the fall • s.m.

31 • broken

// shawn mendes //

"So?" I asked anxiously as Liz approached me. I sat up in my chair, people in the waiting room staring at me again.

Liz sighed. "Some internal bleeding, mild kidney trauma, a couple fractured ribs, broken wrist. She has a concussion, which is why she hasn't woken up yet. Not a really bad one, but still," she told me.

She must have noticed my worried expression. "She's going to be fine, Shawn."

"None of that sounds fine, Liz," I said, and she rolled her eyes.

"Look, this sucks enough without your negativity. She's going to be devastated when she wakes up and realizes that this happened. If you want to be around her, put a smile on your damn face and be strong for her." She relaxed her shoulders, looking at the ground then back at me. "Please."

"You're right. I will, don't worry," I said.

She looked at me for a moment, then nodded. She sat in the chair next to me and sighed.

"Do you think she even wants to see me?" I asked. Liz gave me a sideways glance.

"Why wouldn't she?"

I let out a dry chuckle. "Why wouldn't she? Because I treated her like an after thought. I acted like she meant nothing to me, and when she pulled away, I did nothing to get her back. I was an idiot," I said. "Such an idiot."

"Well, I know for a fact that she hasn't gotten over you. She even ended things with a really good guy because she couldn't get over you," she told me. "But then she thought you were with another girl. That was what people were saying, at least."

She gave me a look. "Were you ever with another girl? Alexa, I think it was?"

"She, she thought that? She thought I was with Alexa?" I asked. Oh no.

Liz nodded. "You weren't? Everyone thought you were."

I shook my head. "No. She's my friend, a friend I had from school. She's a good listener, and she let me vent my feelings about Margot all the time." I sighed, looking at the ground. "She was only encouraging me to get Margot back. And Margot thought —"

"She thought you had moved on easily. Like it was nothing," Liz finished for me.

I put my face in my hands. "I need to explain to her. I should have explained it earlier. But, like always, too little too late," I said.

Liz put her hand on my shoulder. "You're right. You shouldn't have left her hanging like that. But right now," she stopped, slowly pulling her hand back. For a split second, I actually saw worry in her eyes. She was scared too. Margot is not just her sister, she's her best friend. They mean everything to each other. If this is hard for me, it's 100 times harder for her.

But, she cleared her throat and spoke again.

"Right now she needs you more than ever. But she's even more broken on the inside than the outside. You want her? Then deserve her. Because right now, I don't know if you do," she said, getting up from her seat.

She stopped after a few steps and looked back at me. "Well, are you coming?"

I quickly got up and followed her, trying to shake off her last comment. We walked down a long hallway to a door. Liz hesitantly pushed it open a crack and peeked inside, then pushed it the rest of the way and stopped in the doorway.

"Mom and Dad are talking to the doctor," she said in a more quiet voice, nodding towards the end of the hall. I nodded, looking at them. I saw her mother, who I had never seen before. I could tell she was Margot's mother, they looked so similar. Except even from a distance, I could see her fatigue. She rubbed her eyes as the doctor spoke, and Margot's father put a hand on her shoulder.