A Piece of Me (Tracob)

You Never See It Coming

Sage-

Cruising down the road, the windows open, music turned up loud on the speakers. Troye's leisure activity of choice. It's my last few days here with him, Jacob's in New York for a fashion show, so it's just the two of us.

"Would it be, like, completely obnoxious of me to blast my own music right now?" He asks me, pushing his windswept hair out of his eyes.

"Yes, absolutely, and that's why we're gonna do it."

He flashes me a grin that lights up his face, making a grab for my phone. "I'm absolutely feeling "Youth" at the moment, how about you?"

"Hey, I'm the DJ. Eyes on the road, Tokky."

He rolls said eyes and turns his attention back to the highway.

"Hey, you know what, I have a better idea." I tell my brother, scrolling through my playlists. "What we need right now is...Despacito ft. JB."

Troye's jaw drops. "Oh my God yes. Yes Alexa play Despacito."

I crank up the song for us and we start to lose ourselves to the beat and the music, singing along as loudly as we can, even the Spanish parts even though neither of us speak the language, and are most definitely screwing up the pronunciation in every possible way. We throw our hands in the air and laugh side by side. The wind whips our hair into our faces and the golden hour sunset lights up the sky. It was one of those movie perfect moments. The pure joy that everyone strives to capture.

He didn't notice the truck turning the corner ahead too fast, heading straight for us, until it was too late. I saw it in his eyes, for a fraction of a second, panic, as he tries to swerve out of the way, but isn't fast enough and the truck slams into us. Troye loses control of the wheel, sending the car skidding into the barrier. The last thing I remember seeing is my brother's small frame jerk forwards sharply, and he crumples against the dashboard. And then I black out

*******

I don't know how long I was out for, but it must not have been very long. For a second, I don't remember what happened. My chest hurts, every breath is painful. And then I remember the oncoming vehicle, and our car slamming into the wall. We crashed. It hits me all at once. We crashed.

Where is my brother? Is he okay?

My vision is all thrown off because of the way the car is dented and bent in some areas. I try to turn my head to the right to look at Troye, and it sends a surprisingly sharp jolt of pain through me. I can see him out of the corner of my eye. He's thrown forwards, over the airbag, turned away from me. I can't see his face. Panic flutters inside me. I can't see his face how am I supposed to know if he's okay? God, I can't breathe. I want to reach over and turn him but I don't think I can, and the thought of what I might find is unbearable. Someone taps on my window suddenly, scaring me. I turn as fast as I can, which hurts my chest.

"Miss? Miss, can you hear me?"

It's the man who was driving the truck.

I nod, signaling that I can hear him.

"I hit you, I'm sorry I lost control of the truck. I hit you. Are you okay? Can you breathe?"

I nod again. "I can breathe." I say, voice hoarse.

"Okay, I'm going to open the door and get you out alright? If you fall out, I'll catch you."

I turn my head back to look at Troye. He's still unmoving. There's blood dripping down his wrist. His arm is bent, the angle all wrong. He still hasn't moved. I want to grab him and shake him and scream at him until he wakes up. Please, Troye, please you have to wake up. Wake up! The truck driver taps to get my attention again.

"Is that your boyfriend?"

"My brother." I whisper. "You have to get him out first."

"I tried, miss. I can't get him out without doing more damage. His leg is stuck in there. I called an ambulance, it's on it's way. Let me help you out, please. Crashed cars can catch on fire, miss. Let's get you out."

"If the car catches on fire my brother will die!" I tell him, a desperate edge to my voice. The driver gives me a sad look, and my heart speeds up. "He's not- he's alive, isn't he? My brother is alive."

My heart is beating so hard I can feel it in my head, throbbing.

"I don't know." He tells me seriously. "I'm sorry, but I don't know."

I start to cry, but the tears won't come. I'm shaking uncontrollably. The truck driver breaks the window and opens the door, pulling me out and dragging me away from the car. He takes off his over shirt and wraps it around me, even though I'm not cold. I don't take my eyes off the car, even though he tells me I should look away. I don't want to be looking if it goes up in flames.

But I can't look away. The ambulance arrives and a team of medics come over, helping me onto a stretcher. They ask me questions about the crash and try to assess my injuries, but I can't focus because the other group of emergency responders are breaking the car and taking Troye's limp body out, loading it onto a stretcher. They turn his head so he's facing me, and I see the long cut on his temple, bleeding into his hair. His eyes are shut and his face is pale. Too pale. When they push the stretcher, I catch a glimpse of his leg, skinny jeans soaked in blood from the knee down.

I don't know what the doctors around him are saying as they load him and me into an ambulance. They tell me to stay still, and give me a shot in my arm. They're talking about blood pressure and heart rate, but using terms I can't understand. They fit an oxygen mask over Troye's mouth, hooking him up to something. He still hasn't opened his eyes. His head flops to the side, and they cup his face, pressing gauze to his wound and talking frantically about his heart rate dropping. I don't like the beeping sounds that keep going off. My head feels foggy and my thoughts are clouded.

"Close your eyes." A voice above me says. "You'll be okay, close your eyes."

"My brother." I murmur. "Is he okay?"

"We can't know just yet, miss. Close your eyes, you're safe."

I don't want my eyes to close but they close anyway, and I sink into blackness