I walked through the door and saw my mom crying. I tried to comfort her, but she wouldn’t let me.
“I just got a call. Honey, your dad was in a car accident. He’s in intensive care and the doctors don’t know if they can do anything. I’m going to go to the hospital now to try to figure this out. I don’t think I’ll be home tonight. Will you be ok? I talked to Stormie, she said you could go over there if you need anything. And, if your dad gets really bad, I’ll come get you so you can say goodbye.” She finished, sobbing. I started crying too, as she walked out. I wasn’t sure what I would do. My dad was at work a lot, so I never really saw him much, but still, a girl needs her daddy.
I tried to stay by myself, but I couldn’t handle it anymore. I pulled out my phone and texted Ross.
“Hey, do you think you can come over here? I really need someone right now.” I texted him.
“Are you okay? I’ll be over in a second.” He replied. Moments later, there was a knock at the door, before it opened, revealing a worried Ross. I was laying on the couch, honestly, a mess. I couldn’t stop crying. He immediately came over to me, and held me close, I cried into his chest as he rubbed my back gently, waiting for me to calm down enough to tell him what happened.
~~~~Ross POV~~~~~
I was watching a movie with everybody, when I got a weird text from Courtney. It sounded urgent, so I left right away, mom seemed to know something I didn’t, and let me go without question. I ran down the street, when I got there, I knocked on the door, but it was open, so I walked in and saw her. She was laying on the couch, crying her eyes out. It broke my heart. I went over to her and sat her up a bit, putting my arms around her as she cried into my chest. I just sat rubbing her back and whispering things into her ear to make her feel better. I wanted to know what was wrong, but I didn’t want to push her. After a quite awhile of this, she calmed down a bit, and finally looked up at me, her brown eyes full of sadness.
“I’m sorry. I should at least tell you what happened.” She somehow managed to tell me. I nodded slightly, waiting for her to continue. “It’s my dad. He was in an accident. My mom’s with him now. We don’t know if he’ll make it.” She said, looking away and wiping away a tear. I hugged her tight.
“It’s gonna be okay.” I whispered in her ear, only half convinced myself.
“And sorry I made you come over here, I just really didn’t wanna be alone.” She told me.
“It’s no problem at all. How about we watch a movie, get your mind off this mess for a while?” I asked as she put her head in my lap and laid across the couch. She nodded, and I picked her head up, setting it on the couch under me as I stood up to pick out a movie. I put a random one in, and sat down in the same position again, running my fingers through her hair as “The Princess Bride” started up.
The next morning, I awoke in the same position, sunlight coming through a window and hitting my face. Courtney was still asleep, and I could see on the clock under her tv that it was 9:30. She had a tough night, and who knows how today would go, so I decided to let her sleep, slowly picking her head up and standing up. Walking into the kitchen to make some breakfast for both of us. They didn’t have much, so I settled on cereal, and as I sat down at the kitchen table with a bowl of lucky charms and milk, I heard soft footsteps coming towards me. I looked up to find Courtney in the doorway. She came and sat down next to me at the table, grabbing a bowl and pouring herself the same.
“How are you doing?” I asked her gently. She shrugged.
“Honestly? I have no idea. I just don’t really want to think about it until I have to.” I nodded.
“Do you wanna come to my place? Have more company, get your mind off things?” I asked her.
“Sure. Let me go shower first. Then we’ll go over there?” She asked, picking up her bowl and putting it in the sink. I nodded, and she ran upstairs. I finished my cereal and did the dishes, cleaning up other stuff, to help out her mom with all this.
~~~~~~~~~~~Courtney’s POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I fell asleep that night before the movie even started. After so much crying, it was easy to fall asleep, especially with Ross gently lulling me to sleep without even trying. I woke up and he wasn’t there. I instantly got scared. I thought he left, that I was all alone. Then, I heard a noise in the kitchen. I slowly walked in and saw him there, eating my lucky charms. I joined him, eating, then going upstairs to shower. I quickly showered, wrapped myself in a towel, and went into my bedroom. I stood by my closet trying to figure out what to wear. Normally, I didn’t care, but for some reason, I wanted to look nice today. Finally, I decided against it, pulling on a tank top, long sleeve shirt, and my favorite pair of sweat pants and boots. I ran back down the stairs.
“Ready?” He said, holding out his arm gentlemanly. I nodded, putting his hoodie on and grabbing my purse and locking the door behind us. We walked down the street just like we always do, bumping shoulders occasionally and laughing about random things. We finally got to his house and walked through the door, slipping off our shoes and finding his family in the kitchen eating breakfast.
“There you are Ross. Morning Courtney.” Riker said to me. Stormie gave him a look.
“How are you doing honey?” Stormie asked me, pulling up another chair next to Ross’ for me. I sat down, and told them all I was fine and just wanted to think about something else. They nodded, and finished eating. We all went upstairs and decided to play rock band. Ross and I did a duet. It all got my mind off of everything, until I got a text from my mom. She told me that I should come to the hospital soon, but she couldn’t come get me. I showed Ross the text quietly. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it reassuringly.
“Do you want me to drive you?” He mouthed, while Rydel and Riker sang a duet. I nodded, leaning my head against his shoulder. Ross had recently got his license, but I hadn’t turned 16 yet. We went downstairs, and Ross told them he’d explain later. We told his parents, and they gave him the car keys as we walked out to the car. A few minutes later, we arrived at the hospital, and I ran up to his room as Ross waited for me in the waiting room.
