NEIGHBORS • Why Don't We

Chapter: 24

Chapter song: Memories by shawn mendes

Saturday

He pulls me into another hug and kisses my forehead. I tell the guards to put him on the visitation list so he's allowed in the room and they go get him a badge. We enter the room and my nonno and nonna look up. "My my darling, who is this young fellow?" she asks.

 "Nonno, Nonna. This is Jack, my boyfriend." I say hesitantly, judging by my nonno's hard look. "You better take care of my granddaughter, my only grandchild. Treat her like a queen" He says sternly, his thick and deep italian accent making him seem a lot more intimidating. Jack stiffens.

 "I wouldn't dream of treating her any other way, sir. I would give her the entire world if I could. Anything she needs I'll make it happen." He says, trying to hold his ground. Nonno nods and grumbles, sinking into his chair. Nonna gets up and walks over to us.

 "Im Gabriella, and the the grumbling man in the chair is my husband, Vincenzo. You'll have to excuse his behavior, Aria is his pride and joy. He's very protective of her, Especially now since her dad isn't able to do this." she says. He nods.

 "Its alright ma'am, I understand completely." He says as we sit down on the couch. "How long are you staying dear? I'm going home for a few hours to make dinner for everyone and bring it back here. I need to know how many mouths I'm feeding" She asks. 

Jack starts to answer but I cut him off. "He's getting on the next flight to Pennsylvania so he can spend time with his family before he has to go back to LA and rehearse for their summer tour. His flight is booked for 2 p.m." I say, looking at him. 

I squeeze his hand lightly and look at him. He closes his mouth. "You sly angel" He mumbles. Nonna nods and goes back to reading her book. Jacks stomach growls. "Wanna go down to the cafeteria?" I ask. He nods and we get up. 

One of the guards escorts us down to the cafeteria and Jack and I grab sandwiches and a few snacks and drinks to bring back to the room. We sit down and eat our sandwiches at one of the tables. "Baby, please let me stay here with you." I says. I shake my head.

 "Jack you need to spend as much time as you can with them before you leave. I could tell how much your mom misses you in her eyes. The way she looks at you and the way she hugged you at the airport. She misses her son. You won't see them until next month." I

 hold his hand from across the table. "Please, go spend time with your family. And don't let any of the boys come up to check on me. I got messages from all of them saying they were coming to see if I was okay. 

They need to spend time with their family and friends while they have the chance." He nods understandingly. Ha! Finally a breakthrough. "I'll be okay. Im here with my grandparents, and Zia (aunt)  is flying in from South Africa to be with us." I squeeze his hand reassuringly and smile. 

He groans lightly. "How can I say no to that angelic face." He sighs. "Are you sure you'll be okay?" He asks. I nod. "How did you even get up here so quickly?" I ask curiously. "I got on the same flight you did, my uber got delayed so it took me a while to get here." He says. I gape. 

"I knew I saw you at the airport right before I boarded!" I say bewilderedly. "Gotta put my ninja skills to use somehow." He says proudly. I giggle. "Only you Jack Robert Avery." I say shaking my head, smiling. He leans across the table. "Only for you Aria Grace Vitali" he replies.

 I peck his lips and stand up. We head back up to the room and set the snacks down on the table. All of the sudden the doors open. Doctors push my parents into the room and hook them up to wires and machines. 

Jack laces our fingers together and rubs his thumb on the top of my hand reassuringly. A doctor comes over to us. "Mr and Mrs Vitali are in medically induced comas at the moment. Their vitals are very low and they sustained many broken bones. We had to place screws in Vincent's left arm and left leg. They had snapped completely in the crash and broke through the skin. Dianna sustained 2 broken ribs that punctured a lung and we placed screws in her right leg. It also snapped completely and broke through the skins. Both suffered from very bad blows to the head and huge blood loss from glass and shrapnel from the crash. We will be monitoring them over the next 72 hours to see their vitals improve at all, but it doesn't look very good for them. They haven't shown any signs of being responsive. Im sorry." The doctor says and leaves.

 Nonna cries into Nonno's shoulder. I walk over to them slowly, standing in between their beds. I sit on my knees and hold their hands, bowing my head and praying that they pull through this. After a while I get back up and sit down, laying my head on Jacks chest. 

Nonno and Nonna go home for the night. They offer us to go but I decline. I can't leave my parents. I pick up one of the photo albums my nonna brought. Jack and I look through it and I tell him the stories of each picture. 

We get to a picture of my first dance recital. "My mom is the whole reason I started dancing in the first place, she set a passion in me" I say quietly. Tears well up in my eyes. I flip to the next picture and its of me when I was about 3 or 4. I was holding a microphone.

 "When I told my dad I was going to start singing he was so happy. He said I had always had a secret passion and talent for it. He said he was so proud of me." I sniffle. Jack closes the book and sets it on the table. "Get some rest baby." he says and we lay down. He holds me close and caresses my head until I drift off to a much needed sleep.

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Its been a very rough day.... I hope yours was better than mine. Thank you all so much for taking the time out of your day to read and vote for my book.

Stay cloudy loves

-McKenna ((July 27th, 2017))