Rocket To The Moon.

“Hello, my name is Dr. Sutcliffe” a man who looked to be in his forties, with greying brown hair and glasses, and wearing turquoise scrubs entered the waiting room and greeted us.

He turned to me “You must be Miss. McKenzie”

“Hero” I corrected him.

“Hero, have you been told what’s happened?” he asked.

I shook my head weakly. Rocket had refused to speak in the car on the way here.

“Last night” Dr. Sutcliffe began “Your parents were involved in a car accident”

I felt tears welling up in my eyes as my heart sink.

“They were driving in terrible weather conditions, which caused control over the car to be lost. There were two other passengers in the car, however they managed to escape with only minor cuts and bruises. Your parents weren’t so lucky. Your mother is conscious for some of the time, but is in critical condition. Your father, I’m afraid, is currently in a comatose state. We don’t know how long this will last for” he said, with an apologetic tone.

I broke down in tears, and felt someone’s hand being placed comfortingly on my back.

“I am so sorry” the Doctor said “If there’s anything I can do for you, please don’t hesitate to ask. If you want, I’ll go and sort it out so that you can visit your parents, would you like that?”

I nodded. He left, and I looked to see who the hand on my back belonged to, expecting it to be Gracie. Surprisingly, it was Rocket.

Then, I came to the crashing realisation that Rocket had lost his parents, and that this experience would seem devastatingly familiar to him.

“You can leave if you want” I whispered to him.

“I’m staying” he replied.

And he did stay.

We sat in silence for about thirty minutes until Dr. Sutcliffe returned.

“You can go in and visit your parents now” he said.

The following scene was heartbreaking. They were both just laying there, with all these wires attached to them. So lifeless. Helpless. I broke down in tears again. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me - to my own parents.

I insisted that I was going to spend the night at the hospital, with much protest from Rocket. So eventually, Rocket had allowed Gracie to take his car back to the house and decided to stay with me at the hospital.

“You really don’t have to do this” I said.

“I’m not leaving you here” he insisted.

We made ourselves comfortable on one of the couches in the empty waiting room.

“Are you okay, Hero?” he asked, after a few minutes of silence.

“I guess so” I replied, sniffing.

“I know exactly how you must feel right now” he said “But you gotta be optimistic. They’ll pull through it”

“Is he seriously trying to empathise with me now? What has happened to him?”

“Thanks” I muttered “But can we change the subject to something more cheerful? To take my mind off of it?”

“Sure”

“So what do you wanna talk about?” I asked.

“What do YOU wanna talk about?” he asked.

“I asked you”

“Well now I’m asking you”

“But I asked you first”

“But I don’t give a shit who asked who first”

I sighed “Okay then. If you insist. I wanna talk about…you”

“Me?”

“Yes. You”

“Why me?”

“You told me to choose the subject…and I’ve chosen you as the subject. There’s no going back now”

“Well, what do you want to talk about…regarding myself?” Rocket seemed confused.

“Everything”

“What?”

“I know so little about you. So I want to know everything” I said.

“Well…I think it’s practically impossible to tell you everything…even I don’t know everything about myself” he said.

“What food do you like?” I asked.

“What?”

“Did I stutter or something? What food do you like?”

“Umm…I like pizza” he furrowed his brow in utter confusion. He was probably just wondering why I had asked such a random and irrelevant question.

“Great” I replied “I didn’t know that”

“Did you really want to know that?”

“I’d sometimes wondered”

“You’re a strange person”

“I know” I forced a smile, despite the consequences I was currently under. I was enjoying my talk with Rocket. It was taking my mind off of my parents.

“What music do you like?” I asked.

“I like…rock music” he replied slowly.

“That’s not specific enough. Any particular bands?”

“I think Green Day are pretty good…”

“Me too!” this time, I didn’t have to force the smile “What’s your favourite song?”

“Am I being fucking interrogated here?” he snapped, sounding ever so slightly angered.

“I’m sorry, I just got excited at the prospect of actually learning something about you” I rolled my eyes.

