A/N
Author's note will be at the end of the chapter...
Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Remembering the accident was hard. Dealing with the consequences was even harder. It turned out I had been unconscious for around four weeks. My mother had been buried during that time. I didn't even get to say goodbye properly.
A few days after I had woken up, the tube was removed from my body, and now I only I got a smaller one that split at the back of my neck and entered through my nostrils, giving me oxygen from the tank it was connected to. After two weeks the heart monitor was removed, leaving my room in a pressing silence.
And finally, after three weeks, my dad was allowed to take me outside, and it was nice. But at the same time, it was not.
It couldn't have been a better day. The moment the sliding doors of the hospital opened, a warm breeze greeted me and my father. The sounds of birds chirping and cars driving on the background was a nice change. My father pushed the wheelchair I was seated in outside, and I breathed in the smells of the outside as best as I could with the small tubes in my nose. For the occasion I had been given a smaller oxygen tank that could be connected to the wheelchair, making me able to move from one place to the other without a large tank hindering me.
My dad told me I was looking better, but I couldn't say the same thing about him. I knew the loss of my mom was hard on him. They were like one of a kind, and losing her and almost losing me was the most awful thing that could happen to him, except for losing me as well. He lost some weight, that was obvious, and judging by the dark rings underneath his eyes he also desperately needed a good night's sleep. But, he was stubborn - a trait I inherited from him - and held his head high when he was in the open.
"Where are we going?" I asked. My dad didn't answer me. Instead he just kept walking, and I settled for watching my surroundings.
It soon became clear what our destination was. The gate was open, as if it was inviting us to come over for a happy occasion. But what laid behind the gate wasn't happy at all. The graves gave me a depressed feeling, and how much I'd wanted to, I couldn't shake it off. My wheelchair was pushed towards the back of the graveyard, and when I saw her place, I couldn't have thought of a better one. Right under a weeping willow, stood a white slab of stone. After being rolled closer, I could see the words written on it.
Valerie Maria Haddock-West
09.17.1973 - 05.09.2014
Wife, Mother, Friend, Daughter.
True love never dies.
On her grave were many flowers, and I could see lots of them were lilies, my mother's favorite. There were also candles and one small teddybear.
It was perfect. I sighed, my breath wavering, and before I knew it, I was silently crying. My dad kept standing behind me, softly rubbing my back in a comforting manner. I was sure he was crying too.
I don't know how long we'd been standing there, but I didn't care. All that mattered to me was my mother's grave, and my dad comforting me. Nothing else.
"Hiccup?" I looked up from her grave, and saw someone I never thought I would see here. Astrid Hofferson, captain cheerleader, girlfriend of Snotlout and the most popular girl in the school. I could tell she was surprised to see me, shocked even. Her gaze traveled to where I was looking before seeing her, and her eyes widened when she had read the inscription.
"Oh Hayden, I'm so sorry," she said, and I was surprised. Where was the girl who never even looked at him, who thought he belonged to the lowest scum of the school and only hung out with the cool kids? She walked towards me and knelt down so she was on eye level. She didn't seem to mind I was in a wheelchair, still sporting bruises from the accident and from the beatings I received at school, and missing a leg.
My dad let go of me, thinking that she was a friend of mine, and went to sit on a bench, silently mourning his wife.
"Hayden, what happened? You weren't at school anymore, and I was worried, and now I see you like this and-" she stopped herself from continuing, seeing that she was only making things worse. "Oh God, I'm sorry. I- I shouldn't be asking you all this," she said.
"It's alright," I replied softly, barely loud enough to hear, but Astrid did.
"No it's not alright. I remember when I lost my grandfather - that's why I was here, to visit him -, and it was awful. I shouldn't be asking you all this right now," she insisted.
I shook my head, and surprisingly, I wanted to tell Astrid everything. It felt like a good thing to do. So I did. Starting from the beating - not caring that Snotlout was Astrid's boyfriend, and she probably wouldn't like any bad talk about him - to where they were now. Astrid was a good listener, and I found myself wondering if there had always been another Astrid below the surface, one that only appeared when her friends weren't around.
It was hard, telling her all what happened, and I found myself crying a lot, but she was patient, and never interrupted me. I was glad for her company - even though my dad knew how awful it was to lose my mother, he sometimes just didn't understand me, because he and I had very different lives. He was a mayor, busy running the city at his best capabilities, and I was just a scrawny schoolkid, experiencing the typical teenage drama that was school.
"Hayden." I looked up to see my father standing next to me. "It's time to go back," he said softly. I only nodded, and gave one last look at my mother's grave.
Astrid took my hand and squeezed it gently. "I'll visit you," she promised, and then did something that caught me completely off guard.
She hugged me. It was a bit awkward, due to my injuries and the wheelchair, but she hugged me. Astrid Hofferson!
After that fact had settled in my mind, I quickly returned the gesture, before my father wheeled me out of the graveyard. I looked behind me to see Astrid waving, and gave a tiny wave back before turning so I was looking forward again, a stupid smile plastered on my face.
"Nice girl. Is she a friend?" my dad asked.
"Nah, classmate," I answered, shrugging as much as my injuries allowed me. And, while I still smiled that stupid smile, I wondered. Was she really just a classmate? Or was she more?
A/N
As you can see, the chapters aren't equally long, and I'm afraid they won't be either. What I write has to fit within the chapter, and sometimes it's just too much for it. Well, this was chapter Re, I hope you liked it!
My thanks to YourReviewFriend and Phoenixofmyth for their reviews! And of course thanks to those who have followed/favored read this story!
Yes! I can get those line-break-thingies again! (Happy dance)