When the Moon Fell in Love with the Sun

The following Saturday, Katelyn and Spencer went to the beach to get in their last surf session before winter while Brendon was at the optometrist getting his eyes checked out before meeting Ryan for lunch.

It was a sunny day, and Katelyn was more than stoked to catch some waves with her best friend. Brendon had taught her how to surf despite all the times she tried to give up or he got discouraged; his tenacity impressed the girl immensely and she appreciated it.

The two spent a few hours on their boards, chatting while they paddled out and waited for waves. Spencer was curious as to how she and Brendon were doing, but wasn't surprised when she told him that they were doing really well.

"Right now, we're at a point in our relationship where we're comfortable enough to be in a routine. We have a fucking routine, Spencer. It's seriously like we've been doing this forever and I'm not really opposed to it." Katelyn stared at the beach from their spot a few hundred yards out in the Pacific Ocean, a smile on her face as she thought of Brendon.

"That's a good thing. You guys are starting to settle. It's a nice feeling, isn't it?" Spencer watched as the girl nodded, then he noticed that a good sized wave was coming, so he turned his attention toward that.

"Hey, I'm pretty tired, so I think I'm gonna call it a day. You gonna head home too?" Spencer asked Katelyn after they had hit the shore after their last wave, but she shook her head.

"I think I've got a few more in me. You can go though." She gave him a reassuring smile, watching as he threw on his shirt and wrapped a towel around his hips.

"I'll talk to you later then, okay? Text me when you get home." Spencer made sure she promised, then he wandered to the parking lot and left.

Katelyn, on the other hand, had noticed a little spot a bit further out where she could see some pretty big swells, and decided that was where she would hit next. The girl had never surfed alone, but she figured
it wouldn't be much different than with another person; just a bit more lonely.

The first wave she caught was perfect, but it left her wanting more.

"Just one more wave, then I'll call it a day…" Katelyn grumbled to herself as she paddled out, ignoring the fact that she had just passed by a rocky patch of ocean floor.

It only took a few minutes of waiting before the wave came, and she felt amazing as she stood on her board for a few split seconds, but everything changed in a moment when she lost her balance and toppled into the water.

The next thing she knew, everything was fuzzy and she was laying on the beach, being hovered over by what looked to be a lifeguard, who was telling her to stay awake. Darkness seeped into the corners of her sight, taking over temporarily until she awoke in a hospital.

Once he had gotten back from lunch with Ryan, Brendon had expected to see Katelyn's smiling face in the living room, or the bedroom, or somewhere in the apartment. He knew she had gone to the beach with Spencer to put in their last surf trip of the season, which he had done a few weeks earlier, but he hadn't expected her to take so long to do so. Normally they only went out for a couple of hours and came back around lunch time.

He sent her a text, asking if she was having a good time, then flopped onto the couch, flicking on the TV and turning on his Xbox 360. He and Ryan had actually enjoyed their lunch together, which had surprised Brendon completely. They ate and had a few beers, talking and catching up like everything had been normal. There was no animosity between them, which Brendon was relieved by. He couldn't wait to tell Katelyn that his lunch had been a success.

When he didn't hear back from her after a solid few hours of gaming, Brendon began to panic. He told himself to calm down, knowing that Spencer was with her and they were probably hanging out at the pier, but something in the back of his mind told him otherwise.

Grabbing his iPhone, Brendon scrolled through his recent calls and hit Spencer's name, waiting for him to pick up.

"Hey dude, what's up?" Spencer's cheerful voice made Brendon smile, putting him slightly at ease with the thought that he was fine.

"Spence, is Kate with you?"

"No, actually. I left the beach a few hours ago and Katie wanted to stay for a bit longer… She isn't home?" Spencer had figured that she had gone home to take a nap and forgotten to text him, because that's what exactly what he had done.

"Nuh-uh. I texted her earlier and haven't gotten a reply. I'm gonna go to the beach and see if she's there." Brendon began to worry now, the gears in his mind spinning faster than they had when he was only a little concerned of her whereabouts.

