Status: Active

The Beach

Hoping, waiting.

ALEX'S POV

I talked to Jack for a few more minutes before I had to put down the phone because the medicine the nurses gave me previously started to kick in my system and I was slightly falling asleep as we talked. The doctor -Dr. Muss- didn't allow me to use the phone because the cut on my face were still healing and he didn't want to risk them opening again, so I wasn't allowed to talk or make abrupt movements, but my mum convinced him that this call was important and that I was the one who had to talk to this person, so he let me talk for five minutes.

The medicine numbed the pain I was feeling all over my body in no time, leaving me to rest while my mum went out to have some dinner with my dad. It sucked that I wasn't staying at our local hospital; if I did, my parents would have been able to go home and come back in less than an hour but the nurses told my mum that the hospital didn't have the permission to transfer me to our local hospital, which I thought was dumb, because they could treat me in the same way there, and it would be easier for my parents to visit me, but I couldn't really do much to change their opinion on the situation. Besides, like my dad said: "If they were to take you to our local hospital, then they would have to take all their other patients to their home aswell, and who knows how long it'd take to figure out where all these people live and take them there"

My dad was reading the paper when I woke up a few hours later. He looked up from whatever he was reading and put the paper away when he noticed I was awake.

"Where's mum?" I scanned the room searching for her, but she obviously wasn't there.

The room wasn't exactly what I would call 'fancy'. It was rather small, for a single patient; four white walls, a bed with all the machines attatched to it and a few chairs for visitors. It didn't even have a freaking bathroom, for god's sake. Don't doctors know it takes lots of effort to get up from bed and walk into another room just to pee?

"She's getting you something to eat. I know what the hospital food tastes like, you don't want to eat that, do you?" He smiled softly and I chucked.

Dad and I hadn't ever been close in any sense, but these little things made me realise that not everything about him was that bad. He had his weak points and he could be lovely when he wanted to be. We just didn't see that likeable part of him enough.

"So, who is this Jack boy?"

He raised his eyebrow when I went silent. I didn't know if it was a good idea to tell my dad about Jack and I's relationship.

"Is he a friend of yours? Mum has talked to me about him but I don't think you have ever invited him home, am I right?" He asked impatiently. I shook my head.

"Then what?" He asked confused.

"He's more than a friend" I said quite confidently.

"Well he obviously isn't your brother"

"He's actually my boyfriend. Well, kind of" I said.

"Oh"

"Just 'oh'? Say something" I pleaded.

"I don't know, Alex. Do I have a say in this?"

"I've been scared about telling you about him. I didn't know how you would react, and you haven't exactly approved our relationship yet. You're supposed to be my dad and you should give your opinion on this"

"Well, I'll have to meet said boy before giving my opinion on him, right?"

"I haven't even met him yet.." I confesed sighing.

"What?"

"He's from Eastbourne, that's why I wanted to go there, not because I wanted to spend time with my friends. Well, I wanted to, but the point is that-"

"So you're here, at a hospital, with cuts all over you and injured body, because of him?"

"No! Dad, it was an accident"

"We'll talk about that when we get home. Dr. Muss said you still shouldn't be allowed to talk for more than 5 minutes" He said. But he wasn't mad at Jack, I could tell. It wasn't the mad-dad I was seeing, it was the sympathetic one, the nice one and the one who tried to understand the situation. At least he wasn't being the asshole-ignorant-homophobic-dad.

We spent a few minutes in an awkward silence before my mum opened the door pushing it open with her free hand. She was carrying subway and coffee on the other hand and she almost dropped everything.

"Where did you meet then?" He carried on as mum took a seat next to him. "Short answers. Write on this white board if youw want" He handed me a white board and a black sharpie he must have been given by the nurse while I was still asleep.

"On a chat, on the internet"

"Alex! That isn't acceptable! He could be an old man!" Dad said. Mum rolled her eyes and smiled at me.

"Dad, don't be stupid. I've been talking to him for ages" I said slowly, slower than I wanted to, but I couldn't allow myself to talk faster or vocalise more dramatically.

"We'll see about that"

"Well, only for like four months but we have Skyped and everything so you don't have to worry about anything, okay?"

He only crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head slightly.

I ate the food my mum had brought me quickly, but oh so slowly at the same time. My mum cut the steak and vegetables into tiny little pieces and fed me slowly. Even chewing hurt. Everything hurt. Once I finished, I took my medicine and listened to my parents talk about their jobs and the time they took off to stay at the hospital as the medicine started numbing my body once again.

-----------

JACK'S POV.

I was exhausted.

I couldn't sleep, couldn't read. Hell, I couldn't even watch a film knowing that Alex was alive, and not hurt to the point where he couldn't even open his eyes.

After yet another sleepless night, I found myself asking my mum when I had to start school again, and she told me that I had only two weeks left before school, which sucked.

Alex had been released of the hospital after staying there for almost two weeks, but he told me that he couldn't go to school just yet; the doctor had told him that he had to rest for a while and that he'd contact him and his family to let them know when it was time to let go of the bed and start walking again.

