"Luke before you jump to any conclusions this isn't what it looks like," I say carefully.

"What conclusion would you jump to if you were in my shoes?" he asks angrily and turns to face me. "You have sex sheets Kat. Sex sheets!"

"It was my roommate!" I say, slightly frustrated this time.

"Then where is she?"

"She must have snuck out the window or something when Zach came by."

"Right," he scoffs. "of course she did."

"I can prove it Luke!"

"Fine then. Do!" he says and throws his hands up in the air.

I pull out my phone and dial Jane's number.

"Hi Kat!" she says on the other line.

"Hey Jane! Where are you?" I ask.

"Just in Grace's room. Why?"

"Did Max get out okay?" I ask.

"Max? What are you talking about?"

"Jane. I'm serious there are no teachers around," I say and roll my eyes.

"I still don't know what your talking about. You know the rules. Plus, you could have come up with a better lie. Max? He's an asshole," she says. I can here Max yell 'hey' in the background. "I gotta go Kat. See you later at curfew," she says and hangs up.

"She must have said that because she thought I was being questioned by a teacher. Luke you have to believe me," I plead.

"How can I? You have fuck-" he's interrupted by someone pounding on the door.

"What?" I snap when I open the door.

"K-Kat," I'm greeted by a crying Jamie. She looks horrible. Is this about Harry?

"It's okay Jamie. Harry's an asshole," I say and pull her in for a hug.

"N-no. It's not th-that," she blubbers.

"What? What's wrong then."

"Roland and B-Ben. They were in an accident. We have to go to the hospital now," she manages to get out. What?

"What do you mean an accident?" I ask.

"A teacher was driving them into town to get new costumes and a drunk driver hit them. They were both on the passenger side and got all the impact. We have to get to the hospital. Now!"

"Oh my god," I feel tears form and I quickly run out the room with Jamie and Luke following. Jamie cuts in front of me and leads us to where we need to go. She stops when we reach the entrance where Mrs. Rain is waiting with her car.

"Is Luke coming too?" Mrs. Rain asks Jamie.

"I guess," she says, still crying and we all get into the car. No one says anything as we start the drive.

---

We reach the hospital and run inside to the front desk.

"We're looking for Benjamin Tickle and Roland Peters," I tell the front desk. At this point tears are streaming down my face but I don't bother to wipe them away.

"Benjamin Tickle is in critical condition and can't have visitors right now," the nurse tells us. Holy crap. Critical condition.

"And Roland?" Luke asks. His eyes are red but he isn't full-on crying. The nurse sighs deeply.

"I regret to inform you that Mr. Peters was declared dead on impact. There was nothing we could do. I'm sorry," she says. I collapse on the floor like they do in movies and cry harder. I can't hear anything around me, it all sounds like static. I feel someone wrap their arms around my and carefully rock me back and forth but I don't know who.

Roland was one of my best friends. He was also one of my first friends here. Now he's gone. Just like that. I don't get to say goodbye. I think the last thing I said to him was that he was a 'fucking idiot'. Jokingly of course, but still.

After a few minutes I start to hear things again.

"Shhh, baby, shhh. It's okay. I'm here. Luke's here." It must be Luke who's holding me. I bury my head in his chest and cry harder. "Shhh, it's okay," he says and strokes my hair. That the thing though Luke, it's not okay. "I'm going to lift you up now, okay?"

"I'm not leaving until I see Ben," I tell him.

"I know baby, we're just going to the waiting room so we can wait for Ben to wake up," he assures me. I nod and he hooks his one arm under my leg then carries me bridal style to an elevator.

"But Luke, aren't you ma-" I start but he cuts me off.

"Already forgotten, we need each other right now," he whispers and places a kiss on my hair.

"I love you," I mumble into his shirt.

"I love you more baby."

---

I must have fallen asleep because when Luke wakes me up it's light outside.

"Kat, wake up, we can see Ben now," Luke tells me.

"One at a time please, we don't want to overwhelm him," the nurse says.

"You can go first Jamie," I say softly. She nods and walks into the room.

"Holy shit! I came as soon as I could! Are they okay? Are they alive?" Perrie runs into the waiting area out of breath.

"Yeah, uh, Ben's just in there. They just started letting people see him," Luke says.

"Thank god," Perrie sighs and wipes her eyes. "Wait what about Roly-Poly?," she asks. Roly-Poly is her nickname for Roland by the way.

I start to cry again and Perrie gets the idea.

"Oh my god," she gasps and begins to cry along with me. She sits next to me and we hold tightly on to each other. Luke rubs my back and whispers soothing things but they go in one ear and out the other. They wont bring my friend back.

About ten minutes later Jamie comes out of the room.

"You can go next if you want Kat," Luke says and the others nod in agreement. Everyone looks extremely worn out. They all look like they've been crying. Even Grace. Yup, Grace is here. We may not like her but she still hung around us a lot. I guess she got more attached to our group then I thought.

I stand up and open the door to his room slowly. I tear up again at the sight of him. He has bandages all over his body and too many machines hooked up to him to count. I make my way over to the side of his bed and sit down in the chair next to him. He opens one eye and smiles when he sees me.

"I was hoping you'd come in next," he croaks. "You're the only one I trust to tell me truthfully- how do I look?" he asks. I laugh and wipe under my eyes.

"As sexy as ever Benny," I tell him and he winks.

"I try." There's a silence but it's not uncomfortable.

"You scared the crap out of me. All of us," I tell him and lightly punch his arm. VERY lightly.

"I'm sorry. Getting into a near fatal car wreck was a mistake. I wont do it next time," he jokes.

"If you do it again you better hope it kills you. If it doesn't then you'll have me to deal with." He chuckles and then coughs loudly.

"I was so scared I'd never see my Benster again," I say.

"Aww, come here you," he says and I rest my head on his chest, careful not to hurt him. "I'll always be here, okay? No matter what. Some dumbass drunk driver can't come between Bat," he says.

"Bat? Really?"

"It's hard to think of ship names on the spot, excuse me!" he says. "Plus, nothing can compete with Kuke."

"True," I say and smile to myself.

"I need you to answer another question truthfully," he says, now serious.

"Shoot."

"How's Roland," he asks. I freeze. "Jamie wouldn't tell me."

"I think it's time for the next visitor," I say and sit up.

"Kat," he says firmly. "tell me." I sigh and look back over at him.

"He...he, uh, he was killed on impact," I choke out.

"Oh," Ben says.

"I'm sorry Ben," I say as new tears form. "I'm so, so, sorry."

"Why are you sorry? It's not your fault." he says and takes my hand. I see the tears in his eyes and cry harder.

"You should go to the hotel Kat. You look like hell. That's putting it lightly. You can visit me later. I'll be here when you get back, it's not like I can go anywhere" Ben says.

"Okay Benny," I sniffle. "I love you," I plant a kiss on his cheek and he smiles.

"Love you more Kitty-Kat."

I leave the room and Luke goes in for a few minutes before walking me out of the waiting room. Zach offers to drive us back to the hotel and we get into his car. About half an hour into the ride Luke gets a phone call. I read the caller ID and it says Jamie. She's still at the hospital I believe. He greets her and instantly his face falls.

"What's wrong?" I ask. We pull into the hotel parking lot and Luke is quiet for a while. Zach and I both look at him expectatnly.

"Ben just died."

Notes

NOOOOOO. BENNY AND ROLAND. NOOOOOO. WHY COULDN'T IT BE GRACE? I cried when I wrote this because I thought of Sammy from Dance Academy. :'((((((((
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