Blind Date

A little Incident

"What?"
"Grace? What's going on?"
"Is he okay?"
"Is who okay?"
She starts breathing heavily and she breaks from the phone as tears pour from her eyes.
"Where is he?"
I do only what I know to: hold her.

••|••

"We need to get to the hospital, now!" I break down into more tears as I put my phone back into my purse.
"What's going on?"
"Kyle is.." I take a deep breath before more tears flow. "He was.."
"Deep breaths," Matt tries to calm me down but I keep crying. He wraps me into his arms, and allow this to soak in before I finally pull back.
"He was hit by a car.."
"Come on, I'll get us to the hospital." He says almost as soon as I spit it off my tongue.

***

"Here's the receptionist." Matt directs me to the desk, as and I get right to the point.
"May I help you?"
"Kyle Barns. He was admitted into the emergency room.. I'm his emergency contact... Please, can I see him?"
"Grace Allen?"
"Yes." I confirm.
"Grace, I won't be able to go back.. So the moment you need me, I'll be back here." He kisses my cheek.
"Is a Matthew on there?" I automatically ask; I don't want to go through this alone, and Kyle wouldn't want me to.
"Matt?"
"Yes." He confirms.
"Yes, you and your husband are on his emergency contact list."
I'm speachless. Even in an emergency, Kyle still finds ways to baffle and surprise me.
"I really like the sound of that." I gently push his chest and he grabs my hand.
"Can we see him?"
"Of course, through those double doors; room twenty-four."
"Thank you!" Matt starts to lead me, considering I can't find room twenty-four. It took a few turns and a few long hallways to get where we needed to go, but eventually I heard a woman crying.
"He came out of nowhere! I couldn't see him at all. The light turned green and he stepped out into the cross walk..." The woman was sobbing, "Then I hit him..." She broke down even harder.
"Ma'am, it's okay." A man, whom sounds like a police officer, responds.
"Hi, we're looking for Kyle."
"You must be Grace and Matthew, correct?" Another man approaches us.
"Yes. Are you the man who called me?" I ask, as I hear him pull up his belt.
"Yes, I'm Tony Jones." He sticks his hand out and I eventually find it to confirm the shake.
"What happened Officer Jones?" Matt respectfully questions.
"Apparently, your friend Kyle stepped out into on coming traffic. The light switched and a young woman," must be the woman who was crying, "hit him. He is stable, but his injuries are bad. He has three broken ribs, a concussion, and he shattered his kneecap. Basically the injury of the car tapped him, but did enough damage to put him into cardiac arrest."
"Are you his friends?" A woman approaches me and I turn to her voice.
"Yes, Kyle is like my brother..." My hands start to shake.
"I am so sorry.. If you press charges or take me to court I under-"
"It was an accident.. A terrible accident." I breath deeply, "It wasn't your fault; he is going to be fine."
"You make it sound so true." I take her hands.
"Because it is." I give a small smile, "What's your name?"
"Vanessa Gilbert. But everyone calls me Nessa."
"I'm Grace Allen, and if there's anything I know about Kyle Barns, it's that he's a fighter." I keep smiling, stabling a hole in my chest. "He is one of the strongest men I have ever known; he's going to make it through this. And maybe even you two will be able to explain why this all happened; I'm sure he'd love to hear your side of the story."
"Thank you, and again, I'm so sorry." I shake her hand one more time before the police take her away to ask more questions.
"Wow." Matt speaks up and at the sound of his voice, I break down. He holds me, my face buried into his chest and his fingertips stroking my hair. It slowly, but surely, soothed me, resulting in no more tears.
"Can we see him?" I murmur against Matt's chest, as he continued to stroke. Matt called over Officer Jones and got clarification whether or not we could see him. After clearing that we could, I still hold onto Matt. I'm just- I'm not ready to accept this has actually happened. I figured I would get hit by s car before Kyle....
"Whenever you're ready, Grace, we'll go in."
"You'll go in with me?"
"Of course." He kisses the top of my head. I then stand on my own, and keep ahold of his firm lock on my hand. Matt slowly leads me to what I assume is his room. I hear beeping noises from machines, and some kind of loud breathing expiration.
"Is he breathing on his own?"
"No, ma'am. As soon as he can we will take him off life support."
"Life support? He's on life support?" I go to touch his hand, but Matt directs it to another area of his arm.
"He has an IV there."
I grip onto his arm tighter, but not too tight.
"How long until he can breathe on his own?"
"We don't know. It is still up in the air-"
"Up in the air?" I snap but she gets up.
"Ma'am I'm sorry, but your friend is in a very bad condition."
"Holly, may I speak to you?" At that, she leaves the room and I cool down. I wrap onto Kyles arm and ask Matt to guide me to his face. I kiss his cheek and whisper I love you.
As soon as I step back from his face, his monitors start ringing off the hook. Beeping turns into a solid noise, which everyone is familiar with.
"Get a crash cart!" I hear the nurse, Holly, yell as she rushes in and attempts to save his life. One of the other nurses pulls us out of the room, trying to get us out of the way. I don't  even want to hear it, so I cover my ears and lean my head against Matt's chest.
Kyle is flatlining.
My best friend has no heartbeat.
My brother is dying.

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Thank you for reading!

Is Kyle gonna make it?
I don't know!
Keep reading and we'll both find out!

- Emuna_Jasmine