|| Theo ||

I walked, more like I was being pulled by Wyatt, into the emergency center. I didn't have the strength to walk on my own.

I just wanted to see Ara alright, but I had a feeling that wasn't what awaited me.

"Stay here," Wyatt instructed and started talking to the front desk lady while I stared around the lobby blankly. There was a rush among the nurses and ward boys due to the accident, but no other people were around probably because it was... I had no idea what time it was. Most probably way past midnight.

I faintly heard the front desk lady talk, "There are five patients from the car accident. None of them is the car owner, nor do they have any IDs or cell phones. Two of them are going through critical surgery, another one of them is in the ICU, and the other two are in no danger but severely hurt. May I know the description and the outfit of the person you're looking for?"

"Coral Hawkins. Age 17. She has wavy honey blonde hair. She was probably wearing a golden dress..." Wyatt described Coral and then looked at me to speak.

I cleared my throat and said, "Name, Arabella Laurel. She was wearing a dark pink knee-length dress. She has short light brown hair—"

"I think I found both of your matches. The blonde girl is out of danger," she informed, and we both sighed in relief. "However, the short-haired girl's condition isn't looking good. She's undergoing emergency surgery."

"What? Why?" I asked.

"May I know your relationship with the patient before I reveal any further information?" the lady asked.

"I'm her boyfriend and roommate."

"I see. Have you contacted her parents yet?"

"No, she doesn't have any. Anyway, where's the ER?" I asked, having no patience to rationally think.

The lady checked her computer and said, "It's in the farthest room on the right across that hallway."

"You go there, I'll check up on Coral," Wyatt said, and I nodded.

I found the emergency rooms and saw the red lights glowing on two of them. "What the hell? She didn't say which one," I cursed.

I took deep breaths and sat on one of the benches as my legs felt shaky. I buried my face in my hands while murmuring, "Please be fine, Ara. Please be fine. Don't leave me. Please, God, nothing should happen to her..."

I have no idea how long I sat there by myself, just desperately praying to God and hearing the faint footsteps of the nurses, light chatters of the patients, beeping of the heart monitors, and crying. When Wyatt came, I told him to stay with Coral. Somewhere in between, I had the thought to give a call to Camila's house which was picked up by her mother, so I told her everything and told her to inform everyone else.

After a long time, one of the emergency rooms opened and a doctor walked out with his head down. I immediately stood up, but before I could ask anything, he said, "Are you the family of this patient?"

"I'm not sure. She has short hair—"

"Yes, yes, that's the girl." The doctor let out a disappointed sigh. "I'm sorry," he uttered, giving a pat to my shoulder.

Even though my heart was throbbing painfully inside my chest and it made it hard for me to speak, I still inquired, "Sorry? Sorry for what? What are you saying?"

"I'm sorry. We couldn't save her."

My whole world came crashing down as I let out, "W-what?"

Impossible. This was a dream. No, a nightmare. It couldn't be true. Someone needs to wake me up. This wasn't happening.

After a moment, a body was wheeled out in a stretcher with white cloth covering it completely. I took a few steps back while my whole body was trembling. It was so hard to breathe as if oxygen had depleted from the atmosphere.

"I know this is hard. But there was nothing we could do," the doctor said and started to remove the cloth from her face.

I instantly covered my eyes, not wanting to see the forever resting face of the love of my life. I wanted to see her smiles, happy face, giggles, not this—

Nonetheless, my eyes peeked through the cracks of my fingers, and I was glad I did.

"That's not Ara," I breathed out, dropping my hand from my face, and went closer to examine the face of the dead body. "This is... um," I tried remembering where I had seen this short-haired girl, "This is one of Camila's relatives." I had seen this girl's photo in the background of the photos Ara had sent this evening.

"So you're not the family of this patient?" the doctor asked, and I slowly shook my head. Though I felt horrible for being relieved at someone else's death, instead of my own beloved, weren't we all like that?— so selfish.

"But I've already informed Camila's family, so her relatives will be here soon," I told the doctor, and he nodded at me as the nurses started taking the body away.

But as I watched them leave, I felt sick to my stomach, my guts wrenching at the thought of just seeing a young person's dead body. She was the same age as me and Ara. And yet...

Stupid accident. It snatched away someone's daughter, someone's beloved.

This is why one should never drive in a drunk state. It's always a horrible idea with 'death' imprinted on it. That girl must have been in the driver's seat.

And to be honest, I was pretty mad at Ara as well. Why did she let this happen? I would scold her once she gets well, but before that, I needed to have the assurance that she would still be alive to hear me scold her.

I again lost track of time as I paced around the corridor until the other emergency room opened up and two young doctors came out.

"Doctor, how is she?" I asked them in panic.

One of the doctors gave me a small smile and said, "The operation was successful, but we need to keep her in the ICU for a while to keep tabs."

"She will be fine, right?" I inquired.

"Yes, she will be fine. You can relax," he assured me.

"Oh, thank God. When can I see her?"

"You can see her right now as she will be taken to the ICU. We will let you know when you can visit her later, okay?"

I nodded.

"And please come to my cabin. We need to talk about her condition," he said and walked away with the other doctor.

After a few moments, a few nurses wheeled Ara out on the stretcher. My heart pricked when I saw so many bandages on her.

She must still be in a lot of pain. I would literally do anything to take away that pain from her and replace it with me.

