Dawn

The first thing I thought when I woke up was 'Holiday time yessss.'

The second thing I had to do when I woke up the next morning was to try not to freak out. And believe me, I tried really hard.

I tried so hard it wasn't even funny. My heart was beating ferociously, and I could feel tingles all along my spine. 

You see, I was lying on top of a certain someone, their arm curled around my waist. Our legs were tangled together and my head was on- you guessed it- Noah's chest. His other arm was aligned with my arm, his body warm and... strangely comfortable. 

Not to mention both of our shirts had been pulled up slightly during sleep so that honestly, I felt like if anyone walked in on us right now, they would freak and assume something that we definitely hadn't been doing the previous night. 

It dawned on me that he must've fallen asleep too, in my bed. Accidentally? Or not? 

After lying there and staring at the rather blank ceiling, wondering if I could get off Noah and not wake him up in the process for about five minutes, I decided to take action. 

Slowly, I tugged on his arm. 

It didn't budge. Frowning, I tugged on it a bit harder. Okay, so obviously it was stronger than my flimsy hands, but seriously, did he think I was going to run away in the middle of the night? I hadn't thought about Noah being that possessive, but... 

I glared at the arm-barrier. Maybe I should just screw it and wake him up. 

I grinned as I thought of what I should do. Pinch him? Slap him? Scream in his ear? My inner person wasn't as sweet as everyone thought it was. 

I plucked at the arm one more time and- success!- pried it away from my waist. Exhaling, I tugged my shirt down and slowly started to slide off the bed, realising at the same time that my quilt was on the floor in one heap. Fabulous.

My feet had just touched the floor when a hand latched onto my wrist. 

"Where d'you think you're going?" Noah drawled from behind me. 

"I... uh..." I didn't turn around. "Getting ready for a shower?" 

"Can I join-"

I slapped his hand that was still holding my wrist and said loudly, "NO."

"That was a joke," he complained, now tugging on my wrist. "Come back." 

Sighing, I crawled back into bed and he wrapped his arms around me. 

"Can I ask you something?" I asked as we lay there. 

"Yeah?"

"Did you accidentally fall asleep here last night?" 

I turned to watch his expression and was relieved when he nodded, looking apologetic. "I'm sorry. I kept on telling myself that I'd get up and go back to my house but I guess sleep won me over. I don't even remember falling asleep."

"Oh," I smiled. "Well, you must've been tired."

I rolled over and checked my alarm. "Wow. It's nine."

"What do you mean, 'wow'? It's nine! In the holidays the earliest time I sleep in until is probably ten." 

"Well, for me nine is late. And I love sleeping. It's my talent, so don't criticize."

He laughed and got up, stretching, and I tried not to look at his back muscles rippling through his shirt. "I'm just going to get my phone," he said, and headed out. 

I sat up slowly, wondering if I should call my mum, providing she wasn't already on the plane of course, just to see when she would be coming back. Grabbing my phone from my bedside table and scrolling through my contacts, I did just that. 

"Hey, mum," I said. "How's your job going?"

"Hi Dawn, I can't talk right now because I'm driving to the airport, so I'll just say that I'll be home in a couple of hours, okay? You're all good, right? School is good?"

"Yeah I'm good, but if you're driving then we should probably end the call." 

"Okay then-" My mum started, but at that exact moment Noah walked in, talking with his deep, I-just-got-up voice, "Okay, let's get back into bed-"

I gestured wildly to him that I was on the phone with my mum, but it was too late. He froze in the doorway, his expression one of dread. 

The damage was done. 

"Who is that?" She immediately asked, and I could feel confusion, curiousness, and a tinge of anger all balled up into those three words. 

I knew the best thing to do right now was hang up. Right this instant. But somehow, my hand was glued to the phone. 

The events were playing out too fast for me to catch up. And my brain did what every other brain went though in a seriously scary situation: freeze.

"I- um, I'm going to hang up now-"

"No Dawn, who is that boy in the room with you?" 

"I... um..."

"Are you in your bedroom? Dawn?" Her voice was becoming louder, more insistent, more worried and angry at the same time.

"Uh-" I was scrambling for excuses...

"Don't lie to me, Dawn. I heard him. What are you doing? If you are going behind my back and doing things you shouldn't be-"

"I'm not! I never even said there was a boy in my room-"

"You might not have but I have ears, Dawn! He said that you could get back into bed! What does that mean? Is he hurting you? Tell me-"

"No, mum he's completely fine-"

"See! There is a boy in your room. You're lying to me! Who is he? Did you let him into the house? Are you serious, Dawn? I have taught you better than to go behind my back!" Her voice had risen to a yell. I could hear cars honking now. 

