Kiara always had her focus set on her studies and being the perfect daughter for her strict mother, but when she meets Hayden, she feels like it's finally time to step out of her mother's restrictions. However, not abiding by the rules might sometim...
"Where is she?!" the woman repeated, searching around frantically. Only when she turned around did I realise she was Kiara's mother. With her dark hair, wrinkled eyes, and blue-rimmed glasses--she looked exactly like the pictures that Kiara had shown me.
An older man and a girl, with inky hair longer than Kiara's, followed closely behind her mom. I assumed they were her father and sister.
"Ma'am, calm down. This is a hospital," the nurse said, desperately trying to stop her crying.
"What happened? How did this happen?!" her mom shrieked, tears streaming down her face.
I looked up at the nurse that was wheeling me and muttered, "I can go alone from here."
Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at me sceptically. "You sure?"
I nodded and waited for her to leave. When she finally sauntered away, I wheeled myself towards the side, parking the wheelchair beside the pale wall so it wouldn't obstruct the hall. I stood up warily and hobbled forward, making sure that I wasn't giving any weight to my right foot. Brushing my clammy palms on my pants, I rubbed the nape of my neck as I awaited their reaction when they saw me. I bet it was going to get ugly. But I needed to tell them what happened.
"Please, calm down, ma'am, this is a hospital," I heard the forlorn nurse say. "Her boyfriend came with her."
"Boyfriend?!" Her head whipped up, a sudden snarl in her voice.
The nurse nodded and looked over at me. Kiara's mom followed her eyes. The moment they landed on me, her face contorted and an angry grimace replaced her sad expression.
She strode over to me, her steps furious. "What did you do to her?" she screamed at me.
Kiara's father rushed over to her side, pulling her back while I stared at my sneakers, unable to meet her glower.
"I told her not to trust you!" she yelled. "I warned her not to trust any boy ever!"
Her dad glared at me, his eyes filled with disappointment and fury. "Go!" he shouted. "Get away from here!"
My head down, I bit my lip, contemplating on whether I should leave without seeing Kiara. I knew I needed to see her one last time before I left. I was planning on staying with her here, but seeing the look on her mother's face, I didn't think that was a good idea. It was obvious her family hated me now.
My thoughts were interrupted when suddenly, a nurse rushed out of the operating room in a frenzy. She was carrying a silver tray filled with medical tools.
She dashed towards the nurse's station and rambled on about some instructions, but I only heard the whisper of one sentence before my mind broke down into chaos.
"The patient is going into cardiac arrest."
The air left my lungs when I heard her, my heart pounding hard in my ribcage.
Cardiac arrest? No, no, no, this can't be happening!
Her mom let out a gasp, her hands flying to her chest while her father and sister had equally shocked expressions on their faces.
"My child," her mother cried out. Her legs gave way beneath her, and she dropped onto the floor. Kiara's sister kneeled down beside her, hugging her tight, while her father stared distantly into the operating room through the glass.
Her mother and sister were crying, tears flowing down their cheeks as I stood there, dazed by it all. This was all too sudden. It almost felt like a nightmare; like it wasn't real. But I knew this wasn't just my imagination or a bad dream; this was real. My legs were trembling, and I felt the same gnawing feeling that I felt when I found out about my dad's accident twelve years ago.
That's when her mother's eyes landed on my black sneakers, not very far from where she was crouching on the floor. She glared up at me, trembling as anger built up inside her.
"What are you still doing here?!" she yelled.
"Hayden, get out of here," her sister cautioned, her voice low and her face that of pure resentment--like she would throttle me if I didn't move.
Hesitantly, I turned around, tears threatening to fall.
"It's all your fault!" she shrieked behind me.
I staggered out of the hospital doors, leaned on the hard wall, and slid down onto the cold, cobbled floor. I didn't even realize that I was crying until I felt the chilly breeze on my cheek, where a trail of tears had flowed along.
Her mother's words echoed in my head.
'It's all your fault!'
"Hayden? Oh my God!" I looked up to see Rose sprinting towards me, her hair dishevelled, and her feet were wearing two different slippers.
She knelt down beside me, worry clouding her face. "What the hell happened?! How is she? What did the doctors say?!" She babbled on and on, but I couldn't understand a word she said. My mind was whirring with my thoughts, one which was much more painful and highlighted than others.
'It's all your fault!'
"Hayden!" Rose shook me by the shoulders, trying to bring me back to my senses. "What happened?!"
I stared at her blankly before blurting out everything that happened that night. How I told her to get the box from the back. How she had to remove her seat belt to reach it. How I got distracted when she held my hand to thank me. How she turned the steering wheel to avoid the racing van. How the car collided with a stiff lamppost, hurling her forward and injuring her head. And how, just a moment ago, she was in cardiac arrest.
At the end of it, Rose was speechless. She sat down beside me, and we stared at the star-spotted sky.
"She was so excited about today," she mumbled to herself, her voice breaking.
This time I heard her clearly. And I couldn't stop the tears from falling. My heart clenched and ached for Kiara, but all I could do was cry.
Rose pulled me into a hug, patting my back in an attempt to calm me down. But it only made me cry harder. I wanted to stop, but I couldn't.
She didn't deserve this. I was wrong for dragging her into this mess. She doesn't even know Chloe . . . why did I have to pull her into this?
"Shh, now! Everything will be alright," Rose soothed.
And why on earth did I have to ask her to take the box from the back? I could have surprised her when I dropped her off safely at her place. Why did I have to tell her to take it? Why?!
"I-it's all my fault," I stammered between hiccups. "I should never have removed my eyes from the road."
"Hey, hey now," she murmured. "Blaming yourself won't do any good. It has already happened. All we can do now is hope for the best."
No matter how much she repeated the words, my mind only had one sentence engraved in it.
'It's all your fault!'
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
