We Celebrate the way the night hides scars

“Beep...Beep...Beep...” What? My head hurt horribly and all I heard was that god awful beeping. “Where the hell am I and what the fuck is that fucking beeping from!” I opened my eyes and saw nothing but white; it was so fucking bright I thought I was going to die. I tried to sit up; a sharp pain radiated through my torso causing me to shriek and stay lying down. When my eyes had adjusted to the light everything hit me. I was in a hospital room, Vic was asleep in the chair next to my bed and Tony was on the window seat. I sat in silence struggling to remember what exactly happened.
“Ah Miss Vogel, you’re awake.” A doctor stood in the doorway with a clipboard in his hand and his glasses on the end of his nose.
“What happened?” I asked, my voice week and quiet.
“My name is Dr. Manning. You were in a car accident; you were hit on the drivers’ side by a semi. But you will be fine.”
I nodded, trying to filter everything that was said. “Do you have any questions, Miss Vogel?”
“Um, How long have these two been here?”
“Since you got in, we called them as soon and you arrived and we were able to get your records.”
“Which was how long?”
“You’ve been in an induced coma for about two weeks now. You had a punctured lung and we suspected some internal bleeding so we had to do some tests and we thought that you would be more comfortable that way; the tests took longer than we thought.”
I nodded along, trying to think of what to do. “Do they know everything that’s wrong with me?”
“Yes, there was another gentleman who wouldn’t leave me alone and followed me around the hospital until I had found out. He just left about an hour ago, he said for me to call him if I had any new information.”
My heart started thumping faster, the monitor was showing it, “Who was it? What was his name?”
The doctor walked over to the monitor and started checking everything, “Miss Vogel you need to decrease your heart rate, and it’s going too fast for your body to handle right now. I need you to take deep breaths and hold each one for 5 seconds. Can you do that?”
“I will but you need to answer my question, who was he?”
By this time, because of the frantic beeping of the monitor both Vic and Tony started waking up, “What’s wrong doctor? Is she okay?” they both came to my bedside and looked at me, “I’m fine! But Dr. Manning wont tell me who it was that followed him around the hospital.” I gave him a glare and they all laughed, “Well, if you two could get her to decrease her heart rate that would be great. And in the mean time I have a few more things to do; I will be back in an hour to check on you.” Dr. Manning nodded and left the room.
‘How are you feeling?” Tony put his hand on mine, “I said I’m fine, you guys can calm down. Who was it that followed the doctor around?”
“We’ll only tell you if you take deep breaths and calm your heart rate like the doctor asked.” I gave Vic a glare and took a deep breath and held it, making it a pattern for a few minutes. Tony’s phone started ringing so he went in the hall to answer it and Vic pulled his chair closer to my bed. Once I could hear that my heart rate had decreased I asked again, “Who was it?”
“It was Jaime.”
Taking those deep breaths was now useless; my heart rate went straight back up to where it was, “Why the fuck was he here? I don’t want him here.”
“Emily, he was trying to help. He still cares about you.”
“Still cares about me? Are you joking? Ha. Ha. Ha… That’s a fake laugh by the way.” “Emily, don’t be like that.”
“Why? Didn’t he tell you about Jessica?”
“Tell me what about Jessica?”
“When I went to apologize and ‘try to get him back’ she answered the door in nothing but one of his shirts. So it turns out they slept with each other. Yeah I know that I have no room to talk about that stuff, but damn I would’ve felt better about it if he slept with a goddamn hooker instead.”
“So that’s why you were speeding.” Vic had an ‘ahh’ moment and slumped in his chair. Everything went silent, except for the beeping and the low whisper of Tony’s voice from the hall. After a few minutes Tony came back in and retired to the window seat once again staring blankly at the floor. “Who was that, turtle?”
He snapped back to the world of the living, “Huh? Oh, it was Jaime.”
“What did he want?” the words snaked through my gritted teeth. “He just wanted an update and I told him that you were awake now, he was already coming back and he said he was in the lobby right now; waiting for the elevator.”
