He Won't Go

“How come you never told us?” Karin sat in the waiting room with her hands over her face. Her and her husband had just learned about Dany’s blood alcohol level, and the trial to face within the upcoming months.

Nic could see the overwhelming disappointment Karin and Murray held for Dany. It was written all over her face and his as well. Karin hadn’t been able to stop crying for the past 3 hours since she had found out and Murray hadn’t said one word since the news broke on T.V.

“Dany asked me not too.” Nicole spoke quietly as she took a seat beside Karin and placed her hand gently on top of Karin’s. “After all I’ve done to him; I had to keep this to myself. I couldn’t betray his trust like that.” Nicole felt as if she had let her own parents down when she seen the disappointment in their face. She felt horrible, but she had her own reasons.

“If it makes you feel better I believe he’s going to get through this.”

“I can’t. I can’t stay here for this trail; I can’t even look at him.” Murray spoke, and anger filled his voice.

“He’s your son. He needs you he needs both of you.” Nicole looked into their eyes,
wondering why they wouldn’t even try and listen to Dany’s side of things.

“We can’t.” Karin looked down at the floor.

Nicole quickly removed her hands from Karin and stood up quickly. “Are you both serious?” She crossed her arms and stood tall before Karin and Murray. “You know your son, you know he would have never, ever meant for this to happen.”

“We thought we raised him better then that Nic.”

Nicole’s blood boiled as she listened to him talk and give up on their son to hear Murray and Karin give up on their son so easily made Nicole furious. “Have it your way. Goodbye.” Nicole disappeared almost immediately; walking back into Dany’s hospital room and sat down quietly.

“You get to go home next week.” Nicole said with a smile on her face, she was in her usual sitting position with her knees brought up to her chest and rested her chin upon he knees.
As usual Dany had ignored what she said, they hadn’t been speaking much or at all they usually went around avoiding conversation. It was easy when Dany’s parents were around they were never able to shut their mouth. They were the type of people that would talk and use conversation to get over their feelings of pain but with Nicole and Dany they usually didn’t say much at all and let everything bother them when finally they would have a huge fight. They had been great friends, they would never fight growing up but when romance was introduced to their relationship so had fighting for some reason with the two of them would never admit how they truly felt about one another and kept it all bundled up inside until one of them exploded and it was usually Dany.

“I am getting so sick of you ignoring me.”

“Well I am just waiting for you to walk out of my life again Nic.”

“I am sorry to tell you, I am going to be sticking around until you are back to your old self. So you’re stuck with me for a while.”

“Great.” Dany’s words rang hostile.

“If you don’t like it, that’s just too bad.”

Daniels eyes narrowed on Nicole, she hadn’t changed a bit. She was thin, but very athletic looking her long blonde hair still flowed to the middle of her back and was just as beautiful as he remembered. His behaviour and personality since the last spoke was a drastic change. He wouldn’t let anyone close enough to him, he wasn’t allowing himself to get hurt again like the way she had hurt him. He would choose the physical pain of the accident any day over the pain of a broken heart that Nicole had made him feel. As happy as he was when he woke up to see her beautiful face he knew it wasn’t going to last forever and one day he would wake up and she would be gone, it would be 3 years all over again and he wasn’t letting her close enough to make him feel that much emotional pain again.

Daniel was silently in bed watching Nicole flip through papers upon papers he knew what she was up to. She was trying to find a way to get him out of trouble, as much trouble as he had gotten himself into during high school years with playing pranks and his bad attendance it would have been triple the trouble if it hadn’t been for Nicole and her way of being able to sweet talk herself out of every situation she was put in. She had even talked him out of being suspended a few times; she always found her way out of tough situations so the idea of her not helping him out of this one was impossible. He knew that she couldn’t sit idle and watch him go through this alone. He hated that she was helping; he didn’t want to look at her face anymore and continuously be reminded of what he had lost when she left his life.

As his condition improved Nicole had stopped spending her time at the hospital, they were smothering one another even if they weren’t staying anything to each other. All the dirty looks, and groans and sighs were starting to take their toll on her. She had come to the realization that Dany’s only way out of this with the possibility of going to Jail would be to plea guilty. Not once in her life did she ever think she would end up here in Atlanta trying to get Daniel to find his way out of a murder charge. She was barely able to comprehend the idea of it all. Mostly she felt guilty, she felt as if it was here fault. If she hadn’t have broken up with him and just swallowed her pride and moved to Atlanta with him Dany probably wouldn’t have been in this situation. She was always Dany’s continuous. Whenever he contemplated doing something that was reckless he had her to think about and it usually changed the outcome of the situation.

