Chapter 12

"Belt up ladies!" Aiden snapped his own buckle into place and turned his key in the ignition. As the car roared to life, he connected his cell phone to the Bluetooth and hit shuffle on Spotify.

Is this the right thing to be doing? Spencer pondered as she clipped her belt in then brought her left foot onto the edge of the seat to tie her laces. Of course it's the right thing to do. There is no other decision. She's alone and scared and in pain and in hospital. She dropped her left foot and raised her right. Nobody said she was alone or scared, you idiot. You are assuming. What if she has loads of family and friends there, friends who have known her longer than a week! Her right foot dropped, laces secure. Oh my God, what if she has a girlfriend? Surely, you'd know if she had a girlfriend – she'd have mentioned her. The blonde's stomach knotted tightly at the thought. It's fine. It's not even relevant. She. Is. My. Friend. She was meant to meet me last night, she was coming to my event, she got into the crash coming to my event. Her stomach curled tighter and her eyes went wide. Oh shit it's my fault! She's in hospital because of me and that stupid event! She probably hates me! We shouldn't be going, I'll just remind her of the crash. I need to get out of this car…

"SPENCER!" Her attention was brought back into the car. "Get out of your head, it's dangerous in there."

"She's right Spence, we are on our way now and I am not turning back. I am feeling very Three Musketeers right now, don't ruin this buzz."

Chelsea turned around from her front passenger seat and reached for Spencer's hand. "Hey," she squeezed the hand in hers and encouraged blue eyes to meet her brown ones, "She was coming to the exhibition for me too, so don't you even start blaming yourself." Of course Chelsea could read her like a book. That's what countless years of friendship got you – no privacy even in your own head! "Don't be scared ok. I know it's not been long but she's 'good people', Spence. She would do the same for you, for any of us." She gave the pale hand a final squeeze and turned back to face the front, guiding Aiden on the right roads.

It was quiet in the car, just the sound of Aiden's music playing in the background until the boy piped up. "Someone go and Google Ashley for me."

Frowning inquisitively, Chelsea picked up her smartphone and typed the girl's name into her search bar. "What exactly would you like to know? All the top results are about the crash or her dad." She scrolled through the news items, all featuring images from the helicopter.

"Family, anything about a brother?"

Spencer turned her head slightly to the right to see Chelsea refining her search. "Never mentioned one to me, just her mum and a bunch of step-dad's"

"No offence Spence, but she also didn't tell you she was this massive rocker-celeb's baby and probably like, totally dirty rich." Aiden caught her eye in the rear-view mirror and shrugged.

"Boy's got a point Spencer," Chelsea said, glancing up from her phone, "oh and, there is a sister!" Spencer leaned forward and Aiden glanced to his right to see the results. "Half-sister, courtesy of Raife's wandering eye it seems. She's called Kyla Woods, lives in Baltimore."

"Interesting." Aiden muttered to himself as he turned his attention back to the road. A few quiet moments passed between the trio as Aiden's idea formed in his head, until the ultimate and absolute gay icon of the singing world started wailing through the speakers.

"TUNE!" Aiden bellowed as he simultaneously turned the volume up loader, bounced his hand off the wheel to meet the beat and joined Celine in her vocal trills.

"I had to escape, the city was sticky and cruel
Maybe I should have called you first,
But I was dying to get to you…"
Aiden dared a look at the blonde through his rear-view mirror and risked a chuckle when he clocked her very unamused face.

"I was dreaming while-Aiden drove
The long straight road ahead
Uh-huh, yeah

Could taste your probable-sweet-kisses, your arms open wide
This fever for you was just burning me up inside"
He through his right arm out wide and gave Chelsea a nudge to join in. She was laughing at his antics already, knowing he was partly singing to wind Spencer up, but mostly to distract her from her own confused thoughts. She waited for Aiden to finish his note and joined in for the power ballad's chorus.

"We drove all…afternoon to get to you,
is that alright?
We drove all afternoon, crept in your room
Woke you from your sleep to make love to you…"
At the last line, the pair gave their eyebrows a full workout towards the blonde and earnt themselves a solid slap to the arm and a major sulk.

"I take it then…that, it wasn't alright then?" Aiden joked, mimicking the lines of the song much to the blonde's annoyance. "Aww Spencer, this is a classic road trip song. Drop that sulky attitude and try to relax. We have no clue what we are going to walk into in that hospital. You need to be on good form for your…friend."

The song continued to play in the background while she absorbed his words. Ashley is my friend – well she is now that she didn't just bail on me! I need to plaster a smile on, for Ashley's sake. She could be in a coma, she could just be in for observation, either way, I need to be the best version of Spencer – for her. Who knew a car-crash could save a friendship! She looked between her two friends, smiling at how grateful she was for the duo.

"No one can move me the way that you do" Spencer started singing along with the track, gaining two massive grins.

"Nothing erases this feeling between me and youuuu
We-drove-all-afternoon, to get to you
Is that alright?"


