Chapter 1

Nathan Vaughn, or more commonly known as Nat among his friends, looked around his hospital room before closing his eyes again. “I deserve this,” He mumbled to himself. And he truly believed that as well. Nat had done some pretty awful things over his eighteen years, and now he was finally paying for it. Aimee had left him once she regained her memories, but at least she was happy. Nat could almost feel happy for her. Almost. Honestly, Nat was jealous and secretly he was hoping that maybe her and Ethan’s relationship would fail and she would come back to him. He acknowledged that it was wrong to think like that, but he couldn’t help it. Maybe Nat was not in love with Aimee, but it was pretty close. But, she had left him for his roommate and her lost love. It is a small world after all.

“Nathan, dear, are you feeling better?” His mother, Mrs. Vaughn, asked him. He slowly lifted his eyelids slightly to look at her. She was looking tired and worried. Although, Nat was not surprised. After all of the problems and issues he had dealt with, he had been hit by a car while lost in his own thoughts. He was surprised his mother was strong enough to deal with everything else, let alone the most recent event. He hated how he had caused her to worry so much. She did not need to put up with all the stuff he managed to get into. She deserved to have a child she could brag about and show off to her friends, not him, Nat thought to himself.

“Yes, Ma,” he answered. “Is Aimee here?” He asked, hoping he did not sound too eager.

“No, Nathan. She left this morning with her family to go back home.”

“Oh.”

“She was in here to say good-bye this morning, but you were asleep. She wanted to stay, but unfortunately her father said they had to go back home. She told me to give you this though.” His mother handed him an envelope with his name written on the front. Leaving Nat alone with his note, he opened it up and began to read.

Nat-

I’m sorry we couldn’t stay longer, but my dad said he had some case to work on back home. He’s a lawyer, if you didn’t know, and he gets so involved with his work sometimes. I really hope you’re feeling better. I’m going to miss you a lot, but maybe I can visit you at Princeton sometime during vacation.

Well, I really hope this doesn’t sound too fake reading it in a letter, but don’t be so hard on yourself, okay? I know you’re still beating yourself up about what happened with my brother and all, but I’d rather you not. Don’t dwell on the past, because you can’t change it. I know it seems like I have done a total 180 on my beliefs, but some things have happened to make me realize that it’s pointless to keep blaming someone on things that happened months ago. We always like to blame someone for something, just so we can feel better. But, that really doesn’t help anything.

Ugh, I am so bad with words. Mostly with writing them down. Audrey’s always been the writer, not me. Just know that you can call me anytime you want. I don’t want you to think that just because I’m back in Washington that we can’t talk anymore. I know that you have some problems, but you don’t have to go through them alone. I’m here, so feel free to write and call. Well, my dad is rushing me to the airport, so I’ll talk to you later.

Love, your friend,

Aimee

The only other remaining writing in the letter was her address, e-mail, and telephone number written at the bottom. Nat sighed. Aimee was incredible, he thought to himself with a small smile. Somehow, she had still forgiven him after he killed her brother in a drunk and driving accident last May. And now she was telling him not to be too hard on himself. He knew that no matter what, he would never be able to do that. If someone had killed his sister, Holly, even if by accident, he would want to go after them. But Aimee had forgiven him.

So, of course, he was glad that she was finally getting some happiness. Even when he knew her as Jane, he could tell she was never really truly happy. She was always wondering ‘what if,’ and that is no way to live your life. At least someone was happy. The same could not be said for Nat.

“Nathan,” the authoritative voice of Nat’s father broke him out of his reverie. Dr. Vaughn let out a lengthy sigh, while taking a seat in a nearby chair. Nat had been waiting for this ever since he woke up. The lecture.

“Yeah?” Nat asked, looking out of the hospital window.

“What happened back there, son? I thought we discussed this. No alcohol. Dr. Weaver had said you were making great success. I know Aimee played a part in that, but just because she is no longer with us does not mean you can resort to your old ways. You are worrying your mother to death with everything. Your actions have—”

“Consequences. I know, Dad. I swear, you give the same speech every time. After Sam’s party before I left for college, after what happened in Washington, the first time you caught me. Get some new material.”

“Nathan, this is nothing to joke about. You have a problem.”

Dr. Vaughn was about to say more before Nat cut him off. “I know I have a problem—”

“I don’t think you truly believe that.”

“Whatever, Dad. Besides, this time I wasn’t driving drunk. I was hit by a car, while crossing the street.”

“Even so, I asked the doctors to run an alcohol blood level test. Your level was .2.”

“What?! I can’t believe you did that! Don’t you trust me at all?” Nat asked in disbelief.

“You have done little to prove that I can trust you. Honestly, Nathan, what do you expect? You make promises that you will stop drinking, but then you do something stupid.”

