Love Heals All (2 page)

Autumn

I went back
over to the Griers' house and just walked through the front door, since Mrs. Elizabeth had told me that would be okay. Then I climbed the stairs to Hayes's room. I set down my bag and saw him standing in the room facing his closet, doing God knows what boys do. I'm gonna go scare him, I thought. I ran up behind him and jumped onto his back. “Boo,” I whispered in his ear. He yelped and gripped my thighs.

“Gosh, Autumn,” he breathed out, looking over his shoulder at me. “I didn't know you wear glasses. I like them.”

I said, “Sorry, I just had to do it. And I hate my glasses. They're ug-ly!”

Hayes shook his head. “You're absolutely 100 percent perfect just the way you are.”

I blushed. Hayes Grier just called me perfect! Hayes called me—Autumn Nicole Brown—perfect! I am not perfect.

Next thing I knew, he was running downstairs to the basement, carrying me piggyback. Like any normal person, I held on for dear life and kept my head shoved into the crook of his neck. When we got down to the basement, Nash, Will, and Skylynn were already there watching
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
. Hayes set me on the couch and plopped down next to me. He had his arm around me throughout the movie.

By the end of the movie, Sky had fallen asleep on my lap. I was tired, too, since it was one in the morning, so I just fell asleep on the couch downstairs, not wanting to do anything else with the boys.

Autumn

I woke up
in the basement, forgetting where I was for a second.

“Good morning,” Hayes said in his morning voice.

“Morning!” I smiled, and sat up.

“Let's go make waffles, I'm starving!” Hayes exclaimed.

“Hon, I can't cook for my life,” I said in all seriousness. I wasn't lying, either. I'll burn the house down just plugging in a toaster.

“Me, neither.” He smirked. “Call the fire department!”

We ran up the stairs to the kitchen, having a race to see who was fastest.

When we got to the kitchen, he yelled in victory, and I started searching for the ingredients the Internet said you need for waffles.

So the waffles ended up being a good disaster, and I mean good. Hayes and I had a huge food fight, got in trouble, had to take showers, then had to clean the entire kitchen. It was a very eventful morning.

Autumn

I decided to
ask Hayes about the Twitter thing, because no one in this world has almost one million followers for no reason. And apparently they're Vine famous. I mean, they're with 26MGMT. I'm gonna be with 26, and no one told me about Nash and Hayes Grier. Well, they probably have, without me listening to a word they said. I've missed a lot of things in many of our meetings.

I went upstairs to Hayes's room to find him tapping on his phone. Typical. I guess now's a good time to ask him.

“Whatcha doin'?” I asked, leaning on the headboard of his bed and looking down at his screen.

“Nothing,” he said in a shaky voice.

“Whoa, you have a lot of followers on Twitter,” I said casually, and played it off like I didn't already know.

“Um, yeah, about that. Me, Nash, and partially Will and Skylynn are Vine famous and go to this thing called FAM Tour. It's this eve—”

“Hayes, I know what FAM Tour is,” I said, cutting him off. “I know you're Vine famous, I know y'all are Internet sensations. I guess I am, too. You could say I'm kinda famous,” I said with a sly grin.

“Wait, what?” The look on his face was priceless. “That explains why you have that many followers.”

I smiled, grabbed my bag to get my outfit for the day, and walked out of his room.

Then I put on white high-waisted shorts, a
WILD
pullover, and my plain Dr. Martens.

I went into Sky's room to play princesses with her, as she'd suggested when she saw me come out of the bathroom.

“Princess Autumn, do you want to go on the trampoline with me?” Skylynn asked me in her cute little voice.

“I would be delighted to, Princess Skylynn!”

We walked down the stairs hand in hand, past the boys, who were playing COD, into the backyard.

I helped her climb onto the trampoline, and we jumped around till the sun went down. I showed her some flips from cheerleading—like back tucks, fulls, layouts, back handsprings, front handsprings, front fulls, aerials, and my favorite, also the hardest, the triple full step out back handspring double tucks back handspring triple full.

Yeah, that's very confusing, and I had to do it on the ground because I couldn't fit it all on the trampoline.

It was my pass at World's last year, and because I had perfected it, we won. That was probably the best moment of my life.

Anyway, the boys came out and got it on tape. Sky wanted me to do it again, so I did. But something bad happened. And everything went black.

Hayes

We are watching
Aut do her flipping stuff—then, all of a sudden, she blacked out.

“What happened to Autumn? Is she sleeping?” Sky asked. Little kids and their questions.

“Nash, get Mom and call 911. Will, you get Sky. I've got Autumn!” I ignored Sky's question and picked up Autumn.

