This isn't happening right now.

I looked up, trying to get any help from anyone. Not one of the cops noticed what had happened since there was so much smoke.

"SOMEBODY!" I screamed throughout my cries. "SOMEONE HELP US."

I kept shaking him, as the tears rushed out of my eyes.

No response.

oOo

I paced back and forth in the hospital lobby. I wasn't alone, Bianca had been with me. She sat down, with her face buried in her hands. She was thinking about something to do. What do you even do when this happens? Wait around, cry, worry?

I couldn't even think about sitting. I wasn't thinking about anything.

Other than Zig.

This had to be some kind of rude nightmare. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. I was waiting to be awoken already - in Zig's arms, this couldn't be real.

My hands were sweating, my body was sweating. My face felt so swollen from crying, but I couldn't help it. Every single nurse who came out to the lobby - I ran to, asking for information. No one knew anything. Not one nurse could give me an answer other than a worried look.

I was so nauseous. Bianca had tried to calm me down, more than once but nothing worked. She was in the same state, nervous as hell. She still tried to comfort me in some way, hugging me, holding my hand, but nothing could help this pain, the thought of Zig dying.

I ran up to the lobby desk.

"Zig Novak, any information on him?" I blurted out to the nurse behind the table.

"Now miss, you just asked this two minutes ago. We have no information to tell at this moment, considering you aren't family." The nurse assured me for the 5th time that night. I sighed, continuing to cry. She rolled her chair backwards, getting out of it and coming around to where I was standing.

She took my hands and sat me down, as I let out my sobs harder. She rubbed my back, and Bianca did the same.

"I can't promise you anything, sweetie. But I can promise that we will try to save him, okay?" I could hardly hear any of her words through my sobs.

oOo

30 minutes had passed since we got to the hospital, Bianca and I. The nurse finally agreed on letting me go on the floor Zig was on, but I still couldn't go into the room.

I sat in the waiting room on floor 3, my face in my hands. Bianca was down the hall, making a million phone calls. Doctors were in and out of his room, there were so many doctors on this floor, and they all seemed to be going into his room at one point. Not one of those doctors could say ONE thing to me, couldn't they tell how torn I was right now?

I raised my head when I heard someone calling my name from down the hall.

My mother was crutching as hard and fast as she could down the hall towards me. I ran to meet her half way.

When we got closer to each other, I opened my arms. "Maya, what the hell is going on?!" My mom cried, bringing me into her embrace. Her crutches fell to the ground.

I cried into her shoulder, my entire body shaking as my mom tried to keep a good grip of me without falling.

"I don't know what I'm doing, mom." I cried into her shoulder. She rubbed my head.

When we parted I saw the worry in her eyes.

"Maya Matlin you tell me what's going on right now, young lady." She yelled, picking up her crutches.

We walked over to the seats and I spilled everything to her. Everything about the gang, about how he'd been in it since the summer, how I knew about it. She was crying by the end of me explaining it to her.

"Maya, why didn't you tell me?" She rubbed her temples. "You two are way too young to deal with this stuff. Why on earth did you keep such a dangerous situation from me!?"

"Please don't yell at me right now," I cried. "We both panicked, I thought you would kick him out like his mom did."

"Are you serious, Maya!?" She realized she was yelling again, and took a deep breath to calm herself. "Maya, you could've gotten killed."

I sobbed harder.

"And now, Zig is in there, fighting for his life and I'm out here unscarred." My mom brought my face to her shoulder, and I continued getting her shirt wet with my tears.

My entire world was crumbling down.

"Maya!" I heard someone call my name from down the hall. I raised my face to see Owen running down the hall, still in his uniform.

"Maya," he said again as he tried to catch his breath. "I got here as fast as I could."

"Are you Owen?" My mom scowled. Oh god.

"Yeah, Officer Owen." he assured her.

"So you're the man who decided to help my daughter and Zig, without saying one word about telling me!?" She yelled, trying to get up.

"Mom," I sighed. She looked down at me, seeing how hurt I was and how much I didn't want a fight.

Owen stayed silent, unsure of what to say. She shook her head, rubbing her temples again and whipping the tears off of her face.

