What Makes It Wrong for Us to Fall in Love?

"Hi," Jawn said as he entered the room.

I looked up as a response, then I watched him walk to Kennedy.

"Hey, boy." Jawn greeted.

Kennedy heard Jawn's voice and gave him attention.

"I know you're tired," Jawn told him.

And Kennedy simply widened his eyes at Jawn.

"I brought you some aspirin." He rasped to Kennedy. "I'm sorry you're in this mess, bud."

Kennedy stared at him.

Jawn crouched down to be in eye level with Kennedy, then he put his hands on his knees. "How's your cut?"

"Never better," Kennedy casually answered.

"Atta boy," Jawn lightly patted his foreleg. He took out a bottle of Gatorade from a plastic bag he set down next to him and handed it to Kennedy. "You're not drunk, but.. You might need this."

"I know," Kennedy sighed and took the bottle from him. "Thanks."

"And here's your aspirin." He took a packed capsule out of his pocket and handed it to him too. "It's safe even when you haven't eaten anything."

"I'm not allergic to it?"

Jawn shook his head. "It's a hundred percent safe for you, I made sure."

"Geez, thanks O'Callaghan."

"Anything for you, Brock." Jawn sighed as he sat down in front of Kennedy on the cold hospital room floor.

Kennedy took the capsule into his mouth with a gulp of his Gatorade, then he let out a raspy groan.

"You okay?" Jawn asked him.

"Yeah," Kennedy replied. "Just.. Thanks."

"No problem."

The both of them sat there in silence when Jawn spoke up. "So.. What happened to your phone? I've been calling you."

"My phone.." Kennedy laughed. "It's a long story, rather not tell you about it."

Long story?

Okay.

That was the first time Jawn and Kennedy's talked since the accident.

They didn't speak even though they were in the room at the same time a lot of times.

Maybe it was really awkward for them.

"That's cool." Jawn shrugged. "How've you been?"

Kennedy beamed at Jawn, sarcastic at first, then it just stuck. "Well, other than pain shooting through my leg, I've been pretty good. You?"

"Same," Jawn answered quietly. "I've been drunk. That's something, right?"

"Better than nothing."

"Exactly." Jawn looked up at Kennedy. "Do you know that I was drunk when Pat told me where you were?"

"No,"

"And Jared said I even punched him in the gut because he wouldn't let me get to my car. It's a funny story."

"Tell me more," Kennedy said, sounding really interested.

"That's all there is to it." Jawn bit his lip. "Oh yeah. Jared told me I even pushed Pat."

Kennedy chuckled. "You pushed Pat?! You dickhead!"

"I know, right?" Jawn took a joky little punch from Kennedy. "Garrett got so pissed about it, he wouldn't talk to me the day after and I had no idea why."

"Dick!" Kennedy slapped Jawn. "You are such a dick!"

After Jawn and he finished laughing, Jawn got up and kicked Kennedy's wounded leg lightly. "Let's go hang somewhere."

Kennedy glanced at me, wondering if he could leave me to be with Jawn for a second.

And I just smiled at him weakly, telling him to go on.

Kennedy grinned at Jawn. "Let's go!"

So they left.

I turned to Stephen again.

About an hour later, they came back.

Both of them were laughing their fucking heads off.

Jawn pushed Kennedy lightly. "Stop! Kenny, stop!"

Kennedy continued nudging him and messing with him.

"Ah, Kenny, stop!" Jawn glared at Kennedy.

Kennedy thought for a second Jawn was really pissed, but then Jawn burst out laughing. "God, I missed you!"

Kennedy just beamed wider.

Then from the door behind them came John. "Hey, guys," He muttered. "Who wants to go with me to Taco Bell to get Stephen a taco?"

For weeks, it's been that way.

John was buying Taco Bell just in case Stephen woke up.

He did that everyday, and everyday Stephen didn't wake up, a taco went to waste.

If it wasn't for Stephen, it wasn't for anyone, actually, anything but the trash.

Seeing Garrett was asleep and Pat was sleeping next to him with his head on Garrett's shoulder, Kennedy turned to Jawn. "Let's go with."

