Chapter 19

The sunflower begins to turn grey in my hands.

Isabel carefully removes the sunflower from my hands and crumbles it.

"Any questions?" Isabel asks with a small smile as she turns to face me I decide to start with the most obvious ones.

"Why didn't I die? Who were those people? What happened next?" I fire out as if I'm a ticking time bomb "Calm down, firecracker" Isabel jokes lightly "I cannot answer the last question since I, myself, don't even know the answer" Isabel says "As for the 'why didn't you die?'," she begins again "That wasn't your fate, if your life was meant to stop then and there then it would've" is all she replies "And as for 'those people'," she says as she looks down at the multitude of sunflowers with awe I'm assuming that each sunflower holds a different memory for each person that possesses it.

"They are Geraldine and Thomas Goodwin" she replies with a small reminiscent smile I smile at this newfound information.

"Is there any way that I can thank them?" I ask Isabel Her face is void of any emotion as she looks up to meet my eyes again. When she notices that I'm serious she shakes her head.

My mood immediately dampens at this.

"Why not?" I ask her "They passed away a year ago from complications associated with old age" Isabel says Are you kidding me?

"Oh" I reply sadly Isabel looks up at the sky and smiles. It's a sad smile considering the subject we talked about, but a smile nonetheless.

"Your time is almost up" Isabel says softly which causes me to give her a look of confusion "What do you mean?" I question her "Remember how I told you that you're in the middle?" She says as she reminds me of our earlier conversation I nod my head at her question.

"Well, you're not only in the middle of heaven and hell," she says before she clears her throat "You're also in the middle of life and death" she says with an informative tone of voice My eyes instantly bulge out of my head as I stare at her as if she's crazy.

What?!

I could die right now!

"Calm down," she says with a worried tone as her eyes become wide I nod my head and try to calm down to the best of my abilities.

"You've been in a coma for two, almost three, days" Isabel says Oh my god.

This just keeps getting better and better!

Can you sense my sarcasm?

"How do I wake up?" I ask her with a worried tone I'm not ready to die yet.

I have a girlfriend that's waiting for me.

Oh my god.

Charlotte.

She must be so worried.

"I'm not able to help you with that" Isabel says as she begins to make her way towards the ginormous apple tree "What?!" I practically yell as I chase after her "It's against my duties, plus everyone wakes up from different things" she says as she stops in front of the tree "Isabel, I need to wake up, my girlfriend is out there along with my family" I say "I'm sorry, Aspen, I know you'll find a way" she says with a wink before giving me a hug and walking behind the apple tree "Isabel" I say as I follow her As soon as I make it behind the tree, I notice that she isn't there. I quickly circled the tree only to figure out that she wasn't here.

She disappeared.

"Fuck" I scream in frustration as I kick the apple tree Who knew that I'd be taking my anger out on a literal fruit tree?

I hear the tree shake, more than it should.

I quickly look around me to see if there were any giants but I came up empty handed.

Suddenly I'm hit in the head by two medium sized apples.

"Ouch" I say as I rub the spot where the apples fell on my head I notice how hungry I am and decide to pick up an apple.

They grew on a tree.

Nothing could've happened to them.

As I take a bite of the apple my mouth instantly begins to feel drier than the Sahara Desert.

I spit the apple out of my mouth and try to created spit so that I have at least some liquids in my mouth but that doesn't end up working.

I begin to heave as my chest becomes suffocatingly tight and the throbbing in my head becomes even more prominent.

As I'm about to surrender my fate everything turns black.

I start to hear the accelerated heartbeat of a heart rate machine only to quickly realize that it is my heartbeat.

I slowly begin to pry my eyelids open and flinch when I see a bright light.

I eventually get my eyes to open but everything is blurry and unrecognizable.

Almost as if I was mildly blind.

"Aspen?" Some whispers from beside me as their crying ceases I turn my head in the direction of where the voice came from and assume that the person is my mom judging by their hair color.

At least I'm assuming it's hair.

"Oh my god" she gasps out with shock as she quickly stands up and rushes towards the door, I presume "She's awake" my mom exclaims as she begins to break down.

Has she been here the whole time?

I feel so bad for putting her through so much.

-

"Follow the light" the doctor says as she holds a small flashlight in my line of vision I try to follow the light to the best of my abilities only for the light to be quickly pulled away.

The doctor is silent as she seemingly writes something down.

"Is she okay?" My mother asks with a worried tone from beside my hospital bed "Considering her past traumatic experiences, she's healing well," the doctor says as she clicks her pen "She does have blurred vision, but that is a completely normal side effect with any kind of head trauma," she explains as I hear her turn a piece of paper "Her vision should be cleared within twenty-four hours" the doctor finishes There is a brief pause before the doctor speaks again.

"Is there anything that you would like to ask me?" The doctor asks politely "When will lunch be served?" My mom asks with genuine interest I have to hold in my laughter at her question.

