Paper Birds

Chapter Twenty ; Lightning Strikes

I ran down the stairs and grabbed my coat. "Sorry, Zayn and Harry, we're gonna have to do this another time."

Max and Robbie were already in the car, Zayn buttoning his coat. I flashed Harry and apologetic look and muttered another 'sorry' before heading out the door.

I scrambled into the backseat next to Luke. "Do you know if he's okay?"

Max laughed. "Probably. He's Jonah; are you new?"

Jonah did have a tendency to get out of the things easily. His ex-girlfriend was always telling me about how at school he would play all sorts of pranks on the teachers with his football buddies and to get out of trouble all he had to do was wink at the accuser. He was just that good. But that didn't pertain to car accidents.

"Would you drive faster, Max?"

"I think enough Coligans have been down at the police station this week." 

That was true. 

I turned to Lucas. "Was he, like, driving under the influence or something?"

"I don't know. The hospital called and said he was there, but didn't tell us anything else." 

The hosptial was only ten minutes away, and with Max driving ten more miles per hour than the limit on an empty road, well we got there pretty quickly.

Once we piled into the waiting, it was chaos. Jonah was sitting in a chair, waiting for all of us, silent. Meanwhile Robbie was yelling, Lucas was asking if he was okay, and Max was asking about the party. I seemed to be the only one who noticed that he was fine, he just had a couple of scrapes.

The nurse came in and shouted, "Hey! Hey, calm down, everybody. Jesus Christ!" 

Jonah was just sitting back and laughing at all of them, me joining in. 

Max and Lucas stopped, Robbie quieting down a bit.

"I want all of the details," he growled, arms crossed.

"Well, first of all, I'm prefectly fine, thanks for asking." He wasn't even seated on a hospital bed, so obviously he's fine. "I went to a party, but don't worry, Robbie; I didn't drink. At all. I promise. Right hand up to God. And neither did Jesse, the guy who was bringing us all home since I didn't feel like taking the bus again. He didn't notice the red light, somehow - idiot - and boom, there you go. I'm pretty sure everyone else is fine, though, except for Jesse. Broken arm or something. Serves him right."

Jonah took a deep breath, then looked up at Robbie. "Good enough?"

"Good enough."

"Uh, no, not good enough," Max muttered. "Didn't you bring anone home?"

Jonah squinted at him, then shook his head. Max groaned. "Awe, c'mon, dude. Going to a social event and not bringing anyone home. Where did we go wrong, Claire?"

I shot him a look, knowing he was referring to the concert. 

"Whatever, let's get home," I said, high off of the fact that Jonah wasn't hurt. Lucas scared the crap out of me. 

My phone buzzed.

Harry: Hey, is your brother okay?

Me: He's fine. Sorry for running out on you like that. Where did you go?

Harry: Zayn's taking me to a party. Wanna come? (:

I hated parties. The last party I went to was after Jared died and Abby had lugged me along against my will. It was horrible. I stood in the corner the whole time, texting no one, because Jonah was again out of town, Dad was having a bussiness dinner, and Robbie didn't have a car. The music blasted my ears shut for a week, and I would never get the boys' taunting out of me head.