16 Chapter 16

I stood there speechless for a moment before my mind registered what had just happened. And then in the next moment I was fumbling for my phone.

"Oh my god," I breathed, my hands shaking as I dialed 9-1-1. I was actually proud of myself for remembering to do that with everything going on. It was like everything that could possibly go wrong was happening and I was just numb to it all by this point. I was sure it was going to hit me sooner or later, though.

"911, what's your emergency?" a calm voice asked through the phone.

"I need to report an accident," I said, before going on to explain where we were and what happened and all that. I was still shaking by the time I hung up and as I did, I noticed that no one had gotten out of either of the cars yet and it scared me so much. The cars were in pretty bad shape, and I got this twisting feeling in my gut that someone wasn't going to make it out, and God, I couldn't deal with that.

"How bad is it?" Vic asked, quietly, reminding me that he couldn't see what happened.

"I don't know," I said, cautiously. He hooked his arm around mine as I ventured over to the scene. The car was banged up pretty bad, and there was glass everywhere. Before I even got to the car I could see blood. I bit my lip and my throat went tight again. "Fuck, I don't know what to do."

"Are they okay? Where are they?" he asked, gripping my arm tighter, as he started to get antsy. "What the hell is going on?"

"I'm scared to look. There's blood," I said, my voice shaking. Luckily it didn't matter much anyways, because soon after there were sirens blaring as an ambulance and a couple of police cars showed up to the scene. It was good that they were there, but I was still filled with dread.

I wanted to see what was going on with Mike and Justin, but Vic and I got pulled aside by one of the cops.

"The driver went to make a U-turn and the other car just hit them and - then they hit the tree and-" I tried explaining, though I was getting choked up. Tears blurred my vision again. "My roommate and his brother are in there."

"I see," the officer said, making a couple notes on a clipboard. He adjusted a couple of the papers before handing it to Vic. "And what is your account of the accident?"

"It . . . I mean, I heard the crash," Vic said, searching for the most polite way to answer that question, as he fumbled awkwardly with the clipboard. What was he supposed to do with that?

"You didn't see it?" he asked, skeptically. I rolled my eyes, but then remembered that if you weren't looking right into Vic's eyes, it was hard to tell that he was blind.

"I can't see anything, sir," he said, earning a second of silence. "I am completely blind."

"Oh, well then, I'm sorry about that," the officer said, looking a little embarrassed and taking the clipboard. "Wait here for a moment."

I nodded and turned to Vic.

"Are you okay?" I asked him quietly. He let out a quiet 'no', and I sighed and wrapped him in a hug. Of course he wasn't okay, that was a dumb question. He hugged me back and I heaved a sigh of relief. "I love you so much , Vic."

"I love you, too," he assured me. It felt good to hear him say that, especially since I knew he had heard me admit what happened at the party. It felt reassuring to know that he still loved me. At least I didn't have to lose that.

The officer returned a few moments later and informed us that Justin and Mike were still alive, but they were both unconscious and being rushed to the emergency room. They wanted room in the ambulance for both of them, so the officer offered to drive both of us to the hospital in his police cruiser. Riding in the back of the police cruiser was a little unsettling for me, but it was over soon enough because the hospital wasn't too far from campus.

It was a while before we were finally alone again. Another police officer was asking us questions, and so was one of the nurses. They wanted to know information about Justin and Mike, so we gave them what we knew. Luckily the hospital staff seemed kind and accommodating for us, because they knew we were worried about our friends. I didn't tell them about what happened to me, though.

"I'm so tired," Vic said, after a period of silence as we sat in the waiting room.

"Yeah," I whispered, leaning against him. His shoulder was a comfortable place to rest my head, where I could breathe in his familiar scent. I just wanted to curl up with him and sleep this off.

"Hey Kells?" he asked. I stayed leaning against him. The serious tone in his voice kept me on my toes, though.

"Yeah?" I whispered.

"Did you . . . did they really do that to you?" he asked, his voice sad. It was as if the idea of it pained him. I bit my lip, trying to block out the thoughts of the night's' events.

"I don't want to talk about it," I said, quickly. My throat hurt and the idea of rehashing everything that went down had me so uneasy. "I'm so sorry."

