Skyler sat in a lawn chair again the side fence of her parent's backyard watching the party taking place there. The nineteen year old sighed, slouching down in the chair a bit, popping her headphones in and rested her head back against the fence. A couple of moments later, her brother came over to her and pulled out one of Skyler's headphones. She raised an eyebrow at him.
"He's here." Her brother told her and walked off.
"Great." Skyler groaned, putting her headphone back in and turned her head to the sliding glass doors from the house leading to the backyard.
The glass door slid open and her mother stepped out, then her father and finally, him. The twenty-three year old guy that her parents and his parents arranged a relationship for and in their hopes, a marriage. He was cute, she'd give him that. But she didn't like him and wasn't by a long shot marrying him. Skyler groaned again as her mother looked her way and waved for her attention. She tugged the headphone back out of her ear.
"Skyler, come say hello to Alex." her mother called to her as Skyler's twin brother sat next to her.
Skyler snorted, looking to her brother with a smirk. "Is she crazy?" she laughed. "I wouldn't say hello to him with two cans, a sting and the universe between us." Skyler and Nick roared with laughter.
Their laughter died down and Skyler could see from the corner of her eyes, her mother's disappointment and Alex's discomfort. Shrugging it off, she went on talking with Nick about more relevant things to her than the behemoth grabbing a drink from the cooler.
The rest of the party seemed to go off without a hitch. Until Nick's ex-girlfriend showed up and started a whole uproar. Skyler followed Nick to his car and got into the passenger seat as he started the car. She tried to get Nick to talk to her, but he wasn't having any of it and since she wouldn't get out of the car, he peeled out of the driveway and out of their neighborhood.
"Nick, just chill." Skyler told him, as he sped down a residential street.
"Fuck that, Skyler!" Nick barked. "That bitch has done nothing, but made my life a living hell. Telling all the girls I hang out with that I have these fucking STDs when I fucking don't. I was a day away from scoring with Addison Frosberg, but Mona told her I had the clap and now Addison won't even answer my calls." He ranted, pressing his foot down on the gas more as his anger boiled.
"Well, I don't know what do say to that." Skyler answered. "But slow the hell down."
Nick looked at Skyler and growled at her. "Make me!"
Skyler's eyes flared, "Nick!" she yelled.
"What?!" Nick yelled back.
"Car!" Skyler screamed.
Nick's head whipped back forward the road as the back end of the stopped car came closer. He slammed on the breaks, but it was too late. They slammed into the back of the car, launched forward, spun in midair and crashed back down to the road upside down on the roof of the car they were in.
-
There was an intense beeping throbbing against Skyler's aching skull. She moaned and tried to raise one of her arms, but it felt like it was tangled up in a bunch of ropes. There was a scooting sound to her left and a gentle hand rested on her shoulder.
"Relax." a voice spoke to her. "It's okay."
Skyler took a deep breath and slowly opened her eyes. The room was dark except for some circular guiding lights in the ceiling and it smelled over clean. The beeping sound hadn't let up, but it didn't seem so loud anymore. She looked down at what had her arms and realized they were IV ports and a heart monitor around her finger. She turned her attention to who spoke to her. The face she saw was the one she never wanted to see, ever.
"Alex." she whispered, her voice weak from non use.
"Hey." He smiled, softly.
"What are you doing here?" she asked closing her eyes, suddenly very tired.
"Making sure you're okay, duh." He answered, smiling a little.
"Cause of them." Skyler replied rolling her eyes behind her closed lids, referring to their parents.
"No, because I care about you." Alex answered, hurt.
"Whatever." Skyler sighed. "How long have I been here?" she asked.
"A week." Alex replied, pulling the chair he was sitting in closer to her bedside and taking a seat. "You have pretty bad wounds and some internal trauma. But surprisingly nothing as life threatening as should be with the crash you were in." he explained.
"Wow, look at you using big words." Skyler smirked. "How many times did you have to read the chart to remember that?"
"Ha-ha." Alex retorted.
Skyler opened her eyes and looked at him. "Where's Nick?" she asked.
Alex hesitated, "Um," he licked his lips and shifted his eyes away from hers.
"Alex, where is my brother?" Skyler snapped, panic rising in her burning chest.
"I'm..." He hesitated again. "He's is in the ICU."
"But, he's alright?" Skyler demanded. Alex looked back at her, pain and sorrow in his eyes. "For fuck sake, Alexander. He is still breathing?" her body started to tremble. "Right?"
"Not on his own." Alex answered.
Skyler swallowed and closed her eye as tears threatened to come. Alex leaned forward and took her hand in his, rubbing his thumb gently over the top.
