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Theo ☪︎
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Bonus Chapter:
The Other Side

*Theo's POV of chapter 2, the night of Aurora's crash*

"What's got your shit in a twist, dreamer boy?" My childhood best friend and roommate, Vincent snaps me out of my thoughts. I roll my eyes at the nickname he's made up for me when we were 10. All because I made my fourth-grade project about dreams.

"What hasn't?" I reply. Not even two months into the year and it's already kicking my ass. For one I need to study the MCAT, try to shadow another doctor, have my sisters get hobbies other than judging my life, and for my parents to stop being disappointed in me whenever I'm not 10 steps ahead of things.

"Sorry man, what did Cindy and Vienna say to you this time?"

I let out a deep sigh, dropping my Apple Pencil on the desk and dragging my hands down to my face. "Shit about how if I don't get myself near to perfect exam scores like them it would be an embarrassment to the family and I won't make it to a good school. That if I tried harder I could have graduated by now."

Cindy is my eldest sister who's 11 years older than me. The board-certified anesthesiologist at 27 years old and now starting a family for herself with her multimillion-dollar home. She's the most judgmental out of the two and looks down upon anyone who isn't at her level of success, including me. She's mostly been absent from my life with the whole age gap and focusing on her career, yet she somehow has the most to say about my decisions.

Vienna is my second sister, a 25-year-old lawyer at one of the greatest law firm in Pennsylvania. She's not as narcissistic as Cindy, but still very uptight. She's sympathetic to me sometimes, knowing how harsh Cindy can be, but brushes it off as tough love which is infuriating.

My sisters are raging blazes, if you question their intelligence and authority you'll be turned to ashes. Similar to my parents you can say. My father is the CEO of Vantage, a tech company, and my mother a cardiologist, they weren't always around growing up either.

Vincent's frown deepens and I can visibly see his anger towards my sisters grow. It's nothing new to him either and he's tried calling them out on how hard they are on me before. "They're dumb," he says and I snort at that, both of us knowing damn well that's far from the truth. "You're nowhere near an embarrassment, fuck I wish I was as smart as you and you are ahead. Why else would you be graduating a year earlier than I?"

"I can never win with this family, they're so suffocating sometimes." I slam my book close, hoping it would give me some kind of relief. Vincent reaches out to my nightstand for my water bottle and hands it to me.

"Look, I know you're stressed and studying for the MCAT but maybe you should go to a party with me tonight. It could take your mind off of things and you'll be fresh to work the next day," he suggests lightly as I chug down my water.

I immediately shake my head at the idea of any more college parties. The only parties I usually go to are ones with champagne and people in thousand-dollar attire. Where the rich parents mingle and the rest of us are on our best behaviors to keep our family image pristine. Besides, I'm stressed because I feel like I don't have enough time to study. "You know that's not happening."

"Well at least think about it. We can go for a couple of hours to hang around. I won't drink if you don't and I'm sure Kayla would love for you to be there." He smirks, knowing well that I'm interested in her. I usually don't get a lot of chances to hang out with her, our schedules just don't match up. Though as much as it's tempting to see her again, I have other priorities.

"It's just not a good time." I check the clock to see that it's nearly 8 pm. "and I still have hours worth of work to do, I'll be too late."

"It's one of the frat parties, trust me when I say the party will be waiting for you any time of the night." He pushes a little further with his solutions to my excuses. It's rather irritating but it does make me want to consider going.

"We'll see."

☪︎

"It's cold as shit out here," Vincent hisses, crossing his arms over himself in an attempt to keep warm. I roll my eyes, muttering an 'I told you so.'  It's 48 degrees out but he insisted on having us walk to our friends Noah, Raine, and Kayla's place. Something about saving the environment one 30 minute walk at a time.

Over the past 7 hours, he'd been inching me to come to the party. The reasons got more impractical as time went on, saying things like how I need to go to at least one party each semester to keep my spirits alive, to see how many ping pong balls we can steal without the people knowing. Then, of course, was the fact that Kayla was going to be there and it was an opportunity to see her.

Once I finished my work and accidentally had enough coffee to keep me up for the next decade, I had no other excuse. Though, none of his reasons necessarily contributed to my internal debate of going or not, even the one with Kayla. There was just a nagging in the back of my mind that I needed to go today as if something important was going to happen and I needed to be there.

I send a text to Noah, telling him that we're outside his building. "You know that Raine will never walk anything more than 10 minutes right?"

Vincent shrugs at my response before the sound of the door opening grabs our attention. "Never say never."

