FAKE

19

oh my god. the lady hung up the phone and i zoomed out of the loop in front of the school.

"avery? what's going on?" grayson asked. i zoomed through a light and saw the turn for the highway up ahead, "avery," gray said again.

"mom's been in a car accident," i said.

i merged into the lane next to mine as i got onto the highway. i ran a hand through my hair as i past slow cars. i heard grayson starting to dial something on his phone.

"who are you calling?" i asked.

"jen!" i hadn't realized it but he was crying by now.

i saw a sign that said 'derry university hospital next right'. i turned my turning signal on, and moved over so that i was in the lane the farthest to the right. i got off on exit 15 and waited at the red light. i could see the hospital up ahead.

"jen," grayson cried into the phone, "m‐my mom's been in a car accident," he cried, "t‐this is derry right?" he asked me. i nodded, "it's derry, yeah...okay i'll see you guys soon."

guys? soon? no. joey can't come here! not now! the light turned green and i turned right. i pulled into the parking garage and stopped at the booth. i pressed a green button and grabbed my parking ticket. i pulled into the parking garage and looked around for parking spots.

"there's one," grayson pointed out. i pulled into that spot and grayson and i both got out of the car. i slammed my car door shut and grayson sprinted past me.

"gray, wait!" i shouted. i locked the car and ran after him, "gray! watch where you're going!" i shouted.

he avoided the people in front of him and i saw him press the elevator button. geez he was fast. i ran into the elevator just in time as it closed.

"you couldn't have held the door for me?" i asked out of breath.

"you made it... press three," he said. i sighed and pressed the '3' button on the key pad. the elevator zoomed up and in seconds we were at level three.

the doors opened and grayson and i walked out. we walked over towards the front desk and a lady with blonde hair looked up at us.

"hello," she said. "what can i do for you?"

"our mom's here, we got a call saying she was in a car accident," i said.

"what's her name?" she asked.

"lauren hart," i said.

"room 243 floor two," she said.

"thank you," i said as we walked towards a different set of elevators. grayson pressed the up arrow and the doors opened. we walked in and the elevator doors closed. grayson pressed the '2' button and then i felt the clear elevator zoom up.

it felt like i could see everything from here, the highway, the cars, and the people. everything from here looked as if it was a normal day, and people were just doing something they did everyday of their lives. but it wasn't for us, our mom was in the hospital... there's a chance she could be severely injured, or even dead. but i couldn't tell gray that, i wanted to be sure.

the doors opened and grayson ran out of the elevator, "grayson stop running, we're in a hospital," i said.

he stopped and started walking as he stood in front of two very large doors. i saw a sign that said 'ICU' on it. oh dear lord help us now. 'ICU' means intensive care unit; they put people here because they need to keep a better eye on them. this is where the severely injured patients go.