Bee-boop. :D

I couldn't think of a better title. Really. I'm that tired right now. Haha.
WHERE DID EVERYONE GO?! :O

Anywhats.

I wrote this at the beginning of the year, but didn't really think about it much. It has potential, though it's way depressing, and I'm considering starting back up on it.
:)

[Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows ROCKS my mismatched SOCKS, baby.]

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Prologue.
The road I was on wasn’t exactly friendly to teenage drivers. I’d heard a lot about it, and had even seen several accidents post-crash, driving along this road, not counting the small wooden crosses that haunted the sides of the road curve after deadly curve.
The speed limit was seventy, and I was following it faithfully, right on the dot. What had started out as a steady rain pinged on my windshield in the form of hail, and I almost stopped.
I can’t, I thought. There’s no place to pull over that would be any safer than driving this thing.
So instead, I kept going. The road was the only thing between me and home, and the only thing I was concerned about. The hail came down harder, threatening to break through the windshield, and I was leaning over the steering wheel to see.
Panicking, I was almost completely void of visibility. The two feet of road that I could actually see in front of me did close to no good, and slowing down to forty, I started praying.
That’s when the first piece of hail broke the windshield, and everything happened too fast to even think about.
I screamed, I think, because I knew that I was going to end up covered in glass and hail, not to mention blood from the cuts I’d have, if I could get home at all.
There was a hairpin curve up next with a forest surrounding it, and with my hands guarding my face from the glass that was flying in, I didn’t make it.
The crash of metal and glass, and everything in between squealed as an oak tree stopped the car suddenly. The tree didn’t even sway. My head slammed the steering wheel and the airbags deployed, but… I was breathing.
I climbed out of my windshield, bawling, as the hail kept hitting me. I assessed the damage through blurred vision and cold wetness, but that wasn’t enough to numb me for what I saw next.
I wasn’t dead, I found out quickly, because I’d caught someone else about to go around the curve, obviously going slower than I was, and rear-ended them, driving them between the oak tree and my car.
I was sobbing hysterically as I walked over to the window of the other car, completely afraid of what I would see, and trying not to think too much about what had just happened.
Slumped over the steering wheel, he lay, blood everywhere, unconscious or possibly dead. I acted without really knowing what I was doing, and crawled in through the passenger door, into the seat next to the person I’d hurt, cradling his head in my lap, covered in blood, hail, and assorted car parts.
That’s how they found us.

