Riley rattled the small bottle of painkillers in his hand as the nurse finished putting his arm in a sling. "I'll make sure I take them."

The nurse smiled back at Riley as she said, "Good. It would be a shame to see you back here if your injuries get worse."

Riley popped off the gurney when the nurse told him that he could go and see his friends. He walked towards the room that his friends were held in, but he took his time as he thought about what he was going to say to Jessie.

Riley was hopeful that the kiss meant something to Jessie - like it did to him. He could have sworn that Jessie kissed him back, but it also could have been him shocked and trying to push him away.

There wasn't enough time to talk after it happened, so now was his chance with the kiss so fresh on his mind.

Riley looked down the empty corridor, and saw Cameron shoot up from the bench he was sitting on. Riley welcomed the affectionate hug Cameron gave him with his one good arm, as he felt Cameron sink his head into Riley's shoulder.

"Thank you for helping my brother," Cameron whispered into Riley's shoulder. "I just froze... and I didn't know what to do."

Riley sank into his friend's hug because he really needed it too. The whole night was so scary for everyone, and Riley couldn't think properly with everything that was going on around them.

"It's understandable Cameron, no one expects and plans to be in an accident."

Riley eventually pulled away from Cameron and lightly jabbed him when he saw Cameron was still teary eyed. "Stay strong, we've got decades until we die."

Cameron needed that laugh as he pushed his friend back slightly. Cameron was fortunate to leave the accident in a much better state than the other two, with only a mild concussion being the injury he was dealt with - plus a destroyed car.

But Cameron stopped smiling when he glanced towards the room that Jessie was sleeping in. Riley stopped him from breaking down by pulling him into another embrace. "Jessie's alive, that's all that matters."

"I was the one driving..."

Riley pulled Cameron's face in front of his own as he held his neck firmly in place. "You weren't the drunk driver that hit us. The police are the people that can hold others accountable for tonight, and it's not you."

Cameron took a long and deep breath before he vigorously nodded his head, as he wiped away the tears that were falling. "The three of us are alive, that's what's important."

Riley wondered how bad Jessie's injuries were. "How is he?" He was never told when he was getting treated for his arm and his head, so this was the first time Riley was finding out.

Cameron remembered the scene of the paramedics helping lift a large amount of debris from the truck off Jessie's lap. The bleeding from his legs clotted up so it didn't gush out when he was removed from the vehicle, and they dealt with all the cuts and bruises to the other parts of his body while they were still there.

"All of his energy vanished when they started putting him in the ambulance, and he's been asleep ever since." Cameron informed Riley, "His leg is in a cast, most of his chest is purple and blue, and they treated the minor cuts to his face."

"But he's going to be fine, right?" Riley turned back to Cameron with a nervous look on his face. "He's already been through so much tonight."

Cameron nodded his only once since he wasn't completely sure how his brother was dealing with everything. "The injuries will be a couple of weeks. Everything else... I don't know."

Riley thought about how much Jessie went through tonight. Abused and neglected by his parents, his younger years were all built around his parents' lies and deception, everything about his relationship with Cameron was re-evaluated, and then he was kissed by a predator in the middle of a car wreck.

The universe seemed to be against Jessie tonight, and so Riley hoped that Jessie at least forgot about the kiss so that it was less trouble he had to deal with.

"Maybe we should go in." Riley suggested as he motioned towards the room.

The elevator dinged next to Jessie's room as both of their eyes wandered to the person leaving it.

The beautiful almond skin from her hand could be seen first, as she was practically forcing her way out of the elevator before it even opened properly. The black curly hair that reached her shoulders were brushed away from behind her head, as Chantelle eventually saw Cameron and ran towards him.

Cameron's eyes lit up when he saw his girlfriend, and both of them became emotional again when they hugged each other lovingly.

Checking his face, Chantelle kissed the life out of her boyfriend as she then pulled him back for another hug. "You're okay Cam..." She whispered to herself, "Thank god that you're safe."

