Page 16 of Tandem

“Your brother hit his head pretty hard in the wreck, so his body has put him in a coma to protect his brain. There is a little swelling, but the doctors are hopeful it’s one he will pull out of, hopefully in a week or less.” Dad rubbed my back gently as he spoke. But I was hardly processing his words.

I blinked back at my dad, who suddenly seemed so tired. "He’s in a coma? He’s gonna wake up, right, Dad?! Right?" But before Dad could answer, the doctor returned with my X-ray results.

“You are a very lucky lady. You have some bruising from the seat belt, and your ribs and neck might be a bit sore, but because you were strapped in so tight, somehow you were hardly jostled.” I realized all of a sudden it wasn’t because of my seat belt, being that it wasn’t that tight. I was hanging from my butt, not touching the seat.

“It wasn’t the seat belt…” I stuttered out as the tears started falling, and I glanced at Dad. “Jayden threw his arm over me when we lost control. I think it was holding me in place the first few flips… He broke his arm to keep me safe…” My voice cracked.

Dad stood up from sitting on my bed beside me and kissed my forehead. “Shhhh, it’s okay. Jayden’s a good brother, he’s going to be fine, honey. Don’t cry. Relax, please.”

I sat there while they discharged me, and we all walked into the hospital cafeteria, grabbing a little something to eat. Suddenly, I realized how hungry I was and noticed that it was well into the afternoon. How was it so late when it felt like my world had come to a crashing stop?

“Where’s my phone?” My mom reached into my personal effects baggie and grabbed it out. How it wasn’t destroyed was beyond me, but I flicked to the group message and texted the guys.

Rosalie

Hey guys, at the hospital again. I’m going to be fine but Jayden got hurt, he’s going to be here for a few days. Talk more later.

I turned off the notifications and then put my phone back into my pocket. After a while, we made our way back to a waiting room, where the nurse there told us we could go see him, but we couldn’t stay long since he had more tests they needed to do. I walked in and saw Jayden looking almost normal, like he was just sleeping. “It’s like nothing is even wrong… Can he still hear us?” I asked my parents, and Mom nodded.

“Yes, he can. You can talk to him, Rosalie,” she softly spoke as Dad wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him. They watched me as I walked over and gently held his non-injured hand.

“Hi, Jay, it’s me, Rosalie. I’m fine, thanks to you. You kept me safe, and you’re the best brother ever, so you need to get better super fast so you can make fun of me and everything, okay?” I rubbed his hand a moment, then I let it go and backed away, allowing Mom and Dad to move in closer.

Dad just looked at all the monitors, glanced at Jayden, and quickly looked away at Mom. “I gotta go take care of the car.”

“Kayden, you can’t be serious.” Mom stared at him in disbelief as he ambled out into the waiting room and pulled out his phone, no doubt calling the tow guy. Mom seemed like she was on the brink of tears as she looked away from the door Dad just exited through and leaned over to kiss Jayden’s forehead, talking softly to him—too soft for me to overhear.

Dad walked in and gave Mom a kiss, and they talked for a moment, and Mom came over to hug me. “Dad’s going to take you home, okay? I’m going to stay here tonight with your brother.”

I nodded at her. “Tell me if he wakes up?”

“I will, Rosalie. Don’t worry.”

Dad and I left so he could drive me home. Once we got home, he made sure I got to the couch. Then he grabbed me a glass of water, my pain meds, and a snack for me.

“I've gotta go again, kiddo. Are you all set?” I nodded at Dad, turning the TV on and plugging in my phone to the charger. I watched as Dad walked back out the door, and I leaned back into the couch, thankful that Mom and Dad bought furniture based on comfort and not just appearances.

A few hours later, after the sun had set, Dad came back home, and I couldn’t help but notice he had grease stains on his hands, along with some minor cuts and bruises. I wanted to ask what happened but seeing how tired he looked, it stopped me. Instead, I just gave him a hug, and he told me there were no changes and that Mom had said she would call him if Jayden woke up during the night. I asked if I could sleep on the couch because, at this point, the adrenaline had worn off, and dang did my body ache. I felt like I had a run-in with a semi-truck. Although, I guess rolling in a car down a hillside was pretty much just as bad, but still.

Dad brought me some of my pillows and top blankets from my room, and refilled my water, and got me some dinner: pancakes with strawberry milk. Dad didn’t cook much, but his pancakes were legendary in the Wells household, not even Jayden could resist them.

It took Jayden six days to wake up, and when he did, Mom broke down like I had never seen her before. After Jayden woke up, he recovered pretty quickly, and within another week or so, he was home with a cast on his arm. He doodled on all kinds of stupid stuff and wouldn’t let me add anything to it—well, I did add “my sister is the best” when he was passed out on the couch. Except he hadn’t acted like he'd noticed it yet.

And my car, my perfect Viper, was towed to the customs, where it sat outside in a crumpled pile, and honestly, I wasn’t sure how we didn’t die looking at how destroyed it was. I asked Dad if he would help me rebuild it, and he completely changedthe topic. It wasn’t until a few days after I discovered the reason why Dad’s hands had been hurt the night of the accident.

He had taken his beautiful, perfect Viper out to his friend Hank’s property and destroyed it. I literally cried when Hank Jr. sent me a photo, and I begged him to hide it in a barn up there until I could figure out a plan to rebuild it. Because there was no way I was letting Dad lose his favorite car over Jayden and me being stupid.

Or my name wasn’t Rosalie Wells.

CHAPTER 11

ROSALIE

A few monthshad passed since the wreck, along with our nineteenth birthdays. Jayden was fine and had healed fully. Much against Dad’s protesting, I spent my savings on a new Viper, modding it to look exactly like my old one. And I had just finished it earlier this week, so having a nice low-key official Flywheels car meet today meant I got to bring her out and show her off.

So here I was, sitting on the hood of my car, looking around at the car meet as the setting sunrays made the area glow in an array of colors. All of the different car paint jobs were picking up the colors of the LA sun hitting the edge of the world, and they were coming to life.

I was admiring a particularly gorgeous mint green vintage Porsche 912 across from me for a few minutes. There was almost nothing better than seeing and hearing all of the people walking around excitedly chatting about their builds and all of the sweat, tears, and money that went into getting them to where they were at the moment. Some were completely finished, some in the beginning stages with missing bumpers or parts of their interiors. This was my scene; these were my people. Some people from my school, like my crew of friends, were here.Hank, Freddie, Tyler, and even Jayden were wandering around here somewhere. Then there was part of the OGs. Dad and his friends, Atrix and Hank’s dad, Hank Woodard Sr., were all chilling toward the middle of the meet next to their drift and muscle cars.