Rarity Page 5

  “Oh thank god, you’re awake. How do you feel sweetie?” My mom had the most concerned and love filled eyes.

  “I’ve been better. What the hell happened?” My mom looked toward the nurse and gave a little nod.

  “I’ll fetch the doctor,” the nurse said and turned away.

  “Mom. What’s going on? Where’s Meg? How did I get here?”

  “Oh sweetie. You and Meg were in a terrible car accident,” she stopped talking to hold back her emotion but her tears fell anyway. “I can’t believe I almost lost you. I love you so much.”

  “I love you too. Is Meg ok?” she grabbed my hand and held it.

  “She is in worse shape than you. The impact was on her side of the car. She’s in a coma and in the ICU unit.” Now the tears fell down my face. I had no words. Meg was like my sister. I felt sick to my stomach with grief. I let go of mom’s hand and covered my face to hide my sorrow. Mom rubbed my back in comfort. After I was able to compose myself I asked, “When can I see her?”

  “Well, we’ll have to ask the doctor when he comes in. I have been up to see her a few times. Her parents have not left her side since she was brought in. I asked them to text me if there were any changes in her condition, which reminds me...I need to let them know you are awake.” Mom took out her phone and began texting. A doctor walked in at that moment and introduced himself.

  “Hello, I’m Dr. Black. I’m here to check on you, is now a good time?” I nodded but felt like my head might pop as I shook it. “How is your pain on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst pain you could ever imagine.”

  “Well, when I nod my head, the head pain is at a 7 - not nodding it’s at a 3.”

  “And what about the rest of your body?”

  “Well, my arms are a 2 but when I move them it feels tight like the skin is pulling,and becomes a 5. My ribs are a 4, but a 7 when I take a deep breath.” He made notes of each number and commented on my chart, and then approached to check my pupils.

  “The pupils are responding better so she is definitely on the mend. I need to ask you some questions.” I nodded slightly - enough to acknowledge him but not cause level 6 pain. “What’s your name?”

  “Brogen.”

  “How old are you?”

  “17.”

  “Where do you go to school?” he asked.

  “I’m a junior at Stanton High,” he wrote on the chart and clicked his pen closed.

  “What do you last remember before waking up in the hospital?” I sighed and searched my brain for the answer to that question. My brain felt muddled.

  “There was a phone call. Wait. First Meg and I were headed to the mall to get dresses for the dance. Then her phone rang. The dance…” I trailed off the end of my sentence, lost in thinking about Jay waiting for me to show up. “She looked down to find her phone and I told her to watch the road while I look for it.” Tears began falling down my face. Stupid phone. “Why did she have to look for that phone?!”

  Mom rushed over and sat next to me on the bed and grabbed my hand. “Brogen, Meg was broadsided by a drunk driver. I’m not sure Meg did anything wrong. Witnesses said the drunk ran a red light and hit you guys at about 50 mph.” My eyes grew big and I stared at her. “Meg’s phone was in her purse when the cops arrived at the scene. I’m not sure either of you got it out.”

  “You were lucky you both were wearing your seatbelts. You hit the side window with your head and sustained a simple skull fracture, a bruised rib, and needed stitches in both your upper arms from glass cuts. It could have been so much worse for you had it not been for the airbag and seatbelt.” the doctor remarked.

  “And Meg? Do you know what happened with her? What her injuries are?”

  “She is still unconscious. Her head injury was a little more severe. Besides that, I cannot share with you any more.”

  “When can I see her?”

  “Probably not till you are released. If you continue to heal as well as you have, you’ll probably say goodbye to me on Thursday,” he said.

  “Thursday!? What’s today?”

  “Monday.” Mom said. “You’ve been unconscious for three days.”

  I was shocked that I missed three days of my life. “What happened to the drunk driver?”

  “He was killed in the accident.” I couldn’t help feeling glad that the guy who had recklessly caused this trauma to Meg and I had Karma kick his butt.