"Hey, guys!" Noah jogs up to us, the keys in his hand bumping into each other with each step. Unlike Vincent, he was more sensible to wear something that would keep him warm, not a lousy turtleneck. Vincent and I greet him back and I take a peek behind him, not seeing Raine or Kayla's anywhere.

Noah turns slightly to see what I'm looking for and smirks. "Don't worry, I assure you your crush will be here shortly. She and Raine are probably finishing up some stuff."

I immediately tear my gaze away from the door, feeling some heat on my face. Noah and Vincent laugh at my reaction, giving each other knowing looks. "I wasn't looking for her."

"Yeah, and I'm not freezing my ass off," Vincent mocks. I roll my eyes at his response, about to comment until I hear a fit of giggles.

My head snaps to the door and my eyes practically fall off my sockets. Her hair is pulled back into a high ponytail, bright pink eyeshadow that makes her dark skin glow, a long sleeve black dress paired with some heels. In one hand she has her wallet, the other holding a pair of tennis shoes.

"Hey," I murmur once she's by my side. "You look beautiful."

Her eyes glimmer at my compliment and her smile widens. "You don't look too bad yourself."

I'm wearing black jeans and a hoodie. Definitely nowhere near as glamorous as she is. I take a glance at the guys and then at Raine. She's wearing an off the shoulder top with a black denim skirt, also wearing heels. She doesn't have an extra pair of shoes with her though. Her usual curly hair is straightened and pinned back. Yeah, we're underdressed for the party.

"Okay, if you guys can stop eye-fucking each other that would be great!" Raine announces loudly, a giggle following after. I give her a dirty look and roll my eyes. Kayla slaps her arm playfully in which Raine lets out a dramatic cry.

Vincent looks between Raine and Kayla's feet, his shoulders slumping as he realizes what the response would be in regards to transportation. "So, I guess it's a no to walking huh?"

"Of course not!" Raine looks appalled that he would even suggest such a thing. She snatches Noah's keys out of his hand. "Why would I walk when I can drive."

"It would be good for the environment," Vincent argues as he follows her to Noah's car.

Noah starts running to Raine and takes the keys back. "I will be driving my car."

The three of them start to quarrel as Kayla and I make our way to them.

☪︎

I feel a little uneasy walking down this street. We had to park a couple of streets back from how many cars there were. The house is still a good block and a half away, but it shouldn't take us too long to get there.

My phone starts going off in my pocket and I quickly pull it out to see Cindy's name. Why would she be calling me this late? "Hello?"

"Theo, you need to come home for the week in a couple of days. Dad needs one of us to go on a business trip with him as a representative."

"What? Why does he need a representative, and why doesn't mom go instead?" I ask, my eyebrows furrowing at her request. My dad goes on business trips often, yes, but he usually goes alone or with my mother. I'm literally across the country studying for my MCAT, why me?

I can hear her sigh impatiently as if I'm asking a dumb question. "Mom's busy. We are all very busy and you're the only one with time that needs to be used productively. He's meeting with companies in Massachusetts and New York, he should go with family rather than alone or with someone else."

My hand tightens around my phone as I hear her talk, understanding what she means. Of course, leave it to Cindy to think I have all the time in the world because all I do is go to school. "I can't just ditch a whole week of school and I have the MCAT to study for, remember? The test that determines if I can get into medical school that you pressure me to excel in?"

"You aren't special for just studying the MCAT, Theo," she snaps at me. I shut my mouth, clenching my jaw as I mentally prepare for another one of her downplays. I can see my friends giving me concerned looks but keeping themselves quiet and slowing down their pace so that I can be ahead.

"You can take your classes with you, why else would we get you a laptop? Vienna and I simply can not drop our lives, we don't have that privilege."

"And you think I do?" I snap back, coming to an abrupt stop. I can hear shuffling behind me before it stops too, I'm guessing my friends aren't too far behind. "Stop acting like you're better when you had an 11-year head start. I'm saying no, I'm not going so you can go tell dad to find somebody else."

"You owe him," she responds lowly. "You were supposed to take over the company but didn't. The least you can do for him is to go to a couple of meetings after everything he's given you."

I scoff loudly at this and laugh in disbelief. So it comes back to this, it always does. Cindy had wanted to get into business to take over the company but ultimately couldn't. Dad refused to let her take over and wanted another child to do it, a son, me. Though when the time came for me to pick a major I chose the premed route to pursue what I wanted.

My parents were angry, I went off course in their plans which is probably why they became more strict about my studies. They're waiting for me to trip and change my mind to get back into the business. I think reality has started to set in them when they realized how serious I was about getting into surgery so they're slowly backing off.

