Chapter 12
That
night was a long one. None of the four
guys would go back to Brian’s house, even though they were all obviously
exhausted. They sat in the waiting
room, going to check on Nick at least once every half an hour, even though
nothing ever changed. With the help of
frequent trips to the coffee machine, they managed to keep themselves
awake.
When
morning came and the sun was just beginning to rise, Jane arrived to relieve
them, looking much better than the night before. She still looked rather frazzled, but
refreshed from a night’s sleep.
They
Boys had never been happier to see her.
As much as they knew they needed to be with Nick, staying at that
hospital the whole night without sleep was too much for them. They could barely keep their eyes open at
this point.
Jane’s
eyes opened wide as she caught a good look at the four of them. “Guys, go home and get some sleep, this
minute!” she ordered. “You look
horrible!”
“Thanks,”
Brian replied, chuckling dryly.
She
offered him a tired smile. “Thank you,”
she said genuinely. “I don’t think I
could have made it through the night if I’d stayed here. Now go on home and don’t come back until
you’ve gotten some rest.”
They
nodded, inwardly relieved. “We’ll see
you later, Jane,” Kevin said, tiredly pulling himself to his feet.
“Call
us if anything changes,” Brian said, as if she didn’t already know.
She
nodded. “I will,” she promised. “Now get out of here.”
Brian
gave a tired, but charming smile and followed the other three as they went
staggering down the hall towards the elevator.
***
“Marissa?”
Marissa
opened her eyes groggily and found herself staring up at her mother. “What?” she moaned.
“Are
you going to school today, honey?” Joyce asked. It was 6:30 on a Tuesday morning. Normally, Marissa would have been up and
getting ready for school. But not that
day.
Marissa
shook her head. “I can’t,” she
said. “Not today. Maybe not ever. I just… I can’t face everyone. I can’t bear to hear all their questions and
to have to walk down those halls and not see Shawn, or Kae, or Luke.” Just the mention of his name made her eyes
start to tear up, but she quickly blinked the tears away.
Joyce
offered her a sympathetic look. “Okay,
honey. I understand. You can stay home if you want.”
“Thanks,
Mom,” Marissa murmured, rolling over and closing her eyes, trying to forget
this whole nightmare had ever happened.
But now that she was awake, she could not fall back to sleep. Her mind wandered to thoughts of her friends.
Shawn
was in jail, and not even juvenile, for he was eighteen. He was there just waiting to go on
trial. He had been charged not only with
a DUI, but with manslaughter too, for the death of Luke. A DUI would get him a fine and take his
license away, maybe even give him a few months in jail. But being convicted of manslaughter was much
more serious.
Marissa
could only imagine how horrible Shawn must feel. She hadn’t talked to him at all since the
accident, and had only heard about his charges through their mothers, who were
friends and had been calling each other often in the past few days. Marissa shuddered, thinking how awful it
must be for him. She felt horrible and
guilty enough, but he was the one who had been driving. He had killed his best friend and maimed a
famous pop star. Unintentionally, of
course, but that didn’t matter. Even
though he hadn’t meant it to happen, it had, and there was nothing he, or
anyone, could do about it.
Marissa
wished there was. She would have given
anything to turn back the hands of time, back to the night of the party, and do
things differently. But that was
impossible.
***
Around
noon, after getting a few hours of sleep, Brian, AJ, Howie, and Kevin headed to
McDonald’s for a quick lunch and then to the hospital.
As
they walked through the Neuro ICU towards their waiting room, the door of the
waiting room opened, and Dr. Madden stepped out. He nodded in greeting when he saw the guys
and continued down the hall, as they went into the waiting room.
Inside,
they found Jane sitting in a chair, her elbow resting on the magazine rack next
to it, her head in her hand.
“Jane?”
Howie asked softly. “What’s wrong?”
She
looked up, and they could see her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. She blinked them back quickly though. “Dr. Madden was just in here,” she said.
“Yeah,
we know,” said Kevin. “We passed him in
the hall.”
“What’d
he say?” Brian asked, his heart pounding faster.
Jane
sighed. “He told me the pressure on
Nick’s brain hasn’t gone down any. Nicky
has to have surgery.”
Brian’s
heart sank. “When?” he heard Kevin ask.
“Later
this afternoon. Dr. Madden scheduled it
for 4:30, but he said it could be later.”
“Today!?”
AJ cried.
Jane
nodded. “He said Nick needs the surgery
as soon as possible or he’ll die.”
A
lump rose in Brian’s throat, and he tried hard not to cry.
Jane
noticed this and said softly, “Dr. Madden told me it’s not a very risky
surgery. It will take only about an
hour. All they have to do is drain the
fluid that’s around his brain and relieve the pressure.”
Brian
nodded, trying to think positively, but he found that very hard to do. All he could think about was that his best
friend was in a coma with a bad head injury and would have to undergo some kind
of operation on his brain in just a few short hours.
“I’ll
be right back,” he mumbled, quickly ducking out of the room and into the
nearest bathroom before anyone had a chance to react. No longer trying to fight his tears, he
locked himself inside one of the stalls and began to cry silently.
***