I felt like crawling in a dark corner and bawling. She was barely breathing. How could flipping do that to you? One moment she was in the air, the next she was on the ground, unconscious.

I heard the sirens and then the ambulance was here. My mom was on the phone with Autumn's mom. Her dad was in China for a business trip. Apparently, Autumn's mom was on a plane taking off to New York for a month for work. This was great. Just great.

The paramedics came and put Autumn on the gurney. My mom, Nash, and I were going in the ambulance with her, while Will and Skylynn were going to drive behind us.

By this time I was bawling my eyes out. I really didn't care who saw me cry. Nash had a few tears trickling down his face, and my mom was crying pretty hard, but nothing like me.

It's hard to see the girl of your dreams lying unconscious, knowing you can't do anything but watch.

“She's gonna be okay, buddy. She's one of the strongest people we've ever met,” Nash told me uneasily. He knew he was just talking. He didn't know. We didn't know what would happen.

“She can't leave me. I love her. She just can't leave. Not like that. I need to tell her that I love her; I need to tell her about every single feeling I have for her. It'll probably take a billion years, but I don't care. I love her to the ends of the earth. She can't leave me!” I bawled.

All the paramedics were giving me sympathetic looks. I didn't need sympathy. I needed Autumn.

Autumn

I can't see
anything. Everything is black. I can't feel anything. But I can hear. I can hear feet scrambling around the room. Where am I? I better not be dying. I can't die. I have to tell Hayes I love him.

I walk around in the darkness, trying to find a way out of this place. The next thing I know, I'm in a white room with monitors surrounding a bed. A girl is lying on the bed, asleep. That girl was me.

I looked at everyone and gasped—they all looked awful. Hayes and his mom were the worst. Everyone had dark circles under their bloodshot, puffy eyes. They looked dead, almost.

Hayes and his mom were each holding one of my hands. His mom was crying, Hayes was bawling. My heart broke in half just looking at him.

Hayes

It's been three
days. Three days since I've heard her angelic voice. Three days since I've seen her bright smile that could light up a town. Three days since I've seen those beautiful green-yellow eyes that make me melt every time I look at them.

I haven't eaten. I haven't slept. I haven't moved unless I it was to use the bathroom. I haven't spoken to anyone. All I do is sit here and hold her hand, waiting for the day she'll wake up.

And it hurts. It hurts to know that the love of your life could be on her deathbed. I know I'm only thirteen, but I know what love is and I am in love with her. I'm not falling in love with her. Because when you fall you always hit the ground. And I don't want to hit the ground.

It's hard to know that she could die. She can't die. I don't want her to die. I need her with me. I need her in my arms so I can hold her and tell her she's beautiful. She's the only one I want. I love her with all my heart. I just want to know that she's okay.

Three Weeks Later

Autumn

I've been starting
to show some progress. I can move my fingers and wiggle my toes, but that's pretty much all.

I felt my eyes starting to open, and I shut them tight again before opening them all the way. The first person I saw was Hayes, and I felt terrible at how bad he looked.

His hair was everywhere, his eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and he looked skinnier than ever. I felt awful for doing this to him.

Hayes

Her eyes opened.
Those beautiful eyes I've missed for three weeks. The eyes I love—they're open.

“Autumn!” I screamed, and jumped off of my chair. I tackled her into a hug. Oh, how I missed those hugs!

“Hayes!” she screamed back with just as much enthusiasm. I laughed, and so did she. God, how I missed that laugh!

“Autumn!” everyone screamed. She held her head in pain, so I told everyone to quiet down. Everybody moved closer to the bed to give her a big group hug.

“Now, to introduce you to the guys!” I said, with one arm wrapped around her shoulders. Goodness, I missed her so much.

“This is Bart, Carter, Aaron, Daniel, and Jonah.”

“Hi! I'm Autumn!”

Autumn

Cam came and
tackled me in a hug. I hugged him back. I missed my big bro so much.

“I missed you so much, Auts! I didn't know what I would do without you!” A tear rolled down his cheek.

“Aw, Cam! I missed you, too! I would never know what to do without my big bubby!” I said, and my own cheeks felt wet with tears.

He kissed my cheek and let go. Hayes wrapped an arm around me again, and I put my head on his shoulder. God, I love him so much. When do I tell him?

Now Hayes kissed my cheek, and I blushed. What's up with all the cheek kisses today? All the guys awwed, and that just made me blush more.

“SHE WANTS IT!” Jonah yelled. I threw my water bottle at his face, and everybody laughed. I feel a really close connection with these guys. Now I have eight “big brothers”!