“Hey.” He says, smiling weakly.

“Hey.” It’s almost a whimper. “You scared me.” I say, walking slowly and sitting down in the chair next to his bed.

“Sorry, I didn’t think that it would scare you so much when I got hit by a car, my bad, next time I’ll just buy you flowers.” He says, smiling.

I laugh, “don’t make jokes, it was really scary.” I say.

His face falls, “I know.” He whispers. “You’re alright?”

I nod, “I’m alright, what did they say about you?” I ask.

“Broken wrist, minor internal bleeding I am now without one kidney, internal bruising which I didn’t even know was a thing, some head stuff, and my left lung has collapsed two times now.” He says.

My eyes sting with fresh tears.

“Hey,” he says, feebly reaching out to touch my arm. “I’m okay, it’s okay, everything is okay.”

A tear slips down my cheek and I shake my head. “That’s the thing, everything is not okay. Everything is so far from okay. We finally get together and we’re happy and then we get hit by a freaking car.” I say, tears streaming down my face.

“Take a breath, Char. Take a breath, it’s gonna be okay.” He says, patting the sliver of bed next to him with his hand that’s not bandaged. “Come sit.” He says, smiling.

I smile tearfully and sit down next to him and take his non-bandaged hand.

“Do you know when I first started falling for you?” He asks, curiously.

I shake my head, “no.” I say.

“It was when we had that project in school, the one where we had to explain what we thought love was. Your paper was lying on the kitchen counter when I was over one time, I read it, I mean I didn’t think it was super personal or anything or an invasion of privacy.You said, “love is when you’re heart never beats quite right around them. Love is when you look into their eyes and the entire world stops. Love is pretty and beautiful, but it’s scary too. Love is everything all rolled into one, even the most horrible things, and somehow it’s still lovely, maybe because the good outweighs the bad.”

“You remember the exact wording?” I ask in surprise.

“And I’ll never forget it.” He replies.

I let out a shaky breath. “You can’t die now, because now it would really break me.” I say. “No dying, I forbid it.”

He laughs. “You forbid it?”

“Don’t laugh, I’m not kidding. No dying, stay alive. Against all odds, because thats what you do, you do things against all odds, don’t let this be an exception.” I say.

He nods. “Okay then, absolutely no dying.” Then he sighs. “Well there goes my Saturday.”

One of the monitors he’s hooked up to starts beeping.

“Leo?” I say. No answer, I look over at him, he’s eyes are half open and he’s sort of frozen. “Leo.” I say again, panicking now.

Doctors and nurses rush in I stand up, staring in shock and fear at Leo.

“I think he’s having a stroke.” One doctor says.

“A complication with the surgery?” A nurse asks.

“I don’t know, lets go.” He says, and they start wheeling Leo out, leaving me shocked and still.