On your knees // Bandom

61. Wait a minute!

Dallon was alive. Brendon - well - no one was sure. But Dallon woke up, whether he wanted to or not. He woke up and everything hurt. His head hurt and his chest hurt and his wrist hurt.

'Taylor?" The first thing he said, "Where's Taylor?'

'Taylor?' His mom asked, confused. He hadn't even asked how long she'd been there, not knowing anything.

'Taylor! My sister, your daughter??' He couldn't understand the confusion in her face.

The nurse stepped in, 'She's on her way.'

He took in the room then, his mom looking at him with an expression that he never wanted to see again and Layla asleep, curled up on the hospital seat, still in her school uniform.

He hadn't meant to do this at all. He had just wanted to keep him and Brendon like that, and now his family were dragged into this and he couldn't move. He was stuck there, like he was in his nightmares after Ryan died. Except this was worse, because this was real, and painful, and 100 percent his fault. As if the last one wasn't.

"What time is it?" He asked

The nurse shifted into professional mode, "Midday - you came in around 17 hours ago."

Asleep for seventeen hours. He wondered who found them, who called the ambulance, if it had been a little later, who knows if he'd have woken up at all.
They'd call that lucky, he supposes. Lucky.

The nurse left. "Do you remember what happened?" His mom asked.

"I... No." He lied.

"Are you sure?"

'"I was at Lindsey's, and then..."I

"There was a car accident." She told him, gentle.

"With who?"

"You were driving, they said, and you had-'" She swallowed, he was slowly realising how hard she was trying not to cry, "You had drank - I didn't think you drank, Dallon - and you and Brendon crashed into a wall, and- and someone from a nearby house called the ambulance. If they hadn't, I-"

"I'm so sorry."

"What have I told you, Dallon? Even if you think you've not had enough to make a difference, you end up like this."I

"Are you turning this into a lecture? Really? I'm sorry, I did it to stop Brendon driving, because he'd had more than me, It was a less than twenty minute journey."

"So you do remember what happened?" Her tone was accusatory.

"Not after leaving."

"Before you said you only remembered the party." I'd forgotten how she could sniff out lies like a bloodhound.

"Mom, I-"

"Dallon you can't just show up at a hospital and lie about what happened. Tell me, who's Taylor? And why were you driving?"

He shut his eyes, "Can we please talk about this another time. I've just woken up and it feels so bad..."

"Of course we can." She relented, but he kept his eyes shut.

They abandoned him overnight, went home and left him to the mercy of the Doctors. He almost hated himself for what happened, but he didn't regret it, because for a moment, he had Brendon. And it was glorious.

~

Awsten landed in Houston two hours before he told Geoff he was landing. Which meant he arrived at his house approximately three hours early.