Nic had finally drifted off to sleep when her alarm went off. “He gets out today!” Nicole murmured to herself, she never found it easy to wake up but today she jumped out of the bed and pulled her long blonde hair into a pony tail and changed from her pyjamas into her favourite pair of jeans and pulled on a red top she had bought only a few weeks before coming to Atlanta. Thanks to her parents Nicole was able to afford to rent a car to help her get around while she was in Atlanta. It was pushing two weeks since she came to Atlanta and she didn’t know when she would be leaving to go back to Ottawa she was already so behind in all of her classes the thought of going back and getting caught up was daunting.
Only a short car ride and Nicole was at the hospital, it was going to be a fight to get him to let her drive him home and let her stay so she could take care of him but she wasn’t going to give him the option anyway. His leg was still hurt and he would be walking on crutches for the next few weeks and he was unable to drive, and needless to say he didn’t have a car anyways. Nicole was so pissed off with Dany’s parents for not staying with him, and just abandoning him like that after he had made a mistake she had to stay until he was completely better.

“Miss. Hamilton, can I have a word with you?” Dr. Michaels asked.

“Sure.” Nicole said with a bright smile on her face.

“I know Dany’s parents when home shortly after he woke up, so before I release him I need
to know that he has someone to look after him when he gets home. Someone who can cook his meals, and make sure he has everything he needs” Dr. Michaels paused for a breath and began speaking again “So I trust that you will be staying here, correct?” Dr. Michaels didn’t know much about Nicole but he could tell she really cared about him, she possibly cared more about him than his own parents did.

“Trust me I am not leaving his side. Not for a moment.” Nicole reassured the doctor.

“Good.”

Nicole turned and walked in the direction towards Dany’s hospital room. “Ready?” Nic said smiling as she leaned against the door of his hospital room.

“I’ll get a cab home.” Dany responded sharply and harshly.

“Why because your mad at me? Get over it. I’ll drive you home.”

Dany groaned and Nicole had a smile of pride that grew from corner to corner across her face. Nicole jumped around at the sound of a light knock on the door beside her, it was Dany’s doctor.

“So you are free to go now, remember not much activity. No heavy lifting, don’t strain yourself. Do as little as possible”

While the doctor was running over things Dany could and couldn’t do it was more evident that Nicole had made the right decision when she had stayed to take care of him. He wasn’t allowed to do much of anything, from the sounds of it he was even limited on how much he was allowed to walk. She could picture it now, how much of a fight he was going to put up every time she offered to do something for him.

“You’re very lucky to have a girlfriend like her. She not once left the hospital while you were sleeping. She was here every moment waiting for you to wake up. You’re lucky to have her.”

“She’s not my girlfriend. She dumped me three years ago.”

“Sorry, I just figured”

“Well this is sufficiently awkward. Let’s take you home”

Nicole had rented the cheapest car she could get and it was a 2002 red grand am and as much as it wasn’t her truck at least it was red. “Pass me your crutches.” Nicole held out her hand and used the automatic locks and unlocked the door.

“I can do it.”

“Fine.” Nicole crossed her arms firmly across her chest and watched Dany try to put the crutches in the back of the car but the moment he had put any weight on his right leg he began to curse like a sailor.

“FUCK.. jesus Christ. Fuck.” He huffed in anger and let the crutches fall to the ground.

“I know you hate me right now, but can you please just get into the car and let me deal with everything else.”

Without a yes or a no Dany opened up the passenger side door and sat in the car, and slammed the door loudly. Nicole snickered to herself as she put the crutches in the back seat of the car and shut the door.

“Okay listen I know you hate me, but not letting me do things for you makes your life more difficult. So save the hate for when you are better. Okay?” There were times in Nic’s life where she could demand the world, and get it. She spoke with so much authority Dany just nodded his head.

They had been driving over 20 minutes when Nicole grew sick of the awkward silence between the two of them. She reached over her dashboard and turned on the radio and as if things couldn’t have been anymore awkward, or feel any more awkward I knew I loved you began playing on the radio. Nicole sighed but pulled her hand away from the radio and let the son play.

“How are you feeling?”

“Turn the song off.”

“Dany, honestly... this song doesn’t bring up any happy memories?”

“I am never getting them back, so what the fuck is the point of remembering them?”

“Oh for fuck sakes, you want to yell at me for what I did, let’s do it.” Nicole slowed the car down and pulled over on the side of the road, turning the car off. “You’ve been wanting to yell at me since you first seen my face, so why not? Here’s your chance.”

Dany didn’t speak a word and he kept his anger to himself but as he turned to look at her, her leg was pulled up onto the seat of the car and her knee was resting against the staring wheel and her arms were crossed. She was actually prepared for everything he had to say. “C’mon, get it all off your chest Daniel.” Nic had only called Dany, Daniel when she was mad at him.

“Fine! You want to know what’s wrong with me? I fucking hate you for what you did. You left me alone, and it was a MISTAKE. You knew needed you. You know how self destructive I can be when I am left on my own and you did just that.” Dany yelled, his face turning shades of red. “This, all of this, the accident it wouldn’t have happened if”

That was when Nicole had to cut him off. “I KNOW OKAY.” She spat back. “I know none of this would have happened if I had come with you. I regret the decision I made every fucking day of my life. Okay... there is that what you wanted? Do you want to know that sometimes if I think about you before I go to bed I cry myself to sleep? Because it happens, I wish that I had never been stupid enough to let you go.” Nicole stopped yelling and sighed as she closed her eyes.