I don't remember much.

I remember the wind roaring... Howling outside the truck I drove, threatening to break through the glass just to get to me, but other than that? Mostly nothing.

There's faint bits in my mind of the piercing siren or the dust dancing along the roadways as the truck got closer and closer to its doom.

I know I must've blacked out at some point, but I can't really recall a single other detail about it.

When I do wake up, I'm in a hospital bed. The room's clean... Sterile... It gives me the creeps.

The sound of my heart through the monitor that's hooked up to me freaks me the hell out too. Something about being here is unnerving to me. I don't like it... Not one bit.

I look around, trying to get a grip on my other surroundings... My head's still a bit hazy right now, which doesn't help my cause.

My mother sits near the bed, on her phone before looking up. "Hm... Oh! Arnold! He's up."

My ears continue to ring as my dad makes his way over to my bed, towering over the edge of it. I hesitate before letting my gaze come over to him.

My dad looks like he's gonna blow a gasket as he looks down at me. He's breathing quickly... His face has heated up a bit, leaving red hues starting to dawn in his cheeks. He has fists prepared. He clears his throat, saying, "I can tell, Zofia." His tone is bitter... cutting.

My mother sighs at that and replies, "I was just making sure you noticed. You had your back to him the whole time."

"Because what he did was completely stupid!" My dad snaps, hissing.

My mother pauses before telling him, "I don't exactly disagree with that idea... What Jupiter did was very reckless."

"Yeah, reckless is an understatement," my father remarks. "He only survived because he was in that rust bucket I was already trying to fix up. He was damn lucky that that twister was only an EF-1! If he had met the damn thing just twenty minutes later, he would've been caught in a deadly EF-4."

I swallow upon hearing that statement. EF-4. That kind of storm threw cars for miles and tore hours damn near down to the foundations. ...And that beast would've ended me had I been just a little bit later. I try to sit up but wince, a major pain coming straight from my shoulder.

My mother looks at me and pushes me back down. "Relax. The doctors said you fractured your shoulder blade from the collision."

"My shoulder blade?" I query.

She nods. "Mhm. Yes, you did. They said something about minor damage to a rib or two... and a concussion and a broken nose."

Well, it's really hard to say where the concussion came from exactly... If it had been from the storm, or from Savannah hitting me in the face with her locker door and Randall finishing it off by pushing me into a desk. But that broken nose? No storm did that to me.

I clear my throat and tell my mother, "I didn't break my nose in the storm."

She raises an eyebrow at me. "You didn't?"

I shake my head. "No... I didn't. It was caused by something else entirely."

She looks a bit confused by what I confessed. "Jupiter? What do you mean you didn't? You're confusing me... You're not making sense—-"

I interject, "It happened in school. Randall Thompson tripped me and it made me break my nose against one of the empty desktops."

My dad laughs, bitterly, his hands stuck on his hips. "Serves you right."

My mother says nothing about his hit at me.

I swallow. I want to just hit him with a pissed off 'excuse me' but I can't. I wet my lips. "W-What do you mean?" I stammer in response to his cold remark.

"W-What do you mean?" He mocks me before snarling, "You're a jackass! That's why! You're self centered. That's why you did this! That's why this happened. You deserved it because you thought the world revolved around you. It was an early punishment for you destroying my damn car!"

I swallow yet again. "Technically, it belonged to mom's father. We got a hold of it when he passed. It's her car technically."

"I don't give a damn about the technicalities you selfish little motherfucker!" He hisses. "You ruined that car! I'll have more work to do on it now—-" He stops. "Grab your clothes, take those monitors off. Go change. I'm giving you ten minutes to get the fuck out of my sight."

I gulp.

"Arnold..." My mother begins, exasperated. "He just tried to take his own life—- He—-" She stops.

I freeze at that. Did they seriously think I did that? That wasn't the intent ever. I was just driving to free my mind but... I got distracted about the thoughts that had been hammering themselves into my mind on repeat. The thoughts about how I was alone... That people enjoyed seeing that fact... Seeing my anguish.

Dammit. Maybe she was a little right. ...Maybe that thought had been in the back of my mind.

I bury the idea and reply, "It's fine, Matka. I'll do as he says." I take the sensors off, making the machine go dead and grab my clothes before running to the restroom, pain still throbbing in my injured, wounded leg. I hurry as fast as I can and as soon as I'm fully redressed, I open the door and toss the gown aside and walk out of the room quickly.

Clearly, my father intends for me to walk home. 'Serves me right' as he'd say.

I sigh as I make it to the lobby, not once expecting who I was greeted by. "Catalina," I begin as she approaches.

"You okay? You were caught up in a pretty nasty storm," she says.

I nod. "It was nothing I couldn't handle. ...What're you doing here?"

Catalina gives an awkward pause before saying, "I uh... actually took off after you when you ran out of the school. I made it to your house and saw you take off in the truck. I expressed my concerns with your mom... and we went after you. We found you unconscious in a damaged car, the twister already off in the distance, heading northeast."

I swallow. "You didn't have to stay after I got here, you know."

Catalina shakes her head and says a little sharply. "I did!" She stops, correcting herself. "Sorry, um... Yeah, I did," she says in a more gentle tone. "I was worried about you."

I raise my eyebrow in surprise. "You were worried about me? What do you mean?"

"I was worried about your well-being, Jupiter."

"Why?" I further question her. "Most people wouldn't even cast a glance... They wouldn't care at all about something like that."

"Well, I'm not like other people." Catalina tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear and a gentle red overlay slips into her cheeks gracefully. She looks down to her shoes a little, swaying softly. "I care because I want to be your friend, Jupiter."

I swallow, my breath getting caught halfway down in my throat. "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I-I said. I want us to be friends," Catalina says. She slowly looks up with a soft expression and says, "...if you want to that is."

"This isn't a joke is it?"

Catalina replies, semi deadpan, "If this was a joke, Jupiter, I wouldn't have skipped class and came all the way over here for you."

My breath hitches. "Touche." A small silence falls upon us before I tell her, "I've never exactly had a friend before... Other than my dog."

"Well, I'd be honored to be your first," Catalina says, softly.

"Yeah... First. ...That sounds nice." I smile back at her.

She gives me her phone number and I save her contact to my phone before she looks at the time and tells me she has to go.

I watch as she heads off. I was suffering... Down on my luck and truly decaying alone... But now the cards fate was playing have changed. Maybe a friend would truly help.