the accident

3:01 pm

 september 1st 2017

"Where is Miles Ericsson," I demand to a nurse who is sitting at a desk, she's an older lady, maybe in her late forties or early fifties. She has a little bit of grey hair at the corners of her hairline, but the rest is brown. She also has big brown wooden glasses on. She squints at me.

"Emma Marino is it?" She asks as I nod. She starts typing on her computer. "Officer Rogers told me that you'll be coming." Since I didn't say anything she continues. "Mr. Ericsson cannot be visited at the moment, only immediate family," she says looking down at a computer. Her eyes don't meet mine, they're too busy on her computer screen.

"He doesn't have a family," I stammer. "I'm his only family."

"You're his girlfriend, dear, not his family." I cry. I cover my face. I'm honestly not even sure if we are still dating. Especially not after the fight we had. "And being only his girlfriend makes you..." Her voice trails off because she notices that I'm sobbing, and not even paying attention to what she needs to say.

"We live together! How can you say, I'm not his family!" I burst out. Why do I sound so childish all of the sudden? I'm not crying, because she said that I wasn't his family, I'm crying because I can't see him. I cry because everything in my world is ruined. Literally within a matter of seconds, everything everything just fell apart. Everything that lead up to the moment before was just collateral damage for the end result.

"You were too young to live together anyway." She says stubbornly. I glare at her. Suddenly I see remorse in her eyes. She hesitates then says, "I know you must love your—boyfriend, but he's in critical condition. He may die, or he may survive. There's no way of knowing at the moment." She's actually looking at me in the eyes while telling me this information. Her eyes are green, like a light almost yellow-green.

"Is he unconscious?" I ask.

"He's in a coma," She doesn't elaborate which gets me even madder.

"Does he need surgery?"

She shrugs."Maybe, I'm not sure,"

"Thanks, you're very helpful," I answer while sarcasm coats my voice.

I walk over to the waiting room where there's a bunch of depressing faces. I slump down on a waiting room chair. I cover my face with my hands and start to cry. I can't help it. The tears just flow out of me. And for once, I don't care what other people think of me. I bawl.

△△△

 I hated driving. It was so scary, and it was unforgiving. I felt like I was going to cause an accident with my horrible driving skills. I just about passed my drivers' test, but I was on the edge of failing, which didn't surprise me at all. I only studied for the Learner's test swiftly, and then went for N two years later. I only drove a few times before the test, which lead me to be uncomfortable on the road. I felt as if I wasn't going to pass, but surprisingly I did.

I was driving to a friend's party. His name is Avery Jameson. Back in the day, I had a massive crush on him, and it still made me smile to this day. My crush on him was up to the point that I was angry with him because he didn't like me back, or let alone look at me in that way. As cocky as it sounded, I thought that Avery was the only guy in the world who deserved me, and then he broke my heart by telling me that he liked boys too. He was fantasizing over this one boy, and that was when I realized that he wasn't as good-looking as I thought he was. It was so long ago, and I don't even remember what I found so attractive about him. I guess it was his personality, and how he was easy on the eyes. He was also the only boy who paid attention to me. He was my first guy friend, ever. Also, he wasn't a jock, he was a drama nerd, and he was genuinely nice, and he cared about Abby and I, abundantly.

Abby Nike's is my best friend. I loved her like a sister, we have been best friends for as long as I could remember. She was unfortunately dating this guy named Brandon. Avery and I both hated him. He was just not a good boyfriend to Abby. He kept on treating her poorly, and Abby was too blind to see how terrible he actually was. Avery actually got into physical fights with Brandon sometimes because of how he would treat Abby. Avery could flat out tell her that Brandon was a tool, whereas I never did. I just felt too guilty to say something.

