Rebel

Chapter 37: Congratulations

I thought I was walking through that tunnel that people always talk about when they've died. The sight of a bright white light definitely had me convinced that I was crossing over to the other side. My eyelids fluttered and I took a few deep breaths, struggling because of what felt like an elephant was sitting on me. The light was the only thing I was able to see from laying flat on my back. Please tell me I'm not dead, I said to myself. The events that landed me here began to flood into my mind and I started to panic. It took me a minute to put all of the pieces all together and I thought that there was no way that I could have died. It hadn't been that bad.

My entire body felt stiff as a board. I'm not dead, I thought, trying to convince myself that I hadn't faded into the afterlife. I squeezed my eyes shut before blinking a few more times. Everything was becoming more clear and the light above me was just the florescent lights in the ceiling of a hospital room. I looked down to see my body dressed in one of those God awful gowns with a plain white sheet neatly draped over me. I wiggled my toes at the sight of my feet sticking up from underneath the blanket.

"Fantastic," I whispered, laying my head back down on the pillow. I was relieved. I had suddenly realized that I was afraid to die because I was finally at a point where I was afraid to leave so much behind. I pulled my arms up to rub my hands over my face, but nearly knocked the shit out of myself when a cast that covered my right hand, all the way up my forearm, collided with my face. That was when I remembered shattering my hand against Dean's mouth. "Fuck," I mumbled. I turned my head to look around the room. It was mostly empty apart from Danny slumped over on the couch next to me. "Babe," I said softly. He didn't budge. He looked too peaceful for me to wake up, but I began to worry about where Fauna was.

"Danny!" I hissed a little louder. I went to roll over onto my right side. "Shiiiiiit!" I screamed, grabbing it and was quickly filled with regret. That's when I remembered the sharp sound of a gun filling up our apartment. "Syd!" he yelled, jumping over to me from the couch. "You have to take it easy and rest," he said, scalding me. I rolled my eyes, annoyed that he was trying to boss me around, but also grateful that he was still by my side. I began to feel like shit for what I said to him. I turned to look at him with tears in my eyes as he stroked my forehead. "Don't even worry about it. You're a terrible liar," he said with a smirk. My heart was turning flips. "I'm still sorry," I said, trying to force myself to smile. "I know, but you couldn't get rid of me if you wanted to."

The door creaked open with all of our friends stepping in, one by one. "Grab ya glocks when you see Tupac!" Mel sang. "Call the cops when you see Tupac!" Jamie chimed in. "Who shot me, but ya punks didn't finish, now ya bouta feel the wrath of a menace!" Candace finished. Reggie and Derek came in behind them, holding their stomachs because of their uncontrollable laughter. I smiled from ear to ear as Danny carefully raised the head of my bed and helped me get comfortable. "Definitely not as bad ass as Tupac, but I'll take it," I said with a shrug. "I wouldn't go as far as calling you Tupac. The bullet grazed you. It took a pretty big chunk out of you and you lost a good amount of blood, but you'll live. We don't need any East coast, West coast beef," Danny spoke up and said, wanting to be the bigger person. I kind of feared what was to become of Dean after the bullshit he pulled. I knew that no matter how much Danny tried to hide it, I knew that he and Ryan were cooking up a plan. That was what came natural to them and he couldn't convince me otherwise.

"You shattered every bone in your hand. Didn't I teach you how to fight?" I heard the voice of my dad say as he stepped into the room. "She came out with a cast and ten stitches to the hip. I think that was enough. We could have lost our only baby," my mother said, her tone sounding disapproving. I could see the worry and relief on all of their faces. I really could have died. With the way that my hand was itching inside this damn cast, death didn't sound like a bad idea. "Now Cousin, all we have to do is graduate," Candace said proudly. She was right. It felt like I had been dragged through hell and back within the past year and becoming a mom and a high school graduate was the ultimate prize.