"He has some brain activity that the doctors have some hope for. But there isn't really anything they can do. They just have to wait and see if he gets worse or better." He told her everything he knew about Nick's condition. Skyler stayed quiet, processing all the events that been laid on her. As she processed them, she unconsciously played with Alex's fingers, making him smile. "You could have been the same, but intelligently, you were wearing your seat belt and he wasn't."
She squeezed her eyes tighter shut, as the threatening tears stung more.
"I want to take you home with me." Alex blurted out.
Skyler opened her eye and looked at him like he was the most nutty motherfucker since Aristotle. "You wanna what?" she snapped, pulling her hand from his.
"It's going to take you a bit to heal up and you'll need someone to help you and stuff, I want to do that." Alex told her, seriously.
Skyler stared at Alex, her expression soft, her eyes holding a small amount of awe that he wanted to take care of her. But as that sunk in, doubt and speculation grew and she narrowed her eyes at him. "Yeah, and what do you want out of it?"
"I..." Alex looked taken back and lost. "I don't want anything out of it. I just want to take care of you."
"Yeah, you wanna take care of me." She snapped. "My ass, you do. No one, especially a guy, wants to take care of a girl, just cause he wants to. It's not like you're on some good deed doing trip to get your points in with my parents. You've already got them by the horns." she belittled him. "and driving them very well, might I add."
"I don't give a fuck about impressing your parents, Skyler. You're my concern." Alex replied, offended and pissed off.
"You're concern?" Skyler repeated. "You don't know shit about me, Skarsgård." she snapped, angered herself. "All you know is that our parents want to stick us together and for what?" she smiled amused. "Can't pick up a girl on your own?"
"I can too." Alex barked.
"Then why the hell did you agree to marrying a girl you don't even know?"
"I know more about you than you think." Alex replied leaning back in his chair.
"Really?" Skyler answered, skeptical. "Enlighten me, Gandhi."
Alex smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. "You skipped the tenth grade and graduated at sixteen with more credits than your high school has seen in it's forty years of being opened. You've broke several bones, namely your right knee and ankle snowboarding. Your favorite colors and black, blue, green and red. You're in love with Avenged Sevenfold and their song 'So Far Away' makes you cry every time you hear it. You like whales, but worship Polar bears, despite being afraid of them at first. You write with your right hand, but draw with your left." he smiled fully. "And my personal favorite, you're really five foot four, but you tell everyone you're five foot five, so you don't seem as short as you really are."
"The other stuff I can see, but how the hell did you know how tall I really am?" she asked.
Alex chuckled, "Cause I know." he replied.
"Okay, Captain trivia...
"Stop calling me names." Alex said softly.
"Get over it, you walking caveman." She answered. "Tell me where my tattoo is."
"You don't have a tattoo." Alex frowned.
"Wrong, I do." Skyler smirked, having the upper hand. "So, tell me where it is."
"If I didn't know you had one, what makes you think I know where the hell it is?" Alex asked, slightly deflated.
"Because of what it tells me." Skyler answered.
"What's it tell you?"
"That everything you just listed about me, was told to you by my parents. My parents can't tell you a small detail like that if they don't know it and they're the only people I know, that don't know I have one." She smirked, triumphant.
"So, where is it?" Alex asked.
Skyler smiled and giggled, running her tongue along the inside of her bottom lip. "Don't worry about it." She turned her head to the door as a nurse walked in.
"Oh, you're awake." The nurse said, sounding a surprised.
Skyler nodded at her. "I am."
"Well, how are you feeling?" The nurse asked, checking a few of the machines, then sliding a pressure cup over Skyler's arm.
"Like I got beat up by a bull." Skyler answered, crunching her face as the cup tightened up around her arm.
"To be expected." The nurse answered, writing down the number of the test on Skyler's chart. "I can bring you something for the pain, if you like."
"Please." Skyler nodded.
"Alright, I'll bring you something for the pain and let your doctor know you're awake." The nurse said, turning and walking out.
"Thank you." Skyler said, rubbing her arm where the cup was.
"You okay?" Alex asked watching her.
"I was just in a car accident, what do you think?" Skyler countered.
"That you're being a bitch." Alex answered, stone faced.
Skyler smiled at him sarcastically, "Thank you so much, Mr. I wear black granny panties."
Alex growled and got up, "I'm going to go get some coffee." he asked and walked out.
Skyler's sarcasm fell away and she frowned down at her hands, picking at the medical tape holding down the tube of one of her IVs. "I'm sorry, Alex." she whispered, feeling bad for the way she treated him. It wasn't his fault she felt this way. She was just overwhelmed by the accident, normal nineteen year old things and the blindsided of her parents roping her in a relationship with a guy she barely even knew.
She sighed dropping her head back and staring at the ceiling. "Fuck my life."