Spencer asked for Brendon to call and let him know when he found the girl, and Brendon agreed, hanging up the phone and dialing Katelyn's number. When she didn't answer, he flew off of the couch, throwing on a pair of sandals and grabbing his keys, then he drove to the beach.

He didn't see Katelyn anywhere, and that's what completely freaked him out. He saw absolutely nothing that even signaled that she had been there, until he spotted her surf board in the life guard tower. Not bothering to remove is flip flops, Brendon ran to the tower and approached the life guard.

"That surf board… Where's the girl it belongs to?" Brendon was breathing rapidly, earning a skeptical glance from the tall, blond man standing before him in a pair of red swim trunks with a whistle around his neck.

"She was taken to the ER at St. John's after hitting some rocks a while ago. My co-worker on the shift before me got her out of the water and gave her CPR and tried to minimize the bleeding while a bystander called an ambulance. She was alone, so a paramedic took most of her things, but they couldn't bring the board."

"Oh… I'm her boyfriend, I'll take it…" Brendon thanked the life guard, took the surf board, and returned to his car.

Once the short board was stowed in the back seats, Brendon sat in the driver's seat, buckled up, and about to turn the engine on, when he suddenly felt completely weak. Rubbing his palms against his eyes, he was alarmed to find out he had been crying; his face felt numb to the wetness, but he wiped the tears away regardless, then went to the hospital.

"I'm here for Katelyn Tieger. T-I-E-G-E-R. No, I'm not a relative. Her mother lives in Las Vegas and I'm her boyfriend." Brendon seemed to be having a battle of the wills with the woman at the reception in the ER, but despite the fact that he was emotionally drained, he fought with her so he could see Katelyn.

"Alright, sir, just sign in and put this visitor sticker somewhere so staff can see it. A nurse will take you to see the patient."

A woman in dark purple scrubs entered the waiting room, smiling briefly at Brendon and he noticed her clear blue eyes light up at the sight of him.

"We've been waiting for you, Brendon. Someone's been asking for you for a while now, but you didn't seem to answer your phone." The tall brunette began to lead him back into the ER, and he followed her quick pace.

Checking his pockets, Brendon noticed that he didn't even have his phone on him, and his cheeks burned bright red with embarrassment. He had been in such a rush to leave that he had forgotten about his phone all together.

When they reached where the patients were, Brendon noticed that there were several empty beds in a row, then one with the curtain pulled closed, followed by another two empty ones, and a row of closed ones. The ER apparently wasn't all that busy, which must have been good for Katelyn.

Before he was allowed in to see her, the nurse, Heather, gave Brendon some information.

"From what we were told, she fell off of her surf board and crashed into some rock formation, which cracked the back of her head open and scraped her up. I think she has a mild concussion, but we won't know right away because she's only been up for probably twenty minutes."

"But you said she's been asking for me…" Brendon's curious face made Heather let out a slight laugh.

"After we made her fill out a bit of paper work, literally every other sentence out of her mouth as been, 'Where's Brendon?'."

As if on cue, Katelyn's voice floated out from behind the curtain, making Brendon cringe slightly at how hoarse it sounded.

"Heather? Is that you? Have you gotten a hold of Brendon yet?"

"Honey, he isn't answering his phone… But somehow he managed to find his way to you anyways."
Heather pulled back the curtain a bit so Brendon could go in, and Katelyn's face lit up immediately.

He barely glanced over the girl that was sitting on top of the thin, blue sheets and wearing a papery hospital gown before pulling her in for a gentle hug, taking note of the areas of skin on her arms and legs that were raw from being scraped up. Katelyn could hear his rapid heartbeat, and she could tell that he had been crying; his eyes were red and puffy and she felt him trying to breathe deeply, which left no room for him to try and play it off like nothing at all.

When he pulled back from the hug and choked back a sob, he took her hands with his and promised that he would take care of her as best he could. Brendon's eyes hurried from one cut on her cheek to another, taking in all of her injuries.

He asked if she remembered what had happened, and she said that she had blacked out for most of it, so she only remembered a few seconds before the impact and waking up on the beach.

