Chapter
34
Angela tried her hardest to imitate the macaroni and cheese that Brian makes to
perfection for her. She also made chicken and carrots to go with it,
along with some sparkling apple cider that Krista bought for her. She
wasn't sure how good it was going to be, so she had some TV dinners in the
freezer just in case.
She was putting the finishing touches
on the table, setting p the music, and looking herself over when 7:30 rolled
around. She was a bit nervous, but more excited than anything.
"I hope everything goes well tonight," she said to herself.
Ten minutes later, Brian still hadn't showed
up. "I wonder where he's at," she thought. 7:40pm turned
into 8pm and that turned into 8:30pm. "That's it!" she said aloud.
"I'm calling him."
Angela dialed the familiar number to
his house. It just rang and rang though; he never picked up.
"This is not happening!" she cried, as she hung up the phone.
She sat back down on the couch in hopes that this was a bad dream and
that Brian would just knock on her door.
He never did though. All she
wanted to do was share her pregnancy with him. The news that they had
created something together. But now, it seemed like it wasn't going to
happen that way.
Eventually, she blew out what was left
of the candles on the table. The dinner she made never got eaten. Angela
just wandered into her room, fell onto her bed, and cried herself to sleep.
The following day....
Krista came home later that morning.
She has crashed at Nick's house last night. She knew what happened
to Brian last night and why he didn't show up. "Angela's gonna take
this so hard," she thought.
She didn't call and say anything
because she didn't have time and she wanted to tell Angela in person so she
could be there for her. Her heart was breaking as she walked towards
Angela's room, knowing what she has to tell her. She took a deep breath and
went in.
Angela was rolled over on her side.
"You awake?"
"Yeah. I didn't sleep much
last night."
"I know."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I know why Brian
didn't show up last night."
Angela bolt right up. "You
do, huh? What's his excuse that he couldn't tell me himself?"
"Brian is.... Angela, Brian is in
the hospital."
"What happened to him?" she
choked out as the color left her face.
Krista saw the worry, confusion, all
on Angela's face. She felt even worse than before, but knew that she had
to be the one to tell her. "From what I understand, some guy was
robbing his house. When Brian went out to go see what the noises were,
the guy shot him. He was shot three times; twice in the chest and once in
his right shoulder. As of right now, he's slipping in and out of
consciousness. He really want to see you," she gently explained.
"Oh God! Oh my God!" Angela
screamed. "Now what?"
"Get dressed and I'll take you to
the hospital. The rest of the guys are already there."
"OK," she said, going into
shock. "Why didn't anyone call me? How did you find out?"
"Calm down Angela. Nick and
I were on our way over here so I could get a couple of things, but we saw the
cops and the ambulance at his house. One of the neighbors called the cops
when they heard the gunshots. Didn't you hear them?"
"No," Angela replied, tears
streaming down her face.
Krista wrapped her arms around her
best friend. "When we got there, we helped to identify him and
explained who we were. They allowed us to ride in the ambulance and then
we were at the hospital most of the night. Nick and I went back to his
house to get a couple hours of sleep. The doctors don't want to operate
until he's a little more stable; they're afraid that they'll lose him if they
do now. So for right now, they are keeping him in ICU monitoring the
bullet wounds. Angela I know you don't want to hear this, but he's not
doing that well. We need to leave now, OK?"
"Alright," Angela whispered,
tasting her tears. She felt guilty for being mad at Brian when he was
dying at the hospital. She was worried that he would never know that he
was going to be the father of their child. She was scared that she was
going to lose him. With Krista's help, she stumbled out the door, in a
complete daze.
***
