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.

 

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