Chapter 13

       I don't know how long I was out for. I wasn't even the first one to come to. I just heard a muffled voice saying my name over and over again until I was able to open my eyes. Everything was blurry for a bit, but when it did, I saw how much damaged happened.

       Wilder was the one who was trying to wake me up and when I looked over, I saw a cut on his forehead which was caused by the now shattered windshield.

       "Are you okay?" I asked. 

       Wilder nodded. "Yeah."

       I took off my seatbelt, then remembered he wasn't the only passenger in the car. I turned around to look at the backseat, seeing even more damage that I caused. Alan was just waking up, and he looked the most fine. Not cuts or scrapes. Orchid had a few and she was just waking up too.

       But Nolan?

       The window beside him had completely shattered because a tree branch was somehow able to sit it, and I think the branch even hit him. He was still passed out.

       I tried opening the door, but it wouldn't budge. Alan then looked out his window. "There's a large tree branch blocking it," he said.

       I had to roll out the window and climb out that way. The front of the car was completely damaged from crashing into such a large tree. I looked around, seeing how much off of the road we were.

       Alan climbed out of his window as well and moved the tree trunk out of the way so he could open the door for Orchid to get out. Wilder had to come out of my door because there was a low hanging branch blocking his door.

       "I'll call 911," Alan said before taking out his phone to make the call.

       "I have to call my dad," Orchid said. "I want him to hear it from one of us than to get a call from someone else."

       "Okay," I said. I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before our dads found out that we were dating, but I honestly didn't care right now. What happened was a lot more important than their stupid feud.

       Orchid held her phone up to her ear. "Dad? There has been an accident....No, we were on our way to a party....I know, I know but Mom wouldn't have let us...." While Orchid was telling her dad exactly what happened, I got in the backseat to try to wake up Nolan.

       It wasn't working.

       "Nolan, come on, please wake up," I said, gently shaking him. He didn't move at all.

       "How's Nolan?" Orchid asked, still holding her phone.

       "He's not waking up," I said.

       "Dad, Nolan isn't waking up," Orchid said back into her phone. "A branch completely shattered the window beside him and it might have hit him. He looks really bad...." Hearing the pain in Orchid's voice made me feel extremely guilty. This was all my fault.

       I felt for Nolan's pulse, feeling the slightest bit relieved when I found it. It was there, but weak.

       "The ambulance is on their way," Alan said, and Orchid relayed the message to her dad.

       "Can you meet us at the hospital?" Orchid asked her dad. "Jerome and Ryder too?....Yeah, okay....Uh, no, I wasn't driving....Um...."

       I guessed he asked her who was driving, so I said, "He's going to find out anyway."

       Orchid silently sighed. "Atticus was....No no no, it wasn't his fault....Dad, please, just meet us at the hospital....I love you too."

       After she hung up, I got out of the car so she could check up on Nolan. I then pulled out my phone to call my parents. I was hoping it was my mom who answered the phone because I knew she wouldn't be mad about who was in the car with us.

       But my dad answered.

       "Hello?" Dad said when he picked up the phone.

       "Dad, can you meet us at the hospital?" I asked.

       "What? What happened?" Dad asked.

       "We've been in an accident," I said. "We were on a one way road, but some idiot was driving in the wrong direction and I ended up off the road to avoid him and I hit a tree."

       "Are you and Wilder okay?" Dad asked. I then heard a voice on the other side, and it faintly sounded like Dax. "Hold on a second, Atticus." He said something to the other voice before coming back on the line. "Are you both okay?"

       "Yeah," I said. "But...." I started feeling a lump in my throat. "We weren't the only ones in the car. One of them isn't okay. He's not waking up and I'm really worried."

       "Is an ambulance on the way?" Dad asked.

       "Yeah," I said.

       "Okay, good," Dad said. "How many people are with you?"

       "Including Wilder, four," I said. "Everyone's okay, but....But not Nolan."

       "Nolan?" Dad asked. "Isn't....isn't that one of Grayson's sons?"

       "Yeah," I said. "I'm with the triplets right now. I know you don't want me hanging out with them, but I really need you to overlook that right now."

       "I'll meet you at the hospital with Dax," Dad said. "He's with me right now. So, you and Wilder are for sure okay?"

       "Yes," I said.

       "Alright," Dad said. "We'll head over there now. I love you."

       "I love you too," I said before we hang up.

       "Atti?" I heard Wilder say in a soft voice so I looked over at him. "It's my fault, isn't it?"

       "What?"

       "It's my fault," he said. "I was distracting you with the music and I should have just let you drive."

       "No, it's not your fault," I said. "The music wasn't even distracting me."

       "Don't lie," Wilder said. "It wouldn't have happened if I just left the radio alone."

       I furrowed my eyebrows, wondering why on earth Wilder would be blaming himself for this. Then it hit me.

       "Don't listen to them," I said. "It's not your fault, and everyone can and will agree with me."

       "They won't stop," Wilder said, his voice now cracking a bit. "They won't go away and I just want them to stop."

       I gently sat him down on the grass. "Wilder, don't listen to them," I repeated. "This was not your fault. Did you bring your earphones with you?"

       Wilder shook his head.

       I looked over at Alan. "Please tell me you have earphones."

       "No, sorry," Alan said. "Is he okay?"

       "No," I said as I took out my phone and played some music. "I know this isn't the same as having earphones in, but it's better than nothing. Just plug one ear and have the speaker next to the other." Wilder nodded and did exactly that.

       I stood up and walked to the backdoor of the car. "Is he waking up?" I asked Orchid.

