Saving Me

Rena’s POV

Katherine slowly twitched one eye open and scrunched her eyebrows together. Finally. She had been in a coma for a week. “Mom,” I called for my mother who was in the restroom.

“Is she awake!?” My mother asked excitedly, running out of the bathroom.

“Yes,” I muttered. I stepped out of my seat and found my spot against the wall to watch her interact with Katherine.

“Mom,” Katherine smiled.

“My miracle,” my mother answered. Tears began to fall down her face as she took Katherine’s hand.

“What?” Katherine asked, looking around the room. She winced in pain, and touched her head. “What’s going on?” she demanded upon realizing that she was in a hospital bed with gauze replacing her hair.

“Baby, you were hit by a drunk driver on the way to work,” she barely spoke.

She was talking as if Katherine wasn’t still at risk of death because she woke up from a coma. Her brain was still swollen even after the surgery they preformed on her, leaving her in much danger. It was interesting to observe my mothers reactions. Would she react this way if it was me laying in that hospital bed?

“I was what? What’s wrong with me?” She asked slowly.

“Your brain is swollen, Kat. You also broke both of your arms. One at the elbow and one at the wrist.”

“Please tell me that this is a dream,” she said desperately. “Who did this?”

“The one driving the car was a 23 year old male whose name was Jack Barakat. He still hasn’t woken up yet. They think he might never wake up.”

“Hm,” she muttered after a while. Her reactions seemed to be almost unrealistically delayed. It was interesting to watch.

“I’m so happy to see you awake. I thought you’d be just as bad off as the fellow that hit you. They told me you were going to die. Don’t you worry, he’s going to have karma handed straight to him,” she rambled. “Boy, I’m going to sew him down to every penny he has. No one hurts my baby like this and gets away with it. Not my Kath—“

“Mom,” Katherine interrupted. She wasn’t paying much attention to my mother’s ordeal. Instead, she seemed to be focused on something more. She zoned straight ahead at the white board hanging on the wall in front of her and spoke slowly in monotone, “Was there ever a boy in here?”

“What? Katie, why in the world would I ever let a boy in here? I know how you feel about that.”

Katherine had a guy free rule, even though almost every boy wanted her. Emotionally, she was very protective of herself. She told everyone that it was because she couldn’t find anyone worth her time, but if you watched her carefully and read into her, you could see that it was simply because she fell in love once before and had never got her heart back. So common, yet so tragic. Instead of striving to get back what she had lost, she declared herself untouchable. She distanced herself from all males, including good friends.

“I remember someone talking to me. I could hear him while I was out. I know I’m not crazy. He came in every day,” she said pensively.

My mother looked up at me, searching for an answer, but I had none. I shrugged my shoulders. The only time anyone ever came in to visit was the night of the accident when the pale blonde boy and the guy with the lip ring came in.

“Honey, I think you’re letting that swollen brain get to you a little.”

“I’m not fucking crazy!” She started to yell after a long pause. Her heart monitor beeped a little faster, and she sat up. Realizing what a mistake she had made in that action, she touched her head. “Oh my GOD! It hurts so bad, mom. Please make it stop.”

“Baby,” my mother cried. “I know you’re not crazy. You’re my Kit Kat.”

She stared at the wall in front of her again. It seemed like talking took the only effort she had out of her. She looked uncomfortable and irritable. From studying her and her actions, I guessed that she wanted to be alone for a while. She was taking too long to grasp the things that my mother was saying to her. In fact, it seemed as though it didn’t faze her at all that she almost died.

“Mom, we should go get something to eat,” I offered, trying to ease Katherine a little.

“I guess you’re right,” my mom said. “We’ll notify her nurse that she’s woken up on the way out.”

Katherine paused before shooting me a thankful look. I smirked back at her, and followed my mother out the room.

Alex’s POV

I stepped out of the bathroom and was surprised to see Katherine’s little sister smirk up at me as she walked past with her mother. Happiness consumed me as I realized that I could go see her. I looked down at my phone and realized that it was only 5:00. Normally they left to go eat dinner at 5:30, but I was too excited to see her and I dismissed the oddity. It had been an extra long day of just watching Jack sleep. I had missed him.

As I walked though the door, I noticed something different. The environment seemed a lot less stressful. I took a deep breath as I stood in front of her bed. Her eyes were closed, but it didn’t feel like she was still in her coma.

“You’re so beautiful,” I reminded her in a whisper.

Her eyes flew open to reveal the most striking blue eyes I had ever seen in my life. They couldn’t even compare to Stella’s pretty blue eyes. No, Katherine’s were hypnotic. There were crystals running deep through them. They reminded me of scars. It was as if each crystal told its own story of the things she had seen and the people she met.

I opened my mouth to speak, but I was completely speechless. It felt like I was meeting Jane Doe.

“I’m not crazy!” She said slowly.

So those were her first words to me. Were they even to me? She spoke with a voice that was almost musical. It was high pitched, and low pitched at the same time. Her lips were more inviting than ever.

“I-I....” I tried to say.

“Who are you?” She asked. “Why did you come see me so much?”

“My name is A-Alex, I....” It must have been strange to see us interact. Both of us fighting just to speak, and talking so slowly. Something that should have been done so effortlessly became difficult. The only difference was that I had a Jane Doe, and she had a medical problem. I sighed. Normally people had to find the words for me, and I spoke easily. I wasn’t used to this, nor did I like it.