Chapter One.
Eleven seventeen. Eleven seventeen. Eleven seventeen. Eleven sev- no, eleven eighteen.
I exhaled as the clock ticked another minute and I was hit by the quietness of the hospital room. Aren didn't move, and I felt some sort of disappointment welling up inside of me.
It had been a week and a half since the accident, and over that time, I'd learned more about this boy than I ever thought I'd know about anyone. We had never talked, but I'd met him through his friends, family, and the people that had known him best.
Stevan, my brother and one of the doctors attending to him, said he'd be fine, and that at this point, he wasn't dying, just in a deep coma. I didn't know whether to believe him or not, but he was the only one of my siblings that sided on me with seeing him every day like I'd done since I escaped the hunk of metal wreckage that was left of my car.
I'd been questioned, and they even had thought, since I couldn't tell them differently through my tears, that I'd caused the wreck. Luckily, his family had shown up, told the officers that my car had run into the back of his, and that they wouldn't press any charges, then had the ambulance take me to the hospital, as was mandatory, to be checked out.
I’d been released, an hour and a half later, when my brother made sure I didn’t have internal bleeding or any other defects.
I stayed at the hospital all night, in the waiting room, while Aren, who at that time, I didn’t know, was in the middle of surgery. His parents accompanied me, all of us pushed to the point beyond exhaustion.
Once I didn't turn up at the house, Eric and Sebastian, my two other brothers, showed up, pulled me into Stevan’s office, and demanded I leave.
"He could wake up and decide to hate you for doing what you did to him." Eric argued alongside Sebastian. "Plus, it's not like you've ever met him."
"I feel responsible for this."
Stevan, the eldest, eventually won them out, and when the hospital was clear of most staff and visitors, he came and sat down next to me.
"Look, Hayley, I understand that you don't want to leave him, but you've got to understand that while he may be able to hear you, it's nighttime and you need to rest. I promise you, with all of me, he won't die. Okay?"
I glared at him. "How should you know? It's not like you can see that he's dead, dying, or soon to be."
He looked at me, surprised, and then laughed. "Well, yes, I guess that's impossible. But how do you know he's not going to die? Do you have a medical degree?"
We went back and forth for a while, and eventually he agreed to let me sleep with some generic wool blankets on the orange plastic seats in Aren's room.
I'd done that for a week and a half.
Now, as I sat here, staring at him, it was only me in the room. Visiting hours had long since passed, and I settled down into the orange chair with reserved sadness. The flowers around the room were plastic for the most part, since no one was sure when Aren would wake up. I'd never brought him anything, but I sat with him in silence, reading or writing. I sighed and snuggled down, used to the life I was living at this point and easily relaxing as the plastic seat left indentions in my skin.
“Hayley,” Stevan said, poking his head in the door. “I’m going to be taking care of Mrs. Duncan and then I’m leaving. Do you need anything?”
I shook my head. “No, thanks.”
He hesitated. “Hayley…”
I sighed. “What?”
“You do realize that he’s totally unaware of his surroundings, right? He’s in a dream-like state, and could possibly have severe cranial damage to his head.”
“Yeah.”
Stevan frowned. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up too much. He’s a vegetable, and may always be that way.”
I nodded. “I promise not to hope too high. Can I sleep now?”
He smiled. “Yeah. See you later, Hay.” He flipped off my light.
“Bye, Stevan.”
I made a show of laying my head up against the chair arm and closing my eyes, but once I heard the elevator ding and the doors close, I pulled the cover off of me and left to check on Mr. Parcelli.
Mr. Parcelli, or Darien, as he liked to be called, was my nighttime patient. He was always sleeping in the day, giving the illusion of someone in a coma, just so he wouldn’t be disturbed by the nurses, but he stayed awake at night, usually reading some exciting Italian adventure he would translate for me and me only, full of the Mafia, mythical creatures, and swordfights that one could only imagine.
I crept down the linoleum, my bare feet hitting the floor noisily, towards the snack machine at the end of the hallway. The nurses complained that Darien wanted his door left open at night so he could sneak out and spend the money that his niece left him on cokes and candy bars, which, as I could tell anyone, wasn’t true. He would only give me the money – I was the one getting the coke and candy.
Sticking a few quarters in the machine and punching in the number for a Snickers and two cokes, I looked down the hall. It was kind of forlorn, the lights dimmed to the point of almost no visibility and the room lights all off, with only the TV flickering on in some of them.
I shivered. It looked like a nightmare.
Grabbing the snacks, I hurried back down the hall, checked on Aren, and then walked a few doors down to Darien’s room.
When I got there, the lights were off, and the sound of heavy breathing was coming from the bed, though the door was open. I sighed. He’d fallen asleep before I could…
“Hayley?” Darien’s voice whispered. I walked into the room. “Darien? Weren’t you sleeping?”
He snorted. “No, darling. I only sleep when others are awake, you excluded. Ignoring that, do you remember exactly where we were last night?”
He sat up in the bed and patted a spot at the foot. Smiling, I moved onto the bed and nodded.
“Geo was in Barcelona, and Alicia got so depressed without him that she was on her way there to tell him that she loved him. Geo was fighting off the crowd of admirers who followed him from the movie set of ‘Treasures’ to Barcelona while trying to call Alicia at the same time. He can’t get a hold of her, and thinks that Alicia doesn’t even care anymore, so he’s starting to lose his career over her.” I recalled, eager for the rest of the story.
“Good, good.” Darien said, and I could hear him dig for the flashlight that he used when he read, “but what page?”
I felt myself blush in the darkness. I had kind of gotten attached to the story, and obviously, it showed. “One hundred and fifty-seven.”
The flashlight flipped on and the story began. Darien would always read the first sentence the way it was written, in what he called “American-Italian”, and then in English until he reached the next chapter.
“Chapter fourteen.” He paused dramatically. “Finally pushed to the limit of his emotions, Geo had given up most hope of Alecia ever wanting him again. Alecia, likewise, was feeling down, not having talked to Geo since he left, when she swore that she would never have feelings for him. Both of them, through their stricken hearts, would not have even guessed that the other felt the same, and that they would soon meet again.”
