"Will..." Nico said shakily, cupping his head in his hands. Will's grip loosened. Perfect.

"I can't be your friend, even. I'm sorry. You're too worried about getting hurt, but I'll only hurt myself knowing you don't want me enough to take that risk."

"I will! Nicolo! I'll do anything! I don't care if I get hurt! I just want to be with you!" he sobbed, pulling his hands out from under Nico, and up and round his neck.

Nico put his hands gently on Will's, and took them in his own. His hands were cold, shaky. He hated what he was about to do. He looked to Austin, and he glanced back, knowingly, and grabbed Will, dragging him away.

"No! I thought you loved me, Nico! Stop it!" Will kicked and screamed as Austin dragged him away, the entire infirmary watching. Once they were gone, Kayla came over to Nico, who was quietly sobbing in his cot.

"I'm so sorry. What... what happened?"

"I lost my memory. Apparently it's happened before. Anyways, Will and I were talking, and we... sorta kissed... I didn't even come out to him yet. Apparently though, we already dated and got married, when I kinda ran away and friend zoned him."

"Yeah, I heard." Kayla rolled her eyes.

"Okay, but then he pushed me down, and started taking off my shirt, and when we finally--"

"Spare me the details of my brother's sex life, please."

"Oh, yeah, sorry..." Nico looked away, blushing.

"So?"

"Huh? Oh! So then I got worried he'd see my scars, blah blah blah, eventually, when I go to kiss him again, he stops me, and says that I didn't want this before I'd lost my memory, so I was bound to not want it again.

"I told him that I did, though, and didn't care if I didn't feel the same in the future. He said he did though, and I told him to leave. He refused, saying he just wanted to be my friend, and yeah. Now you're all caught up." Nico sighed, and coughed from talking so much.

"Ohh. Makes sense why that... incident happened at the end, then."

"Yeah." Nico says, quietly, and brings his knees to his chest.

"I wanted it, really, but after what he did..." Nico looked up at Kayla. "I couldn't be with someone like that. Who would go that far."

Kayla grits her teeth.

"Are you mad?"

"No, not entirely, Nico. But..."

"But what?"

"You've been in a coma for 7 weeks, 3 days. He reminds us how long it's been daily. He hasn't slept at all. Not a wink. That's 52 days, Nico. Longer even then you have stayed awake for."

Nico suddenly felt horrible, like what happened was his fault. It was his fault.

Bia... I ruined someone's life! I made them fall in love with a lost cause, broke them so many times, but they still didn't give up on me. I don't deserve him. He doesn't deserve the pain. Please. Don't hate me. Or do, maybe then you'd have a good judge of character. You only ever saw the good in people. I think the rest of mine just went out the door, kicking and screaming.