Chapter 8

The next morning, Brian woke up early. He looked around for a minute, confused. Then he remembered where he was and why he was there. He was overcome with a wave of depression.

Suddenly, there was a soft knock on his door.

"Come in!" Brian called. The door opened slowly, and Nick stepped into the room. Brian broke into a grin when he saw him. "Hey, Frack! Come here," he said, delighted to see Nick. Nick walked tentatively over to the bed. "Sit down," Brian said, motioning to a chair pushed up against the wall. Nick pulled the chair up to the bed and sat down.

"Are you okay, Brian?" Nick asked. He looked scared.

"Sure, I'm fine," Brian replied, smiling. Nick didn't think he looked fine. He was pale and weak looking, and his hand had an IV line coming out of it. "I'm glad you're here," Brian said.

"Well, I got back Orlando late last night, but I figured you'd be asleep, so I didn't come here," Nick explained.

"That's fine. I probably was asleep."

"Did you call everybody?" Nick asked.

"Yeah. My parents are staying in a hotel around here. They should be here soon. I called Leigh, and she wanted to come, but she said if she walked off the set of her movie, she'd get fired. AJ was performing when I called him, but I had his mom tell him to call me back. He called late last night. I didn't have Kev and Howie's numbers, but he did, so he promised he'd call them for me."

Nick nodded. He couldn't think of anything to say.

"Hey, do you want me to run home and get my Nintendo. We could set it up in here, and then you'd have something to do," Nick suggested.

"Sure, Nick," Brian said. "That would be great."

"Okay," Nick said. "I'll go get it now. I'll be back later."

"Okay. Get the new Sega Dreamcast," Brian said.

"Okay. See ya later."

"Bye!" Brian called, as Nick left the room.

***

 

 

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