"Mmkay." Jawn shrugged.

Then they went off with Jared and the others.

After a while, Garrett woke up, and so did Pat.

Then Garrett took his turn next to Stephen.

And about an hour spent with me sort of wondering why it was taking so long for the guys at Taco Bell.

Pat tapped Garrett. "Hey,"

Garrett tore his attention off the sleeping Stephen Gomez and looked at his best friend. "What?"

"Can you.." Pat looked at his finger tips, then he handed Garrett a nail cutter.

"Not now, Pat." Garrett answered with an annoyed tone and looked at Stephen again.

"But Gare," Pat tapped him again.

"Fine," Garrett got off the chair and took Pat to one of the other chairs behind us.

I sighed as I took Garrett's place on the chair. "Stephen, wake up already, damn it." I pulled on his hand. "Please, God damn it, John and Garrett are waiting on you too, wake up--"

"Ouch!" Pat screeched. "Jeez, Gare, if you wanted to stay with Stephen, you could've just told me! You didn't have to hurt me!" He got up and pushed himself away from Garrett.

"Pat, I didn't mean to.." Garrett stood up and tried to get close to Pat. "Wait, I'm sorry."

Pat covered his left fingertips with his hand and let out a scoff before storming out the room.

"Pat, wait!" Garrett ran after him, leaving me alone in the room with Stephen.

"See what you did?" I joked. "You made Pat and Garrett fight, you ought'a be ashamed of yourself, Gomez." Then I pouted. "Just wake up already.."

I looked at the wall clock and stared at it for a minute, just following the second hand.

Then I felt my hand get tugged on.

Being surprised, I pulled my hand away immediately and looked at Stephen.

One of his eyes slowly opened, and it slowly gazed around the unfamiliar room.

He opened his mouth a couple of centimeters, but nothing came out.

I sat there in shock.

Stephen was waking up.

He closed his eye again and opened the other one.

Then he found the strength to let out a groan and open both of his eyes.

He didn't look at me, the first thing he did was stare at the ceiling. And then the walls in front of him.

"Ste.. Stephen.." I choked out. "Stephen.."

He eyed me for a second.

"Whoa," He said after he looked away. It was a confused whoa. "Where am I," He groggily asked, putting his hand on the bandage wrapped around his forehead, and his palm on the red blotch on it.

"Y.. You're in a.. Hospital.." I continued choking on my words. "In Ca.. California,"

"Cool," He managed to smile. "California." He repeated with a light laugh as he weakly sat up.

"Stephen," I reached over to touch him, but he pushed me away and looked away from me.

His smile broke into an innocent frown.

Maybe because he saw me crying before even I realized it.

"Stephen," I gulped.

"You're.. You're.. Uhm?"

"Stephen, you're kidding me." I rolled my eyes and laughed. "You're kidding me," I said, realizing what he was trying to do. "Don't tell me you don't know me, Stephen, don't."

"I.. Uhm.." He silenced himself.

"I'm Jess! Your best friend? Your ex girlfriend? Your fiancee?" I kept throwing suggestions.

"Then I guess I'm Sorry." He kept his frown on.

I let go of his hand, the one I held onto the moment he woke up and backed away from him.

"Wait, please.."

He was kidding. He was joking. He was trying to scare me again.

I picked up his key necklace on the side table where we put it when the doctor took it from Stephen in the emergency room and gave it too us.

I held it by the chain and let it dangle in his sight. "Stephen, I'm your best friend. Remember? Come on." I put the necklace on him and showed him I had an exact same necklace. "See? We have matching necklaces! You don't remember this necklace?"

No reaction.

"What about," I took his ring from the same place I got the necklace. "This? What about this? You asked me to marry you weeks ago," I put the ring on him and showed him I had the other ring on my finger. "You don't remember this ring?"

No response.

I came closer to Stephen and looked into his eyes. "What about these," I looked him in the eye. It was the one way I could get him to remember who I was. The necklace didn't even matter to him. The ring, not any more than the necklace did. "These eyes, Stephen, you don't remember these eyes?"

Stephen and I almost kissed when he looked off and told me to give him space.