  “Let’s let her rest,” Mom nodded to the doctor.

  “Will you be alright while I run home for a shower and change of clothes?” she asked.

  “Yeah Mom, I’ll be fine. Can you bring my pillow from home?”

  “You bet. I love you baby,” Mom leaned over to kiss my forehead.

  The next few days passed quickly. It was a nice vacation from school and I got to watch trashy talk shows in the hospital bed and be a lazy loaf while my body healed. I still hurt pretty badly when I moved and I was not the prettiest thing to look at in the mirror. My bruises were yellowing and I needed a proper shower. When Thursday finally arrived I got the ‘all clear’ to head home. Mom wheeled me in a wheelchair to the ICU to visit Meg. Her parents were sitting in chairs reading (her dad read a magazine and her mom read a book out loud to Meg).

  “Hello Mr. and Mrs. Taylor,” I said. They both turned and got up to give me gentle hugs.

  “We were so glad to hear you had improved and now get to go home,” Mrs. Taylor remarked.

  “How is Meg?” she looked like she went a few rounds with Rocky Balboa and was sleeping it off.

  “She’s improving. She has finally started to keep her oxygen levels up and is swallowing her saliva. They removed the intubation tube yesterday. That means she is becoming more conscious. We are hopeful she’ll progress quickly since the swelling is decreasing.” I nodded.

  “The doctor wouldn’t share her injuries with me, what’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Meg had bleeding on the brain. They operated to relieve the pressure. She also lost some skin and had to have a skin graft on her thighs. I can’t believe you both were in that terrible accident.” Meg’s mom teared up. I squeezed her hand for support.

  “Would it be alright if I visited Meg after school each day for a few hours?”

  “Actually, that would be great, but only if you are up for it.” I reached my hand to Meg’s foot and wiggled her socked big toe.

  “See you guys soon. Love you Meg.” They said goodbye and Mom wheeled me to the car. As we drove home I watched the colored leaves falling to the ground, littering the front lawns with their colorful debris. It was hard to believe that I had missed almost a week of life on the outside. The air was damp and cool with the fall weather in full force, sweater weather. We turned down the street where Jay’s aunt and uncle lived. I looked at their house as we drove past, but Jay and Soren were at school and his aunt and uncle were probably at work. I remembered Jay asking me to come to the dance to prove that I wanted to move forward with our relationship. I not only failed to make the dance, I was MIA for the whole next week. What would he think? Becca had probably made her moves on him that night and my chance was blown. Oh well, right now I just needed to figure out how to get back into the swing of things and how to help Meg. I took it easy the rest of the weekend and worked on the homework Mom picked up from the school earlier in the week. It was slow going and I needed lots of rest and breaks.

  On Monday I woke up a little earlier so I could not rush around everywhere. I was going to get my stitches out after school when I went to visit Meg, I didn’t want to mess them up before then. At school, I went to the office to turn in my doctor’s note admitting me back to school and dismissing me from gym for two weeks.

  “Boy, I’m so glad you made it. They had a write up in the paper this morning about your accident and the dangers of drunk driving.” The office secretary showed me the newspaper article. The car was crumpled like it was made out of aluminum. To the right of the article there was a photo of the deceased drunk driver. I nearly choked. It
was the same drunk who hit the rabid dog. I had so many emotions flying through me. I was relieved he was dead, I was angry for the cops letting him off lightly when he hit the dog, I was mad at myself for being grateful his drunk ass came along when it did and hit that dog. And now the idiot drank too much, plowed into us, nearly killed us and killed himself.

  “Thank you for showing me this. This is the first time I have seen the accident.”

  “Oh sweetie. You must have been so traumatized. How’s your friend?”

  “She’s still trying to pull through. I’m going to visit her after school today.” She smiled.

  “Well, have a pleasant day and if you need anything, just ask.” I smiled back at her and headed out the office door. The bell for first period rang and I was grateful for the quiet chance to go to my locker before class. However, when I rounded the corner before my locker, I saw a tall, slender guy leaning against it with his back to me. It was Jay.

