Follow me:

Instagram: @a.lake.yeah

Twitter: AlekhyaBhat

Chapter 34: So Much Less Than Friends

I remember the laughter. I remember the tears.
I remember the day you walked away and proved my fears.
And now, all you are is a stranger. A stranger with all my secrets.

~Starlight24

My head felt like it had been smashed against a freaking wall and then run over by a monster truck.

I tried to open my eyes but then winced as a white, searing pain shot through my body. My eyes stung like they had been touched by a fiery chili.

"Ow," I whined, and then I felt around my mouth. There were crusty bits of blood hanging along the sides (gross, I know) and it tasted salty. My eyes were stinging and my nose felt crushed. My head on the other hand...

"I freaking hate you!" someone yelled, and then I heard someone crying.

I felt a cool, wet cloth against my eyes and I opened them again, and I screamed when I saw Dr. Hopkins hovering above me.

"Hello again," he said with a small smile, and I tried to reciprocate it but I just couldn't.

My whole face hurt.

"How do I look?" I asked, but I couldn't even say that without my face feeling like it was being shoved into the mouth of a bonfire.

"Um..." he began, before taking a mirror and placing it above me.

I made Annabelle seem like a weak horror story.

My whole face was smashed up and my nose was obviously broken. I had scratches across my face and a long, pink, fleshy and raw open wound across my cheek. My mouth looked like someone had traced a knife across and my lips were cut along it and had dried up, making me look like a Miranda Sings wannabe. My eyes were tiny and bloodshot and my usually bright blue eyes looked almost violet. My head had been plastered up and there was white from the bandages covering up my whole forehead.

Grotesque was an understatement.

"I'm going to give myself nightmares," I whimpered, attempting to push away the mirror but then looking at the thick cast on my right hand and the thick wrapping of bandages on my left hand's index finger.

"Oh, you shattered your right arm during the fall, along with fracturing your index on the left hand and snapping your left leg's kneecap. Your right leg's ankle is horribly twisted and your rib is cracked," Dr. Hopkins said, and I winced. My body did feel very awful.

"What happened?" I whispered, feeling the events that had happened previously all coming down in a hazy mess.

"We were hoping you'd clear that up for us. Thankfully, you didn't hit your head during the fall, so your memories should be intact. However, if you are feeling any discomfort around there, it will be because of the twisted angle in which you landed in and not because of an actual injury."

Yay life.

"How on Earth am I still alive?" I asked.

Okay, I was genuinely confused to death as to how I wasn't gone yet. I couldn't be this lucky. No one was ever this lucky! Especially with my deficiency. It didn't make sense.

But hey, I wasn't tempting fate.

Dr. Hopkins just smiled. "God evidently doesn't like you but he knows you can't go to hell. He doesn't want you in Heaven yet, I suppose."

Well, ouch.

"I'm going to take advantage of that then," I said dryly, rolling my eyes.

"Day," mom said, and Deeds was next to her, crying a bucketful into her palms.

"Hey," I said, feeling weak.

"What happened to you?" Deeds screamed, looking like a wreck. There were huge dark circles and bags under her eyes and her lip was busted open, probably because she bit it too much. Her whole body was shaking and her lips were quavering, and there were tear tracks that stained her cheeks. "One moment I'm at Dylan's house and the next you're in a crumpled heap at the bottom of your house."

"Day," Mom said, cautiously. "What did he say to you that made you jump off?"

OH.

Everyone thought I was suicidal. Wasn't this just peachy?

"No, I fell off the sill," I said. "I swear to the gods he didn't say anything that made me want to die. I'm stronger than that, you know it," I said with bare honesty, and Mom and Deeds exchanged wary looks. "I'm also sitting right here and I can understand perfectly well what you're saying with your eyes, you know," I said with an eye roll.

"Day?" came another voice. It belonged to Nat.

