Chapter
14
When they were
done visiting Brian and Nick, Howie and Kevin went down to visit AJ and Angel,
who were just a few rooms away from each other on the second floor. They went
to see Angel first, since they hadn't visited her at all yet. She was sleeping
when they got there. She looked small and fragile lying in the hospital bed.
She was hooked up to IVs, but other than that, she looked pretty good, compared
to Brian and Nick. Kevin and Howie pulled up chairs on either side of her bed.
She stirred when Kevin took her hand. Her eyelids fluttered. Then she opened
her eyes and looked at them groggily.
"Kevin?"
she asked.
"Yup,
it's me," he said, smiling down at her.
"I'm here
too, Ang," Howie said.
"Hi,
Howie," she said, smiling at him. Then she looked around the room,
confused. "Where am I?" she asked.
"You're
in the hospital," Kevin told her.
"How
come?" she asked.
"You were
in an accident. Don't you remember?" Howie asked. Angel just stared at him
blankly.
"The bus
crashed," Kevin said.
"I don't
remember it," Angel said.
"Well, it
did. We think Bobby, the driver, had a heart attack or somethin' and lost
control of the bus. It knocked down a fence and rammed into a tree," Kevin
explained.
"Is Bobby
okay?" she asked.
"No,"
Kevin said sadly. "He died."
"Oh,"
she said, frowning. She looked around some more, and noticed the IV in her
hand. "What happened to me?" she asked, staring at the IV, her eyes
wide.
"You
crashed through one of the windows. Some glass cut your stomach up, and you
just had an operation to fix it," Howie told her.
Angel's eyes
widened even more. She said nothing for a minute. Then she struggled to sit up.
Kevin held her back.
"Hang on
a minute," he said. He put some more pillows behind her head to help prop
her up a little. "There. Is that better?" She nodded. Then she
curiously pulled back her covers and lifted up her hospital gown a little. She
gasped when she saw the gauze covering the large wound on her stomach. She
looked up at Kevin and Howie wide-eyed.
"Am I
gonna be okay?" she asked.
"Sure,"
Howie assured her. "It'll take some time, but you'll be just fine
eventually." She nodded, relaxing a little, and pulled the covers back up.
"Is
everybody else all right?" she asked. Kevin and Howie exchanged nervous
glances. This was going to be hard.
***