Cindy isn't over it. If anything she got even angrier than my parents when she heard I wasn't going to take over the company. Every time I mentioned anything school-related she would try to guilt-trip me into regretting not taking business. She's angry I had the chance to be the face of our family name but decided to 'throw it away' and such.

"You can't try to manipulate my feelings over this for the rest of your life Cindy," I sigh, wanting to just end this conversation. "What's done is done and I don't owe anyone anything for making my decision that would affect the rest of my career. You go get dad to tell me if he needs time to go that badly, otherwise, I'm not going."

I hang up the phone before she gets the chance to say anything else. I shove my phone back in my pocket, feeling the annoyance and anger ruin my prior happy mood. There's some more shuffling coming from behind me and I had almost forgotten my friends were behind me. "You guys could have kept walking."

I turn around to see four concerned and awkward looking faces stare at me. My face pulls into a frown once I realize I killed the mood for everyone. Fuck. "Sorry guys, I wouldn't have picked up if I knew my sister and I were going to fight."

Vincent is the first one to speak and break the tension. "Nah, it's fine. Your sister isn't going to ruin the mood for us. We got a whole night ahead of us."

He walks up and gives me a shoulder pat, attempting to reassure me. Raine steps up too and nods in agreement and the rest of the group follows.

"Exactly, now come on! We have a party to get to!" Noah says excitedly and starts leading the way. I give everyone a tight smile and thank them before we all start walking again.

As we get closer I can slightly hear the music coming from the house as well as seeing lights streaming out the house. We start passing by a lot of drunk people, a couple even bumping into me which doesn't help my mood either. I clench my jaw to keep my mouth shut, not feeling like fighting with people with half of a mind, and shove my hands in my pockets.

Raine comments something that makes everyone laugh beside me. It was just then that I feel someone's gaze on me that makes me look around. As we cross the street I catch the eyes of a dark-haired girl and narrow at the oddly strong smell of alcohol on her clothes. She doesn't seem too drunk, maybe not even at all, angry if anything. Her eyes are calculating and her movements are swift.

She quickly tears her gaze away from me and pulls out her phone. I force myself to keep walking, wondering what's gotten her so pissed in the first place. She's alone too... Does she live nearby? Will she get to whenever she needs to go safely? Maybe I should stop her and ask if she's okay on her own.

Before I can finish that thought process and execute it, there's a loud screeching noise and the most deafening honk. My reaction isn't fast enough and the next thing I see is that girl's head hitting on a huge rock and a black truck swerving not too far from her.

"What the fuck?"

"Oh my god!"

My instincts kick in and I sprint towards the girl. Oh my fucking god. There's blood gushing out of her skull onto the rock, the ground, her clothes. Her eyes are closed and one of her arms is twisted unnaturally. I wince at the sight of her, feeling my chest tighten.

I pull my hoodie off and apply light pressure around her head, trying to stop the blood from continuously gushing out. Within seconds my friends are hovering over her with widened eyes, both Raine and Vincent already on the phone with 911.

"Oh my god..." Kayla whispers in shock, covering her mouth with her hand as she looks at me frantically, not knowing what to do. I reach over to the girl's uninjured wrist to check her pulse while nodding Kayla and Noah over to the driver.

He must not be that much older than us, stumbling out of his car with some blood dripping down his face. He looks over to the girl in horror and the next thing I know he's collapsed on the floor. Kayla rushes towards the man while Noah pulls off his undershirt for me to use.

She has a pulse. "Hey, Hey! Stay with me."

"Can you hear me? Open your eyes," I coax softly when I see her eyes flutter. I keep my hand on her wrist to keep track of her heart rate. My own, beating a thousand miles a minute. There's not a lot I can do. I can't move her, I don't know how bad her head injury is, but at the very least I can try to get her conscious. "Listen to my voice, follow it."

Finally, I'm met with a pair of pained, dark brown eyes. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and I can feel my body easing up a bit. Vincent comes to let me know that the ambulance is a couple of minutes away and I nod. I take this moment to see Noah propping the driver against his car, seeing them talk to each other all while looking at the girl.

Raine is off to the side, embracing a distraught Kayla who can't look over in my direction. I press my lips together, wanting to comfort her, but I know that this girl needs me more. I hear her whimper and my eyes snap back to her eyes slowly closing again.

Fuck. "No, no, no! Do not head towards the light, you can not die on me," I shout frantically, putting a hand on her shoulder. I hear some blaring sirens and flashes of red and blue lights nearing. Vincent runs to escort them over.

"Sir, we need you to move so we can bag her and stabilize her vitals," The paramedic orders in a calm voice, dropping his medical bag beside me. I immediately get out of the way, letting out a shaky breath. He starts working on her but I can't help but want to stay by her.