       "No, he's not moving at all," Orchid said.

       Two ambulances thankfully showed up then, so Alan went over to greet the paramedics and lead them to Nolan so he could get the medical attention right away. Two of the paramedics came with a stretcher and gently got him out of the car before putting him on the stretcher. They brought him to one of the ambulances and led the rest of us to another.

       On the way to the hospital, the paramedics in the back with us checked each of us out to make sure we were okay. Our cuts weren't deep enough to get stitches, so they just had to clean them.

       We got to the hospital before the other ambulance, and everyone else was already waiting for us there. I immediately went to Mom and Dad and they both pulled me into a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay," Dad said.

       "But Nolan isn't," I said. "Dad, he's really hurt."

       And speaking of Nolan....

       "Where's Nolan?" I heard one of the guys with the Princes ask Orchid and Alan, who were standing nearby. He looked slightly familiar, and I was guessing it was Jerome.

       That was when the other paramedics showed up, wheeling Nolan into the hospital and towards the emergency room. Jerome wanted to follow, but Ryder quickly grabbed him. "I have to see him," Jerome said.

       "No, you have to stay here and let the doctors do their job," Ryder said.

       "You don't understand," Jerome said. "He's my boyfriend. I have to make sure he's okay."

       "Yeah? And he's my little brother," Ryder said. "I love him as much as you do, but the best thing to do is stay calm and let the doctors do their job."

       "How can I stay calm when I don't know how he is?" Jerome asked.

       Grayson then spotted my family and that was when the argument I knew was coming started. He looked at Dad. "This is all your son's fault," he said. "He shouldn't have been driving my kids."

       "This is not his fault," Dad said. "Believe me, I'm not happy that they were in the same car, but he did not cause the crash."

       "He should have been more careful!" Grayson said.

       "Dad, it wasn't Atticus's fault," Orchid said. 

       "Don't defend him," Grayson. "What were you even doing in a car with him?"

       "I told you, we were headed to a party," Orchid said. "And Mom hates it when we drive in the dark so I asked if he could take us. But it really wasn't his fault. I told you, a car was speeding towards us, and they were going in the wrong direction. Atticus's reflexes acted up. The damage could have been a lot worse if he actually crashed into a car."

       "Well, you shouldn't have been in the car with him anyway," Grayson said. "I told you not to be around him."

       Dad looked at me. "And why did you agree to drive them? You're not supposed to be around them."

       When I didn't reply, and I looked at the ground, Dad immediately knew why. "No. Please no."

       Grayson knew what was going on too. "Orchid, don't tell me....I told you not to!"

       "I don't care if you told me not to," Orchid said. "I like him."

       "Yeah? And look what it caused."

       "This was not my son's fault," Dad said. "So stop blaming him."

       "He was the one driving, wasn't he?" Grayson said. "He hurt my son!"

       "Dad, Atticus is also the one who stands up for Nolan every day at school and risks detention just to make sure he's safe," Alan said. "Atticus would never intentionally hurt Nolan, you know that."

       "I'm really sorry," I said. "It happened all of a sudden and I had no control over it. I promise you, I never meant for it to happen and I'm hurting because of what I did to Nolan."

       "That doesn't change what happened," Grayson said.

       "Alright, Dad, I'm taking you to get some fresh air," Ryder said before leading Grayson outside.

       Dad decided that it was time to leave, but I said I wanted to stay until I knew how Nolan was doing. I thought Dad would have refused to let me stay, which was probably why Mom immediately said that I could and for me to call her when I wanted to come home since my car was wrecked.

       They left, as well as Dax and Wilder, but not before Dax gave me a hug and assured that it wasn't my fault.

       Orchid walked over to me. "Don't listen to my dad," she said. "Our family just has bad luck with car crashes, so he's feeling really stressful right now."

       "I don't blame him," I said. "Nolan is the only one that's really hurt and we don't even know how he's doing."

       "He'll be okay," Orchid said. "So....What was up with Wilder thinking it was his fault earlier?"

       I sighed. "He's schizophrenic. He hears voices sometimes that aren't really there, and they were telling him it was his fault."

       "Oh," Orchid said. "Is he okay?"

       "Most of the time," I said. "He was just recently diagnosed with it, so it's been hard for him to handle. But his still the same. Still very much vulgar, yet somehow precious."

       Orchid smiled softly. "Yeah, he looks very adorable and precious. It honestly shocks me to hear him swear so much."

       "Trust me, it shocks everyone," I said.

       We all decided to sit down on the chairs to wait to see how Nolan was doing. Grayson and Ryder came back, and Grayson seemed a bit more calm. He wasn't glaring at me or anything, so that was good.

       It could have been because Dad was gone so he didn't have anyone to pick fights with.

       It felt like hours before a doctor came back, asking for one of Nolan's parents. Grayson got up to talk to him, so we had to wait anxiously for a reply.

       Grayson walked back and judging by the look on his face, I knew something was wrong. "Is he okay?" Jerome asked. "Can I go see him?"

       "In a bit," Grayson said in a soft voice. "His....Nolan's spinal cord was injured badly. He, um....He's paralyzed from his waist down."

       Paralyzed.

       Nolan was paralyzed. 

       And it was all my fault.

_____________

:O We got some parallels here. 

Lol, this was longer than expected and it's almost 2 am now. Oops. (i even have to wake up early to babysit my little brother, but ill just force him to nap with me)

Annnnnnnd I shall go to bed now. And by that I mean lay in bed on my phone. Lol.