Jodee

Chapter 48 - Hospital

Caleb and I rushed into the hospital building, tears pricking my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I needed to stay strong so I could hear what the doctor was saying and help Ace.

My brother's best friend and I didn't talk in the car past two lines. I asked him how bad Ace was injured and Caleb said he didn't know anything about Ace's injury. That I knew as much as he did. Then we sat in silence. Which in reality wasn't that long seeing Caleb took a usual fifteen minute drive in about five which also had me clutching onto the handles in the car and not wanting to have a casual conversation.

The entire time I have been replaying the same questions in my head.

How did Ace get hurt?

What is his injury and how bad is it?

Does he need surgery?

Those were the questions I needed to find the answers to. I kept repeating to myself that all I had to do was answer those questions and everything would be fine. I would be fine and so would Caleb and so would Ace. I kept telling myself that over and over and yet I just couldn't seem to make my brain believe it. Some part of me knew I was lying to myself.

The question I was too afraid to ask was: what's his chance of survival?

I refused to think that my brother was already to the point where they were thinking of quality of life and if the odds would be for or against him. I refused. The only thing I was thinking about right now was his recovery time because Ace is going to be fine and he is going to recover and get 100% Acey-ness back in him. I just know it.

But I also knew it was probably a lot worse than I was telling myself it was.

My brother hates to let me see him in weakness or in pain or any of that. If he was injured where he had to go to the hospital, but still well enough to make decisions on his own he would have told Caleb to pick me up from school on time, and then take me home and wait for him to call us to say it's okay to come. He would have protected me, even if he was busy protecting himself.

There are also no secrets between the best friends. So Ace would 100% have kept Caleb in the loop even if he decided to leave me out of it for whatever reason.

I don't know what is going on with my brother but I do know that I'm scared and I'm trying really hard to be positive, even if it really isn't working out for me right now.

"Hey! Jodee. I'm talking to you." Caleb scolded me, waving a hand in my face to gain my attention back after I evidently just completely zoned out.

"S-sorry. I— I, umm..." I trailed off.

"It's okay." Caleb said immediately, looking away from me all of a sudden. "I was just talking to the front desk ... in case you missed that while you were spaced out" — he shot me an unamused look — "But they said Ace will be on the fifth floor so we should go up to the waiting room up there and wait for a doctor to speak to us."

"Should be?" I repeated. "Where is he now then?"

"Surgery." Caleb spoke gravely."

My eyes went wide as I frantically looked around, stupidly thinking that I would suddenly see a surgeon on the floor. "F-for w-what?" I asked, fearfully.

Did I really want to know?

"I don't know, JD. Remember?" He tapped his temple. "I don't know anything either."

"The f-front desk..."

"They don't either. Just that he went into a trauma surgery about two hours ago." Caleb searched my eyes for some sort of question or feeling, but I gave him nothing. "C'mon. Let's go wait for your brother." He sighed, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the elevator.