Chapter 9:
Bad News
From That Osama Bin Laden Dude
An hour later, AJ, Howie, Kevin, Nick, Praline, Ali, Nikki,
Taylor, and Safyre sat together in a small waiting room at the nearest
hospital. They had only been waiting
about forty minutes, but it seemed like an eternity (it always does, doesn’t
it?). Taylor had been sobbing the entire
time. Her face was red and blotchy with
tearstains, her eyes were puffy and bloodshot, and her mascara was smeared
underneath them (don’t get the wrong idea though – she still looked beautiful,
of course). Nick, glancing over at her
in sympathy as she cried out, “Like, ohmygod, Brian!” yet again, got up from
his seat next to Nikki and went over to sit next to her.
“It’s gonna be okay,” he said softly, putting a comforting arm
around Taylor’s trembling shoulders.
“Brian will pull through – he’s a fighter.”
“B-b-b-but what if h-h-h-he, l-l-l-like, d-d-d-doesn’t?” Taylor
blubbered. “I-I-I-I-I-I, l-l-l-like,
l-l-l-love h-h-h-him!”
“I know,” Nick said. “I
love him too – in a non-gay way, of course!
He… he’s like the older brother I never had. But believe me, Tay, Brian’s strong. He’s not gonna give up this easily. He’s a survivor, alright?”
At this, Taylor began to wail even more loudly.
“What’s wrong?” Nick asked, alarmed.
“Th-th-that was, like, a l-l-line out of, like, T-T-T-Titanic!”
Taylor sobbed. “At th-th-the end,
wh-when, like, L-Leo d-dies!”
“Aww!” cried out the other four girls, tears welling up in their
own eyes.
Nick looked around in bewilderment. “Oh… okay... well, uh… Brian’s not going to
be like… Leo… okay?” But Taylor,
Praline, Ali, Nikki, and Safyre continued to sob. “Shh!” Nick whispered, putting his arm around
Taylor again. “Shh, don’t cry!”
Taylor continued to weep, but Nikki stopped crying immediately and
stood up, glaring at Nick. He looked at
her questioningly and was about to ask what was up, when she stalked out of the
room without a word.
“What was that all about?” Nick asked. Howie, Kevin, and AJ just shrugged. “I better go after her,” said Nick. “I’ll be back soon.” Then he got up and left as well.
He found Nikki slumped in a chair at the end of the hallway.
“Nikki?” he asked, when he reached her. “What’s wrong?”
Nikki glowered up at him.
“I think you should, like, know what’s, like, wrong,” she spat bitterly.
“What?” Nick asked blankly.
“You were, like, flirting with, like, Taylor!” Nikki wailed, her
eyes filling with angry tears.
“Flirting with Taylor?” Nick asked in disbelief. “What are you talking about?”
“You, like, hugged her, Nick!” Nikki cried, rising to her
feet. “Like, what kind of boyfriend,
like, are you?”
“Nikki, come on! It wasn’t
like that! I was just comforting her!”
“It, like, didn’t look like that!”
“Well, that’s what it was!”
“Yeah, like, sure!”
“Nikki!” Nick cried in exasperation. “I swear, it was noth-“
But Nikki had already brushed past him and was jogging back up the
hall. He watched her go and sighed. Then he wandered forlornly back into the
waiting room.
He had only been back with the others for a few minutes, when a
doctor finally came into the room. He
was clearly of Middle Eastern descent, with tan skin, black hair and a full
black beard, and large brown eyes. He
had just opened his mouth to introduce himself, when Safyre jumped up from her
seat, pointing at him and squealing, “Ohmygod, it’s like, that Osama Bin Laden
dude! Like, kill him!”
Kevin leaped up as well, his cheeks flushing in horror and
embarrassment at his girlfriend’s racist comments. He clapped his hand over her mouth and yanked
her back down into her chair. “I’m so
sorry about that, Doctor,” he said through gritted teeth. She may be completely ignorant, but she’s
beautiful. Don’t forget that, he
told himself firmly in his head.
The doctor just blinked warily, taking a few steps back. He surveyed the rest of the room, then opened
his mouth again and said hesitantly, “My name is Dr. Ahmal. I have been taking care of Mr. Littrell.”
“He’s my cousin,” said Kevin.
“I’ve known him all my life.”
“We know, Kev,” AJ said, rolling his eyes. “Dr. Ahmal, how’s Brian?”
Dr. Ahmal looked at them gravely.
“I’m afraid you friend is not doing well. He suffered a massive heart attack, and I’m
not sure he’ll live through the night.”
“NOOOOOO!” Nick cried out dramatically, and Taylor began to sob
even louder than before.
“But… how?” Kevin managed to ask.
“He had heart surgery in 1998 to fix his congenital condition; I thought
everything was fine!”
“Yes, I read that on his chart.
Apparently everything wasn’t fine though.”
“But exactly what caused it?”
The doctor blinked. “Well,
how the hell should I know? It’s just
something that happened, okay? Now
you’re supposed to start crying along with your friends, not play 20 Questions
with me. You don’t honestly expect a
teenybopper fanfic to be medically accurate, do you?”
“Oh,” said Kevin. “I guess
you’re right.” Then he let his own green
eyes well up with tears and began to cry along with the others.
“That’s better,” said Dr. Ahmal.
“Now, if you’d like to see him, I can take you to his room, but only two
at a time. He’s very weak and is
drifting in and out of consciousness.”
“Taylor, you and Nick should go first,” said Howie. “We’ll wait here.”
“Okay,” said Nick. Taylor
was crying too hard to speak. Nick
helped her up, and they followed Dr. Ahmal out of the room.
If only they knew what was to come…
***