“No. No. No, no. No. No. I do not want him to come back, I do not want him in this hospital I do not want him in the city. I hate him and I never wan to see him again.”
“See who?” I looked towards the door; speak of the fucking devil. Jaime stood in the doorway, panting like he had just run a marathon. “Who do you not want to see?”
“You, stupid. What did you do; run up the stairs?” I gave him a glare and then looked out the window to keep from making eye contact.
“Egh, well too damn bad. I’m here and I’m not leaving until you’re discharged. And yes I did, the elevator was taking too long.” He pulled up a seat right next to my bed, between the window and I. I didn’t want to look at him so I looked towards Vic who had a smile on his face, “What the hell are you smiling about, Fuentes?”
“Nothing, nothing at all.” Just then, it was like someone was throwing a party in my room, Charlie, Aliyah, and Mike showed up. “Emily! We brought you pizza and cheese in a can because we know how horrible the hospital food is.” Aliyah shoved Jaime over and crawled on the bed with me, Charlie did the same to Vic. It hurt for a moment, but once the three of us got situated it was comfortable. They helped me sit up so I could eat, “Thanks guys. I didn’t expect to see you guys today.” I gave all three of them a hug.
“Well, you’ll be seeing a lot more of us now that you’re awake.” Mike kissed me on the cheek, earning a groan from Jaime.
“So, what’s the prognosis?” Charlie asked, I swallowed a bite of pizza with an excellent glob of cheese on it and answered, “I’m not completely sure. They haven’t given me the results yet.”

“Well, that’s a bummer.” Aliyah stole my piece of pizza and took a bite, “Hey! That was mine! Why can’t you get your own?” I snatched it back from her and she smiled, “Because yours just looked so much more appetizing.”
“No comment.” I laughed and heard my phone go off, “Pretty little lady with the swollen eyes would you show them to me. I know I’m not that perfect but stay a little while and then you will see. Miles away I can still feel you head lay down on my embrace, my embrace. Far away.”
My phone kept repeating itself, “You guys, where’s my phone. I need it right now, where is it?”
Everyone moved around frantically until they found my phone in the closet with my other belongings. Charlie tossed it to me and I had to catch it with one hand, holy crap was that hard. “Hello?” I quickly answered just before it went to voicemail.
“Oh my god are you okay?” Austin’s voice came through the phone, making me smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m in my hospital room with the whole gang right now.”
“Well I’m glad you’re doing alright. Do you know what’s fully wrong with you yet?”
Dr. Manning came walking into the room, “One sec, the doctor just came in.” I put the phone in my lap and the doctor smiled, “Well we got all of the x-rays and tests back. Would you like to hear everything?”
“Yes!” I didn’t even hesitate.
“Well Miss Vogel, it’s not terrible news but it’s not good either. You have 6 cracked ribs, your left arm is fractured, you have a punctured lung and a minor concussion, but other than that you are perfect. There is absolutely no internal bleeding.”
Everyone let out a sigh of relief, knowing that I was going to be okay. I thanked the doctor and he left. I brought the phone back up to my ear, “Did you hear all that?”
“Holy shit girl, how are you not writhing in pain right now?”
“They have me hooked up to an IV with god knows what in It.” everyone chuckled
“Well then, I guess that works. Is it okay if I come to see you?”
“Well, I’m not sure. I’ll have to get back to you on that.” I smiled at the thought of seeing Austin; I haven’t for a while and I miss him.
“Okay, let me know. I gotta go, my dad wants to show me something and I just got to his house. Call me later, okay?”
“Sure thing, bro.” we both chuckled and hung up; I put the phone in my lap and returned my attention to everyone, “So, what did I miss?”
~-~-~
“Bye Em!” Everyone but Mike had left because it was getting late, it was only around 7:30 and visiting hours were over at 8. Jaime refused to leave until Tony literally picked him up and carried him out of the hospital. Mike sat in the chair next to my bed. I knew how if he saw that Austin was here he would get jealous or something, “Why aren’t you leaving with the others?”
“Because we all decided to take shifts staying here until you can go home.”
