Mr. B. Urie

22

I barely slept last night, I couldn't get comfortable without Arie beside me. It's like there's a void where she's supposed to be because she's just always around. It's 7:00 am when the door finally clicks open and Mr. Alvos walks in. He jumps when he sees me, but then relaxes. "Brendon, why aren't you at the hospital?" He asks, closing the door behind himself.

"They wouldn't let us see her, at least not until you got here. I wasn't sure if you were going to go straight there or come home first. I hope you don't mind, I stayed the night."

"Of course, you're practically family! So what happened? All I heard was that she's in a coma . . . I'm scared to death." Mr. Alvos looks like he's gotten less sleep than I have, which is a feat in and of itself. I don't want to tell him what happened, for fear that he'll react the same as Taya's mom, but he needs to know. And better I tell him than he finds out through the hospital.

"Do you remember how she was sort of sick before you left?" I ask, Mr. Alvos nods slowly and I take a deep breath to steady myself. I'm not sure if I can keep from crying this time. "Well, she was sick for the past three weeks, and I figured that it was winding down . . . Until Taya came over yesterday and said that it was probably a good idea to see a doctor. Of course, Arie objected, but then I felt for her temperature and I swear I almost got a burn from how hot she was. I can't imagine how overheated her brain must have been.
"When we stood her up to take her to the hospital, she mentioned something smelling, and I should have known . . . That's when she started having a seizure and fell to the floor. We couldn't catch her in time, and she hit her head hard. Then she wasn't breathing when the seizure stopped so I had to do CPR."

"Obviously it worked, then?" Mr. Alvos asks, taking a seat on the couch. He looks even paler than before, and I'm worried that he might faint.

"Yes; but now she's in a coma, probably as a result of both being out for a good thirty minutes and hitting her head on the floor."

"Well, you did what you could . . . So I'm proud and grateful." He gives a sad smile and stands back up. "Let's get back to the hospital, maybe she'll wake up if she has some cheerleaders."

*****

"She's in a coma, and you were right." Mr. Alvos says after talking to Ariella's doctor for a few minutes. "It's a combination of her hitting her head, being . . . Well, dead, for a short amount of time and the high fever that caused the seizure in the first place. The doctor said that her brain is in recovery mode. It's trying to heal everything, so it's having the rest of her body do less work. They don't know when she'll wake up, but they said if it's not in the next two and a half weeks, I should start to 'consider other options'." He takes a seat beside me in a waiting room chair.

"Are they going to let us see her?" I ask, ignoring the last part of his recap. I would hate if we had to pull any plugs on Ariella. I mean, she can't be brain dead, her heart is still beating by itself . . .

Mr. Alvos nods, and waves in the direction of Arie's hospital room. "You go on ahead, I don't know if I'm ready." I can tell that he's really worked up about potentially having to plan his own daughter's funeral. No parent should have to go through that.

I stand up and slowly make my way towards Ariella's room. This whole place smells like sanitizer and death, and it makes my hair stand on end. When I walk in, Ariella is laying peacefully in an uncomfortable-looking gown. A tube is stuck in her arm and a monitor beeps beside her. I take a step towards her, and take her hand in mine; it's limp.

"Come on, babe, wake up," I whisper, then lean down and plant a kiss on her forehead. She doesn't move, not so much as a flinch, and it is the one thing that finally brings me to tears.

What if she doesn't wake up? I can't live without her. She is the love of my life. If she dies . . . Well, I'll die too. I don't know how, but I would. Hey, those would be good song lyrics. Maybe I'll write her a song and then when she wakes up, I can sing it to her. If she doesn't remember me . . . Well, I'll just have to make her remember.

*****

Do you remember me? My name is Brendon Urie. Your name is Ariella Alvos, but you probably remember that . . . So I don't know why I'm telling you

I suck at this! I haven't written a song since college. Obviously, I need some practice . . . But maybe she'd actually appreciate something that came straight from my heart better? I mean, Ariella Alvos has always known me as well-spoken, maybe if I fumble it'll mean something more. All I know is that I love her, and I can't ever let her go again.

Thanks for all the reads, comments and votes! 😊

~Kirsten