Brothers

Chapter 2 - Aftermath

I sat on the couch there and waited. Before Ryan made it there I was asked twice if I needed help.

I saw the familiar face of Ryan and Kate walk through the doors and look around for me. I pushed myself from the couch and ran over to him. "What took so long?" I hissed.

"Why did you drag me here if nothing happened?" I forgot, I hadn't told him.

"Something did happen! Dad got in a car crash."

His face changed from annoyed to worried in a matter of seconds. "Which room?"

"118, but-" Before I could tell him he didn't want to go in there, he shoved me aside and went for the room. Kate followed along behind him. I followed him also, but when he burst through the door I didn't look.

"Oh my gosh!" Kate screeched and turned back out of the room. "That's terrible!" She seemed genuinely concerned.

"Oh God..." Ryan ran his fingers through his hair. "What am I gonna do? What's going to happen to him?" Ryan had a knack for asking tons of questions. He came back out of the room, seemingly unfazed by Dad's appearance. I went with him back to the front desk silently.

"How much is all this gonna cost?" He asked the man there.

"Who are you? CunningHam?" Ryan nodded. "We don't know yet, it depends on if he needs surgery or not."

Ryan sighed and plopped onto the couch I had originally been sitting on. "This is bad." He looked up at the ceiling.

"Are you going to be OK?" Kate sat next to him.

"Ya, I'll be fine. I'm probably going to have to spend the night here."

I hated when he spoke like I wasn't even there. I'd have to spend the night too.

"Well I can drive you-" She glanced up at me. "You two home if you need."

"I think we'll be good here." Ryan smiled. She kissed him and then stood. "Hey, but my mom's expecting me back soon. Call me if you need something." He thanked her and watched her walk back out. I took her seat on the couch next to Ryan.

"How did you even get here?" He questioned.

"I got Ms. Betty to take me." I was still shaky from all that had happened. I took slow breaths to try to stop my heart from pounding so hard. "Dad's gonna be fine, isn't he?" I asked Ryan.

"Of course. Maybe some casts but he'll be OK." He seemed confident in his answer. I scanned the room until I found a clock and I saw it was already almost 2 o'clock. Ryan pulled out his phone and began texting everyone he knew about what had happened. I wished he would talk to me.

I noticed a few nurses heading down the hall together so I followed them. They stopped and went into Dad's room. I opened the door and watched through a crack. They very carefully examined his whole body.

"We should get rid of the clothing." One suggested.

"We need to make sure metal isn't going to scrap him if we do so."

"We should get an x-ray." There were so many people talking very quickly, it was hard to keep up.

I jumped when someone put their hand on my shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Ryan whispered.

I sighed, glad it wasn't a nurse or something. "I wanna watch." I said.

"You don't need to watch." He started to shove me back up front. I thought about pushing back but he was 4 years older and a lot stronger than me.

I was too restless to sit again so I stood against the wall near the couch where Ryan sat. I got bored very quickly.

"Hey where are you going now?" Ryan said as I tried to get outside.

"Outside." I told him.

"Why?"

I didn't answer him and continued to the front of the building. In the front there was a bike rack with no bikes on the sidewalk piece. Bright green grass that had been neatly mowed crept out from the side of the building. A big parking lot was full of cars in front of me. I walked to the grass area and climbed the fence that was a few feet from the building walls.

Ryan came out and looked around, eventually spotting me. "What are you doing now?" He came after me and climbed the fence easily.

"I'm being bored."

"Ah, I see." He smiled. He took a deep breath and looked down. "They take good care of the lawn I see."

I laughed, he noticed the most random things.

"Are you gonna be OK?" He switched to a concerned tone.

"What? Of course."

Suddenly a female nurse came rushing out of the hospital and looked around quickly.

"Oh, hi, are you two CunningHams?" I had heard our last name more today than I ever had.

"Yea we are." Ryan got off the fence. "Why?"

"Your..." She pursed her lips together. "I'm very sorry but, your father didn't make it."

"What? No." Ryan moved passed her and ran to the hospital. I began to feel dizzy and quickly got off the fence before I fell off of it. The woman who had come to tell us had gone in too. Everyone had left me behind as always.

I got inside the hospital. Ryan was no where to be seen so I figured he had gone to the room. As I predicted, he was there and standing by the bed. Another man was there too, removing equipment from Dad. "We were just examining him when he stopped breathing. We did CPR and checked his chest but there was nothing we could do." He spoke with more sorrow than the woman. "I'm very sorry."

"Thank you." Ryan told him and continued to watch Dad. The man left the room. "I can't believe it, this isn't happening." Ryan mumbled. "Oh my gosh..." He pulled out his phone and pushed me to get out of the room. I felt my throat tighten and my eyes blurred from the tears. I wasn't believing it either. How could our Dad just die, right there and then? It was impossible. I let myself crumple to ground and let my hot tears run down my face. I put my back against the wall and prayed that this was a dream, but deep down I knew it wasn't.

After 10 minutes my tears had dried up and I was still on the floor. The door opened and I didn't bother to look who it was. Jeans and a green t-shirt came into view and I knew it was Ryan.

"Dude, Kate's here, we're going to her place."

I sniffed and didn't get up. I didn't want to come if he really meant me getting dropped off at home and him going to her house. "Seriously, come on." He forcefully grabbed my arm and yanked me up and out the door

 I didn't know how the whole thing worked but I thought we had to do something when someone died. We were just leaving.