"Please mum, just hang up-"

"Oh, so you're not going to listen to your mother now? I'm trying to protect you, Dawn. You have to tell me-"

"I know, I'll tell you later, but you're driving-"

"No, you will tell me right this second, Dawn! Who. Is. He?"

"I-" I couldn't make her even more angry, not right now while she was driving. If she knew of the whole history of Noah and I-

"I can't believe the sort of person you've become, Dawn! You never used to do stuff without telling me. I never taught you to be this way, and I don't understand why you would do this! As your mother, I have a right to stop this now before it becomes out of hand." Her voice was so loud I cringed away from the phone. 

"Please mum, this is a huge misunderstanding, really!" I pleaded, oblivious to her harsh comments. I could hear the cars on her side honking and I knew she really needed to focus on the road- it was too dangerous.

"I wonder how many lies you have told me, how many secrets have you kept from me? I'm extremely disappointed with you, Dawn." Her voice was cold. "I promise you I was never like this back when I was a teenager. When I tell your dad-"

"I'm sorry!" I cut her off. "But we should really hang up now-"

"Are you trying to avoid speaking with me?" She said quietly, and I felt my heart clench at the hurt in her voice. "I am your-"

Her voice was cut off by an unearthly screech of tires squealing, metal scraping along metal, and then screaming. 

A loud boom seemed to rattle my ears. More faint screaming. Something smashed; cracked, maybe, and I gave a little gasp and dropped the phone onto the ground. 

I stared at it, trembling, as Noah rushed forwards to hug me, but then I grabbed it and said frantically, "Mum? Mum! Are you okay? Can you hear me? Mum!" 

I held it to my ear, my breathing harsh and jagged. Surely I'd imagined the last few seconds-

Sirens. I could hear sirens. 

People yelling. 

There was faint crackling noise, like glass, I could tell somehow the phone had survived the impact of crash- now more faint voices-

"Step away from the crash, please! Step away! Call the ambulance! Somebody call the ambulance! The truck's gonna bloody explode!"

Sirens wailing.

I froze. 

"Mum!" I yelled, feeling desperation and hopelessness- that I could do nothing to stop this. "Mum, please answer me! Please!"

I could imagine my mother's phone lying in the middle of the road, the impact forcing the it to fly out of the car window. There was no other explanation as to why every sound and voice was so clear: there was no barrier to block the sound, meaning the phone was outside of the car. 

I could imagine the scene full of smoke and broken glass and bits of metal and wet blood.

I could imagine my mother, an injury pouring her red life force out onto the glass-coated seats.

I could imagine my frantic voice on the phone that would never be answered, that no one would hear.

Noah's arms were around me, he was whispering words of comfort in my ears-

More quick, hurrying voices, lined with desperation and horror. "Stay back. Stay away from the crash. The ambulance is here! Make way please- make way! Get them out!"

A different voice, a policeman- "There are two cars and one big truck involved- but the truck is smoking really bad. Can you hear me? I think it's going to explode. Shit. It's going to explode. Stay back, everybody! Move AWAY please, stand back- JESUS CHRIST-" I could hear his voice rising, and now he was yelling out orders-

A huge explosion dug through my ear. Glass cracking, metal screaming on metal, people yelling to run away- feet pounding- more sirens.

And then I heard no more as a second explosion ripped through and the phone went silent.

The silence of nothingness.

The silence of death.

And I realised that the last form of communication we'd had was an argument. 

*

noah

She sank to the ground, the phone slipping from her grip.

So I fell with her.

My arms were still around her, and I could feel her body shaking, but she wasn't crying. I whispered comforting words, but the guilt was a looming shadow that weighed down my heart. If only I hadn't said anything. If only I could've taken a couple of seconds more. If only I could've noticed she was on the phone with her mother.

If only I'd never decided to fall asleep at her house.

Her mother... was I to blame? If I hadn't spoken, would the crash have happened? Was I responsible of the tear that had ripped through Dawn's family? Maybe I shouldn't have even continued whatever was between us in the first place. Maybe I should've told her we weren't meant to be.

Dawn seemed to be in shock, staring at the wall. Her expression was blank, and she didn't even seem to register my arms holding her.

Or so I thought.

"Get your hands off me," she said quietly, without looking at me in the eyes. 

"I... what?" My brain was stuck on the sentence, at the word 'off'. It was struggling to understand what she really meant.

"I said get your hands off me." Her voice was flat. She looked down and swallowed. 

It was like a brick wall had crumbled and it was slowly collapsing, heavy brick by heavy brick, slamming down on me.

But the worst thing was was that I had to bear it all.

"Okay," I said slowly. I removed my arms and crouched on the ground. "Do you want-"

"Can you please leave me alone for a little while?" 

I flinched- the rejection was clear. She didn't turn to look at me- apparently the ground was more interesting. 

