“Nash!” I screamed. “Wake up! Nash, wake up!”
Violet
I had never felt so anxious and nervous in my entire life. Chad and Hayes drove me to the hospital after the ambulance took Nash away.
I couldn’t get that sight out of my mind. Nash, he looked so lifeless. There was so much blood. Too much.
The doctors assumed he slipped and hit his head on the side of the tub. They said he would be fine, but he was in serious condition. He lost a lot of blood and he hit his head really hard, which caused him to pass out. He wasn’t breathing as well as the doctors hoped, so they had him under close watch.
I leaned against Hayes, who had been rubbing my back the entire time. I closed my eyes and let the tears run down my face.
“Do you think he’ll be fine?” I managed to say. I slowly looked up at him.
His eyes looked down at me and a sympathetic smile formed. “He is going to be just fine. Don’t you worry, Violet.” I smiled and leaned against him again. “Everything is going to be all right,” he assured me again.
I stayed like this for another hour before the doctors came back out.
“Well, we have some good news and some bad news,” one of the doctors said.
My heart began to race and my mind was going crazy. “Is he going to be all right?” I quickly asked.
“Yes, he will be fine. We managed to keep his heart rate up and his breathing is back to normal. We stitched his head up. He did, however, lose a lot of blood, so he is going to be very weak and tired. He also has a very serious concussion, which means he is going to have to stay here for the rest of the day. He will get better, though,” they explained to all of us.
A smile formed on my face and I closed my eyes in relief. “When will we be able to see him?” I asked.
“He just fell asleep, but you all are welcome to stay in his room. Just don’t be rough with him or try to wake him up.” They pointed to the room he was in and I sprinted down the hall.
I’d never seen him that way. His face was so pale and he had dark circles under his eyes. I could see the area where they had to put stitches in. They reminded me of when I had to get stitches. My hand reached for my scar. No, Violet. Stop thinking about you. Think about Nash.
I ran my fingers through his hair. It was soft as it always was. I leaned down and kissed him on the head, like he always did for me. He did it to show that he was always there and that he cared about me. It was time I did the same for him.
I pulled a chair next to him and grabbed his hand. “I’m here, baby. I’ll always be here,” I whispered.
Nash
Pain. That was all I felt. I did not have enough power in me to open my eyes. All I saw was blackness and I heard an unfamiliar voice speaking to me.
I managed to slowly open my eyes. It took a while to adjust to the lighting and take in the surroundings. I was in a hospital room. Why was I here?
I saw four boys sitting in chairs across from me. Their faces lit up when they saw me open my eyes. Why were they here? I felt someone squeeze my hand, and then someone flung her body onto mine. I pushed the body off in utter confusion. I looked up to see a very beautiful girl with a look of shock and confusion on her face.
“Nash. Thank God you are all right. I’ve been so worried about you.” Tears started running down her face and she took my hand again.
I immediately pulled away and saw her face go blank. “Who . . . who are y-you?” I managed to say.
“What?” she asked. She looked as if she’d just been hit by a truck.
“I don’t know you guys. Who are you?” I turned to the boys, who looked just as shocked as the girl did.
“That’s Violet. She’s your girlfriend, Nash,” one of the guys told me.
“No . . . I don’t have a girlfriend,” I told them, shaking my head.
“What? Nash, no.” The girl’s voice cracked as she spoke. Tears started running down her face even faster. I felt bad for this girl; it looked like she had been through a lot.
One of the boys ran out of the room and I heard him yell for a doctor. Seconds later two doctors scurried in and pushed the girl away.
“Nash, are you feeling all right?” one of them asked.
“My head hurts, what happened?” I asked.
“You slipped in the tub and hit your head quite hard. You lost a lot of blood and you have a serious concussion,” one of them explained.
“I don’t remember that,” I said, shaking my head.
“Nash, what is the last thing you remember?” the other doctor said.
“Um . . . I remember coming home from lacrosse practice. Oh no. We have a game tomorrow. You need to let me go.” I started to get up but the doctor held me back down.
“What is the date today, Nash?” one of the boys asked.
I turned to him. “Well, I had a lacrosse game against North High a few days ago and that was on February thirteenth. So today is February sixteenth,” I answered.
The guys and the girl looked shocked. She ran out of the room and two of the guys chased after her. What was going on? Where was my family?
The doctors made the other two boys leave. They sat down next to me in chairs and asked me more confusing questions about events in September. Why were they doing this?
Violet
I ran out of the room as fast as I could. Tears were running down my face and I couldn’t breathe. I fell down in the middle of the hallway, rocking myself back and forth.
He didn’t remember. He didn’t know me. Why was this happening?
“Violet!” I heard Cameron yell at me. I heard his feet running toward me but I didn’t move. He shifted me over to the wall and held me.
I was shaking so bad. I flung my arms out and grabbed him. As I cried my eyes out on his shirt, he rubbed my back. I was gasping for air but I still couldn’t breathe.
