Myths And Facts About Boys That Every Girl Should Know [#7]

Myth Number 7: All Boys Like Being Outdoors.

Fact: They do unless it’s cold, raining and the air is full of sirens.

xxxxxxx

Ather

“Callie! Fuck!”

I pulled over hurriedly, not even caring if I was half out onto the road.

There were people crowding around, watching as the ambulance and police officers attempted to pry open the driver’s side door. Some even had umbrellas to protect them from the light rain. What was this, a stage show?

I went to undo my seatbelt, which of course jammed in my hurry. I eventually wrenched it from the holder and shoved open my door. Already the rain was coming down harder but I barely noticed. I was dimly aware of sirens.

“Callie!” I yelled, frantic, not knowing where to look. I spotted a police officer directing traffic so I ran over. “Excu – excuse me… that’s my friend’s car… what – what happened? Where is she?”

The police officer gave me a look of such pity I was positive the news had to be bad. I couldn’t tell if the water running down my face was rain or tears but I knew I was crying.

“She – the driver, that is – is over in the ambulance,” the cop told me. “I think they’re about to leave.”

I looked over and sure enough the ambulance was hurriedly packing up their stuff. “Oh, shit.”

I ran over just as they were closing the doors. “Callie?” I turned to the nearest adult wearing a uniform. “My friend… that’s her car… where is she?”

Again the officer – a woman this time – looked at me sympathetically. “There was an accident, honey. Some hoon came out of a side lane and hit her as she was driving up the road.”

I had, unsurprisingly, already figured out there had been an accident. Thankyou, Captain Obvious. “Yeah, but where is she? Is she alright? I need to know!”

“We – we don’t know yet, hon. She might be, she might not.” The woman pointed over to the ambulance. “Her parents aren’t here yet, see if you can hitch a ride.”

I ran over to the ambulance, tears still running down my face, shock making my lungs constrict. I banged on the back door. “Hey! That’s my friend, let me in!”

A door opened and a face appeared. “You family?”

I took a step forward and felt like I’d been stabbed. Callie was lying there in the stretcher, already full of tubes. “I may as well be her sister,” I told the officer.

He fought an inner battle for a second then nodded. “Alright, quick, get in.”

Now almost sobbing with relief, I climbed into the back. As they were closing the door, Bert came sprinting up, looking about the same as I did. “Oh, my God. Oh, Jesus Christ. No. Is she alright? What happened? Please, I need to know!”

“An accident, Bert,” I told him. “We have to go. I’ll take care of her, I promise.” With that, the doors closed and we finally left, acting out in reality one of my worst nightmares. I sat, stroking Callie’s hair, as we sped toward the hospital.

This cannot be happening.

Callie

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

“… Flee me (kill me)

Love me (leave me)

Take my woeful heart and bleed me

Hate me (need me)

Let me (be me)

Bring this sorrow home and bring me peace…”

Light drizzle fell as I drove along, effectively obscuring my windshield between wipers. I squinted through it at the bright red brake lights of the car in front of me, making sure to keep a safe distance. The CD played loudly and I sang along, sure of the words.

“…Plays again in my own head,

Story’s left inside me said

(Cut you down but you won’t hurt

Crush the crave I’m gone…)”

Suddenly my phone starts to ring from where it sits on the dashboard. The vibration makes it buzz and I reach for it. Suddenly the car in front puts its brakes on so I abandon the phone to slow my own car. My phone is still buzzing so I reach for it again but somehow manage to push it further away.

“…Impossible to live within this mind of shattered dreams…”

“Goddamnit,” I hear myself say, and finally stretch out and grab it. Ather. I go to press the Accept Call button and -

I gasp, my eyes flying open as I sat up in an unfamiliar bed. The harsh fluorescent lighting of a hospital room speared me in the eyes so I closed them again, only to be confronted by more visions of blue and red lights.

Around me, there is panic. Lots of people shouting things like ‘She’s awake!’ People checking my body for damage despite that it’s my brainwaves spiking and not my heart. Lots of little screens which tell them things about me I could never know. People, murmuring words that sound like miracle.

I try to speak and find even that small effort exhausts me, so I lay back on my pillows.

“C – Can I have some – cough – water?” I croak at the nearest person, which is when I notice Ather. Her face is wet.

“Hey,” she says softly, and I notice that her hair is sticking up. It looks funny so I smile.

“Hey.”