"Yes." Either she'd heard the tremble in my voice and chose to ignore it or she hadn't heard it at all. 

I stood up and backed away. "If you need anything, I'll be here," I said quietly. 

She didn't answer. 

I turned and walked out. 

*

Dawn

My head was hurting as I slumped onto the bed, but most of all my heart. I curled up and closed my eyes. 

It was impossible to think that only a few minutes ago I'd been curled up- happily- in bed with Noah. And now...

It was weird how your whole life could be changed in a few seconds. I didn't want to think about mum- it was too soon, and I couldn't, just couldn't comprehend what had just happened... 

On the other hand, however, I didn't know what I'd just done. Kicked Noah out of the house because he'd just said the wrong thing at the wrong time? It wasn't his fault, really... but if he hadn't said anything your mother wouldn't have been in the crash, my inner voice whispered cruelly. 

I put my hands over my ears as if I could block her out, knowing that I didn't know the full story yet, but instead heard my phone's ringtone. Frowning, I got up slowly, and crawled over to where my phone lay on the floor. Picking it up with trembling fingers, I could feel myself wanting the caller to be someone, anyone, who could tell me that my mum hadn't just been in a car crash, that she might be alive...

"Dad?" I said in a croaky voice. 

"Hello sweetie, are you okay? I'm so sorry at what we've both gone through today. I just flew over to Melbourne from Queensland to see her."

"I..." My mouth wouldn't string more than two words together. Did that mean she'd survived? That the next time they saw each other, it would be in life, and not death? Would he be taking care of her? Were they getting back together; was her family somehow going to emerge from this terrible accident as a whole?

"Well, I just called to reassure you that mum is okay, she's safe and fine, thank god," he began, and I breathed out a shaky sigh of relief. 

"She's... she's really okay?" I asked tentatively. 

"Yes. Just got a broken leg and some fractured bones, as well as concussion, but she's all good, she'll leave the hospital fully healed." Even I could hear the relief in his voice. It made me feel better too, and my head felt more clear and my heart less clenched. 

"Thank god," I repeated his earlier words. I felt like all the fight had gone out of me, and all I wanted to do was crawl back to my soft bed and pillow and sleep. I ignored the memory that popped up of me whispering to Noah, "You're my new pillow."  I still didn't know if he was to blame, even if she would be fully healed.

"Do you know what happened?" I said quietly. 

"I do, but you don't have to know now if you're not ready-"

"I want to." 

"Alright. You can tell me to stop anytime if you don't want to hear anymore. Okay?"

I nodded, then remembered that he couldn't see me."Okay."

I could hear him taking a deep breath. "So... apparently she was talking to somebody on the phone and she wasn't paying attention to the road, so she didn't see a big truck swerve to avoid an oncoming speeding car. The truck, unfortunately, didn't turn fast enough so the car hit it..." He paused and she could hear the shaky intake of breath. "The car hit the truck," he continued, "and both veered into the oncoming traffic, right in front of your mother's car. She was distracted because of the phone call so she slammed into the car that had already hit the truck. The other car's driver was killed, and the truck exploded around half a minute later."

I breathed in sharply at that. "And the truck driver?"

"He's fine. Just being treated for minor injuries; he got away before the truck exploded."

I pressed a hand to my forehead. "I'm going to go back to sleep," I said shakily. 

"You do that. I'll call you to check in later. We might not be back for a while, maybe a month, but I might come collect you sooner, in two weeks, and we can stay in a hotel until you go back to school. Mum should be good by then."

We exchanged further details and then hung up. I sighed as I fell back into bed. I wondered what Noah was doing right now... what he would think of me staying in Melbourne, away from him, until we went back to school?

I shoved the pillow over my head as if I could block out my thoughts. I had been the one to push him out, so what if he wasn't going to come back? I was sure it wasn't his fault, but was it? Then who was to blame? If she hadn't been on the phone, then would she have still gotten herself into the crash? It hadn't happened because of her either, it was the speeding car's fault. But could she have avoided the crash if she hadn't been on the phone?

I groaned softly at the mess in my brain and decided that I might leave Noah alone for now. See what he would do. 

For now though, I was pretty sure I was tired enough to sleep through the entire day. 

Hehe, dramatic much? Short author's note today. 

Okay, so like I hope you guys won't be mad at me... at the very abrupt turn of events. We shall see how this all rolls out *plays dramatic music to block out angry protesting voices* 

See you in the next chapter! And thanks so much for all the comments and votes I've been getting. The more you comment/vote, the more I'll have the motivation to update. The thing that really keeps writers going are the people who support them. So a big thanks to everyone so far <3 

Sorry for the wait tHiS cHaPtEr ReQuIrEd A lOt Of ThOuGhT :)

xxx,

HalloPhoenix