"How did you know?" Cameron asked as he kissed the shoulder in front of him.

"We all heard the crash and the ambulances from the dorm, and then I saw the pictures of your car." Chantelle explained, "I tried to call you, but it wasn't going through."

Cameron recalled the events of the accident to Chantelle, and that made her cry harder. "Riley's up and about, and Jessie is just sleeping in the room behind us."

Chantelle mentally slapped herself as she looked towards the other person in the room with them. After seeing his shy wave at her, Chantelle walked up to Riley and hugged him too. "Sorry, I didn't realise you were there. I'm glad you're safe too."

"I get it," Riley laughed. "You couldn't recognise my gorgeous face because of the bruises."

Slapping him on his good arm, Chantelle laughed back at Riley before making her way back to her boyfriend's side.

"I'll leave you guys to it." Riley said as he entered Jessie's room alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Closing the door behind him, Riley took the empty seat by Jessie and watched him sleep.
He looked so peaceful sleeping there, and Riley was assured by the heart monitor that all of his organs were alive and functioning.

Jessie's leg was propped up on a pillow, his face was only slightly battered with cuts and bruises, and Riley could barely see how his chest was multiple colours through the gown that he was wearing.

Riley tried to quietly scoot forward with his chair, but the accidental dragging noise caused Jessie to stir awake.

'Shit.'

When Riley saw that Jessie was waking up now, he couldn't help but smile softly and whisper to him, "Hurry up sleepy head, we've got class in 10 minutes."

"Not funny..." Jessie smiled weakly.

"How are you feeling?"

Jessie tried to sit up on the bed to talk to Riley, but Riley was careful with pushing him back down, and telling him to take it easy.

"I think I'm on a lot of meds, because everything feels breezy." Jessie admitted in between the beeps of the machines.

"That's because patients don't usually wear underwear when they're in a gown."

Jessie peeked under the blanket and laughed when he found out it was true. He started to blush when Riley told him he wanted to peek for himself, but Jessie's scowl steered him away.

Sitting in silence, Riley tapped the arm rest with his finger nervously as he thought about bringing up the kiss. Things seemed normal between them, and so Riley thought that maybe Jessie forgot about the whole thing since he would have reacted from it at least.

"You kissed me." Jessie acknowledged in the middle of Riley's thoughts.

'Fuck.'

Riley was sure that Jessie seemed certain that it happened, and there were several ways that Riley thought he could spin this. Fortunately and unfortunately for him, Jessie had already decided.

"Thanks for distracting me from having a panic attack back then, it was a good way to shut me up."

Riley swallowed nervously as looked back up at Jessie - to see him half serious and half joking around. He was unsure if this was the way they both wanted to play this thing, but Jessie continued with it while Riley still had doubts if he could continue pretending.

"It was no big deal, right?" Jessie asked. "We used to have sex all the time and that meant nothing between us. A little peck on the lips meant nothing too, right?"

"And if it didn't?" Riley challenged. He wanted to know what Jessie would say if he admitted it was serious from his end.

"Then it wouldn't work between us, would it?" Jessie hypothesised. "We're too similar for it to work out between us. We would just annoy the hell out of each other until one of us resents the other, plus the fact that I'm not attracted to you like that."

Riley pointed out how the heart monitor started to pick up a little after Jessie said that. Riley tried to joke about how the machine was making him sound like he was lying, whilst also masking his need to get the truth out of him.

"Because you're my best friend." Jessie told Riley earnestly. "I wouldn't want things between us to be ruined if only one of us thinks there can be a relationship between us."

The heart monitor showed that he was steady as a rock, and so Riley just bowed his head as he nodded at Jessie's spin on the kiss.

Riley finally got his answer from Jessie, and if the heart monitor was attached to him, then it would show how Riley's heart was beating fast right now - like a dog at a racetrack.

