The Love Journal

Chapter One

Autumn

I rolled over out of my warm and comfortable bed, way before my alarm even went off. I placed my feet against the cold, plastic wood flooring. I sat on my bed thinking about how nervous and excited I was for my senior year.

I pushed myself off my bed and headed to my hot topic invaded closet and grabbed the first thing I saw and got dressed. I turned on my CD player with a big yawn and started putting on my make up when, I got a text from Zane. I quickly replied to my best friend with a lot of exclamation points. After I sent it, my older sister Summer entered my room.

"Autumn, you better be awake or––" she then cut off, realizing I was already up and getting ready. "Oh, um never mind. Carry on. I’m making breakfast downstairs for when you’re done." I put my eyeliner down. "Okay, thanks," I winked at her. Summer smiled, revealing her perfect white teeth. Her long curly brown hair went down all the way to the middle of her back like mine. She was wearing a white tank top over her thin body and short denim shorts. Her perfect summer tan ran all the way down from the tip of her head, to her legs, and to her black and white converse shoes. Her eyes were a beautiful grayish blue color. "Alright, see you down stairs," she said and left my room gracefully.

After a couple of minutes I followed Summer downstairs with an empty backpack in hand. I sloughed down in my chair and poured butter flavored syrup on my steamingly warm, fluffy chocolate chip waffles Summer prepared.

"So," Summer paused as she chewed her food, her manicured finger was up to indicate for me to wait just a moment. I never could see how we were alike. Summer was just so quiet and preppie unlike compared to her Emo punk, out there younger sister. "You still catching a ride from Zane this year?" Summer asked me after she swallowed her food.

"Why of course. That is, if you don’t want me to you could always buy me a car...?" I suggested jokingly. Before Summer had a chance to reply, there was a loud honk from outside. I leapt out of my chair and quickly put my dishes away. I scurried over and gave Summer a kiss on her smooth cheek. "Bye," I called back to her as I ran out of the house and to Zane’s black car and jumped in. I gave him a hug before he could even greet me.

Zane chuckled. "Why good morning to you too," he hugged me back. I let go and shut the door and sat down and buckled up. Zane slowly pulled away from the curb when I pulled the emergency brake up. With the jerk Zane hit the steering wheel.

"Ow! Why?" he asked as he flipped his black hair, so black you could almost see the purple, out of his piercing icy blue eyes.

"You’re not buckled," I told him with my arms crossed.

Zane smiled and rolled his eyes. "Yea, like anything would happen," he said as he clicked it into place.

"Better safe than sorry," I said and put the emergency brake back down. Zane then drove us off to school. I began messing with Zane’s car stereo when I quickly got distracted.

"Is that a new lip ring?" I asked Zane, taking his attention from the road. It was a new stud I haven’t seen before. My lip ring was a simple small black loop. He looked over and smiled at me and before he could speak, a silver car was coming into view. "WATCH OUT!" I shouted. And then, everything from here seemed to be going very fast. Zane snapped his head to the left and jerked the steering wheel to the right as hard as he could. The car skirted and bounced and then started flipping like a jumping bean. Zane and I started screaming as our hands went protectively above our heads. I was being thrown against the dash board and the ceiling. I kept my eyes shut and my screams grew quieter. The car then stopped flipping and slowly spun on it’s top.

With a staggered and hurtful tone Zane called, "Autumn? Autumn?" I tried to answer to tell him I was okay, but all I could seem to do was listen to what was going on around me. I heard a different voice as Zane if he was alright. Zane ignored him and unbuckled himself. He landed with a loud thunk on the roof of the car. Zane struggled to me. "Help!" he called out as he tried to unbuckle me without any luck. "Autumn! Autumn! Can you hear me?" Zane cried worridly. I could smell a strong sent of blood in the car. I tried desperately to tell him ‘yes I can hear you,’ but no words seemed to form out of my mouth. I couldn’t move to motion to him I was alright, all I could do was listen. I felt like a vegetable.

Then, my side of the door opened. "Are you alright? Is everyone okay?" a male’s voice asked as it rung familiarly in my ears.

"No," Zane sucked in his breath for every word he said hurt. "She’s stuck. As am I for the moment, but I can manage."

The guy leaned in and with his strong arm around my waist, he unbuckled me with Zane supporting my head. "You got her?" Zane asked before letting me go.