“How do you know me? I don’t know who you are,” she fought to say after a long pause.

“My best friend.... is.... stuck in a coma here.... uh.....” I couldn’t tell her that he hit her. I wanted to know her first. I swallowed hard. “I happened to see you and uh..... well you’re beautiful...... I uh..... I’m sorry, I don’t mean to intrude on anything..... uhm....”

“Is that supposed to impress me?”

She was acting cold, and it made me want her so bad. Her looks completely topped Stella, but in the few words that we had shared, she seemed to act just like her. The only girl who could ever keep me away from Stella was someone just like her except prettier. I immediately regretted ever opening my mouth to her as I foresaw how terrible this situation was going to go. “Oh, okay, I’ll just...... go then....”

“Sounds good,” she muttered gradually and hardheartedly.

Frustrated, I hung my head and made my way out of the room. I didn’t know what was left to do or say. I still wanted her more than anything, and I still saw her as my Jane Doe, but now I had to try and forget her. I had to try and find something inside of me to convince me not to return. What a shame to give so much hope to her. The girl who I thought would save me left me in repulsion to myself and in some deep depressive form of disappointment.

“Things didn’t go as well as you wanted them to go, did they, lover boy?” An unsympathetic voice asked as I stood against the wall in the hallway, staring at the floor.

I jumped out of my skin and turned to find Katherine’s little sister staring straight at me.

“Who is this, Rena?” Katherine’s mother asked.

“Why don’t you go back and see Katherine, mom?” Rena offered.

“Well I thought—okay fine,” she huffed. We both watched until her mother was out of sight.

Rena studied me from head to toe without even trying to cover it up.

“How did you know?” I asked, gently.

“I notice things. Look, she’s not like that at all, I promise. She’s actually one of the most kind and compassionate people I know. She’ll do anything to keep us safe, but she’ll also do anything to keep herself safe. She’s not even friends with boys. If getting to know her is what you want, you might as well stop right where you are. She’s had a million and one boys who have wanted to get to know her—which is code for get in her pants. She’s not stupid, and she knows that. She’s happy without you. Leave her alone.”

“I..... okay,” I said. We both knew it wasn’t okay. I couldn’t leave her alone. Especially since she said that Katherine wasn’t like the way she acted. In looking at Rena, I could see that she was way smarter than to tell me that. I felt like it was her obscure way of telling me not to give up.

“I’m pretty sure I already hate you, but if you mess with her, I’ll be forced to detest you. And believe me, you will not like me detesting you,” she warned. And with that, she walked straight away.

Even though the discussion seemed to be discouraging as well as life threatening, I was left with hope that I could still change her mind and get in touch with her soft side. All it took was those words, and I could pick myself up and walk back to where I was supposed to be.

Rian’s POV

“So where’s Alex?” I asked Zack, who was seated across from me. We were down at the hospitals dining room having our dinner. It had been painful to sit alone with Zack since the accident. He was really quiet and seemed stressed and depressed. He completely let his appearance go. There were bags under his eyes and his left eye was still colored a little, but the swelling had gone down. His hair was a disaster. It looked like someone had ruffled it up like how they used to when we were boys.

“I don’t know,” he muttered shakily.

“Zack, are you okay?” I finally asked. With us being alone, I figured that this would be a good time for him to talk things out.

“Define okay,” he shrugged.

“What’s going on, man?” I asked.

He sighed deeply, “Naomi had a miscarriage.”

My jaw dropped from shock. I didn’t even know she was pregnant. “Oh no, that’s terrible.... I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t tell any of the guys. She doesn’t even know that I know she was pregnant. I was waiting to talk to her about it until she got out of here, but every day is just taking more of a toll on me. I’m so stressed out. I can’t sleep at night. I don’t understand why she lied to me for so long. She was three months along....”

“I would think after three months, she’d start to show a little bit. Are you sure she knew? I mean she’s been drinking like crazy...”

“There’s no way she didn’t know. I don’t know what the hell she was doing. I think she was going to get an abortion. I’m just disturbed that she would lie to me like that. I would have been proud to be a father.”

I didn’t know what to say. My best friend lost his child that he didn’t even know about. That was his child. “Don’t be too torn up... it’s not like you were ready to be a dad anyway. I mean, look at you.... you’re too young to grow up. You still have so much more partying and touring to do before you raise a family. Maybe that’s why she didn’t tell you. She was too afraid to.”

“What could she be afraid of?”

“Well she loves you, right? She wouldn’t want you to leave her because you weren’t ready to start a family...,” I suggested.

“She should know that I wouldn’t leave her like that. I love her too. It just hurts, you know?”

“Yeah, I understand,” I said letting the conversation go. I could see that he wasn’t in the mood to think of reasonable scenarios in her favor. All he could focus on was her lying to him. He just needed someone to agree with him. “It’s going to be okay, you know that?”

“Isn’t it always?” he smirked, and went back to picking at his salad.

He was right. That was every ones answer for everything. People continuously walk up to me and tell me that it’s going to be okay with Jack. I know that even if it didn’t turn out to be okay, they would continue to tell me the same thing. We were all growing weary of the phrase, but sometimes, just every once in a while, it gave us hope.
I looked up and Zack gave me a small smile. I really hoped I gave him an ounce of hope. It was all I had left to give.