Avery came out the last year of high school, but he came out to me first, when we were in the eighth grade. He told Abby with the rest of the school. It was honestly the most spontaneous event that happened in our tiny school. He wrote on this massive piece of cardboard: I guess nobody really knows this about me, but I'm gay. Surprise! most of the people at our school went all homophobic, they thought less of him for being attracted to men. Abby thought less of him for an entire week but then got over it. Abby was just upset, because I knew way before she did, so it had nothing to do with her being homophobic. On the other hand, most of the school still gave him dirty looks and still called him homophobic names (because a bunch of kids who went to high school with us also go to the same university), but I guessed he got used to it, or he just stopped showing that he cared. Personally, I'd never look at him any differently, because he was like a brother to me, and I would never hate him for being attracted to the same gender, because of the fact that it was none of my business, honestly. Although in eighth grade, it was the end of the world. 

I walked up to Avery's doorstep and knocked. He opened it, and smiled showing me all of his teeth, "Emma!" He said. I smiled back at him.

"Hey, Avery! Are you drunk yet?" I asked laughing. At parties, I always asked him if he was drunk. It was just an inside joke, I had no idea where it came from. And Avery would always say the same answer, so I already knew what he'd say.

"Little tipsy," he said laughing. He'd always laugh like a goof. He'd show all of his teeth, and his eyes would go really wide. Back in the day, I loved that smile. "Abby is talking about finding you a boyfriend, so I'd hurry up, and find one, Ems." He said. I laughed out loud for this.

Ever since my ex-boyfriend broke up with me, all Abby would and/or could ever talk about is how I needed a boyfriend. At times, it did get aggravating, because I rather/can find my own boyfriend, but she's convinced that she needs to find one for me.

"I'm surprised she hasn't tried finding you a boyfriend," I said while smiling. He grinned, and let me come into his mansion that he called his house.

I was always jealous of his house. It was homey and comfortable. Whereas I lived in an apartment all alone, but Avery still lived with his parents. After I got into Simon Fraser University, my parents decided that they wanted to move to Brackendale, Squamish. So they bought me an apartment in Vancouver. I needed to chip in once a month, but I didn't mind.

The thing is, Avery wanted his own apartment as well, but his parents claimed that he would be missed too much (because he was an only child, whereas I have two other sisters). I mostly felt bad for Avery's mom, because half the time Avery's out, and she never gets to spend time with him. That was why I kept on trying to make our hangouts at Avery's house. And when I do come over to his house, Avery's mom always complained about how he was always out of the house.

"When Abby tries to find me a boyfriend, I'll avoid her like crazy," Avery said laughing, I laughed too.

Abby was my best friend. She was a tall skinny girl. She had auburn hair, and she was covered in freckles. In my opinion, Abby was beautiful without knowing it. I swore every time I saw her, her eyes were different colours. Sometimes, they were blue, or grey, even sometimes green. We've known each other since fifth grade, and most people used to call us things like 'the inseparable' but after Abby and I both got boyfriends, people stopped calling us that. Speaking of which, her boyfriend doesn't praise her like a good boyfriend should do. I knew that my ex-boyfriend was like that. He would look at other girls while I was with him.

When I found Abby she smiled at me, and said: "We're finding you a boyfriend, and it needs to be tonight."

"Do we really need to?" I asked.

The truth was, I wasn't completely over my ex-boyfriend, Marcus. Yes, he wasn't the best, but he was still my boyfriend. He was my first and only boyfriend so far. We dated for about a year. We broke up at the beginning of our second year, in September, four months ago, and I was still not over him. We broke up because he wanted to 'try something new.' But if you asked me, he just didn't want the commitment. He broke up with me for a pretentious so-called model. They're obviously broken up now, but still. It still really hurt my feelings seeing them together,—a freaking week after we broke up!

Marcus and I met at a party Brandon was hosting. Brandon and Marcus were (and they still are) best friends. Marcus and I talked, and many sparks flew around the room. I thought that God took extra time designing him because he was so beautiful. A few days after the party, he asked me out, and he was like a knight in shining armour. He respected me. He called almost every night. He wouldn't dare look at any other girl. It was all sparks and butterflies. I felt so close to him. We would also hang out every day after school. Five months into the relationship, he wanted to have s*x, and I told him that I wasn't ready. And that was the downfall of our relationship, that was when he never called, and when we would hang out, it wasn't as good as it used to be, but I still wanted to try to make it work, but he had other ideas. He just wanted it to end so that he could successfully look at a girl's ass without feeling guilty about it. After a torturous summer of arguing and compromises, he decided that he was fed up with our relationship, and he broke up with me.

