Asa's family ends up being super nice and weird as hell.

Given that Asa liked to wear flower crowns in his hair and had feathers, I shouldn't have been shocked. But as the strange family gathered in my room, I couldn't help but be curious about them. The Moon's had ten children total, but only some of them had shown up, most of them way younger than Asa.

"I guess this is goodbye, Micha," Asa stands at my bedside, shifting from foot to foot. I hadn't noticed it before, but he had this peculiar accent that I couldn't quite place. His words were spoken leisurely, and he had a gentle voice. It was nice, compared to the way I talked, I mean.

"I guess so," I reply, and I hold out my fist toward him, "Thanks for saving my ass, bird boy."

Asa stares down at my fist, then slowly lifts his hand in response and makes a fist. A second later, I bump it an ultimate sign of friendship and he seems stunned at the action, his eyes widening and everything before he smiles at me.

"I would have done it again if I had to," He admits, "Kian would have done the same thing."

I try picturing Asa's boyfriend in my head, but nothing comes to mind. It was still odd for me to think of someone as young as he was having a boyfriend who he could hold hands with without being frightened of the consequences. The world was a big place, and people could be mean as hell to things they didn't approve of.

"Asa!" His father calls from the doorway, "Come on, kiddo! Time to go home!"

Asa turns, his bright green Crocs and the bane of my existence squeaking on the tile before he pauses and glances back at me. "You saved me, too," he admits, "When those boys attacked us? Nobody's ever done something like that for me. It was the most incredible thing I ever saw."

"Asa Moon," I tell him drowsily, "Teach me to fly and I'll show you how to fight them boys."

"Deal." Asa studies me, smiles even wider than before, and slips away.

I watch him go for a moment, his family gathering around him in the light of the doorway before they usher him out, his fluffy blonde hair glowing against the hallway before he's gone. He was young--actually, both of us were. But I knew I liked him, as much as my brain wanted to say no.

I try resting for a little while once everyone's gone and I manage to get thirty minutes of sleep before a nurse knocks on the door and enters the room in her blue scrubs.

"Micha? How are you feeling?" She questions, dark ponytail bobbing back and forth when she strides over to my bed. 

"As good as someone feels after losing a foot, I guess?" I reply, my eyes squeezing shut. "When can I go home?"

"You'll be here for a few weeks, I'm afraid," The nurse adjusts my IV bags hanging from the pole next to my bed, "They want to make sure that everything's okay with your leg."

I groan and lay back, covering my eyes. As much as I hated our house, it beat having to stay the night in a freezing cold room with people poking me all night and waking me up at all odd hours to check on my stupid leg. Hospitals sucked. The food sucked. The only good thing about it was finding out that Asa had made it out of the crash in one piece.

"Do you know if there was a patient here named Kian?" I ask the nurse as she's checking my bandages and assorted tubing. "I'm just wondering if I know him or not," I lie to her.

The nurse gets this weird look on her face as she snaps her gloves on. Her eyebrows lower and her eyes get this distant look as if she were reliving an old memory. "I do know that name now that I think about it," she replies quietly, "There was an incident a few years ago with him. I shouldn't talk about it, but..." She trails off.

I feel a sense of unease, wondering if Asa was somehow connected to Kian's death.

"Well, he was murdered by an awful man," the woman tells me quietly, and I feel my heart sputter a little. "It was one of the worst nights in the history of this town."