“Well you don’t have to do that anymore, my brother texted me and said he just landed and he’s on his way over as soon as he gets his bags from baggage claim.”
“Then I’ll just wait here until he gets here then.” Mike slumped in the chair and closed his eyes, making me frustrated. “Mike, just go I’m a big girl I can take care of myself.”
“Nope. Charlie’s orders.”
I silently cursed her, “ Fine I guess you don’t mind if Austin comes over then? Okay I’ll just call him.” I pulled out my phone and called Austin.
“Hello?” he sounded tired, I wonder if I woke him up.
“Hey, sweet pea. If you still want to, you can come over to the hospital. It’s on floor 4 and room number 456.”
“Okay, I’ll be right there. Love you.”
“Love you too, bud.” I smiled and hung up
Mike glared at me and got up from his chair, “Fuck you, Emily.”
“You already did that Mike.” I gave him a sweet smile before he stormed out of the room. It was about 10-20 minutes before Austin showed up, he came into my room with a bouquet of baby’s breath in hand.
“Awe, Austin. You shouldn’t have.” I smiled as he handed them to me, “Well I couldn’t just show up empty handed now could I?”
I immediately smelled them, “hmm. I guess not. How did you know that baby’s breath are my favorite flowers?” he chuckled and sat in the chair, “I just took a guess.”
I put them on the bedside table and returned my gaze to Austin, “in other words you just picked the most girly flowers in the display and bought them.”
“Yepp, pretty much.”
“I knew it.” I laughed
“So where is everyone? I’m actually surprised Jaime isn’t here.”
“They all left to get dinner and stuff and why is it surprising he isn’t here?”
“Cause, if my girlfriend got in a car wreck I wouldn’t leave her side until she was discharged.”
“You didn’t hear?”
“Hear what?” Austin sat up in the chair and I half smiled, “Jaime and I aren’t together anymore. We broke up the day of the accident.”
“What? Why? You guys were so perfect for each other.” Austin seemed more distraught than me, “Because of some bullshit, and before you get all mad about it I would like to let you know that I’m the one who broke up with him.”
“Oh, Em. I’m sorry.” He gave a ma sad look and I just laughed, “Why are you sorry? I’m not. I’m happy that we’re not together, he’s with the girl that he loves and I’m single again! I couldn’t be happier.” Just as the final words escaped my lips, all of the emotions that I had been suppressing hit me all at once. They were like AC/DC; they came in like a fucking wrecking ball. The tears started building up in my eyes and the breath caught in my throat causing me to choke for a moment. Austin had noticed this and came to sit on the bed with me. He scooped me up in his arms and held me as I cried, not a single word said.
After a while I felt myself drifting off into a deep sleep, knowing that tomorrow was going to feel like I had a hangover. Great, just great.
~-~-~
I woke to the sound of alarms going off like crazy along with doctors and nurses running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I looked at the time on my phone; 3:43am. So much for sleeping all through the night, I somehow got myself to stand up and I got out of the bed. Austin was still asleep and I tried my best not to wake him, I walked over to the closet and pulled on some shorts that Charlie had brought me so I wasn’t walking around in a hospital gown with my bum showing through the back. I walked out into the hall and followed the flooding of nurses to the room that had the alarms going off, no one really noticed that I was even out of my room from all of the commotion. When I got to the room I looked in to see the nurses trying to revive a young girl, she had to be about 17 at most. She didn’t look too old. There was blood, a lot of blood. I wonder what had happened to her; I heard the rolling of another gurney, I turned around to see an older guy covered in blood also. There was a paramedic on top of him doing mouth to mouth as they were wheeling him into the ER, I stood in the middle of the hallway completely intrigued into what was going on. One of the nurses finally realized that I was out there, “Miss Vogel, you shouldn’t be out of your room; it’s nearly 4am.” She gave me a polite smile and started walking me back to my room just as more paramedics brought two more people on gurney’s in from the ambulances, “What’s going on? Why are there so many people being brought in?”
“There’s nothing to worry about, Miss. Everything is under control.”
