Idiot {m.c. fanfic}

Chapter 33

"Hello?" A panicky voice answers Michael's phone.

"Hi? Is Michael there?" I ask quietly. I'm not sure what was going on.

"Oh my god! Jaelyn!" The voice on the other end chokes out. "Its's Mrs. Clifford. Michael's mom."

"Oh sorry, Mrs. Clifford. Is Michael around? I came to your house but no one's here." I explain to the voice I now recognize as Michael's mother.

From the other end of the phone, I hear her break out into a fit of sobs. "You need to come here right now, Jaelyn." She manages to say to me.

"I don't-I don't know whats going on. Whats happening?" I ask, starting to freak out. "Where do I need to go? I don't understand."

Silence was all I received in response. Something felt wrong. Something felt very very wrong right now.

"The hospital, Jaelyn. You need to come the hospital." I hear Michael's dad take over the phone and tell me.

Without bothering to hang up, I dropped my phone and ran back outside into the heat. Michael was in the hospital and I could pretty much guarantee whatever the reason why, was my fault.

The hospital wasn't too far from his house so it took my about 10 minutes to get there even though felt like 10 hours. I pulled into the huge hospital grounds and literally ran all the way to the building and through the doors.

I just kept whispering to myself that Michael was fine. He's always fine. One time when we were 6, we were playing at some park near my house. There was a huge tree and kids were always trying to climb it to the top but they always got too scared. Michael, one day, decided he would be the first one to climb it all the way. And he did but once he got to the top, there was no way for him to get down and he panicked. He fell all the way down and broke his arm. But he was fine.

Another time we were 13 and someone dared him to swallow an entire jawbreaker whole. He did, stupidly. He choked in the middle of a school assembly and the paramedics had to be called. But he was fine.

Whatever happened to him this time, he would be fine. I know it.

I will never forget the look on his parents face when I walked into that building. Its one of those things that no matter how much you try to forget, you can't. And in that moment, I knew. He wasn't fine. Not this time.

His mom walks over to me with her arms outstretched. "Jaelyn." She cries. She finds me and I collide against her.

She tried explaining what happened but I couldn't hear her. Grief was already surrounding me. I later learned he had been in an accident about a mile from the school, where I had been. He was trying to find me.

"No. No. No!" I repeated over and over through my tears. He couldn't be gone. Not Michael. He was indestructible. Always has been.

We stood there for a long time, me and Mrs. Clifford. Sharing our grief over Michael. Neither of us wanted to believe it. Or accept it. Eventually we had to break apart when people started flooding the hospital after hearing about what happened.

Everyone made the rounds. I saw Adley and Luke. Both of them devastated. Adley eyes were red and swollen from crying. You could tell Luke had shed a few tears, as much as he hated admitting it. I saw Calum come through. He gave me a hug but I felt so numb, I couldn't feel anything. Ashton had even come by to see me. I didn't think I'd want to see him but it made me feel a little better, if that was possible.

Ashton sat with me in the hospital waiting room all night long. I guess he knew I wasn't ready to be alone with the fact that Michael was gone. Or alone at all.

Michael's brother finally made it home from college and was sitting in the corner with his parents. If this hurt me so much, I can't imagine how they felt.

The grief I was feeling was suffocating. I felt like I couldn't breathe, like I would never be able to again. Michael was the biggest part of my life and now with him gone, there was a huge hole left behind.

After the first day, I didn't cry. I couldn't. Acceptance hadn't hit me yet. It felt like he was still here. Still joking around and doing stupid shit just to make people laugh.

But he wasn't. Not anymore. Not ever again. And once I realized that, the tears finally came.