Chapter 24
The Accident
Kate
He was slumped against the wall, one hand on his forehead. I stopped dead in my tracks. He looked up, and seeing me he said, "Kate." That's all. But just from that I knew that something was wrong, wrong, wrong.
"Adrien, what's going on?" I asked, head and heart pounding. Cautiously, I stepped towards him. I almost didn't want to know.
"Not Johnny then," Becka surmised from my right side. I'd forgotten she was there, and even now I didn't look at her. My eyes were glued on Adrien. On his part, he did glance at my roommate, wincing at the mention of his brother, his face turning (if possible) whiter than it already was. Oh God. What had happened?
For perhaps the only instance in her life, Becka read the situation right. "Alright then," she said, and took of back down the hall. I was left alone with Adrien.
"What's going on?" I repeated.
He studied me for minute. His face was so sad and so tired. But now he was also examining my face. Whatever it was he had to tell me, he was—as stressed and upset as he appeared himself—worrying about how it would affect me.
He nodded toward my door, and I walked past him and opened it. He followed me inside. I sat down on my chair; he sat down across from me on the bottom bunk. Just as Scott had a few days before. Leaning forward on his elbow, just as Scott had. But looking at me so intently, with infinitely more concern.
"It's Johnny," he said.
But I'd already known it was Johnny. I'd known since the look on Adrien's face when Becka had mentioned him. Still, my heart plummeted when the words came out of Adrien's mouth.
He continued. "He was driving late, you know? Like he does. It was at an intersection. A drunk drive. Didn't stop. Just ran right into the side of Johnny's car and—" Adrien had been having trouble finishing his sentence, and now he paused and swallowed.
"He's in a comma," he finally continued, even more quietly. "They aren't sure—" his voice broke again, "if he'll come out of it.
I didn't know what to do. I just sat—shocked, dumbstruck—thinking: things like this are not supposed to happen. Waiting for someone to tell me what now? What was I supposed to do?
"When?" I asked.
"It happened two nights ago," Adrien answered. "Kate…"
I didn't really hear him say my name. I was thinking, Johnny was coming to see me. Which made it my fault—not the drunk driver's who'd hit him. Mine. Not even Scott's fault. Mine, mine, mine.
"I'm so sorry, Kate," Adrien said, and for once his apologizing seemed appropriate. I knew he was sorry for more than he could even explain. "I need you," he paused and started again. "I need you to come back. Would you?..." he trailed off.
Of course he didn't have to ask. I was already packing.
- - - - - -
We quickly shoved what I thought I would need into a bag, and found a dean, and left a not for Becka with a brief explanation and Adrien's cell phone number. We left.
"Thank you," he said as we shoved my bag into the back seat. I really looked at him then. He looked so tired. I was sure he hadn't slept since the day it happened.
"Let me drive," I told him. He didn't even argue. Just gave me the keys.
We drove the first two hours in silence—complete silence. Not even the radio as background noise. It wasn't awkward. It even seemed appropriate, both of us having so much to think about. Sometime during the third hour, Adrien fell asleep.
I glanced at him briefly, trying to keep my eyes on the road. It was hard to think about anything but Johnny. Johnny, Johnny, my best friend in all the world. Johnny in a comma and maybe never coming out.
But also here was Adrien beside me. And I was heading back to the Mansfield's and maybe Scott was too. And here was Adrien, needing me, bringing me home. And there was so much he didn't know.
- - - - - -
Manda was waiting for us. She met us as soon as we walked through the front door. "Kate, thank God," she said, and then hugged me. I couldn't remember ever receiving such a welcome from her. But something inside of me told me that we were different now. All of us. For good.
Adrien headed up to the attic with my things, but Manda held me back. She followed Adrien with her eyes until he was out of the room. Then she turned to me.
"I'm worried about him," she said, biting her lip. "I'm worried about all of us, but especially about him. He hasn't slept since. Don't know if he's eating either."
"He slept on the drive back."
Manda nodded. "Thank God you're here," she repeated. We were both quiet. After a moment she continued. At least he's talking though." Manda looked at me with her big brown eyes. "Don won't say a word."
I didn't know what to say. I didn't have to. She kept going. "When I told him all he would say was goddammit, goddammit, goddamit. And then he just stopped talking."
I felt so sorry for Manda—the youngest of all of us, now stuck trying to hold us all together. "I should've been here sooner," I said.
"I just got here yesterday. Adrien didn't want to leave before someone else was here. When I got here, he left basically straight off to get you."
"Jess and your dad?" I asked, I don't know why.
Manda frowned, not at me but at them. "Jess is coming 'eventually.' Dad, probably not."
I shook my head.
"But you're here, which is more important really," she aid. "Because you're the only one who'll know what to do about Adrien." She lowered her voice, although I didn't know who was going to hear. "He can't stop thinking about the fight."
Of course that was it. Here I was thinking that this was my fault, because Johnny had been heading towards me. All Adrien could think was that he hadn't been heading home.