  Chapter 8

  “Are you skipping class?” He turned around and looked me up and down with a look of disbelief. Then he took two steps toward me quickly, grabbed my face firmly but in a gentle way and pressed his lips against mine. It was such an innocent kiss but there was so much love felt in that intimate moment.

  “I saw the paper this morning. I didn’t know what happened to you. You didn’t show for the dance and I was angry that I read your signals wrong. I thought for sure you’d be there. But you never showed. Then you were out the whole week. Becca spread some B.S. rumors about you moving in with your dad and wanting to switch schools because you didn’t like the kids here. I thought she was crazy, but as the week went on, it was easier to believe. I never should have believed her.”

  This was the most I had ever heard come out of his mouth. Ever.

  “Are you ok?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “This last week sucked. First I thought you wanted nothing to do with me, then Becca tells me you moved away, and then I find out you were in some horrid accident. No moving away and no more accidents.” He looked so intensely at me, I found it hard to breathe.

  “I’ll try my best. Did you see that the guy who hit us was the same one who hit the dog?”

  “Son of A….” Jay punched the locker next to me. “They went too easy on that jerk. WE went to easy on him too. Makes me sick to my stomach. I’m just glad you are ok.” Jay looked at the photo and breathed out a rush of air. “This crash looks so bad - like no one could have survived.”

  I sighed and looked down, “Meg is still fighting to come back. She’s still unconscious. It’s hard to be back here when I just want to be at the hospital holding her hand.”

  Jay wrapped me in a hug. “You can visit her though, right?”

  “Yeah, I plan to go after school. I get my stitches out today so I’ll pop in to see her then. Hey, speaking of injuries, your eyes look much better.”

  Jay smirked, “Yeah, no more creepy blood eyes. My aunt took me to the doc and he said it would clear up on it’s own, and….it did ‘thanks doc, here’s $1000 for nothin’.‘“

  “At least it wasn’t anything permanent or dangerous. Quit trying so hard to impress the ladies. You might end up in the hospital.” Jay chuckled at my remark.

  “The doc took some blood while I was there just to make sure I don’t have any weird deficiencies or mutations, I wonder if he can detect someone trying too hard to impress a girl in those blood samples.” Jay said while beaming down at me with his big eyes.

  “Excuse me, you two need to get to class...NOW.” The sophomore language arts teacher reprimanded us.

  “Sorry Ma’am,” Jay said to the teacher. Then he turned to me, “let’s get to class.” Luckily we had first period together, it bought us 2 more minutes of talk time. We agreed to eat lunch outside together at one of the picnic tables. Jay wanted to hear more about the accident and lunch granted us twenty minutes to tell the tale.

  I was late to lunch because my teacher wanted to hear about the accident. When I walked into the cafeteria I saw Jay and Soren sitting with Becca and the Blondesquad. Maybe the lunch talk wasn’t going to happen. Funny how the drama of high school seemed to always exist. I kinda missed my carefree week in the hospital watching trashy talk shows. I went through the lunch line and picked a pbj, and some fruit and headed to the table Meg and I ate at. Some of the kids at the table were talking to me about how I was feeling and asking about Meg. I didn’t mind telling them, they were a lot like Meg and me - independent, smart and creative, but socially awkward. As I was talking about when I awoke in the hospital I noticed all eyes left me and were looking at a point above my head. I stopped mid-sentence and looked up to see Jay standing behind me. His face looked disappointed.

  “I thought we had lunch plans,” he said.

  “So did I,” I returned flatly.

  “So did you change your mind or something?” Now he sounded irritated.

  “No, I saw you sitting with your friends and presumed you had changed your mind.”

  “You weren’t here yet. So I sat down and was telling Soren and the others at the table that I had other lunch plans. That’s it.” I felt like an idiot. Way to make a bigger deal out of nothing.