Cam pulled me off him and looked me in the eyes. He looked worried. “Violet, you’re not breathing. You need to breathe.” He started breathing with me and eventually my heart rate slowed. He grabbed me and pulled me into his arms again. He rocked me back and forth on the floor.
“Everything is going to be all right. It’s not just going to end like this,” he told me.
He was wrong. Nash had no memory of me or Vine! What about all of his fans? Everything that he had, it was all gone. It was over and done with.
Nash
The girl and the group of guys didn’t come back in after that. The doctor told me that they were my friends and the girl was my girlfriend. That couldn’t be possible. She was too beautiful and I was just Nash. There was nothing special about me.
After a couple of more hours my family ran through the doors. I was shocked. “Hayes! You grew out your hair!” I exclaimed. He looked over at Mom with a confused look on his face.
Skylynn crawled on top of me. “Look how big you got!”
The doctor walked back into the room and introduced himself to my mom.
“Hello, Mrs. Grier. I’m Dr. Lodt. You were informed about what happened and his previous condition. After he woke up, he couldn’t remember anything. He lost some of his memory. There was a girl and a group of boys in here with him and he had no idea who they were. His most recent memory is about a lacrosse game and he believes it is February sixteenth,” he explained to my family.
My mom slapped her hand over her mouth. Hayes turned toward me with wide eyes. “Does that mean . . . ?” he asked my mom.
“Honey, do you remember Vine? Or Violet?” my mom asked me.
“Vine and violet? What, the green thing on plants and a flower?” I asked. What was she talking about?
“Oh my gosh.” My mom put her head in her hands. “Will he ever regain his memory?”
“We don’t know for sure. We can relocate him to a hospital closer to you for questioning. Some patients, over
time, are able to regain part of their memories. Although there is a possibility that he will not remember anything,” Dr. Lodt told her.
Hayes looked over at me once more. “I’m going to go find Violet,” he told my mom, and then ran out the door. Why was he looking for a flower? I swear he was such a freak sometimes.
Cameron
I managed to pick Violet up and carried her over to a waiting area. She finally calmed herself down and fell asleep on my shoulder.
No girl had ever done this to me before. I had never dated anybody, so this was all new to me. Yeah, Violet was absolutely stunning, but I already knew I didn’t like her that way. I saw her more as my sister. I would do anything for her and would always be there for her. There was just some strange connection I had with her and I couldn’t figure out what it was.
I saw Hayes running up to us from down the hall.
“I saw Nash. How is she?” he asked, kneeling down and running his hand through her hair.
“She just fell asleep. She was having an attack and couldn’t breathe and was shaking uncontrollably.” He just sat there with us, looking down at Violet, a sad look on his face.
“You know, Nash told me that she was the one. He knew that even though they were still young, all he saw in his future was her. She meant the world to him and he loved her so much,” Hayes told me. We both looked down at her and sighed.
“You know, I have to believe that this isn’t the end. He has so much ahead of him. Not just Violet, but his future with Vine. Something like this wouldn’t just happen and ruin his future,” I told him. He nodded and stood up.
“Well, I have to go back. I just wanted to make sure she was all right. Thanks for taking care of her.” He walked back down the hall with his hands in his pockets and kept his head down.
Violet
I woke up in the car. Cameron was next to me and had his arm around my shoulder. “You’re awake.” He yawned and smiled down at me.
“I wish I wasn’t.” I scooted closer to him and he just squeezed me tighter. “Thanks, Cam. You are really being sweet to me and I appreciate it so much,” I said.
“No problem. Hey, 26 MGMT is a family, so you are my little sister. Family is always there for each other,” he said. I smiled at him and he smiled back. I wondered why we didn’t talk that much.
The car pulled into a parking spot and I looked out the window. We were at the hotel. There was a crowd of fans outside the doors. A couple of security guards came up to us to escort us back to our rooms.
As we walked up I could hear the fans screaming. “Where’s Nash? Violet! Is he all right?! What happened!”
Just their saying his name made me cry again. I wasn’t the only person who had lost such an important person in her life. All these fans, they’ve lost him. They were going to be so heartbroken.
“Violet, you’re crying. Do you want to wait a little bit?” Cameron asked.
“No. I don’t care if they see me like this. He was just as important to them as he was to me,” I told him, tears now rolling down my face. I swear if I keep crying like this, I’m going to die from lack of fluid in my system. Crappy joke, Violet. This is no time to pull stupid jokes.
Cam guided me past all our fans. I looked up at them and saw all their worried faces. This time they were not screaming to take our pictures. They were worried about us and Nash. I had to look back down because they just made me cry even more.
After we walked into the building I was attacked by a bunch of bodies. The rest of the boys were attacking me and pulling me into hugs. They looked just as sad as I felt. They’d lost one of their best friends.
Cameron picked me up and carried me back to the room where we had our meetings before the event. More memories flooded back about Nash and me. Our smack cams and our food-eating competitions all happened in this room.