"They won't be serving lunch for another three hours" the doctor replies There is another brief pause before I hear the doctors retreating footsteps.

I hear the hospital door open only to quickly close behind her.

"Aspen, do you need anything?" My mom asks with a worried tone I feel so bad for her.

She's had to witness the end product of my bad decisions time and time again.

And this time is no different.

I make a motion with my hands to indicate that I need some water.

"Here, hold out your hand" My mom says encouragingly I hold my hand out only to feel a bottle of water being placed in my open hand. I firmly grip my hand around the water bottle before bringing it up to my face.

When the nurse came in here, she helped me up so that I could sit in my bed.

As I was taking a sip of water my mom decides to speak to me.

"Bellisa and her mother are on the way to visit you" my mother decides to say I clear my throat and put the cap back on my bottle of water.

"I know that Bellisa is Charlotte" I say hoarsely as I hold the bottle of water in my hands There is a long silence.

"What?!" My mom exclaims with a taken aback tone "I saw what happened that day when I was in the coma" I reiterate with an exhausted tone of voice I suddenly feel my mother lifting the water bottle out of my weak hands before helping me to lay down on the bed.

"Go to sleep, I'll be here when you wake up" My mom says as she holds me hand comfortingly I nod my head as I quickly fall into a deep sleep.

-

I begin to wake up from the feeling of my hand being squeezed.

I feel someone gently running the pad of their thumb over my knuckles as they continue to keep a firm grip on my hand.

I slowly peek my eyes open only to quickly notice that my hospital is dimmer than it was earlier.

I guess my mom decided to turn the lights off.

As I open my eyes further, I also notice that my eyesight is significantly better now than it was earlier.

I glance down at the hand that is playing with mine and realize that it isn't my mothers.

It's my girlfriends.

My eyes shift up only to meet her distracted facial features.

All of her attention is focused on our hands.

I decide to get her attention by firmly interlocking our fingers together.

Her breath visibly hitches before she looks up at my face.

Her bright green eyes hold so many emotions.

She seems guilty.

But she also seems relieved.

She's about to say something but I stop her before she gets the chance.

"It's not your fault," I begin "This was inevitable, Megan was willing to do anything to 'end up' with me" I say since I have zero idea how killing me relates to her and I ending up together Charlotte bites her lip nervously as she nods her head like an obedient child.

I reach my unoccupied hand up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

She looks comfortable.

She's worn a pair of fitted black sweatpants along with an oversized black hoodie. Her long blonde hair is styled in a low ponytail.

"I missed you" she decides to say with a broken tone of voice Aww.

My poor baby.

I wish I could just sit up and give her a hug.

"I've missed you more, Charlotte" I decide to reveal There is no point in keeping it a secret.

She was obviously not prepared for my proclamation as she looks at me with a surprised facial expression.

"B-but I-" She stutters with obvious confusion "I found out what actually happened when I was in my coma" I tell her with a weak smile She's speechless as she looks down at our intertwined hands.

"You know that you could've tone me, right?" I question her with a slight joking tone The corner of her lip quirks up as she continues to play with my hand.

"I wanted to, but I did some research and it said that reminding you of that traumatic event could possibly cause more harm than good" Charlotte explains carefully I nod my head with understanding.

She was just trying to do what she thinks was best for me at the time.

I can't really blame her for that.

Especially when it happened so long ago.

"How long have you been sitting there?" I ask her as I swiftly change the subject "Not long, possibly thirty minutes" she assumes I furrow my eyebrows at her.

Where is my mom then?

"Your mom said that she was getting you food" Charlotte answers as if she heard my thoughts At that moment my mom describes to burst into my room with two bags of subway along with a tray of Starbucks.

My mouth begins to water at the sight of the food.

"Let me help you, Ms. Bailey" Charlotte says as she releases my hand and quickly makes her way towards my mother I frown at my empty hand.

Without her hand in mine, I begin to feel a shiver throughout my whole body.

"Aww, Charlotte I think your girlfriend misses you" My mom teases as she sets an iced coffee down on my bedside table Charlotte looks over to see my frowning face only to frown at my frown.

She hates seeing me sad.

Of course, that goes with all relationships though.

Who actually likes to see their significant other sad?

She reaches out for a random sandwich before making her way towards my bedside. She takes the seat that she was previously sitting in and brings it closer to my bed.

I would invite her to lay in bed with me, but I have no idea how long I've been laying in this bed. I can however take a guess that I probably do not smell the best.

"We currently do not have any idea when you're being released but we do know that you have two broken ribs and a mild concussion" my mom informs me I give her a surprised look as Charlotte helps me to sit up in my hospital bed.

I relax when I'm comfortably leaning against the plushness of the hospital mattress.

"Really, that's it?" I ask her as I begin to unwrap my sub "Yeah, the injuries would've been way worse if you were in the passenger seat" My mom tells me I nod my head as I pick up half of my sub and offer the other half to Charlotte.

We all sat in silence with the hospital television playing a random hallmark movie in the background.