeling in the world. I jolt up, not releasing her hand. "Nurse! Nurse! Anyone!" I yell. The nurse and Atifa rush into the room. "She squeezed my hand," I inform frantically. The nurses face goes from worried to annoyed so quickly.

"It's just leftover electrical impulses, kid. Don't get your hopes up," she says flatly, enraging me.

"No! She really squeezed my hand! I squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back! She heard me!" I yell.

"Justin," Atifa soothes, coming to my side.

"Don't do that! I'm not crazy!"

"Shh," someone says. I open my mouth to argue, before I realize the sound came from behind me. It came from Ely! I turn around, walking over to her quickly, grabbing her hand.

"Ely, you're awake," I cry.

"Justin."