She ushered me towards my room but I stopped and looked back at the rushing staff, “No, I can’t sleep until I know what’s going on. Please, I promise that I’ll go straight to my room and stay there till morning, just tell me what’s going on.”
She sighed, “There was a shooting at an apartment complex on 25th and 6th.”
My eyes grew wide, “What? How many people were injured? And is there any fatalities?”
“Seven injured and 2 fatalities I believe.”
“What about the girl in that room, is she going to make it through?” I pointed to the room that I had just been looking in.
“I’m not sure if we can, but we are trying our hardest.”
“Do you know who did it and why?”
“We’re still not sure about the cause of it yet, but we do know who did it.”
“Oh, okay. Has there been a girl with long black hair, about my height a nose ring, labret, two collar bone dermal’s and tattoos?”
“No, why?”
“What about a girl 5’6” auburn hair, green eyes, c a couple tattoos, freckles?”
“No, Miss Vogel, there hasn’t been. Why are you asking me this?”
“That is my apartment complex.”
“Oh, I am so sorry dear. I hope that your friends are alright. I’ll make sure to keep them in my prayers tonight.”
I absent-mindedly nodded and started walking back to my room while the nurse walked towards the commotion. Once I reached the doorway to my room I quickly turned back around, “Nurse?” She turned to me with a smile, “Yes dear?”
“Would you let me know if those two girls show up later tonight? One’s name is Charlie Bonner-weir, she’s the one with black hair and the others name is Aliyah Conlin.”
“I sure will. Don’t worry, dear. I’m sure they’re fine.”
“Thank you.” I gave her a weak smile; She gave me a genuine smile and turned walking back towards everyone else.
I quietly closed the door and ran over to my phone to call Charlie while trying not to wake Austin. Ring-ring, ring-ring, ring-ring “Hey you’ve reached Charlie I-”
“Dammit Charlie” I quietly cursed the phone and dialed Aliyah’s. It rang 2 times and she answered, “hello?”
“Aliyah, where are you? Are you and Charlie okay? What’s going on?”
“Charlie and I are fine, I’m hanging out at Tony’s house with the guys and watching movies. Charlie got called into work for some odd reason they said that they got a lot of packages in last minute and had to restock everything before tomorrow.”
I sighed in relief, “oh god, you have no Idea how happy I am to hear that.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“There was a shooting at our apartment complex, the staff is running around like crazy. There had been 7 injuries so far and 2 are dead. I seriously almost cried, I even gave the nurse I was talking to a full description of you and Charlie.” I let out a small laugh and so did Aliyah, “No, Em. We’re fine, you best get some sleep I’m pretty sure you might some home tomorrow.”
“You’re right, I’ll go back to sleep.” I yawned
“Okay, goodnight Emily. Sleep tight and pray the bodies from the morgue don’t come alive and get you in your sleep.”
I cringed at the thought, “I hate you, you skank face. I’m gonna have nightmares tonight.”
“No, you love me because I love you.” We both chuckled, “Okay I still love you, Love bug. Goodnight and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Night, sweet cheeks.” Aliyah laughed and then hung up. I put my phone on the table in my room and turned towards the bed, “What the?” Austin wasn’t on the bed anymore, where the hell is he?” I looked around the room; it had just enough light from the moon to make out the shapes in the room. I didn’t see him anywhere so I just decided to sit on the bed and wait for him. After a couple seconds I heard the toilet flush and the sink turn on, then the door opening and Austin came out, “you were on the phone so I tried to be quiet.” He came back and joined me on the bed, “Well you did a great job; I didn’t even hear you wake up.” I laughed
“So why is the door closed? It was open when I fell asleep.”
“Oh, there’s just a lot of commotion out there and I didn’t want it to wake you up.”
“Well thank you for thinking about me.” he smiled and kissed the top of my head before sitting back again and getting comfortable so he could fall asleep again. I did the same and he kept his arm behind me and I laid my head on his chest. He fell asleep quickly, but I didn’t. I stayed awake and finally started dozing off at sunrise.