Aiden managed to find a parking space after racing the wrong way up the one-way system, to steal a newly freed space before a middle-aged couple could reverse in. "Snooze you lose." He locked the vehicle and the friends started to approach the main entrance.

Spencer hadn't been to this hospital before, and although she knew it was frequented by the rich and famous, she was vastly under-prepared for the paparazzi outside. They were mostly tired looking men, in their mid-forties with long-lens cameras hanging around their necks. They had clearly been there over night waiting for someone interesting to turn up.

"Do you think they're here for Ashley?" Chelsea asked quietly, as they walked up to the doors.

As they approached the photographers, the three of them kept their eyes to the floor and stopped talking. Not in the mood for questions or getting too involved in this world they did not knew existed. Hell, they'd only known the hospitalised girl for a week!

Aiden took the lead as they made their way along the corridor and up to the Reception desk. The undeniable stench of 'hospital' already stuck firmly in their nostrils and the glare of the strip lights making them squint a little. "Hi, I'm looking for Ashley Davis."

The Receptionist glanced up, fingers touch typing as she took in the boy before her. "Mhmm, you and the rest of LA," she looked back at her screen, "head home boy. Family only."

Undeterred, Aiden placed a firm hand on the counter and shot a sly wink at his friends. "Sorry, I should have said, I'm her brother."

Tapping fingers stilled. An eyebrow raised. "Her brother?" He nodded. "She doesn't have a brother."

He leaned closer to her. "Patient confidentiality?" She raised her head in acknowledgment. He made a small show of looking around to make sure no one was listening, "That 'sister' is me, my name got reported wrong," he stuck his hand out as a greeting, "Kyle Woods, half-brother of Ashley. Secret-daughter-slash-actually-secret-son, of Raife Davis."

Spencer and Chelsea had seen Aiden pull some shit in the few months they had known him, but this was spectacular. They refused to make eye contact with each other for fear or erupting into giggles at the audacity of the boy. There was no way this was going to work.

The nurse took him in. Dark hair – check. Dark eyes – check. Painfully good looking – check. Endearingly smug arrogance – check. "Down the hall, Ward 6. They can direct you to her private room."

Eyes widened in disbelief as Aiden shot the Receptionist a grateful smile and shook her hand politely. He looked at the girls and gestured with his head for them to follow him. They made it to along to corridor, through a set of double-doors and into the elevator before cracking up entirely.

"How the hell did you pull that off!?" Spencer asked in shock.

"Don't hate the player babes…" He gave an arrogant shrug and smiled at the pair over his shoulder.

The elevator rose and their giggles settled down when the doors opened to reveal their destination.

Spencer felt her heart rate increase as they approached the desk at the entrance of Ward 6. Aiden walked ahead and once again, explained his questionable familial connection to the singer. Once satisfied with his story, the nurse beckoned the two girls over and guided them to the brunette's room.

Stood outside, it all became eerily quiet and Spencer could hear her heartbeat in her ears. In that room lay the very person who had caused her a week's worth of confusion and a solid 20 hours of minor heartbreak. She heard the nurse use phrases like 'very lucky', 'no lasting damage', ' sedation', 'concussion' but none of it really went in. The blonde could see the brunette through the blinds. She was asleep, laying on the bed, a tube coming out of her mouth, wires out of her hand, with a bandage above an eyebrow. Spencer had never felt so scared.

A small hand held her own and a large arm squeezed around her shoulder. "Come on Spence, last few steps, lets be brave."

Blue eyes took in the room around them. The room was white, sterile and stuffy. Large windows were closed, blinds were tilted up and the strip light on the ceiling hummed at an annoying frequency. Spencer crossed the space and gently adjusted the blinds to brighten the room, then reached behind them to open one of the windows enough to freshen the air. She grabbed a remote control from the side table and turned on the flat screen tv, quickly hitting the 'down volume' button so the low chattering eliminated the humming light.

Finally, she acknowledged the brunette. She was not an imposing figure at the best of times, but she looked even smaller now. Her ringlets coating the white pillowcase, body hidden by the blanket and her left arm laying across her stomach. When the blonde watched the gentle rise and fall of the blankets, she finally released a breath she didn't know she was holding. She's going to be ok.

Chelsea had commandeered the chair on the right, by the door and Aiden had made himself comfortable leaning against the armrest. Happy to play on his phone and idly watch the tv programme. Spencer settled into the spare chair and stared hard at the hand in front of her, assessing the tape which held tubes in place.

"Why don't you take her hand, Spence?" The blonde's eyes shot up and captured Chelsea's, "just to let her know we're here – that someone, is here with her."

Spencer nodded in understanding, grateful to Chelsea for providing an excuse for the action she desperately wished to complete. She tentatively moved her right hand over the bed sheet, turned her palm to the sky and placed it under the brunette's, curling her hands slightly she squeezed just enough to let the sleeping woman know she was not alone.


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