Chad walked up to me and he immediately started bombarding me with questions about his son. After the first couple of hours of waiting in the hospital, he felt obligated to drive back to the hotel to cancel the event. You could tell how worried and anxious he was about Nash. It was definitely not fair for him to be separated from his son, especially at a time like this.
After explaining everything to Chad, I walked back to Tess and Lacey, who opened up their arms to me. I shook my head. It was hard right then but I had to move on. Somehow, in the end, this would all make sense.
“Okay, guys. Well, we all know that we are going to cancel this event. Sometime in the future we will try to come back. I’m going to give you all a break from this tour. It’s going to take all of us some time to think things through. If you want to pack your bags, I’m going to go out and explain what happened to Nash to the people at the event.” He started walking out the door.
“Wait, Chad. I want to. Can I tell them?” I asked. I mean, I knew more about the situation than any of them. I’d been there.
“Are you sure? It’s going to be hard,” he said. Everyone looked over at me.
“Yes. I want to,” I told him.
“We’ll come out with you,” Cameron said as he pulled the group down the hallway into the event.
I walked in first and grabbed a microphone from Sierra. I looked into the crowd. It was quiet, dead silent. They all had worried and sad looks on their faces. The rest of the boys walked up on the stage with me.
“Hey, guys,” I spoke into the microphone. “We have some serious news to tell you all. Now this is the truth and we are telling you guys before it hits the social media world. Yes, Nash was rushed to the hospital this morning. He slipped in the tub and hit his head really hard on the porcelain. He has a very serious concussion. He actually . . .” My voice started to choke and Hayes tried to grab the microphone from my grip. I refused and carried on, even though tears were running down my face.
“Nash lost some of his memory. He doesn’t remember anything that happened after early February.” I heard gasps in the crowd and girls crying. “He does not know what 26 MGMT is, the guys, not even Vine. So with that we are canceling the tour for now. We will refund all your tickets and give out free merchandise to all of you. We apologize to all of you. If we continue the tour sometime later on, we will give you free VIP tickets. We are all so sorry.” This time I couldn’t hold my tears and they spilled out all over my face.
Cameron wrapped his arms around me. He pulled me off the stage and into a corner of the room. I starting sobbing onto his shoulder and he just held me close.
I heard people yelling for me but I ignored them. I wanted to go home. I wanted to get out of there.
I turned around one more time and waved at all my fans. I saw that a few girls were crying and I ran up to them. I hugged them tightly even though the railing was between us.
“Stay strong, guys,” I yelled out before running back out into the hallway. That would be the last time I would see my fans. I could no longer continue Vine without Nash.
He meant so much to me and he’d just slipped through my fingers. I’d lost the most important piece of my life. I had nothing to live for anymore.
Violet
Nash’s mom and Skylynn were going to stay in Seattle with Nash for a couple more days. Hayes was going to fly back home with me so I wouldn’t be alone on the plane.
I hadn’t seen Nash in a week and it was very hard. There had been no improvement in his memory. I cried myself to sleep every night. Everything around me reminded me of him.
The rest of the 26 MGMT family had already left and gone back home. Cameron promised he would come visit me sometime during winter break. Out of all the guys, Cam had been the sweetest to me. We had the same relationship that Hayden and I had. I felt like I could trust him and I knew he cared about me. There was just some type of weird bond that we had.
I must have fallen asleep on the plane, because when Hayes woke me up, we were just about to land. He had been very caring to me as
well. It was hard seeing him, though; when I looked at him, all I saw was Nash. He knew it, but he still checked up on me all the time.
We walked off the plane and I saw Hayden in the waiting area. He had a crowd of girls surrounding him. He found me and managed to squeeze past all the fans. I ran up to him and jumped in his arms. I missed him so much.
“Hey, beautiful. How’s my lovely sister?” he asked me.
I jumped off him and just stared at him. “I think you already know, Hayden.”
“Sorry.” He looked down and started kicking his feet on the ground.
“C’mon, let’s go get our bags and head home,” I said. I grabbed Hayden’s and Hayes’s hands and pulled them down the hallway. It felt so much better having Hayden there with me.
After we got our bags, Hayden took mine from me and carried them across the lot to his car. He turned on the music but none of us sang along like we usually did. He eventually turned the radio off and we drove home in silence.
When we finally pulled into our driveway, I gave Hayes a tight hug. “Thank you, Hayes, for everything,” I told him.
He hugged me tighter, then pulled away. “I’m always here for you and you know that. If you ever need anything, just text me. You’re always welcome to come over too.”
I gave him a slight smile and looked down. “Yeah, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that anytime soon.” I looked back up at him and kissed him on the cheek.
I waved good-bye as he headed over to his house to see Will, who was unable to fly out to Seattle along with the rest of his family.
I didn’t think I’d be able to see them anymore. Just looking at their faces brought back so much pain. “Good-bye,” I whispered to myself as I turned around.
Nash
After another week in the hospital, the doctors were finally letting me go back home. I was under a lot of stress with all the information I had to take in.
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