Stay

Chapter 17

Avi’s Point of View

I watched Kirstie as her chest rose and fell in a steady pattern. It’s not like before. She is calm. No thrashing. No tears. No nothing.

Every once and a while she would crack a smile but then go back to her blank, emotionless face.

Out of nowhere, I started to hear the beginning of Stand By. At first I thought it was because I was sleep deprived but then I felt my pocket vibrate and pulled my phone out.

“Hello?”

“Avi! Hey! It’s Kevin, where are you?”

“Oh, um…” I was cut off by a familiar high voice in the background screaming:

“He’s on a play date with Kirstie, they must have had too much apple juice!”

I smiled a little bit at his comment. But it fell quickly when I realized I had to tell them what really happened.

“We’re um… actually in the hospital…. There was an accident…”

There was silence in the other side of the phone.

“Kevin?”

“One minute,” I heard him cover the mic thing on his phone. “MITCH! SCOTT! DROP THE STARBUCKS! KAVI IS IN THE ER!!!”

“What?! Kavi? ER?! Kevin! Really it’s….”

“Send me the directions we will be there ASAP!”

“Kev—“Before I could finish his name he hung up the phone.

I found the address and texted it to Kevin, Scott, and Mitch. Minutes later I heard them bust through the door.

“Hey! Are you okay?!” Scott asked, rubbing my shoulder.

“Yeah…I’m fine, Kirstie just got hit by a car….” I explained what happened and I could see the pain on their faces.

“Where is that Son of a B—, “Scott began.

“Scott…” Kevin interrupted.

“Sorry… Who is the guy who hit her?! I would like to have a nice loooooong talk with him… preferably in an alley with no witnesses…”

“His name is Ernie or something… he came by to see how she was.” I explained.

We talked for hours about all the questions, the how who what when and whys.

“Guys?” We heard a tired little voice call from behind us. I turned around to see Kirstie sitting up with a worried look on her face.

“Kirstie!” We all cried in relief.

“What do you remember?” I asked, stroking her shoulder.

“Well,” she started, looking down at her sheets, “I remember you calling my name…oh and I remember the movie! Everything else is a blur…”

“What about your dreams?” I asked bluntly.

“What?” She asked, looking me in the eye.

“Your dreams, the ones you were going to tell me about…” I said, trying to trigger her memory.

“What… what dreams?”