"Stephen, stop joking, please!" I cried. "Stephen, come on! I've waited for three weeks for you to wake up again! You almost died! You've scared me enough, Stephen, aren't you happy yet?!"

"I'm not joking," He whined.

"You're Stephen James Gomez! Remember? Born the eigth of December nineteen-eighty-eight in Arizona, super fan of Ryan Adams, Vans shoes and Mexican food especially Taco Bell, bassist for The Summer Set, brother of John Gomez, good friend of Josh Montgomery, immature pal of Brian Dales and.. And.. Best friend of Jessica Bowen, Stephen, Jesus Christ, remember!"

He pouted. "I want to remember so bad, but.. I can't even remember why I'm in a hospital and why I've got a massive headache,"

I cringed in anger.

Anger. Yes, anger. I was angry with Stephen for that. How could he forget me? No. How could he not remember?

"Why are you mad,"

"Why?! Because! I can't fucking believe this, Stephen, I can't believe you're doing this to me! I thought you fucking love me and now you're just plain hurting me and it sucks so fucking hard! What's more annoying is the fact that--"

"Wait," He held my hand and weakly jerked me towards him.

He looked into my eyes. "I know those eyes."

"You.. You do?"

"Yeah," He had me sit down, still so fucking close to him. Then he traced his fingers delicately over my cheeks that were wet with tears. "I'd know that beautiful face anywhere," He blew lightly on my tears and pretended that doing that would help them dry off. "And those lips," He traced his fingers on the corner of my lips then.

He was pulling me in.

And then he stopped.

Then he fell out of that mood and just fell silent again after saying "I remember you now."

"And?"

"I remember everything you put me through."

"Stephen."

"You're not my fiance,"

"Stephen,"

"You're not even my girlfriend."

"Stephe--"

"You're.. Not even my friend. You told me we couldn't be friends anymore. We ended it."

He wasn't taking me back.

He didn't want me back.

"Stop crying." He coldly said. "Fucking stop crying."

He was mad at me.

"Damn it, Jess, stop crying. You are a terrible friend. Just now, shit, we're not even friends anymore and you still manage to hurt me with your crying. Why the fuck are you crying,"

"Because you're scaring me."

"I'm not trying to scare you at all." He said, not even bothering to look at me. "You keep fucking up. And I always thought I could tolerate that. And I always have. Maybe I should've just gotten amnesia. Huh? Maybe, right, Jess, wouldn't that make you fucking happy? Then that way, you could manipulate me into falling in love with you all over again. And then you'd hurt me again. And.. Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun for you, Jess, a lot of fucking fun. You shouldn't have gotten that close to me, Jess, you shouldn't have, because..

"What are you doing here anyway? Why the fuck are you in a hospital talking to me and why have you been waiting for me to wake up? Are you deranged? Why didn't you just.. Jess.. How long was I asleep?"

"A couple.. Maybe a bunch of weeks," I managed to answer through the breakdown I was starting.

"A couple.. Maybe a bunch of weeks," He repeated. "And? Don't tell me you spent those weeks here."

"I did."

"Jess, you dumbass. You shouldn't have. You should've fucking stayed with Kennedy."

"Stephen,"

"You should've fucking stayed out of my life."

"Yeah? And if I stayed out of your life, then maybe I wouldn't have gotten to save it. I called for help when you crashed."

"Did I fucking ask you to call for help?"

"Would you've rather died?"

"Maybe."

"Stephen."

"Then I realized the entire reason I even fucking tried to go to California was to see you. You, Jess! Someone I'm not even friends with anymore! You're not the only person I live for, Jess, I've got a little brother who needs me too. I've got friends who need me too."

I got up and away from Stephen. "Fuck you. Seriously, fuck you." I growled before I walked out of the room in tears. I called a nurse and told her Stephen was awake and I decided not to go back to the hospital room.

Instead, I looked for Pat and Garrett.

After minutes of looking around for them, I found them in the parking lot.

I was gonna join them to tell them Stephen woke up when I realized they were yelling at each other.

No.

Forget yelling at each other; Garrett was yelling at Pat.