"I know that you still have feelings for Marcus, but we really need to find you a rebound or something because you're so depressed all the time." She said putting my hair behind my ear.

"I'm not depressed," I said while flicking her hand away. "Let's dance," I replied while changing the subject.

"Stop changing the subject, Emma." She knew all my tricks. "When I'm making out with Brandon, I see you from the corner of my eye glaring at us."

"If I had a boyfriend, and I was shoving my tongue down his throat, what would you do? Smile about it?" I questioned, sarcastically. I hated my tone, but I couldn't help it.

She glared at me. Then she perked up, "I'll make you an account on eHarmony!" She said excitedly.

"No, Abs," I said already shaking my head.

"Yes!" She squealed. Abby was very persistent. She often got what she wanted. I'm the pushover. I agree with mostly whatever she would say.

"Okay fine, whatever," I said just so that we stop talking about it. I was fed up with talking about me having a boyfriend. I don't want one, I thought, do I?

***

We ended up cutting the party short because the cops came. Everyone left the party, and Abby and I helped Avery clean up the house. Nobody was arrested, it was just a noise complaint, so the music needed to be turned down, but the word of the cops being here made everybody disburse.

The whole house was trashed. All the throw pillows were legitimately thrown around (hence the name). Red Solo cups were everywhere. The couches had stains of beer on them. We each had a job. I picked up all the food and placed it all in the trash because God knows who or what touched it. Abby was picking up all the Solo Cups, and Avery was trying to get a black stain out of the beige couch. The worst part was that Avery wasn't even sure what the stain was. On top of that, Avery was using this 'environmentally friendly' product that never worked! I remembered he also used it as a kid, and it wasn't ever as effective as the regular ones.

Avery and his parents' are all very environmental people. They loved devoting a lot of their time to cleaning up the environment, and they love speaking about the environment. Avery wasn't as bad as his parents, but it took a while to get used to the constant eye rolls when you were eating something with plastic wrap.

"Avery!" Abby said, "We need to find Emma a boyfriend."

"She can find one on her own," Avery said, his face was all scrunched up, he was trying to find a way to get the stain out. "She's capable."

"I know she's capable, but we both know she won't do it!" Abby said throwing a Solo Cup into a black trash bag. While cringing, I was guessing that it was wet or something.

"I'm capable, Abby, I just don't want one," I said. I was done throwing out the food, and I was getting my purse.

"Everybody wants a boyfriend, even Avery wants a boyfriend." Abby giggled, and Avery's face reddened.

"Not everybody," I disagreed. "Anyway, I'm tired, goodnight guys," I said heading towards the door.

"Thanks for the help, Emma," Avery said.

"Bye, Ems," Abby said. "Drive safe,"

As I was walking towards my car, I got chilly. All I was wearing was this tiny black strapless dress that was barely covering me. I felt weirdly exposed and vulnerable, but I wanted to look nice. I was also wearing these six-inch heels which caused plenty of blisters, and I could barely walk in them without waddling like a penguin. But it was at this moment in time that realized that I dressed nicely partly because I wanted someone to check me out...or maybe I did want a boyfriend. I wasn't really sure what I was feeling at that point, but I knew that something was missing. And maybe it was me wanting a boyfriend. But it could have also been a jacket.

I hated driving. Especially when it rained, which meant that the roads were extra slippery. On top of that, it was late and very dark. It's an accident waiting to happen. I was about ten minutes away from home when I come to a weird intersection. This intersection always confused me. I was concentrating on what road to head down when I received a text message. I looked down for a second. It was Abby:

Crap we forgot to sign you up for eHarmony!

I snickered, then looked back onto the road. I saw a figure jump onto the road! Right in front of my car! As I slammed into my breaks! The car was screeching on the road! By the time my car stopped, I had no idea how hard I hit the stranger. I breathed heavily for a second. My hands suddenly went cold, and there was a lump in my throat. For some reason questioning if I just killed someone lingered hard and heavy in my brain. Oh God, I might have just killed this person.