"Yes. Are you okay?" he asked Zane as he stepped back.

"Yes!" I heard Zane call in frustration as he then kicked his door open. I tried to open my eyes to see who had rescued me, but I couldn’t at the moment. I listened as his footsteps echoed on the ground and he sat down on the curb with me in his arms.

"Autumn?" he asked after a while. "Autumn, are you okay?" he gently brushed an autumn colored brown strand of hair from my face. At the sound of his voice, I knew instantly who it was. It was this voice who snapped at his friends for teasing me and Zane and carrying things too far about how we looked and what not. This friendly voice I had recognized since grade school.

"Mmm- Mason?" I asked. I still couldn’t open my eyes for I felt extremely weak.

"Yeah, it’s Mason. What hurts?" he asked sincerely.

"I-I," I managed out with a hurtful cry that quickly followed. I cringed and bit the inside of my lip.

"Autumn!" Zane called out as he stumbled his injured self over toward me and Mason. I could feel him wince as I did.

"Mason," I said again as he helped me lay back down. "Mason."

"I’m right here," he said, taking my hand. "Are you okay?" Mason asked Zane. Zane wiped his overflowing forehead of blood with his left hand.

"Not really," Zane replied as he fell to his knees, holding his right arm.

"Mason?" I asked as I forcefully tried to hold back my tears.

"Yes Autumn?"

"Don’t, don’t leave me," I lastly said as I blacked out into unconciousness.

Zane

"No!" I cried as the paramedics arrived. "Get her first!" The paramedic ignored my plea and strapped me into the stretcher. I was too weak to fight this strongly built man who, he’s probably seen sponsoring some weight elliptical on a T.V. commercial. He, and an other paramedic lifted me inside the ambulance with ease. They set me down gently and left to go get Autumn, but Mason had carried her over here himself.

"I can’t leave her," Mason explained to them. My stomach knotted. The paramedic nodded his buzz cut blond head before he spoke.

"I understand. I wouldn’t want to leave my girlfriend too if she was hurt."

Girlfriend?! I thought angrily and confused. That guy clearly had the wrong idea. Autumn wasn’t dating anybody and I would definitely know, for I am her best friend. We grew up together, and there was no way she would go out with someone like him. The paramedic left and quickly hopped in the drivers side and sped off towards the hospital. Autumn laid there in the stretcher next to me and Mason. I didn’t have a clue how bad I must have looked like, but Autumn probably looked worse. She had blood dripping down her head, lip, and a bunch of random cuts here and there. She was starting to bruise up and it looked bad. I took her left hand as Mason held her right. I didn’t mean to squeeze her hand as the pain finally caught up with me. I closed my eyes and bit my lip. I groaned and took a quick intake of air like a whip being thrown. My right arm felt like it was on fire and stinging terribly. I couldn’t move it, which worried me. I exhaled my breath slowly and inhaled slowly as well before I spoke. "Go ahead. It won’t bother me. You can run–-" I took a painful, unexpected breath in mid-sentence. "Run," I continued. "to you’re friends and explain to them how you got to see us cry," I said in a somewhat of a bitter, shaky tone as I tried to start conversation.

"I’m not a total jerk," Mason snapped. He looked up from Autumn and looked right at me. His calm gently expression changed to a somewhat hurt look. His hair was a lighter black than mine and hung at his eyebrows. He was defiantly paler than me, for a jock, and he was defiantly taller and more built than I, but he wasn’t even on the scale compared to the paramedics. They dominated. I tried to ‘ha’ at his comment but only moaned painfully and gasped.

"I- I’m sorry I didn’t see you," I said as I closed my eyes "If it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t be in this mess."

"It’s cool," Mason said, sounding calm and reassuring. "It was my fault really. I didn’t have the right-away." Mason and I jumped at the sound of Autumns cold hurtfully dry voice.

"No. It. Was. Mine," she took a breath. "I didn’t mean to distract you, Zane..." She squeezed both of our hands for a moment and passed out. No offence, but it was kind of creepy. Probably a good idea, she wouldn’t have to feel a lot of the pain right away though. Mason sighed.

"How are you feeling?" he asked me. I didn’t have a chance to reply before we came to a stop at the hospital and the strong men paramedics came in and took Autumn and me to the ER.