It’s good to hear Noel’s familiar voice. I open my mouth, but it’s hard to tell them about Kitten. If I don’t say it out loud, maybe it won’t be real.

“Riff? Man, you there?” Noel questions.

“Yeah…I’m here.” I hear the shake in my own voice. “It’s Aubrey.”

“Something wrong? You sound off.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose and close my eyes. “She was in a car crash.”

“Fuck. Is she okay?” Concern is thick in his voice.

“She’s, um, oh God.” Tears erupt again. “She’s in the hospital. Her brother is driving me to her now. Jesus, Noel, she hasn’t woken up. If something happens to her…” I can’t even finish the sentence before I sob hysterically.

“Riff, put her brother on the phone. I need to find out where she is. Lane and I are coming to you,” Noel orders, and I hand over the phone to Gabe.

I drop my head into my hands and allow all the emotion I’ve been fighting to pour out of me. I can’t go through this again. I can’t loose another fucking person I love.

After Gabe gives Noel the information on where we’re at, he hands me back my phone and then pats me on the back. “You have to stay strong for her, man. Just let her know you’re there for her, and try anything you can think of to try and bring her around. Maybe if she hears your voice…”

I can hear the crack in Gabe’s voice, before he swallows hard. I know this is hurting him, too.

We make it upstairs to the hospital room in record time. Gabe marches on through, but I pause in the doorway and take a deep breath, trying to get my shit together. I need to stay strong for her.

The soft beep of the medical equipment echoes through the room. My eyes land on Aubrey’s beautiful face. A few scratches and cuts cover her face and arms. I lick my lips over and over to fight back the tears as my eyes take in the needles poking into her skin, feeding fluids into her tiny body.

I stand there frozen, unsure of what to do with myself. I want to take her place so fucking bad it hurts. She doesn’t deserve this. I shouldn’t have left her. I shouldn’t have said the mean and hurtful things I did. Those can’t be the last words that ever pass between us. They just can’t be.

A hand on my shoulder startles me. I’m so transfixed on Aubrey I don’t notice anyone else in the room. “Zach, honey, she needs you. Go to her. Tell her you’re here.”

I stare down at Mrs. Jenson as her words sink in. “What do I say?” I whisper, and I hate myself even more for not being strong enough to know exactly what to do in this situation.

“Tell her things from your heart. We need to pull her back from wherever she is and let her know there’s a good reason she needs to come back to us. We’ve all told her how much we love her.” Aubrey’s mom motions over to The Judge who sits in a chair in the corner, looking pale—a shadow of the man who I fought with hours before. “But I believe it’s you, Zach. You’re what she needs.”

Expressing myself has never been easy, and I always fuck up exactly what I want to say. Everything depends on this moment. I want her to wake up, and I want her to know how much she means to me. “Hey, Gabe. Can you bring my guitar up? I want to try something.”

He gives me a curt nod. “No problem.”

When Gabe rushes out of the room, I take a few steps and fall to my knees next to my Aubrey’s bed. I scoop her limp hand into mine and pull it to my lips. A few tears fall and I bury my face into the bed. I don’t know how long I stay like that, but before I know it, Gabe is back with my guitar.

“I’ll just set it here for you,” he says to me before turning to his parents. “Mom, Dad, I think we should give them a few minutes.”

The Judge first shows some resistance, but takes a long look at my face and nods, allowing Connie to push him out of the room behind Gabe.

Aubrey and I are alone.

I swallow hard as I push a strand of hair back from her face. “Baby, I need you. Please wake up.”

I hold my breath as I wait for her to open her eyes and smile at me just like she always does when she first wakes up, but nothing happens. I squeeze her hand harder and begin to pray, “God, please bring her back to me. I know I don’t deserve her, but she deserves to be here. I can’t go through this again. Please…” The desperation in my voice is unmistakable, but my prayer goes unanswered.

Going for another tactic I reach for my guitar, just as a short, dark-haired nurse enters the room followed by a tall, wiry doctor wearing glasses. The nurse gazes around the room as the doctor goes to work instantly examining Aubrey. She looks at me and asks, “Did her family leave?”

I nod. “They’ll be back any second.”

The doctor sighs as he pushes around on Aubrey’s stomach and there’s no reaction from her whatsoever. “I really need to speak to them about Aubrey. Can you call them and ask them to come back?”

Gabe answers on the first ring and informs me they’re just down the hall in the waiting area. I explain to him that the doctor is in the room and wants to speak with the family and he tells me they’ll be right down.

“They’ll be here any second,” I tell the doctor.

“Good.” His brown eyes flick up to mine under his gray, bushy eyebrows. “Are you family?”

I clear my throat and debate on saying I’m family too so I can hear whatever news they have to give, but decide to be honest. “I…um…I’m her boyfriend.”