Chapter 25: The Accident

Aaron's point of view:

I don't know what I did to make her so upset with me.

Ever since she saw me in the coffee shop with Tiffany, she's been distant, talking to everyone--including random people in the hallways--but me.

I don't like it.

I'll sometimes see her out of the corner of my eyes watching me with longing, or watching me and Tiffany with anger, but I don't know why, and nobody will tell me, no matter how many times I ask.

Tiffany leaves, pressing a kiss to my cheek that I fight the urge to wipe away, and Ricardo, Cassie's boyfriend, moves away to talk to Jake, who might as well be her boyfriend too.

Cassie stares at them with suspicion, laced with wonder, as they talk, Rick having an uncharacteristic softness towards Jake, but her attention shifts to me as I make my way over to her.

I like her.

I like her so much to the point where I just want to pull her into my arms and tell her how I feel, but I can't.

Sometimes, I think I'm just being a coward, scared that she's not going to feel the same way, but I tell myself I'm doing this for my family, for Autumn, and it temporarily eases my mind.

I like making her annoyed. It's fun. I like seeing her glare at me and roll her eyes at me and I like hearing her insult me because I know she doesn't actually mean it. At least, I hope she doesn't.

But now, as I'm walking towards her, she doesn't glare at me or roll her eyes, and she definitely doesn't smile her beautiful smile. She just stares.

It makes me hesitate in my decision to talk to her, but I brush it off, telling myself this is just her new way of showing her annoyance, even though it doesn't feel that way.

"Hey, Cassie," I say. I'm surprised when she doesn't answer, doesn't even change her expression. I see her shiver slightly, and I jump on the conversation opener. "Are you cold?"

Her eyes narrow slightly, almost unnoticeably, before they resume their previous position, conveying the same blank expression. "No." The way her body shivers betrays her words and I laugh.

"Why don't I believe you?" Cassie's glare, the one she gives me, shows up, but something about it is different; it feels wrong. There's too much heat, too much sincerity, behind it, like she actually means it. Like she's actually angry with me. "What's wrong?"

I watch as the glare falls away, but I'm not relieved. She's hiding her emotions from me, not telling me something."Nothing." She moves past me and tries to walk towards the building doors, but I grab her arm and turn her to face me. "Let go of me." I release my grip on her arm, but I move so I'm standing between her and the building so she can't leave.

She's angry with me, and it's a little terrifying. She's already intimidating enough when she wants to be, but the intimidation factor seems to be multiplied by one hundred when she's actually angry. For some reason, I find myself getting angry, and I speak on impulse. "What is your problem with me lately?"

"My problem?" she immediately answers, the glare on her face so strong it's like she wants to burn a hole through my chest. "I don't have a fucking problem. If anyone has a problem, it's you."

The anger in me rises despite my efforts to control it. I can remain calm when way bigger people than her get in my face and threaten me, so why am I getting this riled up over her? "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I ask with a glare of my own on my face.

"Are you actually this fucking dense?" She's yelling at me, fueling my anger, and I don't want to yell at her, but she's seriously pushing me right now. "Do you seriously not know?"

"No, Cass," I yell back, my anger getting the best of me. "I don't fucking know why you're acting this way, or why you're upset with me, or what the fuck your problem is."

She stares at me in shock, and I'm a little shocked at myself, too. Maybe more shocked than she is. I just yelled at her. At Cassie. Quite possibly one of the best people in my life right now. And I just ruined that.

Fuck.

I watch as the hurt hits her and she sags where she stands.

She gives a short laugh, one without any real laughter in it, as she looks at the ground and shakes her head.

When she looks back up at me, something in my chest cracks. I can see the tears in her eyes, see the hurt and the regret and the betrayal, and knowing that I did that--knowing that I'm the cause of any pain she might be feeling right now--kills me.

My anger evaporates, and all I can think about is making this wonderful girl in front of me feel better, but a part of me wonders if I can do that if I'm the cause of what's making her feel bad.

Nonetheless, I take a step forward and reach out to her, wanting to comfort her. "I'm sorry, I--" It hurts when she shakes her head and turns away from me.

I feel like she's ending things--though we never really had a thing--like her turning away from me right now, in this moment, means she wants nothing more to do with me.

Every cell in my body is screaming at me to tell her how I feel, to tell her the truth about and the extent of my relationship with Tiffany, but I don't. All I can do is stand and watch as she asks Rick for his keys.

He hesitates in giving them to her, knowing she shouldn't be driving if she's upset, but he relents.

Cassie turns to face me before she leaves, and I wish she hadn't. The look she gives me is so full of despair and disappointment and crushed hope--like she wanted me to be something, to do something, and she allowed herself to hope for it, and I ruined it through one simple argument.

I want to fix this, want to fix whatever went wrong between us, but I know that now is not the time. Though I'm not even sure if this is fixable.

We watch as she drives off, and as soon as she's out of view, Rick decides to talk to me.

He's never really spoken to me before. He either talks to Cassie or Jake and sometimes Grace, but never anyone else.

"You're an idiot."

