The Wisest Fool.

Blue Curtains & Blankets

Waking up in a hospital is never fun. The blinding lights. The sterile smell. The constant beeps coming from random directions. The sickly patients. It's all so white and... plain. I wanted more than anything to just be able to leave and go home to my cozy little apartment, but that was not going to happen in the foreseeable future.

In my room there was a couple plants in a few of the corners, a small side table by my bed, a machine I was hooked up to that seemed to be monitoring my heartbeat as well as an IV that I could see buried into my skin. The walls were bare except for a couple small paintings of forests and other outdoorsy things, and a few photographs with inspirational quotes. The curtains were the same light blue as my blanket, and everything else seemed to be devoid of all color, minus the few pictures on the walls. It was clearly attempted to make this room seem more cozy and comfortable, but to me it still felt cold and uninviting.

I had been here for a few days now. I wasn't sure what day it was, everything sort of jumbled together because I've been sleeping most of the time, trying not to think about where I was and the accident. And especially trying not to think about the man I hit.

It turns out that in the car accident I had fractured my arm, dislocated my shoulder, broken a couple of my fingers, sprained my ankle, and suffered a severe concussion. But I guess that's what happens when you T-bone another vehicle in an intersection and go flying through the windshield. The doctors keep telling me I was lucky, because somehow I avoided any severe brain damage and my body didn't give out after such extreme blood loss. So I guess that was lucky, but I certainly felt everything except lucky.

It was all my fault. I was in such a rush to get my Starbucks coffee and get to work on time that I was speeding like a damn Nascar driver. I took my eyes off the road for just a few seconds to change the radio station and boom. That was it. I don't remember anything after I saw my phone fly off the seat next to me as my car came to an abrupt crashing stop, and everything else in it continued trying to move forward at fifty miles an hour.

I vaguely remember my short spurt of conciousness after being thrown from the vehicle. I could recall blurry memories of glass shards, inky black smoke, flashing lights, blood, and... those green eyes that were vividly ingrained in my memory. They were so inexplicably familiar, it was like deja vu. But that was probably just the concussion.

I felt horrible for the person I hit. The doctors told me he was stable for now, but in a coma. They told me he was also extremely lucky. Most people in his position in accidents like that are killed on impact. The bones in his left arm were shattered and his left leg was broken. No serious damage otherwise, though. They're waiting for him to wake up so they can make sure his brain can still function properly. I could have just turned this man into a vegetable for the rest of his life. I'm so going to get sued for this.

I kept replaying everything in my head and as much as I wanted the man to be okay, I also dreaded his awakening because that would mean he could finally call his lawyer and press charges against me for my reckless driving that almost got us both killed.

I swear the man looked so familiar though. This thought ran through my mind relentlessly no matter how much I tried to rationalise it and tell myself that it was just because I hit my head so hard. I don't know... It was all too much to think about so I closed my eyes and fell back into a dreamless sleep.

•••

"Athena. Athena! Will you wake your ass up already!" I woke up to a voice I recognised instantly. It was my best friend, Skye.

I sat up and looked at her. She had long brown hair that she always straightened, but was naturally wavy and much more pretty than she gave herself credit for, deep brown eyes, a silver nose ring, and a set of really pretty cheekbones that any woman would kill to have. She was a few inches taller than me, and just as thin. She was wearing her gold hoop earrings, a black tank top that showed a good few inches of her stomach, light blue jeans, and white flip flops.