While I Was Away(3)

This is a big deal, bigger than my wine soaked brain is fully realizing.

While Charlie tipped the valet guy, Adele pulled out her phone and decided she had to tell someone. If she waited until tomorrow to share the monumental news, her best friend would be annoyed, and no one wanted to deal with Zoey Blanke when she was annoyed.

Adele hesitated for only a moment, wondering how she should break the news, but then she remembered who she was texting. Zoey was a brisk sort of woman, she took no shit and very little ever fazed her, and despite her tough exterior, she cared very deeply about her bestie. So with a deep breath, Adele just banged out the text.

Sorry we couldn't wait for you to get here, but Charlie and I just left because we broke up. I started it, but it was mutual. I'm okay, I wanted this. We're gonna spend a last night together. I wanted you to know first, and I'll call you and tell you all about it tomorrow, I promise. Love you.

She could tell the message was read almost immediately, and then several little dots began dancing in the chat window, showing that Zoey was already typing out a response. So Adele quickly the app and tossed her phone onto the dash. She felt better about getting the break up off her chest – now she would wait and deal with everyone, and everything, tomorrow.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I start on a new life. A new adventure. Tomorrow I find ... something.

Once they were on the road, Adele let out a deep breath and rolled down her window. She'd had a lot of wine at the party, it was all starting to hit her. Had probably been the reason she'd had enough courage to initiate their break up.

At a party.

She'd “consciously uncoupled” from her long term boyfriend at a coworker's birthday party.

She started laughing.

“What's so funny?” Charlie asked, glancing over at her.

“Us. Who does this?” she said, gesturing between them as she tried to catch her breath. “We've been dating forever, we live together, and then we just calmly have a conversation – 'hey, maybe we should break up', 'oh hey, yeah, that's a good idea', and then we ditched the party so we could go binge watch TV together.”

Charlie started laughing, as well.

“It is very us.”

“God, isn't it? We'd never go out in a screaming match, or something. That would've been too exciting.”

“Hey, c'mon, we're weren't all that bad.”

Adele turned in her seat so she could fully face him. The dash lights were just strong enough to illuminate his profile. She smiled and reached out, gently taking his right hand off the steering well and lacing their fingers together.

“No, we were pretty awesome. I'm glad we'll still be friends,” she breathed, resting her head back and watching him. He kept his eyes on the road, but smiled and squeezed her fingers.

“Always,” he agreed. She sighed.

“Always and forev-”

There was the sound of tires screaming.

Ripping metal.

Shouting.

And then it was dark.





2




Charlie chewed on his thumb nail, staring at the bed in front of him, not listening to what he was being told. He knew he should pay attention – very important information was being passed along to him. But he couldn't concentrate.

Could only stare.

“Mr. Kassen.”

At the sound of his last name, Charlie jerked his head to the side.

“Huh?” he grunted. The doctor standing next to him smiled politely, then reached out and squeezed his shoulder.

“I know this is a difficult time for you, Mr. Kassen. Do you know when the family will be here?” Dr. Martin asked. Charlie shook his head and scratched his fingers through his hair.

“Uh ... tomorrow. I think her mom said the earliest flight they could catch was tomorrow,” he groaned, rubbing his hand down his face.

“Alright. Alright, that's good. Just hang in till then, Mr. Kassen. Now, as I was saying, we're going to schedule another MRI, so we can ...”

And Charlie tuned out once again as he turned back to face the bed. To face his girlfriend.

Ex-girlfriend.

Only she didn't look like that girl anymore. It pained him to even whisper the word in his mind, but the thing in the bed looked like a monster. Half her face was swollen, mottled purple and black. Her lips were puffy and cracked, a breathing tube forcing them wide apart. Bandages were wrapped around her skull, hiding all of her soft brown hair. Or maybe it was gone – had they shaved it? He didn't know what all had happened in the emergency room.

He did know that Adele had a fractured tibia, and that most of the ribs on her right side were broken. Her right lung had collapsed, there was a deep laceration on her head, and her shoulder had been knocked out of its socket. It all sounded horrific. He couldn't even imagine the pain of those injuries. Not that it mattered much to Adele, though. She wasn't feeling any of it.

She was in a coma.

He wanted to kill himself. He'd damaged his hand when the car had rolled over, and he had bruising all over his body from his seat belt and the steering wheel, but it was nothing compared to Adele.

She hadn't been wearing her seat belt.

She'd been so sweet and beautiful. Knowing they were ending, yet still looking at him with so much love and appreciation.

Then a semi truck driver had decided sleeping at the wheel wasn't such a bad idea; he'd crossed the center line while doing fifty-five miles an hour. The truck had side-swiped Charlie's car, sending them into spin. He'd yanked on the wheel, over correcting and causing the car to flip onto its side. It had rolled two more times before landing upside down in a ditch.