ii: maya (before)

It destroys you, not only to see him like this, but her. Your bestfriend for always. She's tormented; she thinks it's her burden - her fault - that he's like this. Crippled, having to be mended by surgeons and doctors alike. Breathing in imitation air rather than how Mother Nature intended.

And she's completely desperate. You've seen this once before: when she was shattered by the verses that were said to her online. You forever try to fix her everytime she falls, but how can you do it this time? You can't magically wave a magic wand and everything will be alright. That Farkle will be okay and the incident never happened.

But you wish you could. You soso do.

You had gotten the phone call at 10:27AM. Your boyfriend, the one you call a Huckleberry Ranger, is on the other end of the line. "It's Farkle," he had spoken a bare whisper on the other side, "he's in the hospital."

You pull the phone away from your ear and grimace: "What happened?" you had inquired.

"Drunk driver. Hit him on his way home," your Huckleberry says.

And you had hung up. You ran to the subway. You were exhilarated; the very thought of Farkle absent from your life makes you tremble. You hoped that the drunk driver gets hell. You threw profanity at the wind, and a familiar onyx black car pulls in front of you.

"Lucas," you breathed, and open the door without thought. You're livid, you want to murder that driver. You want him dead. The world needs Farkle. The world, however, doesn't need drunks. On the contrary.

When the car pulls up to the hospital, you didn't even stop to consider. You just thought that you needed to be there for Farkle, and for Riley.

God, Riley…

She's already by his bedside. You can see her through the window, speaking to him. You don't know what she's saying, but tears are in her eyes. She's trying hard not to cry, and absolutely break down.

And then she's next to you, and you tell her everything's going to be alright: of course it will. You're tugging the shirtsleeve of your boyfriend, and you can see mascara stains running down his t-shirt. He doesn't care. He pulls you closer. Normally, you would resist any forms of PDA, but today is the exception.

Why is everything good taken away from you?

Farkle was good; it was always taken for granted that he would be there. Now that he's not… it's… what's the word?

Hard.

Everything has to be okay. It has to be. You told Riley that everything's going to be okay, and you have to believe it.