~Althia~

"How are you?" Justin gently asked me as I had calmed down from my crying

One of his arms was still wrapped lightly around my waist as his other hand was holding onto the side of my thigh. One of my hands was on his upper arm that's around me while the other hung loose close to his side as we sat facing one another.

"Let's see...My boyfriend broke up with me, one of my friends think I hate him because he heard me say that I hate him, my best friend got assaulted at a party and I found out it wasn't the first time she had gone through something as horrible as that, my other best friend is laying in a hospital bed as we speak and the cops want to blame it all on him while they're harassing us with questions but not listening to our answers so I'd say I'm doing pretty fucking horrible. How are you?" I answered him

Justin opened his mouth slightly but nothing came out

"I'm sorry" I sighed as I slightly rested my head on his arm "That was really bitchy and totally uncalled for but it just seems like things are getting worse and worse by the second" I added

"No you have every right to feel the way you're feeling, it's a lot" Justin responded "And I know that you don't hate me" He added "I'm also really sorry about you and Zach" He continued "And I'm sorry about what's happening to Jeff and for what happened to Jessica" He finished

"Thanks Jus" I whispered

"You're always there for me Ee-Ah, I think it's time that I'm here for you" Justin said as he hugged me tightly

I sighed once more as I breathed in his scent

We released from the hug and looked at one another as Justin started to lean in slowly

Before anything could happen, we both heard footsteps nearing and we pried apart from one another

"Justin! It's about damn time you join us" Zach greeted him

"Hey, yeah, sorry. My phone was off for a bit and then when I got all the messages, I came here as quickly as I could" He told him

"How's Jeff?" I asked the gang

"We still don't know what exactly is wrong with him since nobody will tell us but he certainly isn't in the worst shape you have imagined" Monty answered me "He's out but apparently he can still hear everything you say" He added

I nodded and got up as I saw Alex and Jessica joining us

"Jess, hi, how are you holding up" Justin stood up and asked her

Immediately I shot Jessica an apologetic look to tell her that I was sorry for telling Justin, she gave me an it's okay look and I sighed in relief that she wasn't angry at me

"Here let me walk you to his room" Montgomery reached out for me

I grabbed his hand and turned to look at Justin

"Jus, you coming with?" I asked him

"I think it'll be better if you went alone" He answered "I'll go see him next" He added

"After she goes, no more visitors are allowed until his parents come" The nurse spoke as she walked by us to go to her desk

I looked at Justin again

"It's fine, go, I can wait" He told me

I nodded before letting Monty lead me to Jeff's room

"I'll wait for you here" Monty said once we arrived at the door

I took a deep breath before opening Jeff's room door and closing it right behind me before fully turning around to look at him

I gasped slightly when I saw all of the bandages around him

I took small slow steps towards the bed and lightly grabbed Jeff's hand as I looked at him closely

He had bandages wrapped around his waist as well as his head and on his left hand

"Everything is gonna be alright, Jeffy" I whispered to him "Your parents are gonna be here soon and we're all here for you, it's gonna be ok" I continued

I bent down and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead as tears spilled out of my eyes

I let go of him and turned away, wiping my tears quickly as I walked towards the door

"You ok?" Montgomery asked as I closed the door of the room behind me

I nodded and leaned into his side as he loosely wrapped his arm around my waist

When we walked back to the waiting room, everyone was sitting except for Zach who was in a corner on the phone

I took a seat again as we all anxiously waited for Zach to get off the phone

"That was Jeff's parents" He announced as he joined us once again

"And?" Jessica questioned

"Well they landed not that long ago and had a late dinner before going to check into their hotel and that's where they saw all of our missed calls" He started "They're driving back to the airport right now and they're getting on the first flight out that comes here" He finished

"They probably won't get here until late tomorrow morning or early afternoon" Alex spoke "It's going on 4 am and with the small amounts of flights that come here, plus the drive from the airport to here..." He added, trailing off

Zach nodded agreeing

"How were they?" I asked him

"Very calm, I quickly talked to his mom as she explained where they were before she handed me over to his dad and he just said that they were gonna fly out as soon as they can" He answered

"Well I don't know about you guys but I really need some food in me" Montgomery spoke "Anyone down to going to the cafeteria?" He asked

Jessica and I both shook our heads

"I'll stay here with the girls" Alex said

"I'll stay here too in case Julie or Rob call me from the airport" Zach told him

"I'll come with" Justin got up

"You guys at least want something?" Justin questioned

Again, Jessica and I shook our heads

"I'll take a water or juice and like a yogurt or something" Alex told him

"If there's a sandwich or something, I'll take that" Zach said

Montgomery and Justin nodded before heading over to the elevator

Zach took a seat beside me

"You two try and get some rest, it's been a long night" Alex told Jessica and I

I nodded as Jess leaned her head on Alex who wrapped his arm around her

Zach took my hand slightly and I slowly leaned my head on his shoulder

I closed my eyes as I drifted to sleep at the sounds of a busy hospital floor and the two boys talking amongst themselves.