But... more than anything, she is alive. She is here. She still hasn't left me. I have to keep hopes that she will recover soon as well.

Subconsciously, I reached out for her hand that was connected to the blood IV drip. The nurses stopped and just let me observe Ara's face for a few seconds.

I whispered with tears dripping out of my eyes, "I love you. I'm so glad you made it."

|| Arabella ||

After what felt like a really long never-ending dream, I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar white ceiling. I blinked while hearing the white beeping noises and feeling stinging pain all over my body, especially my head.

Keeping my eyes open started to feel like hard work, so I was going to close them again when a horrifying scene replayed in my head.

I was in the car with Coral, Camila, Amanda, Camila's cousin Lisa, and Helen, driving back to Anaheim after the bachelorette party in LA. Everyone was singing and chatting while Lisa kept driving in zigzag for some reason until a truck came out of nowhere.

Then everything happened in a flash. Tires screeched, two vehicles collided, windows broke, and our car rolled down before everything went dark.

But why was Lisa driving in a zigzag?

That's when I remembered that we were all drunk, and I and Coral had tried stopping them, saying that we should get a cab or something, or that we should call any of our boyfriends to drive us back home, but then none of us could find out phones to call a cab or anyone else. That's why it was decided that we would drive on our way until we saw a cab on the way. Besides, the road was straight, so it shouldn't have been that difficult.

Well, now I realize that it was a horrible decision.

Theo would be so mad at me if he got to know that I allowed someone to drive drunk while being in the car. He would probably never talk to me again—

Wait a minute, I am in the hospital, right? Theo... he knows already, doesn't he?

Just then I heard a door open, and I instantly shut my eyes for no particular reason. Heavy footsteps followed after closing that door.

I heard someone sigh, and I knew who it was.

"You're still not up, huh?" he murmured.

What? How many days has it been?

I almost flinched when I felt his hand intertwining with my left one. He lifted our hands up to his lips, pressing soft kisses to my knuckles and fingers. "You know, it's 22nd January today. The math Olympiad day." It's been three days already? "But I totally forgot about it. Just now, Jeremy called to tell me to come."

"Then why aren't you going?" I spoke up.

Theo's grip on my hand increased suddenly as he asked in shock, "Are you awake?"

I opened my eyes and looked into his tired, wide turquoise ones. "Just woke up right now."

"Oh, thank God, I'll call the doctor right away." Theo let go of my hand and dashed out of the room.

As I waited till the doctors and nurses arrived, tears filled my eyes. I had been knocked out for three days, and I made Theo miss his olympiad which he worked so hard for.

After the doctor checked me up, the nurse raised my bed a little to help me sit up a little. Once they left, Theo came to sit on the stool beside the bed.

"How are you feeling?" he inquired.

"Good."

He raised a mock eyebrow and said, "You do know that you look like a mummy, right?"

I sighed and murmured, "Fine, it hurts everywhere."

"Mm-hmm. Anything I can do for you?" he asked.

I started to feel suspicious as he still wasn't scolding me or asking if I was out of my goddamn mind to do such a stupid mistake. He seemed sad, if anything. "How are Coral and others?"

"E-everyone is fine. Coral is well too. Her mom's with her. Wyatt has been with her, though he went to school for some important work," he informed.

"Then why aren't you going to school for the Olympiad?" I asked.

"You shouldn't talk this much. Let your throat rest."

"I haven't spoken for three days. It should be fine. Now, answer me."

Theo sighed in defeat and said, "Someone needs to be with you 24/7. I can't leave you unattended for so many hours."

"I'm sorry."

"You should be."

I lowered my head, which made the back of my neck sting badly. Tears welled up again. "I-I am sorry for making you miss your Olympiad."

"No, not for the Olympiad. I will have chances to participate in such Olympiads many more times, but if I had lost you in that accident, would I have the chance to see you again, Ara?" His voice wasn't angry, just extremely disappointed.

I kept mum, silently letting my tears flow.

"Forget it. I wasn't going to say anything. There should be a time and place for everything, and now clearly isn't the time to guilt-trip you," he said and stood up to put a light kiss on my forehead. "All you need to do now is get well. Focus on that."

I nodded, still crying.

"Stop crying now, will you?"

"I-I can't. I screwed up so bad that I don't even have any excuses. You must think I'm such an idiot or how could I let this happen. You probably even hate me. Maybe you want to get rid—"

"Stop, Ara," Theo said sternly, then softened his voice as he murmured, "I won't lie and say that you weren't stupid to do this or that I'm not disappointed in you. But despite all that, I still love you, and that isn't changing."

I saw his hands almost reach forward to hug me but he retreated back probably because he thought he would hurt my dislocated shoulder by pulling me to his chest. But I really wanted his comfort. Then again, I deserved this yearning and discomfort.

"You screwed up, that's fine. Everyone screws up in their lives. You did too. And you learned your lesson. That's enough. No drinking and driving anymore."

I nodded and murmured, feeling extremely ashamed and low, "But still, what if someone had lost their lives in it?"

Theo didn't reply which made me raise my head to find his eyes cast down.

"Theo?" He still didn't raise his gaze. "Did... did something to someone?"

I saw Theo's lips tremble as he uttered, "Camila's cousin, Lisa passed away in the accident."

And with that, my entire world was thrown into a frenzied mess of guilt.

★★★