Chapter 11
"guys are you sure this is a good idea?" Paige asked her friends, minus Alex and Charlie. It was the next morning and everyone was standing outside Alex and Charlie's bedroom all holding water guns.
"Paige, don't be such a wuss" Ashley said.
"I'm not it's just, they do it a lot and who knows what's happening behind this door" Paige said in all seriousness.
"all the more reason to go in" Spinner said with a smirk, earning himself a slap on the arm from all three girls.
"okay ready?" Jimmy asked as he put his hand on the door knob. Everyone nodded and smiled as Jimmy counted them in. "1… 2… 3!" he said and they swung the door opened all burst into the room ready to soak the two girls. They were all screaming and yelling but quickly stopped when they saw and empty bed.
"where are they?" Marco asked looking at his friend's confused faces. All of a sudden Alex and Charlie popped out from behind the door and started spraying their friends with their own water guns.
It took them a few seconds to realize what was happening but as soon as they clued in their started spraying them back, and running around the whole cottage. Within 5 minutes everyone was out of water and soaking wet. They all gathered back in the living room to see what happened with everyone else.
"so how did you guys know?" Dylan asked Charlie and Alex.
"easy. Spinner here can never keep his mouth shut, he kept bragging to Jimmy how he brought his super soaker" Alex said draining the water out of her shirt. Everyone shot Spinner a glare.
"sorry… I tend to talk when I get excited" Spin said. Everyone just laughed at his goofiness.
"I know, you should have seen him the first time we slept together" Paige said making everyone laugh even harder.
A few hours later Charlie and Alex were on their way out. They carried their bags out of their room and into the living room by the door they placed them down on the floor and turned back to face their friends.
"well we're leaving" Alex said to them. Everyone was in the living room except for Marco and Paige.
"wait, before you go there's one more thing left…" Dylan said as he walked into the kitchen to come back out seconds later with Paige and Marco behind them. They were carrying something, it was a cake with big letters written on it that said 'happy birthday Alex' in icing. As soon as Alex saw the cake everyone started singing happy birthday.
While everyone was singing Alex was trying not to cry, usually the only thing that makes Alex cry is hurting Charlie, or watching Charlie cry herself. There were very few other things that set her off, this was one of them.
"are you crying?" Ellie asked.
"no" Alex said wiping the tears out of her eyes. Everyone just smiled they all knew she was crying tears of joy.
"make a wish" Paige said.
"don't need to, I've got everything I've ever wanted" Alex said clutching Charlie's hand. She smiled at Charlie then turned back and blew out the candles on her cake. After sharing some cake and some laughs the two girls headed out, they were the first ones to leave, just cause they thought they should get back home before it was dark.
About an hour into the ride home the two girls were just relaxing and listening to some music while casually talking, but much to their dismay they were taking longer than they expected, so it was getting dark.
"so did you like your birthday?" Charlie asked.
"I loved it, thank you so much baby" Alex said as she picked up Charlie's hand and kissed the back of it.
"it was the least I could do after forgetting about it"
"I want you to forget about that day, because knowing you, you're going to feel guilty about it for the rest of your life, and we can't have that, now can we?"
"no I guess not" she replied with a smile. "so did you like the cake? I had it specially delivered from this bakery down on Young Street."
"yeah it was delicious, what kind was it?" Alex asked. Out of no where two headlights started coming towards the left side of the car. Charlie was facing Alex who was driving home and all of a sudden freaked out.
"Alex look out!" Charlie screamed but when Alex turned to face the car she quickly looked back at Charlie, her face in shear terror. She was about to say something, but it was too late, they had already collided.
The car had hit them in a T-bone from the left side of the car where Alex was sitting.
Charlie awoke in the silence of a hospital, the only sound in the room was the beeping of the heart monitor. She looked around the bland room and saw her arm was in a cast and she could feel a bandage around her head. There were wires attached to her chest, a tube around her nose to help her in breathing and a clamp on her finger for the heart monitor. She tried sitting up in the bed but felt immediate pain and laid back down. She got up and tried moving again, but it was no use, she was in too much pain. She looked to her left to see a curtain, and immediately thought of Alex. Is she okay? What happened? What day is it? So many thoughts were rushing through her head, but no one was in the room to answer them. She started to reach around to see if there was a button she could press to call a nurse, but before she could find it she saw Paige walk in with a coffee in her hand.
"Charlie!" she yelled as she put the coffee down and ran over to hug Charlie. "oh thank god you're awake. Everyone has been so worried about you"
"Alex" Charlie said quietly, it had been a while since she had last spoken so her throat was a little dry. Charlie cleared her throat and found her voice. "where's Alex?"
"she… she's a bit worse than y-you" Paige stuttered out, she obviously didn't want to be the one to have to tell Charlie.
"what do you mean? Is she okay?" Charlie asked starting to worry more and more every second. Charlie tried sitting up once again, but Paige put her hand down on her shoulder and forced her to sit back down. Paige sighed and walked over to the curtain to Charlie's left, she pulled it back so that Charlie could see. Charlie looked over with tears in her eyes, she saw Alex. She was unconscious and had bruises all up the left side of her body and face. Her left arm and leg were both in casts and her leg was hoisted up by some swing attached to the top of the bed.
