Chapter 215: I Want to Go Home

Holly’s POV

I came back to the world slowly, like someone dragging me up through thick water. Everything felt muffled at first… the beep-beep-beep of a monitor, the sting of antiseptic in my nose, the dull throb that lived in every inch of me.

Then the pain sharpened its claws and dug in. My head pounded like someone was using it as a drum.

Every damn part of my body, from my nails up to the strands of hair on my head… They all hurt.

Like someone had taken a baseball bat to every single bone in my body and then, for fun, set the bat on fire.

I groaned. The sound came out raspy, like I’d swallowed sandpaper. My eyelids felt glued shut, but I forced them open anyway.

My ribs screamed when I breathed. My right leg was hanging in the air like a sad piñata, wrapped in plaster and strung up by wires. My neck was locked in one of those stupid foam collars that make you look like a confused turtle. Tubes crawled out of my arm. I tried to move my fingers…yep, still attached. Small victories.

Then I saw her.

Kayla was curled up in the plastic chair beside my bed, knees to her chest, face buried in a mountain of soggy tissues. Her eyes were puffy and red, lashes stuck together, cheeks blotchy like she’d been crying for hours. Maybe days. She looked wrecked.

She noticed me staring and practically launched herself at the bed.

“Holly!” Her voice cracked in half. Fresh tears spilled over. “You absolute idiot, why did you have to go and crash your damn car? Do you have any idea how dangerous you are to the human race? Like, the planet should come with a warning label when you’re behind the wheel!”

I tried to laugh, but it came out a wheeze. “Love you too, Kay.”

She grabbed my hand…the one without the IV…and squeezed so hard I felt my fingers go numb.

“I thought I lost you,” she whispered, voice shaking. “I thought…God, Holly, when they called me I dropped my phone in my coffee and just ran. I’ve been here since yesterday, sitting in this stupid chair, praying to every god I don’t even believe in that you’d open your stupid eyes. Cayden was here too. Had to drop him off at school before coming back here.”

Then the tears really came. Big, messy ones that rolled down her face and dripped onto my blanket. She didn’t even try to stop them.

“What would I have told Ava?” She cried.

I felt my own eyes sting. My throat closed up. “Kay… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t you dare,” she sobbed, climbing halfway onto the bed so she could hug me without yanking any tubes. “Don’t you dare apologize for almost dying, you reckless disaster.”

I hugged her back with the one arm that still worked. My face is wet now too. I couldn’t stop it. We just sat there crying like two idiots while the heart monitor beeped way too fast.

Eventually she pulled back, wiped her nose on her sleeve (gross, but very Kayla), and glared at me through the tears.

“Okay but seriously…what the hell happened? I heard from the truck driver that you were driving like a maniac… probably distracted. The cops said you swerved, hit a tree, nearly turned yourself into a human barbecue if not that the truck driver rushed to the crash site and pulled you out. What happened, Hols?”

I stared at the ceiling. My chest felt heavy again, like that night was sitting right on my ribs.

“David,” I said. My voice sounded small. Broken. “He… he humiliated me. In front of everyone. Called me a whore like it was a joke. Everyone laughed. I just… I needed to get away. I was crying so hard I couldn’t see. I dropped my phone trying to call you and—”

I couldn’t finish. The memory slammed into me all over again…his smirk, the laughter, the way I’d felt like nothing.

Kayla went very still. Her crying stopped like someone flipped a switch.

“That son of a bitch,” she whispered.

I laughed, but it sounded more like a sob. “Yeah. Pretty much.”

She sat back in the chair, arms crossed, eyes blazing even though they were still red.

“Maybe it’s time you listen to me, Hols. He’s no good for you. Can’t you see?” She whispered as though she was talking to a child.

“I know now,” I muttered through tears.

A brief silence passed before she spoke up.

“You know what? I’m done crying over boys who treat my best friend like garbage,” she said. “And you should be too.”

I swallowed hard. “I think… I think I finally am.”

“Wow, Hols. I'm so glad that you can see the truth for yourself after being blind for so long. I never knew this day would come,” she laughed, blowing her nose into the tissue.

Silence stretched between us. The good kind. The kind where you don’t need words because the other person just gets it.

Then I took a shaky breath and said the thing I’d been carrying like a brick in my chest since the second I woke up.

“I’m really done with David, Kay. For real this time. No more chasing. No more hoping he’ll change. No more bleeding so he can notice me. No more letting him make me feel small. I’m done," I was talking to Kayla, but it felt like I was having a conversation with my self.

Kayla looked at me for a long second. Then the biggest, brightest smile broke across her tear-stained face.

“Good,” she said, grabbing my hand again. “Because you deserve someone who would burn the world down before they ever made you cry in a car.”

I laughed…really laughed…this time. It hurt my ribs like hell, but I didn’t care.

I squeezed her hand back and she squeezed back. “You know what to do right? Or do you need my help?” She asked and I shook my head with a soft smile.

“Can you please take me home when they let me out of here?” I asked.

“Home?” She asked and I nodded.

Home. I just want to go home, and forget all about this wild adventure.