“How – how do you feel?” she asks. “I mean, you know, apart from ‘crap’.”

I think for a second. “Like I have paint in my veins.” The longer I’m conscious, the more I notice – like the faint prickle of my skin under bandages, or the soft beep of a heart monitor.

Ather is nodding. “Fair enough, I guess. You were out for a couple of days. I thought - ” she broke off, her voice splintering into a sob, “I thought you weren’t going to w-wake up.”

Through the painkillers I can feel my own eyes blur and realise I must be crying too. I’m about to reassure her when a boy runs through the door, practically skidding into a machine. The paint in my veins turns to blood again and it rushes through me as I recognise his face. Bert.

“Oh, my God, Callie, you’re awake!” he says, dashing over to the bedside. Ather stops him with a pointed look at the tubes and bandages which I’m only just beginning to feel. I try to smile, feeling the healing skin under a bandage stretch, unused to the movement. Bert grabs my hand, and even though he’d die rather than admit it, he’s crying too.

Beside me, Ather got up and left us alone. Bert took the opportunity and pulled his chair closer, running his hand softly over my hair. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again,” he said with a soft smile.

“I won’t,” I promise him, and he leans forward, carefully circumventing the hospital equipment in order to kiss me softly.

Ather

I left Bert in with Callie for a while, figuring they probably had some catching up to do. Ironically, I’d just sent him home for some sleep when Callie sat up, suddenly awake and causing panic. It scared the bejesus out of me.

And then made me cry with relief.

There were several of those hard, plastic-upholstery chairs bolted to the wall outside her room so I sat in one of them, rubbing my eyes. Forty-eight hours without much sleep can really fuck you up.

I heard footsteps approaching so I looked up and, seeing who it was, smiled. Heath walked up beside me and took the chair next to me. He was holding flowers.

“How is she?”

“Awake,” I replied tiredly, then yawned. “Unlike me.”

He put down the bouquet and slid his hand over to entwine our fingers. I leaned against him, breathing in and closing my eyes. Clean boys smell so good. It’s a combination of deodorant, shampoo and something else which I totally love.

“You should be sleeping,” Heath murmured into my hair, “Callie’s not the only one who needs looking after.”

I nodded sleepily. “I know. I’ll go home soon.” I sat up slightly, still holding his hand. “Bert’s in there now.”

He nodded. “Fair enough.”

We sat in amiable silence for a minute or so, and then a nurse came up.

“Anyone in there?” she asked us, gesturing to Callie’s room. We nodded.

“Yeah, her boyfriend.”

She nodded and walked in. A second or two later, Bert started to come through the door and I instantly felt Heath’s hand let go of mine. He tried to cover it up by getting his phone out, but it had been too quick for just a leisurely message or time check. I looked at him but he wouldn’t meet my eyes, no doubt avoiding the hurt and doubt in them.

I didn’t realise ‘unofficial’ meant ‘secret’.

Bert didn’t seem to notice. He sat down on my other side and ran his hands through his hair. “Nurse said visiting hours are over.”

“You want to go get a coffee or something?” I asked both of them, but neither of them nodded. Instead, I got an excuse from Heath and a yawn from Bert. It was probably a good thing, though, because I really did need sleep.

“Ok, well, in that case, I’m going home to try and sleep. I’ll see you both later.” I got up, digging in my pocket for my car keys. The car had luckily still been at the accident site when I went back for it.

I was never going to be able to drive past that spot and look at it the same way again.

As I got to the big glass automatic doors, I heard footsteps behind me and turned around, expecting Heath and an apology. Instead, it was Bert.

“Hey, Ath… sorry… can you give me a ride home? I got dropped here; I can’t bring myself to drive…”

I had to stop myself from sighing out loud. “Sure. Come on, let’s go.”

Bert followed me out of the hospital and down steps to my car. I could sort of see where he was coming from; every time I had driven since Callie’s accident, I was almost unreasonably paranoid about other drivers. Driving at night was also hard; every red light was half a siren.

“Have you talked to Isaac since Saturday?”

I frowned slightly at the question. “No, not yet. I’m not sure what he’s going to do, actually. Maybe I should, before he says anything to Callie.”

Bert was referring to Saturday night. I had been sitting by Callie’s bedside, obviously still upset, when Isaac knocked on the door, looking, to put it nicely, distraught. There was a gash on his forehead.

“Uh… hey, Ath… I, um… I need to talk to you. But not – not in here.”