"oh my god… please tell me she's going to be okay" Charlie yelled out to Paige with tears streaming down her face. Paige looked sympathetically back at Charlie.
"the… the doctors don't know at this p-point" Paige said as she held Charlie's hand. "she's in a coma, both of you have been for two days, since she was the one closer to the car that hit you her injuries are much more serious. They don't know if she's going to wake up or not" Paige was trying her best not to cry with Charlie, but was failing miserably. "all we can do is wait for her to wake up"
"Paige, no… she can't die! I need her!" Charlie yelled out between gasps of air, she was finding it incredibly hard to breathe.
"Charlie? Charlie! Calm down, you have to breathe" Paige said trying to breathe along with Charlie but it wasn't working. Both girls were starting to freak out, but Paige didn't know how to handle it.
"hold on" Paige said quickly before she ran out of the room and came back with a doctor in tow within seconds. He quickly walked up to Charlie who was still having trouble breathing.
"Charlotte, you have to calm down for me" the doctor said using her real first name, he pulled out his stethoscope and placed it to her chest. He listened for a second and pulled the item out of his ears. "Charlotte, breathe with me… take it slow and easy and just calm yourself down" he said. Charlie slowly started to calm down and breathing started to slow down. Within a few minutes her breathing was back to normal.
"Miss. Barker, you're going to have to take it extremely easy for the next few days, unless you want to have another anxiety attack"
"anxiety attack?" Paige asked, the doctor nodded.
"It's obvious you're under a lot of pressure or are extremely worried about something."
"what about Alex?" Charlie quickly asked forgetting about her own health.
"Miss. Nunez broke her femur in 3 places, her arm was shattered and she has some mild contusions to her head." The doctor said. "but you, you got off lucky, you have 2 fractured ribs, your leg is pretty banged up, but no broken bones, but it probably will hurt a lot and broke your arm in two places and should heal in about 2 weeks, but you do have a mild concussion, so if you're feeling any form of foggyness it's normal, but if you have constant head aches you should come back to the hospital and have a doctor check you out."
"when can she leave?" Paige asked.
"she should be able to get of her in the next couple of days"
"I'm not leaving with out Alex" Charlie stated firmly.
"we can't do anything for Miss. Nunez unless she wakes up" he said.
"you mean when… when she wakes up" Charlie said. The doctor looked down at her then back at Paige.
"I'll leave you alone right now" he said and walked out of the room. Paige sat down in the chair beside Charlie's bed.
"how long have you been here?" Charlie asked.
"well you got into the accident 2 days ago, so… 2 days"
"what happened?"
"you don't remember?"
"I remember seeing two head lights and yelling out to Alex… but that's it."
"okay well on your way home from the cottage you guys were apparently hit by a drunk driver, and well they hit Alex's side of the car, which by the way is completely wrecked. When the ambulance came, gas from the tank leaked into some flames and there was a small explosion. You two were rushed to the hospital and Alex had to go through a small surgery for her head, but that went perfectly fine. And here we are now."
"who else is here?"
"right now it's just me and Marco. Your parents came down yesterday but had to go back for a few things, so they'll be here later, and Alex's mom stayed here for a while but left this morning to go home and sleep. I told her we would look after you guys"
"thanks Paige but you should go home…" Charlie said rubbing Paige's hand. It was obvious she hadn't slept in two days and was still very worried.
"no, I'm not leaving" Paige said. Just then Marco walked into the room.
"Charlie!" he yelled as he ran over to her and hugged her without hurting her. "thank god you're okay!"
"listen, I'm going to call your parents and everyone else to let you know you're doing okay" Paige said as she got up and walked out of the room. Charlie gave a small, yet sad nod and just sat there with Marco.
"how you holding up, Char?" he asked.
"like shit. I really need Alex" Charlie said as she turned her head to stare at Alex who just looked so helpless.
"I know this must be really hard for you, but you can't do anything about her right now"
"I know, that's what's killing me. Marco I-I just can't lose her. She's everything right now"
"is there anything I can do to help?"
"make Alex wake up" Charlie replied sadly. Marco's heart just sank, he could never imagine what it would be like to lose the person you loved most in the world. It would be like him losing Dylan, or his parents. It was just something that he wished he would never have to go through.
A few minutes later Paige walked back in and sat with Marco and Charlie. "so I called your parents, they said they're on their way down now, and should be here in about 45 minutes. They were really happy to hear that you're awake."
Charlie didn't reply, every few seconds she would look over at Alex to see if she had waken up, but every time she saw that Alex was still unconscious her heart broke a little more.
"what happened to the drunk driver?" Charlie asked out of the blue.
"he… didn't make it" Paige practically whispered. Charlie showed no sign of remorse what so ever. She could never imagine driving drunk and putting someone else's life in danger.
A few hours later Charlie had forced Marco and Paige to go home despite the fact that they didn't want to leave, and Charlie's parents had shown up. They checked in with Charlie to make sure she was okay, then went back out to talk to the doctor again. She was left alone in the room with Alex. She turned her head to the left and just stared at Alex. She looked so helpless… and she was. Charlie wanted so badly just for Alex to wake up and say everything was alright, but the truth was those things don't always happen. There was a chance that Alex may never wake up again. And it scared Charlie to death. She has been with Alex for 4 years now and she hasn't spent for than a few days away from her. How would she ever be able to live her life without her?