My breathing becomes labored and I can feel tears stinging my eyes. God, whoever this girl is, I hope she doesn't die. I take another step back when another paramedic comes to assess her and see her eyes opening once again. They're filled with so many emotions, pain, worry, fear until she gives me one last look and her eyes roll to the back of her head.

By now quite a crowd has formed around us. There are people from their homes nearby, in their PJs and half asleep, half-drunk college students from the party, frat boys with ridiculous colored hair. I choke up a little when I see the puddle of blood on the ground she leaves behind as she's being put on the stretcher.

All of my friends stand beside me, trying to comfort each other from what we've just witnessed. My eyes follow her as she slowly gets put in the ambulance, they're careful not to jostle her. There's something inside of me that wants to go with her, to hop on the ambulance and make sure she's okay.

Even without giving it a second thought, before I get the chance to run to her ambulance it's quickly driving away, blasting on the sirens and the flashing lights. My heart aches uncomfortably, feeling distraught at the thought of not knowing if she'll be okay or not. Somebody puts a hand on my shoulder and I turn to see that it's Vincent, pointing at the second ambulance that's still here for the driver.

The fucking driver.

I run-up to the paramedic who isn't busy taking care of him. She gives me a questioning look, giving me a once over before frowning. "Are you injured?"

I blink, looking down at myself to see that I'm covered in blood, her blood. I shake my head. "No this is- this is hers. I just want to know what hospital she's being taken to."

"Regan Grove Hospital. Are you a friend of hers? Do you know her name or any of her emergency contacts?" She doesn't skip a beat, trying to gather as much information as she can.

"No..." I frown, suddenly feeling useless. I've never seen her in my life much less know her name.

"It's Aurora," A voice comes from behind me and I turn to see a blue-haired boy. His eyes are wide as he stumbles over. I can smell the stench of alcohol on him, dear god. "Castro I think. She's a freshman at UC Berkeley but that's all I know."

The paramedic nods appreciatively and looks at her partner who's just about done tending to his minor injuries. A couple of cop cars pull up and the next thing I know they're asking people questions about what happened. I tell them the very limited knowledge I have and for once I feel... dumb for not knowing the answers. It goes by quickly before they thank us and focus on the driver who's sobered up a bit. I guess hitting a teenage girl with your car tends to do that, sober you up.

"I think I'm going to go to the hospital," I announce quietly to my friends once people start dispersing, talking amongst themselves at the tragedy. I can feel my soaked shirt sticking to my body and my hands are still covered in blood despite doing my best to wipe it off.

"Are you okay?" Kayla asks worriedly, wincing at my appearance. I'm sure I look like hell. "Why are you going?"

"I want to check up on her, Aurora, the girl." Her name feels foreign falling off my lips. It sounds sweet and soothing yet so wrong as if I don't deserve to use her name.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Her eyes stay focused on me and I can slowly see the worry turn into confusion. For some reason, her reaction annoys me, as if it's a bad thing I want to check up on somebody. I nod stiffly. She glances over to our friends before back at me, hesitant to say anything else.

"Hey..." Vincent starts, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Why don't we just all go back home first. You need a change of clothes and we should all get some rest after... after seeing this and then I'll go with you."

He gives me an encouraging look, squeezing my shoulder lightly to take up in his suggestion. I let out a sigh and nod, knowing that it would be best. From the number of injuries and blood Aurora lost, she'd probably be in surgery for a while.

"Okay." My shoulders slump and I take in a deep breath.

"Okay." Vincent offers me a small smile. He gives a slight nod to the rest of the group before we start walking back to the car. No one says a word, I don't think any of us can speak right after this.

Aurora, I hope you'll be okay.

Hey, y'all! This is kind of like an early unexpected Christmas/holiday surprise. I've always wanted to experiment and write in Theo's pov but never got the chance to in the story, hence a bonus chapter instead.

Yes, Theo is indeed a very real person, however, his life isn't exactly how Aurora dreamed it to be. This chapter was to mainly give y'all a glimpse of the real Theo as well as what had happened during the night of the crash from a different perspective other than Aurora's.

A sequel is still apart of my future plans however I do want to focus on another story first. I'm thinking maybe mid to late 2021 will be when I start publishing chapters for the sequel but I'm not totally sure yet and I do know that it's quite a long wait. Hopefully, this bonus chapter and perhaps more of these can tie yall (and me) over until then :)

Let me know what you think and if you have any other ideas for bonus chapters (a POV of another character, more Aurora + Theo dream scenes, what Aurora's been missing while in her coma)

Thank you for sticking with me,
Much love,
Jess xx