The Best Mistake

"Ashlyn! Wake the fuck up!"

I groaned, pulling a pillow over my head. "Go away," I mumbled. Suddenly the pillow ripped off my face and the sunlight burned my eyes. Once my eyes got adjusted, I saw Taylor and Kat standing over me, glaring. I looked around, noticing I was in Taylor's guest room. "When did I get here?"

"I told you not to drink!" Taylor said, glaring at me.

"Quiet down, I have a headache," I said, holding my head and trying to stop the pounding.

"I bet Nash has one hell of a headache, too," Kat shot. I froze for two reasons; one, Kat never used that tone of voice- she'd get mad, yeah, but never vicious like she just sounded- and two, Nash's name was brought up.

"Did he get in another fight?" I asked.

"Not necessarily," she answered. "Tell me, what happened last night." I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to think. I remembered talking to Levi last night... drinking... then talking to Colin... and then he kissed me. So I explained that to them.

"He didn't just kiss you- he was practically feeling you up by the drinks!" Taylor informed me.

I felt blood rush to my face. "Oh," I said.

"Yeah, 'oh'. His girlfriend didn't like that," Kat said.

"Him and Leah broke up though."

"No they didn't," she said. "Leah is the one who broke you two up."

"But he told me-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, that's not the issue here," Taylor cut in, waving her hand at me. "The issue is that Nash is in the hospital."

"What?" I asked, feeling my heart practically stop. "Why?"

"He was beat up pretty badly when Levi found him," she said.

"What happened?"

"Nash came here last night," Kat said. "He saw you and Colin making out and got angry. Levi had to convince him not to come over to you guys. So Nash left. Levi tried getting him to stay long enough for him to go get Jas and have her take him back to Levi's, but Nash refused then ran off."

"Levi and Jas saw him laying on the sidewalk on their way home, knocked out," Taylor finished.

"Is... is he okay?" I asked, my eyes burning.

"Jenn the hospital now, she's supposed to call us when Nash wakes up," she said.

"Somebody has to take me there," I said, throwing the blanket off of me and standing up, ignoring the dizziness that overwhelmed me. I was dressed in a blue tank top and gray sweat pants- which I had no idea how I'd gotten into, but didn't question it- so I just slipped on a pair of flip flops the the ground.

"I don't think that's a good idea..." Taylor trailed.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Nash isn't gonna be happy to see you when he wakes up," she said. "And Levi is pretty pissed."

"I don't care," I said. "I'll walk if I have to."

Kat sighed. "It's a fifteen minute drive, Ashlyn. It'll take you forever to walk, especially with a hangover," she said. "Just wait for Jenn to call."

"I feel fine," I told her, ignoring my head. "So is somebody taking me or am I walking?"

They looked at each other for a few seconds, before Taylor sighed. "I'll take you," she finally said.



"What are you doing here?" Jenn said, running over to me the second I stepped out of the elevator.

"I came to see Nash," I said.

"We told Taylor and Kat to make you stay," she said.

"Who cares? All that matters is that I'm here, and I wanna see Nash," I said.

"Levi's not gonna be happy..." she muttered, but I ignored her and walked passed her into the waiting room, where I found Levi, Jas and an older lady.

"What're you doing here?" Levi sneered. I saw Jas squeeze his hand.

"Levi, be nice," the older lady scolded him.

"No," he said, before releasing Jas' hand and walking over to me, grabbing my arm to pull me a couple feet away. "I told your friends to not let you come."

"Why is everybody so mad at me?" I asked.

"I asked you to not give up on Nash, and an hour later you're dry fucking some other guy?" he asked.

"I was drunk!" I defended. "I didn't mean to. Besides, whatever happened to Nash isn't my fault!"

"I need to figure out what the hell happened to him, and he's not gonna say anything if you're there," he said. "They said the beating happened sometime between midnight and one in the morning. He's been unconscious for thirteen hours, Ashlyn."

"What happened to him?" I whispered, mainly to myself but Levi answered me anyway.

"No one knows. We found him on the sidewalk, barely breathing. We're waiting for him to wake up so we can find out," he said.

"Okay," I said, slowly. "I won't see him. But can I at least stay in the waiting room?"

He sighed, running a hand through his long, messy hair. "Fine."

Nash.

Everything around me was white and had a soft glow. I looked around and saw nobody else. Was I dead? I don't think so. If I was dead I'd be in the furthest depths of Hell and I'm sure it didn't look like this. Where the hell was I? I started walking, but it seemed like I was going nowhere because I was literally surrounded by nothing.

Suddenly a figure came into view. When I got closer I noticed it was a woman- she was dressed in all white too. "Nash," the figure spoke, in a soft and soothing voice.

"Mom?" I asked, my voice soft.

"Honey, I-" And just like that, I was ripped away from my mother, once again.



My eyes flew open, my head immediately pounding. I wouldn't consider that a nightmare but my heart was still beating fast and my face felt hot and sweaty. A sterile, clean smell filled my nose and as I looked around, I realized I was in the hospital. Flashbacks of last night crashed into me and I got angry all over again.

Isn't this what I wanted though? For Ashlyn to move on and forget about me? It's what I thought I wanted. But when I saw her and that guy... I lost it.

My thoughts got cut off when a nurse came rushing in, stopping when she saw me. "Oh, you're awake, that's good," she said. "The heart monitor was going crazy- are you alright, dear?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I mumbled.

"Are you in any pain?" she asked.

I glared at the woman. What the fuck does she think? "Uh, yeah. A little," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Alrighty then," she said, either not hearing my tone or ignoring it. "I'll go get you some pain medicine. You have visitors, would you like me to send them in?"

Visitors? Huh? "Um, sure?" I said, not really sure if that's the answer I should've chosen as she walked out.

But when only Levi walked in, I decided it was. "Hey, man," he said, sitting in the chair next to the bed.

"So what's wrong with me?" I asked.

"Four broken ribs, a really bad concussion, quite a few stitches and countless bruises and scratches," he said. "But you've been knocked out for thirteen hours, dude. What happened?"

"That Russian dude... Fuck, what's his name?" I tried to remember but I came back with nothing. "Whatever, I don't know. Anyway, remember the fight a couple weeks ago that I lost, but took the money? Yeah, apparently he's a little pissed off I took the money. So him and a couple other big dudes who didn't even speak English jumped me."

He whistled. "Shit, that's tough," he said. "Well, at least they got it out of their systems."

"Heh, not really," I said, laughing dryly. "I need to come up with the money I owe them. And soon."

"What?"

"Yeah, he said that before they left their mark," I said. "And I have a small gut feeling he isn't bluffing."