My head snaps to look at Rick, who's staring at me with a mixture of anger and disappointment, with a touch of frustration. "What?"

He sighs. "You're such a fucking idiot."

"Why?" I ask, confused. "How?"

"Dude," Jake pipes up. "You're so oblivious, it's not even funny."

Adrian and Cole make sounds of agreement, but Grace stays silent, staring at the ground as she fidgets.

I ignore it for now. "What are you guys talking about?"

They all groan.

"She likes you, man." This comes from Rick. Her boyfriend. Why would he be telling me this? I'm sure the question shows on my face, because he answers it. "I'm not actually her boyfriend."

My eyes widen. "What?"

"Yeah. She saw you come into the shop with that chick, and she got me to pretend to be her boyfriend."

My eyebrows furrow at this. "Why would she do that?"

That finally gets a response out of Grace. She steps away from Cole and towards me. "No offense, but you're more oblivious than Harry Potter."

I give her a weird look. "I don't know what that means."

She sighs, almost at the end of what I thought was an endless supply of patience. "It means she likes you. Like, really likes you. Like, in the way that I like Cole." I catch Cole's sweet look towards her, and I'm surprised. Cole's never struck me as the type to stick to one girl--his many hookups and one night stands speak for themselves--but he seems to genuinely adore Grace. But her next words cause my stomach to drop all the way to my feet. "But you probably messed that up."

"Ella," Cole scolds, but Grace just shrugs.

"I'm just telling it like it is." She returns her attention to me. "She had still liked you even though you were dating Tiffany, but just now? You made it seem like you had no romantic feelings for her at all."

All of a sudden, it hits me.

What did I just do?

Grace nods, confirming my thoughts. Oh God, what have I done?

"Fuck," I breathe. I turn my attention to Rick. "Do you know where she would've gone if she was feeling hurt?"

He shakes his head. "I told you, we weren't really dating. Outside of the coffee shop and school, we never really talked. I'm sure it would've helped if I was into girls."

Everyone's silent, but I don't miss the way Jake's eyes are trained on Rick, a hopeful look in his eyes.

"That's great, buddy," I say. "I mean that. But that doesn't help me figure out a way to fix things with Cassie." Nobody talks and I finally let out a groan. "I'll just stop by her house."

A voice in the back of my mind tells me that maybe Grace was right, maybe Cassie doesn't like me anymore.

The thought is too painful to continue thinking about, so I push it to the back of my mind as I get into my car.

But the thought is still there.

---------

I'm driving down the road to get to her house when I see it.

The ambulance, the police cars, and the crash.

Nobody has been driving in this road, so I get stuck in place with a full view of the crash.

Looks like one of the cars rammed into the side of the other.

As I'm staring at the car that got hit, I realize that it looks vaguely familiar.

It's only when I see a flash of dark brown hair as paramedics remove the driver side door that it hits me.

That's Rick's car.

I immediately get out of the car and start to run towards her.

A cop steps in front of me, blocking my path.

"I'm sorry, son, but I can't let you past this point."

"Cassie!" I yell out, still trying to make it past the cop, hoping she hears me, hoping she wakes up, hoping she's okay. "Cassie!"

"Do you know her?" the cop asks me and I nod.

"She's my--she's my--"

What is she to me? Friends? I want to be more than that, but I can't say she's my girlfriend without asking her. Not to mention the fact that I technically already have a girlfriend. What a mess.

"Girlfriend, son?"

Without thinking, I nod.

Or maybe I did think. If I'm not related to her in some meaningful way--meaningful as in more than friends meaningful--I can't see her and I need to make sure she's okay. I need to.

The cop stops holding me back and I rush over to where the paramedics have her on a stretcher.

Her hair is wild, all over the place, and matted with blood, her face streaked with it. The blood is coming from her head, and there's a lot of it, and her eyes are closed. If it wasn't for the blood, I would've thought she was sleeping. There's a couple of cuts on her face, most likely from the window of the car--all of which are completely shattered--along with a bruise on her neck, probably from the seatbelt.

I move my gaze further down her body to assess the damage, and I have to hold in a cry when I see her left leg is bent in a way it is not meant to.

I run a hand through my hair as she gets loaded into the back of the ambulance and I climb in after her and the paramedics, immediately grasping her right hand in between two of mine as soon as I sit down.

Please be okay.

---------

Alright, guys, so that happened. As promised, here is the second chapter of my New Year's gift to you guys.

Please let me know what you thought about Aaron's perspective. I'm not a guy and I don't know how guys work, so if it's bad at least I have a reason.

Just to clarify: there is a reason why Aaron is dating Tiffany and doesn't want to tell Cassie how he feels, and it will all be revealed in due time. All I ask is that you're patient with me, for I have a plan. Trust me. They're not going to immediately end up together after this, but soon.

I don't know if the next chapter should be in Aaron's POV again, or if I'll switch back to Cassie's; at this point I think it just depends on how much hospital details I want to put in. It's not set in stone yet, so be prepared for anything.

Anyways, are you ready for the aftermath of the accident?

Because I'm not, haha, and I'm the one writing it.

--Rose