When I’d met Darien, he’d been on the last few pages of The Godfather. I’d been up in the middle of the night, crying, it being the first night I was left alone with Aren. As I was walking down the hallway, looking for nothing in particular, I ran across an old Italian man with a flashlight, reading out loud to himself.
I wiped away my tears, and out of curiosity, had stood at his doorway until he looked up and saw me.
“What?” He’d demanded harshly, shining the light on me. “Why do you look at me like I am a monster?”
I didn’t answer, and after a minute, he sighed dramatically and motioned with the light at the end of the bed. “Either get out of my room that my niece has paid for, or come in and listen to me read. It’s your choice, little girl.”
I’d found what I’d been wandering the halls for, I assumed, and sat on his bed until some time in the earliest hours in the morning, until he finished the book. After that, he’d showed me his book collection and told me he’d let me pick one if I’d come in at night with his candy and listen to it.
I’d accepted, hands down, and now, I was completely engulfed in the terror of the moment. After traveling to Barcelona, and to the place where Geo was supposedly living, she’d run into a hideous, lying girl called Sarina who claimed to be his fiance. All the while, Geo was across town, at his real home.
“Alecia stared at the girl, not knowing whether she was lying or not. ‘You cannot be serious’, she stated.
“‘Oh, but I am’ Sarina explained fiercely. ‘Geo and I are getting married. He does not want you here.’
“‘Where is Geo? I need to speak to him.’ Alecia said, looking around the small house. ‘He does live here, no?’
“Sarina told her that he was away, working on a new film, and that she should go before he got home; that he would be upset if he saw her there, and that they would call the police. Alicia was terrified of the rejection Geo would give that Sarina talked so freely about, and quickly told her that she would leave immediately and never bother Geo again.
“This is not what happened, though, for even as much as she had lost hope, she was still intent on finding Geo in person and discovering the truth.”
Darien paused and looked over at my face. He could tell that I was relieved that she wasn’t giving up on him, and winked at me, grinning. “You do not know how many times my niece has looked like that when I read her this story. You are like her in many ways.”
I smiled. “Thank you.”
He shrugged, and carried on the story, coughing once to clear his throat.
The book continued as Aleica hurried to the movie set and, being a trespasser, was almost arrested before the director, who knew her from Geo’s descriptions, saved her. He said he had sent him to a doctor to help with his depression and gave her his real address.
When she arrived there, the chapter came to a dead close.
Darien closed the book, keeping his finger in the place where we’d stopped, and peered up at me through his reading glasses. “That would be the end of the chapter, my dear.”
I checked my cell phone, one that Sebastian had given me to keep on at all times, since I “was retarded enough to stay next to a vegetable kid”. The blinding light of the screen flashed on reading 1:42am. I saw Darien frown. He didn’t like cell phones; there were no cords to trust.
I sighed, shutting it and plunging us back into the sparse glow of the flashlight. “Do we really have to quit right now? The orderlies haven’t even gone through the hall on their rounds yet.”
He put a piece of paper in the book, marking our spot, and set it to the side.
“He did not wake up, and you are in here not to read, but to seek comfort.”
I just looked at him. I didn’t try to act appalled, shocked, or even upset. I was just… there.
“You cannot seek comfort in the stories offered in books, Hayley. That will not change reality.”
I didn’t move.
Darien nodded to himself, picked up and re-opened the book without anymore preface. “Chapter fifteen; the last and shortest chapter of the book.” He glanced up at me.
“Geo happened to be on his couch when Alecia arrived, thinking about nothing but what he missed of Italy, love, and of course, Alecia. In that moment, he decided that he would move on, and that love was not so important as to spend life on a couch, waiting for what was going to happen to happen. If he wanted to make something of himself, he would go out and make it happen, not just wait.
“Alecia, not aware of this revelation, was standing outside of his door, unmoving. Thoughts of how she missed him ran through her head, but with that came an underlying thought of how she had done fine without him before any of this had happened. Is it really worth it, she thought, if I am doing nothing but chasing after people all of my life because I miss the part of my life in which they were part of?
“She tried to ignore her thoughts. She tried to push them into the back of her mind, but she knew all too well that she could not and would not be able to proceed with her plans. Geo was a part of a chase for the past which Alecia now realized would end up being a wasted effort.
“She began to walk down the driveway, broken and sad, just as Geo came out of his house, feeling the same way.
“Geo was stunned to see Aleica in his drive again and smiled widely at her. She smiled just a little. ‘I can’t love you anymore, Geo, darling. My past cannot be my future, and that is all you will be if you stay with me and I with you.’
“’That’s okay,’ he said. ‘I, too, have thought about this for a time, and though I have missed you with such longing, I must go out and make things happen, not sit on my couch, crying over something already gone and waiting for something new.’
“They hugged each other tightly and exchanged telephone numbers. As Alecia drove off, she was happier and knew that she would always have a friend in Giovanni Altre. Geo, as well, knew that a girl like Aleica Doani would always be there to lean on in time of need.”
I was frowning, and when Darien stopped, I about exploded.
“That can’t end that way, Darien! No normal person, American or Italian, would ever travel all over the place for someone, only to end up both having a change of conscience! You’re not serious!”
Darien shook his head. “It is not over, darling. I only…”
“Excuse me, Mr. Parcelli, what are you doing up? And Hayley!” Marnie, the orderly for the night, rebuked. “You two are both supposed to be sleeping!”
“It’s my fault.” I said, sighing. Before Marnie could send me back to my room, scolding me the whole way there, I slipped off of the bed. “Goodnight, Darien.”
He winked at me, switching off the flashlight. “Goodnight, love.”
I silently made my way back to Aren’s room. He still lay in the same position, the machine next to him beeping out his heart rate, assuring me that he was still there.
“Hi, Aren.” I whispered, crawling into the chair right next to his bed. “It’s Hayley again. I’m still here, I promise.”
The simple statement that I was still there had become a routine. In my mind, it had to bring some sort of comfort to him, knowing that someone was almost always there.
It was to me.