Am I......?(BxB)

Chapter 16

The ride to the hospital is quick, the EMT checking some vitals, which really aren't necessary. The only thing besides the cut on my arm is an elevated heart rate and higher blood pressure. Gee. I was just in school for nine hours with the threat of getting a bullet in me. Of course my heart rate and blood pressure would be high!

We get to the hospital and the EMT helps my out of the ambulance and into the ward. She gets me to a table and a doctor soon walks up. "You're a kid that was in the school hostage thing, weren't you?" he asks me.

"Yeah, I'm one of them," I reply.

"You should count yourself lucky you weren't more hurt. Let's get this thing stitched up."

Twenty minutes and fifteen stitches later, my cut is closed and the doctor lets me go to the waiting room. I walk out of the ward and find Leo, Brian, Mark, Shawn, Danny, Mom and Dad sitting and waiting. Leo hears me and looks up. "JOSH!!"

Everyone looks up and jumps off the couches. Leo rushes over to me and runs into my chest, wrapping his arms around me. Everyone swarms around us, screaming questions. "Sweetie, we were so worried about you," Mom finally says after everything calms down.

"What happened to your arm?" Shawn asks.

"A bullet grazed me and I was cut," I say. "It wasn't too bad."

"You were shot?" Danny asks.

"It was an accident. Gerald tossed his gun on the floor and it went off."

"Who's Gerald?" Dad asks.

"He's the gunman," I say. "He and I talked a little more after Brian and Leo got Justin out of the cafeteria. He might be out on the streets by the end of the month."

Everyone looks at me like I just told them a guy that held a few dozen students hostage would be a free man by March. Oh wait...I did. "You've got to be kidding me," says Mark. "How could that lunatic be out in two weeks?!"

I sit everyone down and give them an explanation of what Gerald has been going through with Derek and how his ex-wife was the one that tried to take him. "So the only thing that Gerald will be charged for is bringing a gun onto school grounds and taking hostages?" asks Leo.

"Probably," I say. "He said he'd be able to make bail if he gets it. Gerald really isn't a bad person. He just cares for his son and I'm not mad at him for what happened. He didn't mean for Justin to get hurt and didn't even fire the gun."

I look around and see everyone nodding in consensus. "Um...do we know how Justin's doing?" I ask.

"Yeah, they said the surgery should be finished in a little while," says Brian. "I was so worried about him..."

Brain wipes his eyes and Danny wraps his arm around Brian's shoulders. "Brian, Justin's okay and that's all that matters."

"But it was so scary seeing him bleeding onto the cafeteria floor," Brian says. "I thought I was going to lose him..."

A woman in a surgical hat and scrubs walks out into the waiting area and sees us. "Are you all here for Justin Robinson?" she asks.

We all stand up and look at her. "Yes," says Mom. "How is he?"

"He's out of surgery and is resting in a room. There were no complications with the surgery and he made it through."

We let out a huge sigh of relief at hearing Justin's okay. "May we see him?" asks Shawn.

"Well, he's asleep right now. But he should be up in about an hour or so. He'll be groggy and in some pain, but he'll be able to talk and understand you."