Starting Over

Chapter Two ; Sleepy Head

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

For god sake I wish someone would turn off that horrible beeping sound, I thought to myself. I closed my eyes even tighter trying to block out the annoying sound, but it wasn’t working. As I rolled onto myside I felt an odd tug and a sharp pain shoot up into my shoulder. My eyes shot open but quickly closed again when they were met by the bright light pouring in through the window by my bed. Slowly, I opened my eyes, giving them time to adjust to the intense light. I blinked a couple times, trying to get rid of the blurry vision. That’s when I realized I wasn’t at home, in my room but instead I had no idea where I was. I scanned the room and it was obvious I was in a hospital of some kind, but I couldn’t remember how I got here. I looked down at my arm and found the cause of the sharp pain, a IV was placed in the crook of my elbow.

My hands rubbed slowly over my face as I tried to recall any kind of memory of how I ended up here but the only thing I could remember was being at the bonfire down at Foster’s. Had something happened at Foster’s? Did anyone else get hurt? My mind began to swirl with all different types of horrible possibilities. My phone, I need to find my phone I thought to myself as I began looking around the room, but I didn’t see anything of mine. I quickly shook off the panicked feeling that was growing in my chest and felt around the bed for the call button. Once I found the small control I pressed the nurses’ call button repeatedly until the door swung open and I was greeted my a very cheerful older woman. “Well hello sleepy head! How are you feeling?” She grinned as she made her way over to me and began checking over the machines and my IV. “Uh. I’m...” My voice cracked causing me to have to clear my throat before I could finish, “Fine…” I croaked, clearing my throat again. She gave me a bright smile before pulling out her stethoscope and placing the cold medal on my chest. “Well you are looking good so far, I am going to go call your parents and let them know you are awake and the doctor should be in soon to check on you. As soon as he okay’s you we should be able to get you some food.” With that, she turned and left the room, shutting the door behind her.

The annoying beeping was the only sound in the room, I tried to remember the details about the party but nothing else could come to mind. My head began to pound, I closed my eyes again and could feel myself drift off to sleep.

“Oh David, our poor boy…” As I slowly woke up I could hear my mom and dad’s voices, they were quiet almost as if they were whispering. “Claire, he is a strong boy, he will be able to get through this okay?” My mom’s soft sobs finally broke me out of my sleep, this time I blinked my eyes open carefully to let them adjust to the light, but the room was dark and the sky outside was black. “M-om?” I gave her a small smile as she rushed over to my side, her hand clasping onto mine in some kind of death grip. “Ma…easy...” I laughed, resting my head against the pillow. Her sobs were uncontrollable now, the tears spilling down her cheeks. My mom was truly one of the most amazing moms anyone could ask for, it killed me to see her this way. “Mom, don’t cry.” I whispered as I leaned in, pressing a kiss to her cheek. My dad stepped forward, giving her a comforting squeeze to her shoulder. “Glad to see you awake kiddo. How are you feeling?”

To be honest I wasn’t feeling too good this time, my whole body hurt, and I felt a little sick to my stomach. “Well I’ve had better days…” I mumbled as I closed my eyes letting a wave of nausea ease before opening them back up. My mom kissed my cheek as she stood up, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “I am going to go get the doctor.” She kissed my cheek once more before leaving the room.

“Hey dad?” My eye brows scrunched together as I looked up at him. “What happened?” I could see the look on my father’s face change as he took a seat beside me. He sat there for a few moments as if he were contemplating how to answer my question. “You don’t remember?” He asked, his voice had changed and sounded a little bit angry. I let my head fall back to the pillow and began searching my brain for any type of memory. There was nothing there, all I could remember was being at the bonfire. I shook my head in defeat and glanced over at my dad, the angry look had faded and now looked sad.

“Cole, you were in a car accident. You’ve been in a coma for almost a week now.” The nausea filled my stomach again as his words played through my head. The images of that night began to flash though my head. Then it hit me, I was riding with Trace and his brother that night. I remembered laying across the back seat and then those headlights. I closed my eyes tightly trying to ease the sick feeling in my stomach. “Dad… are they okay?” I asked, my eyes still closed. “Yeah, they made it out with some bruises and scratches, most of the damage was done to the back of the car.”

I nodded slowly, at least my friends where okay. Other than being asleep for almost a week straight and the aches and pains I was feeling I was okay too.

A few minutes later the door swung open and in walked my mom followed by an older man in a white jacket. “Hello Cole, I am Dr. Harris. How are we feeling this evening?” He asked as he lifted up the blanket covering my body to reveal my legs; they were covered with bruises and bandages; some spots were almost purple. I frowned as I attempted to move my leg, and nothing happened, I tried again to adjust my legs and again nothing happened. The doctor must have noticed my panicked look because he rested his hand on my shoulder, “It’s going to take some time.” He began to press and move my legs around and all I could feel was a little pressure.

“See, when you were in the accident you ended up with a small spinal injury. These injuries can affect your walking and movement of the legs.” He covered my legs back up with the blanket and sat down on the edge of the bed. “You were lucky, it was very close to crushing a whole section of your spine. We are going to do a small surgery to help fix the area that was affected, from what I have seen on the scans I think full mobility will be restored but it will take a lot of dedication and work.” My parents nodded and began thanking the doctor as they stepped out of the room with him, leaving me to my thoughts.

“Spinal injury…” I spoke out loud to myself, how could this happen to me? I was set for a full ride scholarship for soccer and now I can’t even walk. “This has to be a mistake!” I yelled out as my parents entered the room. “Now son…” My dad started but I quickly interrupted. “No dad, this can’t be right. That doctor must have made a mistake. I am going to college on a full soccer scholarship. He has to be wrong.” My eyes darted back and forth between the two of them, but the look on my mom’s face told me right then that he wasn’t wrong. How could something like this happen? Things weren’t supposed to go this way.

I sat there on my bed almost in a daze. My parents tried to talk to me for a while but then gave up, turning to magazines to distract them. They didn’t have to stay there, it wasn’t like I was going to get up and walk out of the hospital or anything. I sighed softly as I settled back into my bed. Even though I hadn’t moved much at all this evening I was exhausted. Tugging the sheet up to my neck, I relaxed into my pillow and prayed this was all just a bad dream.