"Relax, Bren. It isn't that bad… I'm just a little shaken up."

"Shaken up?! The back of your skull cracked open. I've never been more panicked in my entire life than when I talked to the life guard at the beach after I called Spencer to see if you were with him."

"Yeah, well… At least I wasn't attacked by a shark." There she went, down playing her own problems to make them seem small in comparison to what could have happened. Several of the last few times they'd gone to the beach, there had been shark sightings and warnings posted for the beach goers, so she knew that she was tempting fate every time she stepped foot in the ocean.

"Now Katelyn, you know just as well as I do that it's more likely to win a Nobel Prize than to be attacked by a shark." Brendon's voice held a hint of playfulness, knowing that they had watched Shark Week on the Discovery Channel only a few weeks ago.

A few hours later, Katelyn was deemed okay to go home, but not without extremely detailed instructions on how to go about recovering from her mild concussion. The girl wasn't allowed to watch TV, text, or do anything that would make her head ache. Brendon took it upon himself to become her caregiver, much to her annoyance.

As soon as they returned to the apartment, Brendon quarantined the girl to the bedroom, making sure that she was in comfortable clothes before he turned off the lights and went to make a few calls in the living room. She had been wearing nothing but a bikini and a pair of board shorts for this surf session, which explained why her skin was so thrashed.

"Stay in here, turn on some classical music, and please try to sleep. I don't want you taking any risks."

The girl rolled her hazel eyes at him and said that she would be good. Brendon kissed the top of her head, taking in the smell of the ocean in her hair and making a mental note to draw a bath for her once he was done with the phone calls he had to make.

Helen was the first person he called, knowing that she would flip her lid if she wasn't. After explaining
what had happened and hearing a very different, very worried side of the woman, Brendon realized how much her daughter meant to her. He had done everything he could to convince her not to get on the next flight out of Las Vegas International, saying that he had everything under control.

"Thank you, Brendon. Kate may not admit it, but she would be absolutely lost without you." Helen was being completely honest; she liked the boy and knew he loved her daughter.

"I know, because I feel the same way." Brendon felt odd sharing his personal thoughts and feelings with Helen, so he decided to end their conversation and call up Spencer next.

"Dude, I've never been more freaked out in my life than when I got to the beach and the life guard told me what had happened." Spencer had come over to check up on Katelyn, and now he and Brendon were sitting in the kitchen, talking over beers.

"If I had known that she was gonna get hurt, I wouldn't have gone home without making sure she left too. She's like my sister, Bren, I can't believe I just left." Spencer seemed to be beating himself up over something he could have possibly prevented, but Brendon knew that it wasn't worth dwelling on.

"It isn't your fault that Kate went out there on her own. She's one of those people that you just can't control. Sometimes I wish I could rein her in a little bit more though, like with the drinking and stuff. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem going out and having a couple of drinks with her, but sometimes it just gets out of hand."

Spencer nodded, watching his best friend and bandmate run his hands through his hair. It was obvious that he was rattled by the day's events, and Spencer truly felt for him.

"Maybe you should talk about it with her when she's not concussed…" Spencer's suggestion seemed to take Brendon by surprise, and he mumbled something about how she didn't like being controlled.

"You never know until you try. I saw how much she drank in New York. I know that when she was in college, she partied too much and was practically an alcoholic. You have to be understanding, but I think talking will help her." He remembered how Brendon had told him that she drank almost half a bottle of wine with dinner once, and couldn't help but feel concerned.

"I feel like we're planning an intervention." Brendon sighed and asked Spencer if they had been drinking at the beach, and his friend's answer relieved him; no, they hadn't been drinking.

"If you need any help or anything with her, just let me know. I'll be more than happy to come and babysit for a while and make sure she doesn't get into trouble if you need to go out or anything." Spencer chuckled at the thought of himself keeping Katelyn from watching her shows or messing around on her computer.

"I definitely will. Thanks, man." Brendon sent his friend a smile, and they continued to talk until Spencer deemed it time to go home. Once he left, Brendon went into the bedroom and found Katelyn staring up at the ceiling fan, trying to pretend that she was fine.