//

I got woken up by the touch of someone waking up suddenly beside me

Confused and lost, I looked around and saw that I was in a hospital

All of the events from the night came back to me as I saw the whole gang slowly waking up by a woman kicking our legs

Montgomery, who must have fallen asleep while laying on me, jolted awake when the woman smacked him

My eyes went wide as I recognized the woman as Jeff's mom

"How could you all do this to him?!" She pointed her finger at each of us "You call yourselves his friends and yet my baby boy is the only one resting in a hospital bed while all six of you are sound asleep with nothing wrong" She went on "Why didn't any of you stop him? How could you let this happen? You all have got to be the worst friends on this planet and I damn you" She added

Before she could continue any further, Jeff's dad came and dragged her away from us as he shot us all an apologetic glance

"What the fuck was that?" Justin was the first one to speak as he got up from the floor

"His mom is reacting perfectly normally, Justin" Alex responded "The cops probably told her that Jeff was drunk driving and now she's blaming all of us for it because she knows that we were all at the party with him and she thinks we didn't stop him from driving" He added

"I feel so bad for her" Zach said

"Do you think Jeff woke up yet?" Monty asked "Do you think they know what's wrong with him?" He questioned

"We should go talk to his mom" Jessica spoke up

I looked at her to see that she was already looking at me

I nodded and got up as she did the same

"Are you two sure?" Alex asked us

"We'll be fine" I answered "Julie needs to know the truth and forget what the dumb cops said to her" I added

Together, Jessica and I, walked down the small corridor towards Jeff's room

Once we reached his door, his dad was on his way out

"Jessica, Althia. I'm so sorry for what happened with Julie, she's just very emotional right now and she's not getting the answers she wants" He greeted us

"It's totally okay, Rob, we can't even bare to imagine what she's going through right now" I told him

"Do you think we could try and..." Jessica trailed off as she gestured to the door

"I think she would like that" Rob nodded and opened the door for us "I'll go talk to the boys" He added before closing the door again behind us

Jeff's mom was sitting in a chair next to Jeff with her eyes closed as she held onto Jeff's hands

"Julie" I spoke softly

"It's Mrs Atkins to you" She snapped her eyes opened and looked at us

"We're really sorry about Jeff" Jessica said

"You better be, you're the reason he's here" Julie scoffed

"Mrs Atkins, we know what the officers told you since they questioned us and told us about the conclusion that they pulled" I started "But you need to know that Jeff wasn't under the influence while he was driving" I added

"Drinking and driving is not the reason for this accident" Jessica told her

"I saw Jeff right before he was leaving to go do the run and he swore to me that he had nothing but two beers since we had first gotten to the party which had been two hours beforehand" I continued

"He offered us a ride back home and, well, you know Jeff even better than the two of us to know that he would never break a promise about this kind of thing and he would never have offered us that ride if he was under any influence" Jess finished

Julie looked at us with tears in her eyes that made me feel my tears developing

"Thank you" She whispered as she blinked tears away "I knew he would never do such a stupid thing but the cops went into such details that they made me believe he had done it. I sat here so disappointed in my own son for actions that he didn't even take" She went on

Jessica took a couple steps forward and placed her hand on her shoulder

"Montgomery mentioned that a stop sign was down and we believe that that's probably the reason for the crash" I told Julie

"Thank you girls" She nodded "I want to apologize for what I did in the lobby earlier" She added

"Don't worry about it" Jess responded

Julie gave us a small smile to which we returned before deciding we should leave and head back to the boys.

//

We spent the whole day at the hospital, awaiting updates from Jeff's parents. From what the doctors have told them, Jeff has a couple broken ribs as well as some bruised one and he has a mild concussion that they need to survey carefully to make sure there is no internal bleeding involved or developing. We stayed until Julie practically kicked us out to go home since we have school tomorrow after promising several times that she would update us on Jeff's well being as well as promising to letting us know immediately if he wakes up conscious enough to see and talk with us.