"No, shhh, baby, don't be sorry," he said, wrapping his arms around me. He placed a kiss against the side of my head. I inhaled deeply, trying to remind myself that I still had Vic. Everything was shitty right now, but everything was going to be okay. Everything had to be okay as long as I still had Vic.

Another short period of silence passed before Vic shifted.

"Do you have your phone on you? Mine's dead," he sighed. At least he wasn't trying to talk about the incident anymore. "And I need to call my parents."

"Oh, yeah," I breathed, taking my phone out of my pocket. I opened it and pulled up the dial pad before handing it to him. I sat up straight, feeling cold without his arms. "Here, it's already on the dialing screen."

"Thanks," he said, taking the phone from me and dialing the numbers. I sat next to him quietly as he pressed the phone to his ear.

From the sounds of things, his parents had already been contacted about Mike and were worried sick when they couldn't get a hold of Vic. I listened to him going back and forth about things, making sure they knew he was okay and that his phone just died and that he was sorry .

"Everything okay?" I asked him. He handed the phone back to me.

"Depends on what you mean by okay," he chuckled darkly. "They're uh, already on their way here." "Oh, is that good or bad?" I asked.

"Don't know," he shrugged, casually slipping his arm back around my shoulders.

---

Vic and I ended up dozing off a bit. I mean despite everything going on, it was getting to the early morning hours and we were both exhausted. Vic was slumped back against the couch while I lay across with my head in his lap.

I woke up startled a while later, though, when his parents approached us frantically. They rushed over to us, shaking Vic to make sure he was awake.

"Oh my goodness, Vic, sweetie," I heard a woman's voice say. I sat up quickly, looking around in a daze as this lady came and sat down on the other side of Vic. He sat up straight and turned to her as she put her arms around him. I just sort of awkwardly stayed where I was. The thought crossed my mind that this was Vic's mother, but then again, he'd known her as such since he was really young. "Oh baby, are you hurt? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine, Mike's the one that was in the accident," he grumbled, reminding her of the situation. I could already see what he meant by them being overprotective of him.

"Have you heard anything about how he's doing?" his dad, who was still standing, asked. He at least didn't seem so smothering.

"No," Vic mumbled. "I don't know. They said he's going to be okay, though."

"Oh my goodness," his mom sighed, shaking her head. I stayed sitting there awkwardly as his mother turned to me. I tried to sit up a little straighter. "And this is . . . this is the boy you were talking about?"

That sparked my interest a bit. I guess it meant that Vic told them about me. I mean, of course he told them he had a boyfriend. I even mentioned it to my mom somewhere along the lines. But I liked knowing that he was just as proud of me as I was of him.

"Yeah, this is Kellin, the boyfriend," he said, reaching over for my hand. I smiled a little and accepted the gesture. It was like he knew I was uncomfortable without me even saying anything. He was so good.

"It's nice to meet you, Kellin," she said, sweetly, before reaching over Vic to shake my hand. I wished I looked a little better before meeting his parents, but I couldn't really do anything about that now.

"It's nice to meet you, too," I said, smiling a little. After that I stood up, needing to get away for just a moment. The air seemed too heavy and I wanted space. "I'm going to run to the bathroom."

"I'm going with you," Vic said quickly, standing up and latching onto my arm. I thought it was odd at first, but then I remembered he didn't have his walking stick, and wasn't familiar with the hospital.

"Sweetheart, where's your stick?" Vic's mom asked, noticing right away. I guess voluntarily holding onto someone's arm for guidance was incredibly out of character for him.

"I . . . um . . . I lost it," he lied, obviously not wanting to tell them the full story of what happened at the party. That was completely understandable. From what I could see, his parents would flip out if they knew he was bullied by Mike's friends and they stole it from him.

"Oh, Vic, see this is why I said-"

"Mom, it's no big deal, I promise," he said, defensively. She just shook her head and sighed before we finally headed off to find the bathroom. "I have that other one at the apartment."

"Your mom seems nice," I offered, once we were alone again. He shrugged.

"I know she means well, but she's a real nightmare sometimes," he groaned. "But now I'm just thinking that if she finds out we were at a party . . . or depending on how bad Mike's injuries are, she's going to blow this thing way out of proportion."