  “Sorry, I guess I jumped to conclusions.” I turned to the lunch table, “Sorry guys, I’ll finish this story tomorrow. See ya’.”

  Jay carried my tray and we headed outside to a picnic table. It was rather crisp outside so Jay sat next to me to allow our body heat to radiate off each other. The cool air scared off the other students and we had the patio area to ourselves.

  “So tell me what happened to you guys.”

  “Well, I had every intention of going to the dance.” A smile grew across his face. “Meg was going to join me so we were off to look for dresses. I remember her phone was ringing and she started to dig for it... I told her to drive while I looked for it...that’s all I remember of that night.”

  “So what happened next?” He asked intriguingly.

  “I woke up with my brain pounding and painful ribs. They said I had a simple skull fracture from hitting the side window, stitches in both arms from the glass, and bruised ribs.”

  “So no PE for awhile?”

  “I get 2 weeks off so my head can fully heal.”

  “Put some scar ointment on those wounds once you get those stitches out. I’ve had a heck of a time healing from mine.” Jay rolled up his sleeves and I saw white and pink paper thin scars up and down his arms in the pattern of a dog jaw. “I keep putting vitamin E on them but I think I’ll just have to remember our rabid dog party forever.”

  “Oh, that’s terrible. So sorry. They must have been deep bites.” I suggested. I noticed Jay’s skin looked very thin. I wondered if that had anything to do with how tore up he got.

  “I don’t think so, the doc said my skin tore really easily and it was hard to get the stitches to take. Said it was like I didn’t have any glue holding me together. I think it’s just something funky my body does. Maybe they’ll figure it out with the blood they drew when my bloody eyes happened.”

  “I don’t know, sounds like nothing to worry about. I mean, so you need to not swim so hard or you get bloody eyes, and your skin tears - so no more rabid dog parties...at least it’s not cancer. I mean you look healthy.”

  “Yeah, I think they are making a big deal out of nothing too.,” Jay bumped against me gently. “Lunch is almost over, let’s get rid of our trays.”

  “Hey wait, I think it’s only fair for you to tell me how you came to Stanton. Tomorrow? Lunch? ” I smiled.

  Jay looked at me hesitantly and then agreed, “ok, and tomorrow...no misunderstandings.”

  Chapter 9

  After school Mom took me to the hospital to get my stitches removed, we stopped by the ICU to check on Meg. The stitches were no picnic to get out but the doctor who stitched me up did a great job. I already looked better than Jay looked. He could keep his vitamin E since I didn’t seem to need it. Meg’s mom was reading a book in
the chair by the window. “Hey Mrs’. Taylor.” Meg’s mom rose and hugged my mom and I. “Any changes?”

  “Actually, she squeezed my hand earlier when I told her I loved her,” Mrs. Taylor got teary eyed. “They say that’s a great sign.”

  “Oh, I’m so glad to hear this,” I remarked, I needed Meg to pull through.

  “I’m here to take you for an adult break and get some coffee while Brogen spends some time with Meg.” Mom and Mrs. Taylor went their way for a snack and some adult time.

  “So Meg, I’m not gonna’ lie, you look terrible. But a little makeup and a proper shower would take you back to the first class dame you were before the accident. Anyway, I went back to school today. Same drama, different day. Ooh, there is something new... Jay kissed me. Just an innocent kiss, I think he was glad to see me alive. I’m trying not to overthink it.” I paused and moved closer to her side. “They had a picture in the paper of the wreck and it looked bad. Guess we’re lucky we both survived it. Anyway, you need to get better. School sucks without you and I miss my you. You can do it Meg, just keep fighting.” I snuggled up near the foot of the bed, careful not to move or touch Meg, grabbed a Glamour magazine, and read her some of the articles and quizzes. Mom and Mrs. Taylor came back and Mrs. Taylor looked so much more relaxed. Mom and her amazing psychologist skills had a way at easing people and calming them. She amazed me. Mom gave me a little wink.