I was surprised to see that she looked much worse than Deeds. Her hair looked thin and oily like she hadn't washed it in days, and her eyes made a raccoon jealous. Her lips were cracked and dry skin clung onto her nose and ears. Her eyes were bloodshot like she'd been crying for ages and it really took me by surprise.

"What?" I asked with a glare. "Miss. X finally got a conscience?" I asked snarkily.

Honestly, I knew I was being horribly mean to someone who looked like a disaster right now. Could you blame me, though?

"Day, please," she whispered. "I was so, so scared for you," she said, crying all over again.

"Oh, that's rich," I said with an annoyed undertone. "The last time I met you, you tried to kill me by putting nuts in my drink. Why are you so sad now?"

Nat's face paled at the recollection of the incident. It was almost like she was surprised I was still thinking about that.

Bitch, you tried to kill me. I'm not going to let it slip so easily.

"I can explain. The smoothie wasn't—" she started, but she was stammering.

"I don't want your lies and I also don't want to see your face right now."

Deeds ushered her out, and I was hugged by Marie and Hailey who didn't look too good. Cady looked better than the rest, but her eyes were red and her nose was runny.

Even the guys looked really bad. Jase had apparently cried, and I was pretty touched about that.

Him and Deirdre were just adorable. I'm sorry, I'm getting off track.

Well, all my friends were here, minus one.

Where was Dylan?

"You look like you've just been put through a medieval torture device."

There he was.

"I would glare at you, but I don't want to waste moving a muscle on scum like you," I responded stiffly.

"Technically," he said, his cool demeanor not leaving that cocky face. "By talking, there are a lot of muscles involved."

"Well," I said, feeling anger rising up. He should be apologizing, not trying to put me down! What a jerk. "Talking is a natural response. I was doing it anyway. Don't feel too special."

"Ah," he replied, coming close to the bed. I suddenly felt self-conscious about how awful I looked.

Really? He had been such a huge jackass and technically I should hate him, but instead I was fretting about my face? What was wrong with me?

"What?" I asked, testily.

"I know how hard it is for you to talk based on the state of your mouth. But I'm going to let that slip," he said, acting all coy now.

Of all the nerve!

"Don't flatter yourself, Daniels," I said with an eye roll.

"Why would I flatter myself when I have you to do that for me, Snowflake?" he asked with a grin.

"I literally do not want to see your face right now. It isn't exactly on my to-do list. You can take that as my hint to leave," I supplied.

"Day, please, I need to talk to you," he said, his whole act dropping with that one statement.

"I—" I began, but something about the look in his eyes made me swallow back my sassy response. He was serious right now and he wanted to talk to me. "Can everyone give us a moment, please?"

"Will you be alright or do I have some asses to kick?" asked Cady, glaring at Dylan.

I really loved my friends.

"Thanks for the offer Cady, but you can do that after I talk to him," I said with a large grin that hurt my whole face so much.

"Don't strain yourself," Dr. Hopkins reminded, and I nodded.

"I won't, I promise," I said with a small smile.

"Day, honey, Derek will be here in an hour, will you be done by then?" asked Mom.

"Yeah, Mom. Seriously, Daddy didn't need to come down. I'm fine," I assured her.

"You're our little girl," she whispered, coming and kissing my forehead. "Our only girl, at that."

My throat felt choked up. "I swear I'm okay. I'm sorry for scaring everyone."

"Don't you dare apologize, you dummy!" Deeds chastised, looking annoyed. "We'll always be here. Always."

"I love you guys," I said with a big smile. "Now I hate to interrupt the moment, but could Dylan and I talk?" I pleaded.

Yeah, I was crap when it came to emotional moments, I know.

"Day," whispered Dylan, once everyone was out.

"Yeah?" I whispered, trying to not let the fact that the two of us were alone get to me.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, stupidly.

I rolled my eyes. "How do you think I'm feeling?"

Dylan rolled his eyes at my statement. "I'm trying to be nice, smartass," he said dryly.