I felt bad for him, I knew it was my fault that he had been injured even though he told me it wasn't. I had ruined his holidays and his friends were now hurt because of me. Mrs. Gaskarth told me everything about Cass, Danny, Matt, Jeff and Ian -I had already memorised their names, but I didn't have their faces to link to them just yet. According to Mrs. Gaskarth, Cass and Danny were in the same state of Alex, knowing that they were just in front of him when it happend, but Cass had a bigger concussion and hadn't woken up yet, Danny sat by her side the whole time he had been allowed to stand up on his own.

As to Jeff and Ian, they immediatelly hid under their chair as soon as they knew something went wrong on the train, so they only had a few bruises here and there, thus the reason why Matt couldn't find the pair when he stood up and went in their search. He was hit on the head with handbags and heavy luggage that fell from their shelves and had bruises all over his body from falling onto the chairs and the flat onto the floor.

They had all been released from the hospital but Cass, and Danny stayed with her and her family until she finally woke up two days later.

This isn't some teen drama film, this is real life. This has happened.

I couldn't help but blame myself for it. There was no excuse, nothing. There was only pain, the pain I had caused Alex's friends and their family, Alex's family, Alex, and myself. Everyone was telling me not to worry about it, that it was okay, not to blame myself for it. But then again, who do I blame for it? For the caused pain, for the bruises and the cuts, Cass' concussion.

I hadn't heard from Alex in a few days. The last time I talked to him was when he told me he had been released from the hospital and was going home, and then he passed the phone over because he was going to get in the car, and it was his dad who was talking, because apparently, Mrs. Gaskarth was away getting the car started.

"Look Jack. I am not as soft as my wife, and I'm not going to tell you that all of this is okay, that none of this is your fault, because we all know it is. We wouldn't be in this situation if you and my son never met. People have died in that accident. Alex could have died because of you. All this pain, Alex's friends and their family, it's just awfull. This situation is awfull. I don't know you, and I don't want to ever meet you. I'm not going to make Alex stay away from you because I know you can't see each other, I'm not going to take his laptop or phone away from him because I know he needs them at the moment. But, I will tell you this. I don't want you near my son, ever. I don't want you to step a foot in my house and I'm sure as hell not going to let my soon get anywhere near you in the future. You can talk to him online, I don't care what you do. But you're never, ever going to physically be with him"

I let his words pass through my skull and float in the air. It was disrespectful of me to do so, and I was shitting myself as his angry words hit my chest, but I composed myself once I reminded myself of what Alex once said about his dad: he was full of shit.

"I'm just happy that he is alive, sir" And he hung up.

-

"Mum? Can we have take-away tonight?" I walk into the kitchen and see my parents sitting at the dining table, their eyes now fixated on my own.

"What's going on here?" I asked once they didn't say anything back.

"Jack, we don't think it's the best idea for you to keep talking to Alex for now" My mum said, gesturing for me to take a seat next to her. I cocked my head to the side, I was very, very confused.

"It's not like we want you to break up with Alex, we don't want that to happen, but you have to consider a few things now. Alex, well, his mum called us and told us about the state he's in. He might not want to see you again, or talk to you, and you have to understant that if he can't walk, then this distan-" What is going on?

"Mum, he is fine" I insisted as I sat down next to them at the table.

"He didn't tell you the truth, Jack. At least not the whole truth. He has been released, but his legs- they don't respond. He can't walk" She said. My mouth fell open. I couldn't believe what she just said. Why would have Alex lied to me?

"I know he told you he's fine, but I'm guessing he just wanted to protect you. He wanted you to think that everything's fine because everyone knows you're beating yourself over this, and he didn't think it was a big deal" She said. I blinked a few times, my mouth opening and closing each time, but I didn't dare say a word.

"She just called a few minutes ago, I knew as much as you told me about it, we didn't know anything before the call" She said. I forrowed my eyebrows, not being able to comprehend what was going on.

I understood my mum's words, I knew what she meant, but I didn't want to believe her. No one had told me about Alex not being able not to walk; not him, not his mum, not even his dad when he was talking to me so angrily that he could have smashed his phone with the palm of his hand. The only thing I could do was shook my head and stand up, head into my room and see if Alex was online.

Alex was active, but there was no message. Why didn't he message me if he knew I was online? I am missing something? I thought as I typed a "Hello" to Alex in attempt to start a conversation. Something deep down inside my chest told me that he wasn't going to answer anytime soon, and I believed it as I sat there, hours passing as my eyes were fixed on the blank space where it shoud read Alex's greetings.
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A/N: Holy cow. Hello guys! I haven't updated this story -or any of my other fanfics- in more than a year, how crazy is that?! I am not going to start explaining why I haven't been on here or Mibba updating these, but I'll just say I've had and have issues.

Now that I've said that, I will probably continue updating my fanfics but I can't promise anything! Please leave a comment and vote. I need some feedback to know if anyone still liked this story since some people claimed they loved it before?

Love, Adri.