He ran his hand through his hair, looking like he was gathering the courage to do or say something. This more than anything concerned me, as did the presence of the gash. What had happened? More to the point, why did he need to talk to me about it?

I got up slightly warily, and followed him back out. “What’s going on?”

“I – I – look, I don’t know how to say this, but… I think I caused Callie’s accident.”

“You what?” I was shocked. “You were in that accident?”

Isaac had sat down on a chair and buried his face in his hands. At my words, he looked up at me, a mixture of shock and relief on his face.

“No, God no. It – it’s sort of a long story. It happened really, really fast - ”

I sat down. “I’ve got time.”

“Well, ok. The night after deb practice, I was driving home. I saw a bunch of my buddies parked on the side of the road, just hanging around, y’know?”

I nodded, indicating I did, in fact, know.

“So I pull in, right, and there’s this new group of idiots who seem to have attached themselves to us. Dudes. Think they’re totally hot shit, invincible.” Isaac sighed. “There were maybe two chicks there. Not nearly enough to balance the testosterone in the air. Once I got there, it got worse. I have a bit of an, uh, a reputation, I guess you could say, for drag racing. I’m not bragging, I swear, I just…do.”

By now I was sitting next to him on a chair, listening. “Right.”

“Well, those morons had heard about it and decided to challenge me. As they do. I wasn’t exactly going to back down. No reason to except it was totally stupid. It was just meant to be up Waratah Lane, turn and come back. It’s narrow as, so it meant once you got the lead at the start you pretty much keep it until the turn.”

I was shaking my head. “In town. In. town. At night. In the rain. You are the biggest, dumbest, reckless idiot I have ever come across. What the hell is wrong with going where there aren’t any people and doing it? Or would that be too safe?”

“I know. Trust me, I know. I just wasn’t thinking.”

“Got that damn right.”

Isaac sighed again. “Ok well, to cut a long story short, I got the lead. At the turn, the idiot challenger thinks he’ll be totally rad and do this weird thing with the curb to try and get in front. He completely forgot the part about the main road, with the people. You’re meant to slow down, check before you race across. He didn’t. He hit Callie. And it’s all my fault.”

Now it was my turn to sigh.

“No, it isn’t. It doesn’t matter if you had accepted the challenge or not, someone else would have been racing. Someone you know would have accepted in your stead. Isn’t that the guy-honour, Grease type mentality of these things?”

“I guess. Maybe. Not necessarily. I just keep thinking, what if I hadn’t stopped? What if I’d just kept going home? It might not have happened.”

“You can’t know that, Isaac.”

“But… I can’t even look at her, in there – what if she di –” his voice cracked and I felt my own eyes prickle. “I’d feel guilty for the rest of my life.”

At that point, I was constantly close to tears, so seeing a guy I know – and who I’ve never seen cry, ever – with guilty tears making his eyes shine, pretty much brought me over the edge. I leant over and put my arms around him, eyes blurry. When I pulled away we both had wet patches on our shoulders.

“I’m sorry – you’re not going to let me forget this, are you? I just – I just needed to talk to someone who would understand, or try to, and… well, I guess I must just trust you,” Isaac said, wiping his eyes with the back of his sleeve. Despite myself, I was touched.

“Thanks. Don’t worry, I won’t hold it against you. It wouldn’t be very nice.”

Afterwards, Isaac had got up, confessing to being about half an hour late for work. Luckily he has an understanding boss. I had gone back to sitting with Callie, reluctant to leave her alone.

Now, I wasn’t so sure. Should Isaac tell Callie, now awake, the part he had in her accident, however minor? Should I tell her? I needed to talk to him again, to ask what he wanted.

Bert and I discussed this as I drove him home, trying to figure it out. Eventually we decided it wasn’t even up to us. Isaac had to do it himself.

“See ya, Ath. Thanks for the lift.”

“No problem. I’ll see you round. Night Bert.”

“Night.”

I drove home, CD player on, relief still coursing through me from earlier.

“…When this memory fades
I'm gonna make sure it's replaced
With chances taken
Hope embraced
And have I told you, have I…”

Callie was awake. That small yet immense fact was all I needed.

“…I won't let you
Let you give up on a miracle
When it might save you…”

xxxxxxx
:)
Songs: 'Gone' By Antonamasia (amazing Sydney based-metal band, everyone look them up) and 'Miracle' by Paramore.