"DAMNIT!" I heard someone yell from outside, and that was when I realized that I didn't kill whoever it is. I put my emergency lights on, and then I briskly left my car. When I saw the stranger, I almost screamed. He was laying on the concrete, and he wasn't not moving. His blood all around his face and hands. His black hoody and jeans are ripped.

"Are—you okay?" I asked kneeling down next to him. He looked at me and glared. He didn't even try to hide the fact that he was upset about it. Even if it was dark outside, I still saw that his eyes were blue. They were a deep navy blue. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," I burst out, not even trying to stay calm anymore.

"Who the hell are you?" He demanded. His voice was dead sexy. I might have heard an accent, but it could have been my imagination.

"I'm Emma Marino," I said as I stood up, I offered him my hand so that I can help him up too. He doesn't take my offer, and he stood up swiftly. "Did you break anything?" I asked looking up at him. He really was tall. He still towered over me even if I was wearing six-inch heels.

"Nothing serious," he said, and he started walking away.

"Wait!" I called out. "Don't you want to call the cops or anything? To investigate the accident?"

"What accident, Em...Emily?" he struggled with my name, already.

"Emma," I said like I'm talking to a kindergartener. "You never told me your name," I added. I mostly asked his name to put a name on the hot stranger.

"Gabriel Dobro," he replied swiftly.

"Are you British?" I asked because my curiosity got the best of me.

"Are you even old enough to have a driver's license? You're like sixteen." He remarked instead of answering my question.

"I'm actually older than sixteen, and you're the one who jaywalked, Gabriel." I accentuate the 'el' part in his name. I had no idea why. He flinched but didn't say anything. "Are you sure you're okay?" I asked continuing our very awkward and mundane conversation.

"Why would you care?" He demanded.

"Whatever," I muttered while starting to walk away. He was so rude, why should I be nice to him?

"Wait!" He called. "Let's meet up tomorrow."

I turned around. "What are you talking about?" I asked. "Like a date?" He nodded. "For all I know, you can be a serial killer," I said crossing my arms.

"Yeah, and so can I." He replied. I almost smiled at how fast he came up with his answers, he walked closer to me."But I'm willing to take that risk." He was looking at me so intensely. For some reason, I thought that he was going to kiss me, but he obviously won't.

"Where were you thinking?" I asked I said it kind of flirtingly because I felt like he was flirting. Obviously, it was all in my head.

"That restaurant next to the pub, again on Auston Street," he said briskly.

"Okay, sure," I said.

"At five," He clarified, I nodded.

I walked back to my car and started driving home. I felt weird and giddy. I just hit a guy with my car, and he wanted to take me out. It's weird if you asked me. If someone hit me with their car, I knew that I wouldn't want to go out with him. Although, if he were really that hurt, he wouldn't have wanted to go out with me, and he wouldn't have been able to stand up (with no limp or anything), and he would have wanted me to call an ambulance.

I lived on the seventh floor of my apartment building. I took the stairs because I felt better doing that. It was almost three in the morning, so I made no sound whatsoever. I knew that there were a lot of little kids in this apartment complex. On top of all that, my landlord lived in the complex, and if she heard anything past a certain hour, she'll give you a warning. If you have more than three warnings you must evacuate the complex (it was just a threat if you asked me, though), I luckily don't have any warnings.

My apartment was a perfect size for one person or a couple. It's a one-bedroom modern place. When you first walk into the apartment, there was a hallway and the first door on your right bathroom, and then if you continue down the hallway, it opens up to the kitchen on one side, and the living room on the other. And on the back wall, it's my bedroom. The whole apartment is white. My landlord didn't allow me to paint the walls, which is annoying, but other than that, I loved my apartment.

I made myself a cup of tea before trying to sleep. It will help me relax, because I was still in shock by what just happened, and I knew that if I tried sleeping, it would be a waste of time because I won't end up falling asleep. I fell asleep right away, but a little part of me still felt bad for Gabriel Dobro...