“Well don’t fucking bother!” he growled.

“Rocket, please don’t get mad. That’s the last thing I need right now. I’m sorry” I whispered.

“Just…stop talking” he said “I’ll be right back” he stood up and stormed off down some corridor, probably not headed anywhere in particular. I slumped down in my chair and huddled my knees up to my chest. Things had gone from awesome, to totally shit in a matter of hours, and I now knew why I had felt so worried the other night, during the storm. Fresh tears spilled from my eyes and rolled down my cheeks as I stared gloomily out of the window at the murky blackness of the night sky. There were no stars that night.

I felt my cell phone vibrate in my pocket, and took it out to find that I had a text from Gracie.

“Gracie: Hey. Madison & Trev came home. They’re okay. How about you? Please reply <3”

I texted back.

“Hero: That’s good to hear. Still no news yet. Rocket’s wandered off somewhere. We’ll be fine though. XXX”

A few minutes later, my phone buzzed again.

“Gracie: Okay. Please come home tomorrow. We’re worried about you, honey”

This made me feel a little better.

“Hero: I promise I’ll come home tomorrow. Tell Mad & Trev I’m okay, & that I’m glad they’re okay. Bye. XXX”

“Gracie: Bye. See you tomorrow <3”

I switched off my phone just as Rocket returned. In silence, he sat down next to me. We remained in silence for the next twenty minutes or so, but instead of being peaceful, it was awkward and uncomfortable.

“Hero” he said finally.

“Hmm?”

“I’m sorry”

“For snapping at me? It’s fine, dude”

“No, not for that. For this” he muttered.

“What’s this?”

“The reason we’re here. Your parents. I’m so sorry”

“Why are you apologising? It’s not as if it’s your fault”

“It could have been prevented” he said quietly.

“Don’t you dare blame yourself for this one, Rocket!” I warned “This was totally out of your hands!”

“Okay, okay” he sighed “But I’m also sorry for snapping at you”

I smiled a little “It’s okay”

“You’re brave” he stated “Being able to act so cheerful at a time like this”

“I make the best out of every situation” I shrugged. But I didn’t feel cheerful at all.

“I guess I could learn a thing or two from you” he said.

This time, I laughed “You? Cheerful? Pfft. The day that happens, I’ll change my name to Fred Leonard Burger Wallington Ham the third” I joked.

“You’re going to regret saying that” he remarked coolly.

“Yeah right” I shook my head. I yawned widely and rested my weary head against Rocket’s shoulder, with only a very small amount of caution this time. He didn’t protest at all, in fact, this time he actually wrapped his arm around me comfortingly. My heart accelerated, and more so as he lowered his own head down to rest against mine. I assumed he was doing this out of pity in an attempt to comfort me, and that once we got out of the hospital everything would just go back to normal again. It was still nice though.

*Rocket’s POV*

Hero placed her head wearily on my shoulder, and carefully I snaked my arm around her back and pulled her closer to me, before placing my own head on hers. I thought that I would be able to get away with this, considering the situation she was in, without coming across as unusual. She felt so fragile in my grasp, as if she were about to break in half or crumble on the spot, but I knew that mentally she was very strong. I highly admired her ability to smile on such occasions, and act like nothing was wrong, but I knew her too well. I could see past the cheerfulness, and I could tell that on the inside she was grief stricken. Why else would she have insisted on staying at the hospital all night? And why else would she have cried so much? Her personality was so delicate, and I cursed myself for being such a huge jerk to her over the past four years. She didn’t deserve it. I don’t even know fully why I did it…but I think it was because I didn’t plan on becoming close to anyone after the death of my parents. Needless to say, I had failed that plan. I had become very close to Hero, much more so than I intended, and I really felt that I had to do something about it. But I didn’t want to do anything about it. And that left me in a bit of a dilemma, despite the fact that I was greatly looking forward to calling her Fred Leonard...whatever the fuck she had said.

But on a more serious note,I had no one I could talk to about it. Hero had that blonde friend of hers, they told each other anything and everything. But me? I had no one. No one except...