I'll Be Your Best Kept Secret And Your Biggest Mistake

The heart monitor beeped lightly next to Pete's hospital bed. He lay down, stitches outlining parts of his face that were roughly cut and bruises gave his skin a bit more color. He was in a coma for three days now and nurses would come back into the room every half hour to check to see if he woke up yet. Inside Pete's head, a switched was flicked on, starting up his body slowly. His brain began to awake, helping him curl his fingers and grip onto the medical sheet that covered him. His eyes twitched open. Nobody was in the room with him. Pain surged throughout his body while he tried sitting up, but easily failed. Again and again Pete attempted to lift himself off of his back, but no luck. He finally gave up, lying back down softly, until the memory of what happened flooded back into his mind. That was the only motivation he needed to shoot himself up and off the bed while ignoring the aching that took full effect of his body. After taking a few steps, he collapsed on the ground. His legs were weak as the feeling of light-headedness came to him. Pete let out a tiny whimper just as a nurse came in. At first, she gave him a weird look that basically said “What the hell are you doing on the floor?” but then something inside of her kicked some sense into her, making her realize that a patient that had a roof fall on top of them is on the ground crying out in pain. She put her hands beneath Pete’s armpits and, without caring much about how badly his legs were hurting, drug him right back over to the bed and helped him back in.

“Are you ok,” she finally asked.

“Where…where is she,” he struggled to ask.

“Where is who?”

“Au-Autumn.”

“Oh, Autumn, let me go check on her quickly,” the nurse said and then left the room. Within a few seconds, Patrick slipped in quietly.

“How are you feeling,” he asked, walking over to Pete's bedside.

“Do you know where Autumn is?”

His face fell. “She had a couple broken ribs and then a roof fell on her which made it worse. We haven’t heard anything about it for a day or two,” he said sympathetically

“A day or two did you say,” Pete questioned him.

“Yeah, why?”

“Didn’t the accident happen yesterday,” he asked confused.

“You were in a coma for a few days Pete.”

He closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “Will she make it?”

“They said that there was a fifty-fifty chance, but there was a bigger chance for Ben not making it.”

Pete’s eyes opened wide. What if he did die and Autumn still liked him? What position would that put Pete in? “When will we know how they are doing,” he asked, saying they instead of "she is" since Ben would have a big impact on the future.

“Hopefully soon,” Patrick responded. The nurse came back in.

“Visiting hours didn’t start yet, sir,” she looked at Patrick. “I’m afraid that I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“I’m his cousin,” he lied. She raised an eyebrow.

“Ok then,” she switched her gaze back to Pete. “I checked on your friend’s status. She’s better, but the other one in the accident died.”

Pete looked down. Now he really needed to know how Autumn was going to respond to that. “If you think you can move without falling, you can go see her.” He moved slowly off the bed and walked carefully, murmuring a thank you to the nurse as he passed by her. “Room 234,” she called out after him as he kept on walking cautiously. As he passed the many rooms that were located in between his and Autumn’s, he questioned the fact that they were in the same accident, and yet they were placed on different ends of the world. Pete arrived at the room and opened the door slowly. Autumn was asleep, probably still knocked out from everything that she went through. Closing the door behind him, he walked over to the chair that was next to her bedside and sat in it, taking the hand that lay gently on top of the bed sheet and held it in his own. He delicately caressed it with his thumb and watched her body for any sign of movement.

Nothing.

"Autumn," he whispered, tears swelling at the corner of his eyes, "Autumn, I am so sorry. I shouldn't have let this happen. It's my entire fault."

He let his head fall down in shame and saw a droplet fall down as well.

"No…it isn't," a raspy voice said. Pete shot his head up and saw that both of Autumn's eyes were slightly open. Her breath was shaky, but she managed to keep it at a steady beat. "It isn't your fault, Pete; it's mine for breaking up with you in the first place. If I didn't break up with you then we wouldn't be here right now. We would probably be walking in the park, sitting in some restaurant, I would probably watch you guys practice and little by little become more famous. We could be doing anything together if I didn't break up with you ten months ago."

"Autumn, don't blame yourself," he reassured her, "It's not your fau-"

"Yes it is, Pete," she cut him off. "You and I wouldn't be in the hospital all banged up from a room falling on top of us if I just kept a long distance relationship with you."

He noticed a few tears escape her eyes and wiped them away with his thumb. "Please don't blame yourself Autumn. I love you so much, this had nothing to do with you breaking up with me, it was the careless mistakes I made that led us to this point."

"But-" she started, but Pete put his finger over her lips.

"Don't protest, not now at least."

She nodded slightly. "How's Ben doing," she asked. Pete knew that everything that he was working towards was going to be ruined now.

"Autumn, Ben died."

At first the tears came out silently, then came the sound effects as she was engulfed into a hug. "I'm sorry," she whispered in his ear. Pete pulled back, still holding onto her.

"Please, don't be," he said. "I'll be right back."

Pete got up and quickly went back to his hospital room. Empty, perfect. Lucky for him, they kept his clothes in the room and didn't give them to Patrick; otherwise he would be running around trying to find him. He dug through his tight jean pocket and found exactly what he was looking for. Without having his nurse see him, he ran back to Autumn's room. She sat up in her bed, waiting for Pete to come back. When she heard the door open, she moved her head towards that direction and smiled. He sat down next to her once again.

"What did you leave for," she asked. Pete got off the chair.

"Please, Autumn, I love you, marry me," he said, getting down on one knee and showing her the ring. "I want you to always be with me and from the beginning of our big break. Please, I really don't anything else bad happening to us again."

All she could do is nod as he slipped the ring on her finger and be kissed once again by Pete. They hugged once more, tears of joy being the only thing that escaped her eyes now.

"I feel the same way, Pete," Autumn whispered in his ear.