Nat scoffed but said nothing.

“One day you will you will have to face this problem—”

“Dad, where have you been?! I have already been facing these problems. Why do you think I go to Dr. Weaver’s? I’m not in denial or anything, unlike yourself.”

“Don’t you dare bring me into this. We are talking about you,” Dr. Vaughn said flaring with anger.

“Yeah right. I think that is the only reason you come down on me so hard. You can’t deal with your own problems, so you try to work through me. Well, it’s obviously not working. I don’t need your bullshit.”

“How dare you…” Dr. Vaughn said, taking time to enunciate each word slowly.

“How dare I? Me? Seriously, Dad, who are you fooling? Except for maybe Ma, who is oblivious to everything. I know you told her about your past, but I know differently. Your ‘past’ is still your present.” Nat watched as his father slowly clenched and unclenched his fists.

“Oh, what, are you trying to stop from hitting me? That’s a good way to control yourself. Sure, hit a man lying in a hospital bed after being hit by a car,” He said sarcastically.

“You think you are a man?”

Nat shrugged and nonchalantly said, “More so then you.”

Dr. Vaughn was about to say something, when there was a knock at the door. A young girl, a hospital volunteer, stood at the door with a food cart. She avoided eye contact with both men; it was obvious she had been eavesdropping. Without even so much as a word of good-bye, Dr. Vaughn left the room.

The girl, who’s name tag read ‘Tracey’ set a food tray down on the pull out table attached to Nat’s hospital bed. She smiled meekly at Nat before turning to leave the room. Despite the bruise on the right side of his face, he was still handsome. He looked a great deal healthier then when he had been first brought in. His short, usually spiked blonde hair, was matted down and his hazel eyes were no longer glazed over. His left arm was no longer wrapped in a bandage, for it was not broken but just badly bruised. The car accident had resulted with a broken shin bone on his right leg. He would be wearing a cast for a few weeks, but other then that, it was not serious.

“Thank you, Tracey,” Nat said before the girl left the room. She turned, a faint blush evident on her cheeks, as she nodded. With no one else left for him to talk to, he settled for flipping through the channels.

“Hey, Handsome!” came a familiar voice from the hall, “Don’t brood, it’ll give you wrinkles.”

Nat looked up. “Holly,” he said as he smiled at his sister. She had short, curly light brown hair with eyes similar to Nat’s. “Last I heard you were on the beaches in Spain. When did you get back?”

“Well, school started, but then I heard what happened, so I had to see if you were all right. Besides, I haven’t seen you since before I left for Europe. So, what’s up?”

Nat shrugged. “Not much. Ma and Dad practically adopted a girl with amnesia when we were in Cali. What turned out to be a big coincidence was that she was Matt Morgan’s sister. Does that name mean anything to you?”

“Sounds familiar. Who’s Matt Morgan?” Holly wondered.

“The guy I killed in that accident when we were visiting Grams.”

“Oh,” Holly remembered now. She preferred not to think of that particular trip. “I don’t really believe in coincidences,” She added as an afterthought.

“You sound just like Ma. So, how’s Shane?”

“That cheatin’ asshole? Hopefully flunking. But at least, he was the one who paid for most of the Europe trip.” Holly answered.

“You’re not upset?” Nat asked, confused and inwardly angry at Shane.

“Nah, I did my wallowing, Gilmore Girls’ style.” She received a blank look at this comment, “Besides, I met this cute guy in my English Lit class.”

“Well, that’s good, I guess.”

Holly nodded. “So, tell me about this girl with amnesia you found while in Cali?”

Nat averted his eyes. “Ask Ma, she’ll tell you.”

“Oh,” she said, thinking up a reason for why he did not want to talk about it.

They stayed in silence after that, when Nat switched the television onto a football game. Then, you could hear Holly yelling at the television cursing the referees and the team when it messed up a play. Nat just laughed watching her. She could always make him laugh.

That was the way Dr. and Mrs. Vaughn fold them later. Dr. Vaughn still looked angry but not as much as before. Mrs. Vaughn tried to hide her worry about her son and husband. “Holly, would you like to stay with us for the evening or are you going straight back?”

“I’ll stay. I’m tired, anyway.” She said, yawning to further show her point. “See ya, loser,” Holly called to her brother before leaving.

“Good night, Nathan,” Mrs. Vaughn said softly, kissing Nat on the cheek. Dr. Vaughn managed a stiff nod. With his family gone, Nat closed his eyes for a rest. One of the few times he could forget about his troubles and his guilty conscience.

Author’s Note: Well, there’s the first chapter. I’m kind of worried that the sequel won’t be as good as the first, but hopefully not. So, please review and make me happy, because this is the last day of the 5 day weekend. :(