"Nice," I scoffed. "It's in your personality? Are you actually telling me you're capable of it?"

"Look, about what happened—" he began, and I suddenly remembered Sandy and his dad.

"What happened to your dad's job?" I asked.

He bit his lip in response. "He got fired," he replied softly.

Yikes.

"Oh," was all I could say.

Well this was awkward.

"Look, about what I said, I really didn't mean it. I really think you're an amazing friend and, to be honest... I completely agree with you, we're so much more than just friends," he said in a rapid-fire set of comments.

"Really?" I asked, cynically. "Well that's great, because I think we're so much less than friends. Sometimes, I wish you weren't even around."

His words, exactly.

Dylan pursed his lips at my statement.

"Why did you do it?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

I crinkled my eyebrows in confusion. "Do what?"

"Why did you... Jump off?" he asked, and his eyes looked glossy.

WAS. HE. SERIOUS.

"Are you kidding me!?" I all but shrieked at his words. "No I'm serious, are you nuts?"

"What?" he asked, looking confused at my words.

"How self-obsessed are you!?" I asked, yelling really loudly now. "Do you think I actually tried to jump off because you hate me? Did you actually think you were worth that?"

He flinched like I'd slapped him across the face.

"Day," he said, looking really angry now. "So this is all my fault?" he screeched. "Did you forget the person who got my dad fired? Well, in case that fall knocked out your memory, that was you."

"I apologized for that, okay? How was I supposed to know about Sandy?" I said, glaring at him through my long lashes.

"Why did you even care about Sandy!?" he yelled, and his question caught me off guard.

"I don't know!" I exclaimed, hot tears streaming down my face. "I don't know, okay? I thought you'd just decided you were done playing with me and that you got bored."

Dylan's whole face went red with anger. "So you decided to be a jealous bitch about it? That's lovely."

Now my face went red. "I hate you so much! You're the one who told me the world would be a better place without me!"

He looked stricken. "I never said anything like that, you lying bitch!"

"I'm the lying bitch? Who's the one who strung Cady, Deirdre and even Sandy along like a plaything? That was you!" I screamed, my voice cracking at the end.

"How big is your pride? Why can't you just apologize and admit you're in the wrong!?" he yelled back with equal ferocity.

"I DID APOLOGIZE!" I said, appalled by this boy. "In case you've forgotten, it's you that didn't apologize, not me!"

"Well I—" he began, and then all of a sudden, there was a huge commotion outside my room.

Dylan cut whatever he was going to say off and then I craned my neck to see what was outside.

My heart dropped to my feet.

In a stretcher, there was a boy who was knocked out and fully unconscious, and pretty much drowning in his own blood. There was a crying lady above him, and the doctors looked super panicked.

I knew I could always recognize that lazy mop of brown hair.

The blank look in the once stormy gray eyes.

Max?

A/N:

Random GIF of Cady ^^^

Another cliff hanger whoop whoop!

Anyway, Day's made it out alive again. I swear this girl is immortal or something.

HOW DID YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER? I sure loved writing it.

Especially the last bit.

ESPECIALLY THE LAST WORD.

Come on guys, you didn't think I'd throw Max out of the picture that quickly, did you?

MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

On a side note, we're still at #35 in Teen Fiction *fist pumps the air*

I genuinely don't know how that happened, considering the number of books there with so many more reads and even lesser parts than me.

But, like Day, I ain't complaining and I'm not exactly trying to tempt fate here xD

Thoughts on the chapter? Day? Dylan? Max?

Song of the Day: We Don't Talk Anymore by Charlie Puth and Selena Gomez

I hope you're anticipating the next chapter soon!

And also, the identities of Popcorned and Miss. X will be revealed shortly...

Don't forget to check out Project Perfect ;)

Teaser: Don't text and drive

I LAVA YOU ALL SO MUCH!

~Lexi