Til death do us part.

THE HOSPITAL : 7:30PM

(NYLIO): Daylnne sat to the left of me, while Amelia sat to the right. She crossed her legs, bouncing them up and down, waiting to see Koa. I didn’t need to feel her to know that she was cold. I could trace my name in the goosebumps down her arms. The walls of the room were made of glass, so we could easily see him lying there, being treated. But that didn’t seem to calm her down even a bit. Across the lobby, Deena sat in the row of chairs on the other side of the room, closer to the lobby concierge.

She held her phone in her lap on Gabriel’s contact. The phone dialed once again, and with another hopeful hello, Gabriel, who had just heard about what happened, hurriedly answered, only this time after Deena exhaled, she spoke. “I know you find me repugnant right now-” she looked up, holding back tears. “You could never be repugnant.” His voice uttered soothingly and balmy as air. A smile sparked from her glum face. She could tell that he was in the car the way the background noises stood out.

(NYLIO): I turned back to look at Daylnne, and the second I opened my mouth to utter a single vowel, she jumped to her feet.

(DAYLNNE): Two doctors came out of Koa’s room, nodding in approval. He had to be okay. Had to. I flew straight past them and into the room, stopping at his bedside. Seeing him that way made me heartsick, not knowing if he could hear me, not knowing if he was going to pull through. It burned me. I saw my burnt-up jacket on the table beside him. He was thinking of me. I ran my finger over the pin with a saddened smile. That pin would be the last of him if he died on me. I’d have nothing else. I sat by his side, holding his hand. I didn’t even know what it was he made me feel. But now that I felt it, I couldn’t imagine living without it. Not now. Not ever. “You’ve always been there, even when I didn’t know, sort of like a guardian angel.” I shifted his hair to the side and out of his face. He didn’t know what I was saying. He couldn’t even feel the pressure of my touch. Looking down at his hand, holding out hope for him to say something, anything, I kept talking. They tell you that pouring your heart out helps them feel you if you’re truly connected. They also tell you not to believe everything you see in movies. It’s foolish to believe in fairytale endings. I was okay with being foolish if being foolish meant he was going to be fine. My glare digged into his arms. I felt squeamish, looking down at the iv that jammed right underneath his skin. This was the moment when the main character gained strength to fight. God, I hope he can fight. If not for me, for him. “I don’t usually believe in fate or destiny. I don’t believe in anything, really. But I think either way, we would’ve crossed paths. It was meant to be this way. Doesn’t matter how we got here, just that we did.” My hope isn’t strong enough. My love is too dull.

(NYLIO): Amelia ran toward Luke, holding onto his face like she hadn’t seen him in years. I felt a wave of dejecting somber. Everyone had someone. No one understood the scar of loneliness until it was there with them, swallowing them whole and drowning them so far into self pity that they didn’t even recognize themselves.\ I looked over, one more time. Daylnne held her hand in his as her smile intensified.

(DAYLNNE): “And I-” His sudden pulse ran through his veins. Koa opened his eyes, and everything felt complete again. Please be okay. His grip on my hand strengthened. He didn’t say anything, but I could read between the lines. Koa shakenly held his other hand up and over our interlocked hands and up my arm, tracing his fingers clumsily across my skin, writing out the words his mouth couldn’t whisper. I love you.

(NYLIO): I knew that beauty existed, not because of the look in her eyes or the soft warm moments with my loved ones, but because it existed in the underlining of her smile. She made me sick. I got up and noticed Deena left the room. I quickly followed behind her, passing by Amelia and Luke still having their moment. As I passed Tina’s room, I saw that no one had been in there, I suddenly forgot about my sense of direction and found myself in her room, standing over her bed, watching her sleep. Her skin was masked with burn marks, from her legs to her neck, and the lights were dimmed a bit. Her eyes couldn’t handle the exposure of light, and her throat was too sore to push through a steady breath. The beep on her monitor kept beeping in a delayed pattern. I looked up, peering over at it curiously. Without warning, the beep suddenly dropped and shrieked a high-pitched beep repeatedly. “Hey!” I turned and yelled for the woman at the desk. As people began to rush in, I stepped back. My body became paralyzed with fear. I turned again, looking for Deena. Amelia and Luke were standing outside the room, hand in hand, saddened. She let go of Luke’s hand and alerted Daylnne as I stumbled around, trying to make sense of what was happening.