"I'm just gonna go," She pointed to the front desk, sniffling. "I'm going to go try to talk to those nurses. Maybe they know something."

She crutched away, leaving it to only be Owen and I.

"What the hell is going on?" He gasped, sitting by me.

"I don't know, they won't tell me anything." I whipped my face, but there was no use, because the tears would keep coming.

"Oh my god," he whispered to himself, and then he wrapped his arm around me. "I was too busy getting Vince that I didn't even realize how hurt Zig was."

"I can't believe this is happening right now," My shoulders shook. "He has to be okay, Owen. He has to be." I looked at him, and I could tell his tired eyes were tearing up also.

The floor was so compacted together, that I could hear my mother trying to talk to the nurses, the nurses continuing to tell her that they aren't certain what's going on yet.

My mom sure had an attitude.

Bianca came running up, hanging up her phone. "Owen," she yelled, greeting him with a hug. "How did everything go at the station?"

"That's irrelevant right now, we have Vince. What we need to worry about right now is Zig." He hugged her back. She looked down on her phone.

"Okay, I've been contacting everyone, and does this boy, like, not have a mother?" She yelled, looking down at her phone.

"Yes," A lady with dark brown hair with a kid in her arm came running down the hall way. "It's me."

I looked up at her, shocked. Out of the two years I've known Zig, I've never seen her, I've only heard stories of her. Her face looked tired, and her eyes looked red, I'm guessing from crying.

"Oh," Bianca replied, embarrassed.

"What's happening? Where's my son?" She cried, setting Zig's brother down on the chair. She ran up to the front desk where my mom was standing. "Where's my son!?" She cried. My mom eyed her.

"So you're Ms. Novak," My mom began. "Nice to actually meet you."

"And you are?" Ms. Novak asked.

"I'm the lady who's been taking care of your son the past two months." My mom shot back, obviously getting aggravated. She was already angered with the nurses before.

The nurse who had been talking to my mom looked at both of them, confused.

"Where the hell is my son?" Ms. Novak yelled again. The nurse tried to calm her down.

"He's in critical condition right now, Ms. Novak. We will let everyone know as soon as we know information."

Zig's mom rubbed her head, crying. I was shocked to see my mom hug her. Everyone needed to be there for each other right now.

oOo

We waited in the waiting for five more minutes. Everyone was silent, and everyone was crying. Bianca had been holding Zig's brother on her lap, my mom and Ms. Novak sat a few chairs down from us, my mom trying to help her. Owen sat next to me, with his face in his hands. I sat there completely speechless.

"Are you guys all here for Zig Novak?" A male doctor came up to us. Everyone stood up.

"Yes." We all said in unison. I ran up to the doctor.

"How is he?" I asked. He looked at me, then looked at everyone else.

"He's not doing so well," He sat down in the seat, and I just stared at him, still standing.

"Oh my goodness," Ms. Novak cried. "What's going on with my son."

I took a seat by him.

"He's unresponsive right now," he started. "He has some brain injury, from more than one thing. First off, he was standing pretty close to the explosive, causing his lungs to fill uncontrollably with toxins. He also hit his head pretty hard on the pavement."

"Is he alive?" My mom cried.

"Right now, he is." he sighed of relief. "But, there is no promises."

"What do you mean?" Owen scowled.

"Well, there's a chance he might not wake up."

There was a rude silence.

"Is there a good chance he will actually wake up?" Bianca asked for everyone, considering everyone was too busy crying to ask. The doctor looked at all of us.

"Not right now," He sighed.

His words caused me to loose my breath. I couldn't even feel the tears coming out of my eyes because I was so numb.

"We can have one person go back right now," he began again, as he stood up. "Only one."

I looked around, as everyone looked at each other. I stood up.

"I want to," I quickly said, whipping my face.

"And you are?" the doctor asked.

"I'm his girlfriend."

oOo

"I'm so sorry, Zig." I cried into his hand. I was sitting beside his bed, squeezing his cold hand. I never felt coldness on his hands, only warmth. This was the first time I felt them to be cold.

His shoulder was bandaged up, and his face looked so swollen. It wasn't the Zig I knew.