Manda and I were silent again, this time for a longer time. Then suddenly Manda cracked.
"Kate, what if he dies?" she asked, looking at me desperately now. "I don't even know him. I don't even know my brother. I was even scared to tell him I was dating his best friend. He wouldn't have approved of me."
I looked at her. Manda, who we never took seriously. Maybe the strongest of us all.
"He'll approve," I said, because I had to believe Johnny would be okay. "Or else I'll beat him up."
Manda smiled a little, her expression thanking me. "You'd better go take care of Adrien," she said. I nodded and went.
I found him with Rachel. We stared at each other for a moment, Rachel and I, and I though: he's going to marry her. It was too much to deal with all at once, so I turned to Adrien.
"Do you want to go see him?" he asked.
I did.
Rachel didn't say she'd go with us. But she squeezed Adrien's had before we left, and said something quietly to him that was not for me to hear. He smiled at her. I turned around and walked ahead of them down the hall.
- - - - - -
"Do you know what the last thing I said to him was?"
We'd been driving to the hospital in silence up till now. I pivoted in the passenger's seat of Adrien's car to face him.
"Adrien," I sighed, and tried to continue from there.
But he interrupted me. "I told him to leave and not come back. And the last thing he said to me was—"
"I'll see you later."
Adrien blinked, and glanced at me. He'd forgotten.
"When he came to get me, he said he'd see you later."
Adrien nodded, the memory slowly coming back to him. "He did."
'He meant it," I said, remember what Johnny had said: Adrien's deeply analytical. He'll read into that. He had meant it.
"I was sorry," Adrien said.
"He knew."
Adrien shook his head. "I still should've said it."
I realized we were talking about Johnny like he was already dead. "You'll get to," I said.
- - - - - -
Johnny was all hooked up to machines. A leg was broken, and two ribs. His arms were cut up like crazy. But some how his face had survived the crash unscathed. He face was perfect. He looked just the same as always.
"So they say maybe he can hear you. I don't know—" Adrien smiled weakly. "Sometimes in the movies they can." Then he left me alone with Johnny.
I sat down in the hard guest chair and looked at him for a moment. And then I started talking. It didn't even feel silly. I needed someone to talk to, and Johnny had always been that person.
"So," I began slowly. I wasn't sure what to look at—at him or the wall or what. "Scott's gone fore good, which I'm sure you're happy to hear. I handled that one brilliantly on my own." I laughed ironically. It was funny in a way, thinking about how upset I'd been over the whole ordeal. Scott didn't seem to matter now, at all.
I wondered: what else should I tell him? There was too much to say. And he probably couldn't hear me anyway.
"Adrien thinks he's going to marry Rachel. So if you're banking on best man for that, you might want to speed up the reconciliation."
I paused again, half expecting him to come out of the coma to respond to that one. I could just imagine the many things he should've had to say on both subjects—Rachel and Adrien, and him and Adrien. I smiled thinking about it, and then sighed. It was so strange, talking to Johnny without him talking back. Johnny who always had something to say.
Just the same, I added, "And be nice to Manda when she tells you she's dating Yates."
Another silence, and then, "By the way. If you die, I'm going to kill you."
Adrien returned soon, and sank down into the chair beside me, leaning back against the wall. He exhaled long and exhaustedly, and then he looked at me. "How are you holding up?" he asked.
I didn't know how I was holding up. I shook my head.
"I'm glad you're here," he said.
I was glad I was here for Johnny's sake, of course. But other than that, it seemed a little unfair. I had tried so hard to break away from the Mansfields. I'd been doing so well. If things had gone differently—fir the accident hadn't have happened—I might have been able to ultimately break away. To establish myself own my own, apart from the family I'd grown up with. To fall out of love with Adrien. To move on.
Now, here I was, sucked right back in. It just didn't seem fair.
- - - - - -
When we arrived back at the house, I moved back into my attic bedroom. Later, under Aunt Lucy's direction, I made diner—although no one sat down to eat it. Adrien spent almost the whole evening with me. It was almost just as things had been in May, as if the whole summer hadn't even happened.
But the summer had happened. All of it. Later that night, I was given an unwelcome reminder of that.
Scott returned.
- - - - -
A/N: I don't even know how to start apologizing. How long has it been? Over a month? That is just inexcusable. Anyways, I swear solemnly upon all that is good in the world: I will have at least one more update up before Thanksgiving (hopefully two, but definitely one). In other words: IT WILL BE LESS THAN A MONTH THIS TIME! Yay!
I feel really bad about this two, but I don't have time at the moment to do all the reviewer responses like usual. But you guys know how much I love y'all!!! You are the best reviewers in the universe!! There are not enough exclamation marks in the world to express how much I appreciate every review I get. So please, keep reviewing and I promise to be back next time (in a much shorter time!) with a longer Scott/Adrien perspective chapter and reviewer responses and the whole she-bang.
Until then, happy reading!