the reason | 13rw

s e v e n t y - e i g ht

MONTY'S POV

i stared at her, my hand holding hers. her hair fell to the sides and her chest was rising and falling slightly. they oxygen mask fogging up every so often. elliot was asleep on a small air mattress in the corner. their dad was working a couple floors below us. 

everyone else was at school, they couldn't miss days so close to graduation, none of us could. but i didn't care, i was determined to be right there when she opened her eyes, if she opened her eyes. 

it's been a week almost and with every painful day, came bad thoughts that she might not make it. and with those bad thoughts came anger. i was angry at tyler, for doing what he did. i was angry at all of my friends for not telling her that tyler had been sending threats for so long. i was angry at myself for knowing and not telling her either. i should have disobeyed everyone and told her. but i thought i could keep her safe, i'd failed at that. 

i'd failed nicolette, she deserved so much. i'd done so many bad things to her and she just stayed with me. that's not what she should be doing. she should be graduating and going to stanford. she should get married and have kids. as much as i want to the one she does those things with, i wasn't good enough for her. 

"hey man," i heard elliot. 

i looked over as he sat next to me on the couch. 

"why don't you go and clean up?" he suggested. "when she opens her eyes, i don't think she wants to see you a mess." 

"yeah," i nodded and stood. 

....

ELLIOT'S POV

monty walked into the bathroom connected to the hospital room as i slid into the spot he'd been sitting in. i watched my sister and wondered why out of all people, she'd been the one to get so much pain pushed on her. 

as i watched her, i began remembering the days when we were younger. i remember when i was her only terror. but now, the whole world was a terror. i knew she was going to open her eyes, i had faith but when she does, i'm not sure i'll have the heart to leave her side. 

i wasn't there when it happened, but i saw the looking of confusion and terror when she hung up that phone. and as soon as she did, i went straight to the airport and came back. 

i was not going to let my sister come back and not have me there. 

....

JESSICA'S POV

sitting in my english class i could barely focus. i could hear the teacher talking and saw her moving her mouth but i couldn't understand anything she said. my find was focused on nicolette. it was fucked up that they'd only shut the school down for two days. my best friend was shot here, in the hall and all they did was fix the locker. 

the school hadn't even released a statement, all they did was tell us that if we needed to talk about our "feelings" that mr. porter's door was open. nicolette deserved to be brought to the attention of others. tyler deserved to be bashed on but the school didn't care. they only wanted the mess to be over with. 

it was fucked up, my best friend deserve way more than shitty liberty. 

....

JEFF'S POV

i watched as jess stared down at her pencil. she hadn't been focusing the whole class period and i didn't blamer her. i couldn't focus either. the moments at proms kept running through my head. the moment we realized that nicolette wasn't there. i remember jumping up and running out into the hall.