"It was just in the heat of the moment." Riley tried to tell Jessie convincingly, hoping that his voice was stable - unlike his heartbeat.

"So... are we good?"

Riley did his best to give Jessie his signature smile. He tried to be laidback and carefree by leaning against the back of the chair to look all relaxed. "One car accident isn't going to stop us from being best friends."

The door opened behind them and both of their eyes turned to Cameron and Chantelle coming through. When they locked eyes together, Cameron stepped towards his brother and hugged him again.

"Don't scare me like that..." Cameron whispered as he kept kissing his brother on the head. "You're not allowed in another hospital bed, for like, another year."

"Only if you sign my cast first."

Jessie punched his brother's arm to show him that he was feeling fine considering everything that had happened tonight. They both gave each other a reassuring smile before he told Cameron to sit down with him.

Riley gave up his seat so that Chantelle could also sit down next to Cameron and Jessie. He then sat on the last empty seat besides Jessie, as he contemplated if he should just leave the brothers to reconnect in privacy.

They both seemed to be happy as they listened to Chantelle talking, but Riley didn't want to damped the already heavy mood. "I think I should go no-"

Riley was interrupted when the door opened again, with Olivia walking in this time. She immediately went around the bed so that she could hug Jessie, kissing him and telling him how worried she was.

"The news about the crash spread like wildfire." Olivia told him, "Everyone at the dorms knows about it."

"Nosey bastards." Jessie joked.

Riley gave up his seat for Olivia since she didn't have the chance to sit down and speak to the bedridden Jessie. Riley felt like he was on the sidelines now, as he was physically standing near the back of the room - away from everyone.

No longer feeling his place in the room, Riley quietly slipped out of the room so that he could go back to the dorms, and back to his room.

Riley had clicked the button to call the elevator when Chantelle popped her head out of the door. "Jessie wants to see you real quick."

Riley nodded his head as he turned back around to go back to Jessie. He passed the other three guests leaving the room, as they were left alone once again.

"You summoned me?"

"Yeah I did you jerk, you were about to leave without saying goodbye." Jessie laughed.

Riley was nonchalant as he told Jessie, "I didn't want to interrupt you spending time with your brother, his girlfriend, and your girlfriend."

Jessie shook his head as he wasn't happy with Riley's response. "Regardless of who was in the room, I at least wanted to say goodbye to you."

"Bye then."

Riley ended up laughing when Jessie failed to throw an empty cup at him. With it hitting the ground miserably, they smiled at each other when Jessie told him. "Can I at least get a hug goodbye? I think we both earned the sappiness after tonight."

Riley hissed as he was taken back by Jessie's innocent suggestion. "I don't want any more of your blood on my shirt."

Riley knew that he had to at least try and distance himself from growing too close to Jessie - again. As petty as he felt, he didn't want the physical intimacy because it was just going to make things harder for himself.

Jessie rolled his eyes after hearing Riley's excuse, "Funny."

With neither of them making any motion to move, Jessie felt the change in mood between them. "We are good, right? Because if there's something bigger goi-"

"We're great," Riley immediately interrupted. "I'm just tired and I kind of feel gross right now. I'm going to shower and then go straight to bed."

Jessie seemed to accept Riley's honesty as he acknowledged Riley's response. "Make sure you head wound and your sling doesn't get wet."

There was another silent moment between them both, Riley was reaching for the door handle again when he asked Jessie one last thing.

"This might be a random question, but did you ever get a letter from me when were 13?"

Jessie looked back at Riley with a lot of confusion on his face. "What letter?"

"It's- it's not important." Riley whispered with slight disappointment. "I guess I'll see you around then."

After they quickly waved goodbye to each other, Riley was heading back towards the elevator as he said his goodbyes to everyone else.

Once the elevator door closed with just him inside, Riley let his head fall back and lean against the cool, steel wall.

'Jessie may have not rejected me back then, but he is rejecting me now.'

==========