I was crying so hard, looking at him. His face looked dead - his eyes were shut, he didn't have his signature smirk on his face. His hair was pushed back all the way, and you could see some scarring on his face from when he fell.

The nurse came in.

"Shhh," she whispered to me, putting her hand on my shoulder. I couldn't even look up at her, I couldn't get my eyes off of him.

I finally looked up at her, helpless. She was tearing up too.

"What's going on with him?" I cried, looking back at him.

"He's completely unresponsive right now, but his heart is still beating, weakly though. He was way too close to that explosive. He hardly had oxygen for a long time." She sighed.

I couldn't help but blame myself. If I just opened my big mouth, told him to back off. Or run up to Vince and fight him for the gun. I could have done something, but instead I stood in the back like a scared little girl.

"How are you feeling, physically? I could see you fell, also." She pointed to my neck, and I hadn't even noticed it had a huge scar on it.

"I'm fine," I whispered, looking at Zig, gently resting my hand on his hard face. "He's so cold," I cried.

"His heart rate is getting slower," the nurse looked at the monitor.

"Is that good or bad?" I asked.

"Could be good, could be bad." She replied. She looked at me, seeing how hurt I was. "I'll give you a second," she whispered, walking out the room.

I stared at his cold face, praying he would just open his eyes already. He had an oxygen mask on, I saw the nurse put it on and take it off a couple times. I once heard that sometimes people in a coma can hear you, but I didn't know if it was true or not.

"I don't know if you could hear me Zig," I paused, crying into his hand, trying to gain the strength to speak. "Please just wake up. I need you," I sobbed between every word. "I need you Zig, I love you so much."

His face was motionless. I tightened my grip on his hand.

"Remember after our first time, you held me close. You asked me if I was okay," I sniffled. "You asked me if I was okay during the entire time. And after we were done you told me how much you loved me." I rested my face on his arm, and I could smell him. It was his smell. "You are the only one...the only one who has ever loved me so much. All of the shit...all of the fucking shit I put you through, you still love me."

I paused again.

"Oh yeah," I whipped my face, come on Maya, stop crying. "And that one time, we ditched school after Miles and I broke up, and you told me you could never," cue the sobs again. "you could never stop caring about me."

Whenever I would cry, I knew Zig would just wrap his warm arms around me, hold me until it was okay. In this case, I was on my own in this room.

"Zig I need you. I don't know if I could - go on without you. You are my everything, Zig. In this shitty world we live in, you are that beacon of light, you are the one amazing thing in my life. I can't live without that, without you Zig."

I didn't even know what else to say, I just cried into his cold arm. My entire body was numb, I don't even remember feeling a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and saw the same nurse.

"Time's up, sweetheart." She said. I asked her if I could see him again, and she said it was a possibility, considering how he was doing. I looked down at his face again, and planted a gentle kiss on his forehead.

"I love you, you scoundrel." I touched his hand again, before walking out.

As I walked out, I saw Tiny standing in the hall way, alone. He was a little away from where everyone else was, but I couldn't help but run and hug him.

"Tiny," I fell into his arms, and he wrapped his arms around me, and I could tell he was crying also. We worked pretty hard keeping ourselves balanced.

"What's going on? Is he okay? I didn't want to ask your mom or anything, I don't know if she want's to see me." We parted.

I explained everything that was going on, stumbling over my words. I brought him over to everyone else, and right when I got there, everyone stood up, asking how he was.

"How is he?!" My mom managed to stand up, Ms. Novak right beside her.

"He's...he's there, but he's not really...here." I tried to explain, as I whipped my face. Tiny sat beside Bianca, who still had Zig's brother on her lap.

Ms. Novak sat again, trying to hold back more tears. She put her face in her hands, as my mom rubbed her back.

I sat in between Bianca and Owen, resting my arm on the arm rest.

Everything that could possibly go wrong in my life was happening. I felt like I had to throw up. My leg kept shaking, and I could feel the anxiety attack coming. I often got them, when there was too much going on.

Owen noticed, and put his hand on my arm, trying to calm me down. I looked at him, he looked tired.

"Owen, you should go home and try to get some rest." I told him. He shook his head.

