StarStruck Coffee

Vending Machine Coffee

Opening his eyes, all Zach could see was fuzzy white light. Even though it was fuzzy, it was blinding. He could smell that weird bleachy smell of hospitals mixed with vending machine coffee, he thought he was dead, he wasn't sure if it was heaven or hell though. He tried to speak, "Am i dead?" he raised his hand up to cover his eyes trying to reduce the glare of light. "Hey bud." A calm voice cut through the light. As his eyes adjusted, he recognised the owner. Nate. What was Nate doing here? Oh yeah definitely hell he joked in his head. He thought for sure he called Beth though.

No.

He didn't just think, he knew he called Beth.

His brain flashed back to one of the last things he heard from Joey, "I'm going to hurt you and that pretty girl on the phone"

Zach shot up. He moved far too quickly and the second he sat up straight he tumbled back into the bed. He didn't recognise this bed though. His eyes had fully adjusted now so he took a look around. The walls were painted a spotless, brilliant white. The ceiling was tiled in almost the exact same shade, dark blue and chrome furniture was all around. On the sofa, there were two pillows and a set of folded up blankets. Had someone been sleeping in his room. It wouldn't have been Nate; they weren't that close.

At that moment, he remembered Nate was next to him. He slowly rose onto his elbows and Nate's hands were right there to support him. "Nate, what happened." Zach rubbed his head; he could tell a headache was forming already. It must've been that knock on the head he thought to himself. "Buddy, you okay?" Nate was sitting on the chair next to his bed. He looked tired. Zach had never seen him like this before. The smile that's always on his face had gone and it was replaced by a quiet worry. He saw Zach's attention had drifted to him and tried to make his worry less obvious, by plastering a fake smile over his tight-lipped frown. "Hey Zach. Do you know where you are?" He asked.

"I'm assuming a hospital." I replied sarcastically. Nate smiled properly at that.

"Yeah, bud you're in the hospital, you were in an accident." Nate rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, Zach assumed he didn't know that Zach remembered what happened. "Nate. I remember what happened." Nate stared at him wide-eyed. "How do you know what happened though? I swear I called Beth, not you."

"Funny story actually." Nate was even more awkward now. "The girl that was with the moron that beat you up, I actually know her-"

"Yeah, I know." All emotion left Zach's face. "That's the reason I got beaten up; he assumed I was you." Nate's face contorted to worry to an apologetic frown. Zach cut him off before he could apologise. "I don't care Nate don't worry. Just next time don't give me a thug's hoodie." He jabbed Nate's ribs. Nate let out a sigh, "Thank God. I was worried you'd hate me." he laughed awkwardly. "I was thinking about it." Zach admitted, "but... I decided it was too much effort" he winked "anyway back to the story." Zach motioned with his hands for Nate to continue.

"Right, right. So, Jessica- that's the girl by the way." Nate just nodded he'd realised that part out. "So, Jessica ran straight over to mine after she left you, she told me everything that happened and said she's called the police on the way here." Zach was shocked at that. Both at the fact that she knew that him and Nate were friends and that she was compassionate enough to call the police. Nate continued, "By the time we arrived, both Beth and the police were already there, Joey was gone unfortunately but Beth was giving a statement to the police about what she heard on the phone- Oh shit your phone!" Nate smiled at him. "So, because yours got crushed by that brute..." Nate trailed off, "Me, Jessica and Layla-"

"Wait Layla knows?!" Shit, shit, she would know how lame he was now.

"Yes, Layla found out she was there when Jessica came to get me. But shut up for a second." Nate reached into a paper bag Zach had only just clocked there and pulled out a brand-new phone. "So, we've already set it up. We didn't know when you'd wake up, so we decided it'd be better just to set it up for you." Zach just sat there unable to speak. His best mate had bought him a new phone because he broke defending a girl. Zach zoned back in as he managed to process how cool Nate was, "It has my number, Beth's, Jessica's-" Nate scratched his head. "I don't really know why she wanted us to put her number in, but she did maybe she wanted to apologise", they both shrugged it off. "Oh, and the best bit! Layla's number." he teased. He clicked her contact and it seemed they put pictures in for all of them as Layla's was a picture of her in the same outfit, she wore earlier it must've been before he spilled her coffee on her though as the stain that was there in class wasn't in the picture. His new phone said the picture had been put in almost a week ago though. "Nate?"

"Yeah bud." Nate said nonchalantly.

"How long have I been out?" Zach asked, sweating. Nate dropped the phone on the bed and his mouth felt open. "Shit! You're awake! Sorry that just sunk in." Nate put his hand comfortingly on his shoulder, Zach knew this was going to be bad he took a deep breath and motioned to Nate to tell him.

 "It's been two weeks buddy."