~-~-~
*We’d like to bid you good morning, sunshine! This is the wake up call to everyone on this floor; today is a big day for all of you. Have a great day and God bless*
“What the hell?” I felt as if I had just shut my eyes; I looked at the time on my phone, 8am? Are you kidding me? Well, I’m not going to get back to sleep now.
I started stretching which triggered Austin’s morning stretch, him being so tall, his feet stretched a good foot and a half off the end of the bed causing me to laugh. “I think that it’s funny that you’re so tall.”
He gave me a weird look but laughed anyways, “How is it funny? A lot of people are my height.”
“I’ve only met one other person that was as tall as you and that was my 8th grade science teacher. He was normally 6’5” but on a good day he was 6’6”. Oh and one day, he wasn’t paying attention after yelling at a kid in the hall and he turned to walk back into the classroom and hit his forehead on the door jam and cut it. To this day I do not let him live that down.”
“I want to meet his man, he sounds pretty cool. Oh, and remind me to always look before walking through doorways.” Austin and I laughed; I got up and grabbed my bra and a tank top from the closet and went into the bathroom to quickly change, I mean I’m pretty sure that I was getting released today, so why not get dressed just incase. I had no idea how hard it was to clip a bra with one hand, “Austin!” I shouted
“Yeah?” he yelled back, “Can you please come and help me real quick?” a few second later the door to the bathroom opened, “yeah?”
“Can you help me do up my bra?” he chuckled as I lifted my hair so he could do the clasp, “Well, I’ve helped take a lot of these off, but I’ve never helped someone put one on.” I laughed as I let my hair down and slipped on my tank top, “Thanks Hun.” We both walked out of the bathroom just as a nurse had come in to my room, “Knock, knock.” The nurse said while walking in the room, “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” It was the nurse from last night so I smiled, “Oh, hi! How did last night go? Did any more people come in after I went to my room?” I walked over and put the hospital gown on the bed and Austin went to sit in the chair.
She looked down, “Hun, I have something to tell you.” I gave her a confused look, “What?”
“I think it would be better if you sat down.”
“No, just tell me.”
“6 of the seven injured had died, that made a total of nine dead.”
“Okay? But if there were seven injured and 2 already deceased that would make eight, not nine.”
“That’s what I needed to tell you, miss. Another person was DOA.”
I could feel the tears trying to build in my eyes, “Who was it.”
“She matched the description of one of your friends. I didn’t notice until the doctor had said her name.”
“What’s her name.” I held my breath to keep from crying; I had cried so much since yesterday, I really don’t want to start again.
“Charlie Bonner-weir. 21 years old, black hair, piercings and tattoos. I am so sorry Miss Vogel.”
“I don’t believe it; I talked to my friend Aliyah last night and she said that Charlie had gone back to work, right after I went back to my room. I have to see her. I have to confirm it, I wont believe it until I see it.” I took a deep breath, making sure I keep the tears at bay. The nurse nodded and motioned for me to follow her. Austin tried to get up, but I told him to stay as I followed the nurse to the morgue; it was a short walk. Once we got inside she walked over to the doctor who was in there. As she talked I stood in place, it’s so cold in here, and just the thought of all the dead people around me made me want to start hyperventilating.
“Miss Vogel.” I looked to the nurse and she motioned me over to the table, which was covered in a sheet. “Are you ready?” I quickly nodded and she pulled down the sheet.
It felt as if the worlds weight came crushing down on me, my knees collapsed and I fell to the floor. I sat, without crying, hyperventilating, anything. I just sat in the middle of the morgue as the nurse came rushing towards me; it felt as if time had stopped. All I could see was the body on the table, the body of my best friend.

Notes

Sorry! sorry it's so depressing! i was just kind of in a depressing mood when i wrote it. haha the next couple ones are kinda like this also... well, idk... there's some good news that comes up in the next chapter! i think many of you are going to freak out. (: just know, that i love you all and i hope you all have a very merry Christmas! Stay Beautiful!<3
<3/Emilio
p.s. (Emily's outfit) : http://www.polyvore.com/cute_but_kinda_lazy/set?id=107600239