"No, I'm not going anywhere."

I looked over at Zig's brother. He was too young to realize what was going on. He rested his head on Bianca's chest, asleep. I forgot how late it was - it was almost midnight. Bianca had been crying, but she looked tired too.

I got up, and sat down by my mother, and rested my head on her shoulder. I could feel the tears coming again, but my face hurt too much to even think about crying again. She put her hand on my cheek.

"It's okay, baby." She whispered.

"No it's not." I whispered.

Everyone was inconsolable. No words we said to each other would make anyone feel better. A teenage boy was dying, a son was dying, a best friend was dying, my boyfriend was dying.

How could anyone be okay?

oOo

Ten minutes passed, and it was only Ms. Novak and I in the waiting room. My mom had went down to the cafeteria to get coffee, and Owen and Tiny went along. Bianca offered to drop his brother off at his grandmothers house, and stop by my house to get some things for me, since I would be here all night.

"Now tell me, why in the world would someone want to do this to my son?" Ms. Novak broke the silence. I looked over at her, shocked, unsure of what to say.

"Vince isn't a good guy," She cut me off after I said that.

"Yeah hell he isn't a good guy. Zig was crazy to even communicate with him,"

I felt the anger rise in me. This was not the time to talk about this.

"Did you ever consider that maybe he did it to help you out?" She looked up at me.

"Are you blaming this on me!?" She shot back.

"He saw how badly you were struggling, he had no idea it would get this bad." I shot back, this was not going to be good. She made the mistake to bring this up to me at this time.

"Yeah, he was stupid enough to make this mistake."

"Excuse me?" I stood up, and she stood too. "I'm sorry, but did you also consider even thinking about the fact that kicking him out of your house was also a stupid mistake?!" I put me hands up for defense. "I mean, you left him on the streets, with those guys, where he could have gotten killed."

"Oh my god," she threw her arms up.

"Do you even realize how dangerous these gangs are? You kicked him out so you and your other son would be safe, you put your own safety first and not your own sons."

"Don't even tell me that," she got close to me, pointing her pointer finger at me. "Don't even tell me I didn't care about my own son."

"Clearly you didn't!" I began raising my voice, and I was crying again. "This all could have been fixed already, but you kicked him out, leaving him on the streets, thinking oh, someone, being me and my single mother, will just take him in, hopefully."

She glared at me, it looked as if she was going to slap me. I couldn't blame her to be honest. I was sort of being a bitch at the wrong moment in time, but I couldn't control myself. I was too emotionally unstable.

She grabbed her purse, whipped her face, and stormed away to the bathroom. I thought about following her, and apologizing. But I didn't have the energy to do it, I felt guilty.

oOo

Hours had passed, it was four in the morning. I sunk into the waiting room chair, crying on and off. I couldn't even think about sleeping right now. Bianca had went home to my house, where she stayed the night there with my mother. Owen sunk into his chair next to me, falling in and out of sleep. He offered to stay with me, and make sure I was alright. Ms. Novak stubbornly sat on the other side of the waiting room, I couldn't blame her though. Tiny sat a couple seats away from Owen and I, completely motionless.

You could say I was uncomfortable, but that was the last thing on my mind. My eyes were so heavy, but I couldn't fall asleep, knowing Zig was in that room fighting for his life. I would often get up, just to stand in front of the closed door of his room, just to feel somewhat close to him.

Owen forced me to eat a yogurt, which surprisingly I ate. And so I sat there, at four a.m., in the dark waiting room, with Owen by my side, slowly drifting off to sleep.

The entire hospital just felt silent and eerie. Some lights were on, some nurses walking back and forth to rooms.

Zig remained the same - unresponsive.

oOo

UGH THE AGONY. This chapter was definitely the hardest chapter to write, considering I have no idea about these medical things, so if something is false (false info) my apologies. I tried to portray Maya's sadness as much as I could throughout this. ALSO, I know, I made Zig's mom a complete bitch in this haha! I'm still kinda mad she kicked him out though.

Ugh, so emotional. Will Zig be okay?

We shall see...

If you want more, make sure to review :)

xe ho (it was supposed to be xo backwards but)