Alicia taps mindlessly at her phone as she lounges in her bed. She won't admit it, but she's waiting on a text from someone. Someone who means more to her than she'll ever say. Between her knees is a cup of ice water.
She could hear Madison in the kitchen with Travis. Talking about something to do with the school where they both worked.  The tension in the brunette's shoulders coiled tighter as every minute ticked slowly by.
Her phone chimed and she sat up so fast she nearly spilled her water.

Teagan: turn your tv on to the news now

Alicia: why?

Teagan: it's Y/N

A thrill of oily fear shot through her stomach. Y/N had stopped answering her texts.
She fumbled for her tv remote, and hurriedly turned it on.
A harried looking news woman gestured to a video looping in the corner. It's of a car. It's upside down and absolutely demolished. Her heart leaped into her throat.

"No." She whispered.

"And here you see it. The police are working now to get the passenger out of the car where she is trapped. The driver, her sister, is alright, but has a few broken bones and bruises. Witnesses say their SUV was not at fault, and the other car involved hit the passenger side and flipped the car two times. Paramedics are at the scene now."
Alicia's hands cover her mouth.

"Mom!" She screams. Madison comes skidding into her room. Alicia just points at the tv. The two watch in horror. Y/N was one of Alicia's close friends, and Madison was used to seeing the girl sitting sleepily at her table for breakfast when she slept over. But to Alicia, she was more. Alicia had known she'd had feelings for the other girl for years. She'd never said anything for fear she'd
scare Y/N into awkwardness. But if the crash... she might never get the chance to tell her. Terror freezes in her veins and curdles.
The news cuts to a video of a helicopter airlifting a small form to the hospital.

"Where-" gasped Alicia. The reporter quickly informed the audience that the chopper was headed to Elmheart county hospital.

"Get in the car, Alicia." Madison stated. Alicia practically flies into the car, snapping in her seatbelt and clenching her fists. Her stomach twists violently. Madison drives carefully, but fast. Her knuckles are white on the steering wheel. Alicia stares out the window, earbuds absent for once in her panic. When they pull into the hospital parking lot, the brunette  bounces from foot to foot while her mother finds out where Y/N is. Everything is a blur.

"She's unresponsive, and has fallen into a coma. We've got her on life support, but her brain activity... it's low, and declining." The nurse admits reluctantly. This snaps Alicia out of her daze.

"What? Where is she?" She demands, flattening her palm on the desk. Madison drags her away.

"Alicia, honey. I know this is hard, but-"
Alicia yanks her arm away and glares.

"She's not dead yet, mom. Save the condolences until she's six feet under." She turns away fast to hide the tears building behind her eyes.
"Just... take me to her room." They walk silently down the gloomy halls, occasionally passing nurses or dead eyed patients in wheelchairs. Alicia feels sick, and nausea rises in her. The hospital smells like antiseptic and dying things. It's so thick she almost gags.

"This is her room." Alicia glances at the number on the door. 184B.
She inhales and yanks the door open.

Y/N's older sister looks up from the chair she's slumped in with surprise. She sports a cast on her arm and nasty bruises on her remaining limbs.

"Hey, Alicia." Its obvious Jada has been crying. The tear tracks on her cheeks tighten the knots of tension coiled in the brunette's shoulders.
"I'll leave you with her." She allows Madison to lead her from the room.
Slowly, Alicia looks at Y/N. She lays peacefully on the cot, but a machine regulates her breathing and a needle in her arm trails her ruby blood around in coils. She could almost be sleeping, if not for the underlying feeling of wrongness her still body invokes. Her hair is spread across her pillow like a halo. The only movement is the forced rise and fall of her chest. A lump in Alicia's throat choked her, and the words she wants to say build up like water against a weakening dam.

"Oh, Y/N." She murmurs, kneeling and taking her cold, limp hand in her own. Small cuts and bruises are littered across her friend's cheekbones and throat. They've changed her into a hospital gown, and a quick once over reveals that this pattern of injuries continues across her skin like dalmatian spots.
"God, I need you to wake up. There's something important I have to tell you." Alicia searches Y/N's face for a flicker of life, but sees nothing.

"Please. I have to tell you I'm in love with you." She chokes out. Nothing. She squeezes the cold hand once and continues, green eyes desperate.

"I love that you sit in my room and just strum your ukulele even though you don't know how to really play it. I love the way you put your hair up when we go biking." Alicia said, squeezing Y/N's frigid, limp hand again. The girl's even, mechanical breathing makes the brunette impossibly sad.
"I love how your smile lights up every room you enter and how your laugh could stop wars. I love how you'd binge Netflix with me until 2am." Her voice is cracking now, but she pushes on. Hot pinpricks in her eyes are the first hints of the tears to come, but she pushes on anyway.

"I love how you're never afraid to call me out on my bullshit," she offers up a watery smile and bites her trembling bottom lip.
"I-I love when we watch scary movies and you hide behind the pillow and snuggle into my shoulder. I love how we'd climb up on the roof with pillows and blankets and watch the stars. I love you, Y/N. Please come back to me." The tears are rolling freely down her cheeks now, and they drop into the starched sheets and Y/N's arm. Broken sobs wrack her frame and she cries until her insides feel numb and the cracking in her heart slows down.
Sniffling, Alicia clambers onto the hospital bed, careful not to nudge the oxygen mask over her friend's face, or the IV taped in the crease of her elbow. The steady beep of the other girl's heart beating on the monitor fades into the background as Alicia's body curls around Y/N's. She pulls the blankets over them both because Y/N's skin is like ice, and rests her head on her friend's shoulder. Alicia laces her fingers through Y/N's non-IV hand and unwillingly drifts off. Madison, Jada, and a nurse find the two girls unconscious together, breathing and heartbeats synced.