Chapter
13
By Rachel
Kevin
stood in his doorway staring at Brian's retreating figure as he walked to his
room. "Damnit" he thought as Brian entered his room and shut the
door. Kevin let out a loud sigh of frustration and cursed under his breath when
he heard Brian's door lock. He walked over towards Brian's door and waited a
few minutes, hoping that Brian would unlock his door and come out of his room.
When Kevin realized that Brian probably wasn't going to come out of that room
any time soon, he got up and walked back to his room and shut the door, leaving
it unlocked just in case Brian did decide to come out and talk.
Kevin
flopped down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. "Why did this
happen?" "What if Nicky never wakes up?" "Will everyone
hate me cause it is my fault this happened?" were among the thoughts that
ran through his exhausted mind, accompanied by the image of Nick lying on the
hard ground outside, unmoving, and surrounded by blood. Suddenly, the cell
phone by Kevin's bedside rang. Kevin jumped slightly cause he wasn't expecting
the phone to ring and quickly rolled over on his stomach and reached for the
phone. Once he had the phone in his hand, he pushed a button and began to talk.
"Hello?"
he asked "Kev, you and Bri need to get down here now. We will explain when
you get here." said the voice that Kevin recognized as AJ's. "What is
wrong AJ?" asked Kevin in panic. "I can't explain now Kev just hurry
your asses down here. We will be waiting for you guys in the waiting
room." said AJ and then there was silence. "AJ? AJ? You there?"
asked Kevin. He quickly pushed the "End" button on his cell phone
when he realized AJ had hung up and threw it towards the other side of the bed.
He
quickly got up from the bed and threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and
grabbed his shoes as he picked up the cell phone and the house keys and put
them in his pocket. He sat down on the bed for a few moments and he hastily put
on his shoes and tied the laces and ran for the door and threw it open, running
towards his cousin's room down the hall. "Bri! Bri! Wake up!" shouted
Kevin as he beat on Brian's door with both fists. After a few seconds, a
visibly sleepy Brian unlocked the door and stuck his head outside. "What
do you want Kev?" growled Brian. Kevin ignored Brian's grumpiness and
gently pushed Brian back into his room and walked inside. "AJ just called
me, he said we need to hurry up and get to the hospital." explained Kevin.
He watched as Brian's blue eyes widened and filled with fright.
"Wha...
What's wrong?" stuttered Brian as he searched Kevin's face hoping to find
a clue telling him that his cousin was joking with him. "He didn't say. He
told me they would explain when we got there." Brian nodded and walked
over towards the corner of the room where he laid his suitcase full of clothes
and hastily got out a pair of blue Nike track pants and a University of
Kentucky t-shirt and put them on as quickly as he could. He then walked over to
the bed and reached underneath, grabbing his tennis shoes and quickly putting
them on and standing up. "Well what you waiting for? Let's go!"
exclaimed Brian as he ran past Kevin. Kevin heard Brian running down the stairs
and turned around to follow him.
When
he got downstairs, he noticed the front door was opened and ran towards the
kitchen where he left the keys to the Taurus. He grabbed the keys and ran back
outside, stopping momentarily to lock the door behind him and ran to the car,
noticing that Brian was already in the passenger's side looking very impatient.
"Took you long enough" mumbled Brian as Kevin opened the driver's
side and quickly got in the car. Kevin shot a hateful look in Brian's direction
but kept his mouth shut, not wanting to cause another argument between them.
Kevin started the car and put the car in drive and quickly sped off towards the
hospital, hoping and praying along the way that there were no cops out that
night to catch him speeding and hoping that Nick was ok.
***
About
10 minutes later, Kevin entered the hospital parking lot at a neck-breaking
speed and parked the car with a final squeal from the tires. He quickly turned
the car off and grabbed the keys as he took off his seatbelt and opened the
door and got out of the car. When he was sure Brian was out of the car and
beside of him, he pushed the button on the key chain to lock the car and
followed Brian, who already started running for the hospital entrance. He
finally caught up with Brian at the elevators. Brian kept hitting the
"UP" button continuously hoping it would bring the elevator to him
quicker. Brian punched the elevator door after hitting the "UP"
button a few more times and receiving no result. In frustration, he turned around
and kicked open the door leading to the stairs and started running up them with
Kevin right behind him. The two cousins ran up the flight of stairs to the 3rd
floor and continued running to the waiting room.
Once
they reached the waiting room, AJ and Howie were both immediately spotted,
sitting in the corner of the room comforting each other. "Hey guys"
Brian quietly said as he and Kevin sat down across from Howie and AJ.
"Hi" both men replied as they looked around the room. "So what
happened?" asked Brian anxiously. "Well" started AJ "After
you guys left, Dr. MacDonald took Nick to run some tests on him to see if the
swelling went down and he came back and told us the swelling hasn't gone down
at all and the fluid on his brain is causing too much pressure. The hospital is
trying to get in contact with his parents to get them to come here before it is
too late." "Too late? What do you mean?" asked Brian fearfully.
"The doctors think that Nicky won't make it, Bri. There is just too much
swelling on his brain and they have tried all they can to drain it but it isn't
helping." replied Howie softly.
Kevin
heard Brian gasp in shock. "No this can't be happening!" he thought
as he watched his youngest cousin break down before his eyes. Kevin hastily
wiped the back of his left hand across his eyes and got up from the chair and
ran out of the waiting room. "Wait Kev!" Kevin heard the tear-filled
voice of his cousin call out. Kevin didn't even stop, he just kept running to
get away from what he had heard, knowing deep inside that it was his fault it
all happened.
***