A/N- Hey, thanks for all the reviews! I'm trying to update as frequently as I can. Let me know what you think! I don't think there are very many chapters left of this story.
My ears are ringing and my face feels wet. I feel myself slipping in and out of consciousness. What happened? Do I remember? I try to focus my mind on remembering, but I can't. My heart feels like it's pounding out of my chest.
I put all my effort into opening my eyes and focusing my gaze on something. My eyelids flutter until I see blonde hair and a lot of red. I try to keep looking so I can process what I saw, but everything goes dark again.
I see Kenny in the darkness, smiling sadly and reaching out to touch my face but not quite reaching. I think he tries to say something to me, but it sounds muffled, like we're underwater. Am I dreaming?
I try to call out to him, tell him something, anything, but my voice gets caught in my throat. I want to tell him I'm sorry, ask him what's happening, ask him where I am, but he starts to fade away. I panic and try to reach out to him but my arms won't move.
My arms won't move? Can they move? Are they stuck under something?
Wait, I think I hear something. Someone's voice maybe. Everything still kind of feels like it's underwater though.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't-" I hear, but the voice fades again. When it come back, it says, "Are you okay? I've called an ambulance."
I manage to open my eyes and glance up. There's a man standing above me. He's balding and chubby, with a very impressively long beard. Why am I thinking about his beard? Something must be wrong, he asked me if I was okay.
"Kenny…" I say quietly and weakly. Is Kenny okay? Is Kenny here? I thought he was.
"Is that your name?" the man replies, his voice gentle.
I try to say no, the driver, check on him, but I can't. Everything fades away again and I have no idea what happened after that.
When I wake up, I hear beeping and not much else. I open my eyes for a second before squeezing them shut again, the sudden rush of light making my head pound. I groan a little and I hear a gasp.
"Kyle!" a voice I recognize as my brother's says. "Are you awake?"
"No," I say, groggy and annoyed. "Still sleeping."
He chuckles. "Yeah, that's just like you."
"What time is it?" I ask, still keeping my eyes closed because of the ungodly lighting in this room.
"Uh, I don't know. Four thirty maybe?" he relies.
That makes my eyes open. I try to sit up, but I can't quite do it. "What do you mean it's four thirty? Did I miss all of class today?"
"Yeah, pretty much," he answers, looking at the door. "Mom is pretty pissed."
"Yeah, no kidding," I mutter, looking at my arm. There is an IV in it. Oh, I'm in a hospital. That's interesting. "Ike?" I say very calmly.
"Kyle?" he replies, mocking my tone.
"There appears to be a needle putting fluids into my arm," I say.
"You are such an observant person. I see now why everyone thinks you're so smart."
"I have a question about this need in my arm, Ike."
"Oh?" he says. "And what is your question about that needle in your arm?"
"Why is it there, Ike?" I say, frowning at my left arm.
"If you think that's confusing," he replies. "You should look at your other arm."
I hesitate, unsure I even want to know. Maybe my arm is gone. I turn to look and it's in a bright pink cast. "What the-" I start, then I turn to Ike. "What happened?"
"You don't remember?" he asks, frowning. "You got in a car accident."
My heart drops. I remember now. "Kenny," I say immediately. I look at Ike and try to convey the urgency I'm feeling. "Kenny. Is he okay?"
"I don't know," Ike replies.
"Can you check?" I reply, getting frustrated.
"No, I mean I don't know. He hasn't woken up yet." Ike looks a little uncomfortable, maybe even a little sad.
"Well, do they think he's going to be okay?" I ask, feeling very, very small.
"I don't know, Kyle," he stresses, sighing at me. And I suppose we'll just have to wait it out and see.
And then my mom crashes into the room. "Oh my god, Kyle!" she screeches. "You're awake, finally!"
She throws her arms around me and squeezes me tight. Then she promptly pulls away and hits the back of my head.
"Ow, what was that for?" I whine.
"What on earth were you thinking!" she says, glaring at me. "Skipping class, Kyle, what's wrong with you?"
"Sorry, mom," I mumble back.
"Look at what happens when you miss class!" she says, her voice getting to a higher pitch than I've ever heard it. "I hope you learned your lesson."
"I have," I reply, though I'm reasonably certain that getting in a car accident and missing school were mostly unrelated.
Later, the doctors tell me that other than my broken arm, I have a concussion and that's all. It turns out I got pretty lucky, just a few scratches and a cast for a while. I hear more than once that it could have been a lot worse. But as far as I can tell, Kenny isn't as lucky as me, and that's one of the worst outcomes I can think of. I'm not sure what they mean when they say it could've been worse. I then get some lectures about safe driving and about always telling someone where you're going and having both hands on the wheel. I don't tell them that Kenny was driving perfectly safely when we crashed.
Anyway, I'm not injured enough for my mom to keep me from school the next day, so we get home at around seven and I almost immediately fall asleep.
The next day, I wake up to my alarm, feeling like this whole thing had been a dream. Except is hasn't, because I still have a bright pink cast on my arm. Groggily, I lean up and look at my phone. Five missed calls from Stan, three from Butters, one from Cartman. None from Kenny, which I guess must mean he's still unconscious.
I get ready slowly, my body still aching. I must be covered in bruises, but I decide I don't want to look.
It's almost time to leave when it occurs to me that I don't have a ride to school and I do have a broken arm. I guess I can still drive with a broken arm, but it seems unsafe. I decide to call Stan, who picks up before the first ring is over.
"Kyle, oh my god, Ike said you were in a car accident, are you okay, do you need anything, are you coming to school today?" he says at a hundred miles an hour.
I chuckle a little. "Mostly, yes, and yes, but I need a ride," I reply, answering each question in order.
"Say no more, I'll be right over!" He then immediately hung up.
Just a few minutes later, I hear an almost violent knock on the door, and there's Stan. He's earlier than I've even seen him be.
He hugs me and then hits the back of my head, just like my mom. "Why would you do this to me?"
"Ow, what the hell, dud?" I protest.
"Suck it up, you asshole," he replies. "You didn't answer your phone at all last night. I was worried."
"I was asleep!" I say. I start walking outside towards his car, because we'll be late if we wait too much longer.
"So why on earth are you going to school today?" he says, following me.
"I don't think my mom will ever let me skip again," I reply.
As we drive to school, I tell him bits a pieces of the story. I leave out the crazy almost-driving-off-a-cliff thing, and I leave out Kenny showing me where he disappears to. I decide to leave in the kiss.
"Wow," he says quietly as we pull up to school. "Did you kiss him back?"
"I think so," I say. "But then I may have given him the impression that I didn't want to."
"Well, did you?" He replies, turning to me after he puts the car in park. "Want to, I mean."
"Maybe," I say. "It's hard to say. I can't seem to figure out how I feel."
"I'm sorry, I wish I could give you some advice," Stan says.
"Me too," I reply, rubbing the back of my neck. "But we should get to class, we're going to be late and my mom doesn't need more reasons to be mad at me."
"Okay," he says. "We can pick this up later if you want."
I nod and head to my class, awkwardly carrying my bag on my left shoulder because of the cast.