There was a light presence on the back of my head, like a hand, tousling the hair on my head. After everything, I’d fallen asleep.

The hand didn’t stop. I opened my eyes, adjusting to the light streaming in through the open shades. There were light blue sheets in my line of sight, wrinkled. Lifting my head wearily, I heard a low chuckle.

I nearly shot out of my seat at the sight of Jay, sitting up a bit more in the bed, a smile on his face.

“Hey, sleepyhead. Long time no see.”

Everything was silent for a moment as I remembered the horror of last night, the fear, the warnings the doctors had made, that he might not wake up. And here he was, shining in the sunshine. Without a single rational thought, I hugged him before the tears could fall from my eyes.

“Hey – uh. Ow?”

Pulling back in horror, my gaze swept over him as if I could physically see where I’d hurt him.

“Oh my gosh,” I rushed the words of an apology out. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to–”

Instead of letting me ramble my way into five minutes of guilt and fretting over his injuries, he put his hand on mine. I paused, noticing the gentle but firm touch.

“Mara. It’s alright. It was just a bit too tight.” Jay grinned, jokes on his tongue. “I’m sore, got beat up, you know.”

I sighed in relief, needing to hear those words from him before I could truly accept it. Nudging his shoulder the tiniest bit with my fist, rather than my normal light punch, I felt tears rise in my eyes. Thinking about the fact of the matter, that he was only aching and hurting because he’d been in a car accident, his life seemed to flash before my eyes all over again. I didn’t want to lose him. It wasn’t even just a choice of how it happened, it was that I couldn’t bear to lose him at all.

“Don’t do that again. Alright?” I asked, knowing even as the words left me such a promise was impossible. I didn’t care. “Don’t scare me like that.”

“I’m sorry. But it really wasn’t my fault, you know,” he said softly, noting my change in demeanor.

“I know, I just… I can’t lose you, okay?”

With a smile, he squeezed my hand.

“You’re not going to. I’m right here.”

Just as his comforting words and touch of hand began soothing my anxiety, there was a quiet knock on the door that called our attention. Lucas stepped in, holding up a takeout bag from one of Jay’s favorite places.

“Good to see you awake,” he said with a grin, setting the bag down. “If you weren’t, I was hoping the smell of this would wake you up.”

He proceeded to tell us that Sir Jax, Jay’s beloved cat, was doing well. After I’d fallen asleep, Lucas had left to go check on him.

While Sir Jax was fine, he was a bit more hesitant about the condition of Jay’s vehicle.

“Not much hope there,” he said jokingly, with an air of truth as he pursed his lips.

“I’ll just have to get a new one, I suppose.” Jay conceded. “Unless she’s still fixable,” he added after a beat.

“You should’ve gotten one ages ago.”

Jay turned to me, pouting.

“Betty was doing great.”

“Yeah, well, Betty was basically eighty in human years,” I replied dryly, giving him a stern look.

As much as he loved that vehicle, I was constantly surprised it wasn’t breaking down in the middle of the road. It had already gone through a number of repairs, put on way too many miles, and for a while, needed a specific ritual for Jay to start her up. Of course, after enough pressure by me and Lucas, he took her into the shop to become semi-normal again.

“Hey, don’t be jealous,” Jay said, a grin on his face as he reached a hand over to ruffle my hair again. “You were around before Betty showed up.”

“I sure was,” I admitted. I remembered when he bought her. At the time, it was an excellent purchase. Years upon years ago. “But that doesn’t mean you should keep your first car forever, either, does it?”

“Psh.”

“The air-conditioning stopped working months ago,” I reminded him.

He looked away, unable to refute my words. Since he wasn’t going to say anything else, I continued with the list of things wrong with Betty.

“The CD player is permanently broken.”

“Those could be fixed, Mara.”

I lifted a brow, meeting his gaze. There was one thing that couldn’t be and we both knew of it. He opened his mouth and closed it again as we stared at each other.

“You know,” he eventually said. “You don’t have to say it.”

“Betty’s at almost 230,000 miles, Jay. We all think it’s time you laid her to rest.”

Pouting, Jay nodded, agreeing to let her go.

We all chatted as if the background weren’t a hospital room, as if we were having dinner around a table or seated on couches. After a while, Lucas had to leave again, headed off to work. As time came for me to leave as well, Jay’s voice took on a new tone.

“Mara, there’s something I need to tell you,” he said. As though he were trying to appear cheerful, the corners of his mouth had risen halfway to a smile. “When I recover and get out of here, do you promise you’ll hear me out?”

“Sure thing. Get some rest,” I replied, a smile on my face. I had no idea what he wanted to talk about, but now the focus for all of us was on him recovering well.

“Cool. Thanks.”

Relief smoothing out a real smile on his face, he waved as I walked from the room.

Upon reaching home, I cleaned up the mess of the night before. Distractedly picking up puzzle pieces from every corner of my room, I reached down for another, only to realize they were all picked up.

A text caused my phone to buzz. Reaching over, I read the message, typing out a quick reply before getting ready to head out again.

Sitting with a drink in front of me, I waited on her arrival. Though Jay was my number one best friend, I had another. I smiled as I saw her, the grin on her face sending a contagious energy to me.

Jeane.

She quickly ordered a drink for herself, and before long, we were talking, both of us with a drink in hand, sipping through the straws while the other spoke.

“So, how’s Jay? He was in a crash yesterday, right?”

I nodded.

“He’s good. He’ll be in the hospital for a while, but we’ve made it past the roughest part.”

“Yeah?”

“They weren’t sure he was going to wake up,” I admitted quietly, keeping the words soft enough that they wouldn’t spread around the room.

“Oh my gosh.” Jeane’s eyes, full of worry and concern, brightened after a moment. “But he’s awake now. He’s a fighter. We’re not losing him yet.”

Sharing a smile, we moved onto other topics. With the both of us being busy lately, we hadn’t had much chance to talk and catch up.

Going on a rant about her coworker’s dumb antics and sharing stories that engulfed my attention, my mind was kept far away from the car accident of yesterday.