Hall of Fame

Chap. 6

Dedicated to @kenzerz9 Thanks for the support!

Chapter 6

The room was eerily silent. The kind of silence where you could hear a pin drop. That isn't normal. Packing an entire football team plus some into one little waiting room, you shouldn't have dead silence. A nurse had came in and told us that there wouldn't be news about Cole for at least two hours and that if the team was planning on staying they had to go home, shower, and change. They really stank. After everyone regrouped and I bought a can of febreeze we were all a little more comfortable.

Madison and I had discussed everything, from Mel and her issues to me informing her about the cute new guy. She was happy, but not as happy as me. Her and Ryan were kind of a thing. They acted like a couple. He would walk her to every class and hold her hand and then kiss her on the cheek and promise to walk her to the next. But Maddie has commitment issues. She's afraid of forever, and afraid of committing to something only to have that very thing hurt her. She doesn't want to give anything or anyone the power to hurt her. And Ryan knows that. He's willing to wait for her. Wait until she's ready to call herself his girlfriend.

Maddie and I have been friends since preschool. We used to be really close. But then one of her friends from another school, Talia, betrayed her in the 6th grade. It hurt her, it hurt her a lot. She slowly pushed me away after that. Not wanting to get hurt.

That's when Mel moved here. Mel and I grew closer, and me and Maddie stayed friends, but not nearly as close as before. Sometimes I regret that, getting closer to Mel and allowing Mads to push me away.

But, the only person Mads is really close to anymore, is Ryan.

After sitting in an emergency room for 10 hours, everyone was on the verge of a breakdown. Me being one of those people. At some point Mel had called Connor, to check on Cole. There are two major problems with that.

#1. Connor was a mess. Anyone could've guessed that. Especially Mel. She's known Cole longer than she's known anyone else. They're cousins. So she knew him long before she moved here. She knows how he gets when Cole is in trouble, or hurt, or sick, or anything.

#2. Why can't she just put on her big girl pants, ignore whatever it is she's mad at me for, and come to the hospital. Everyone else did. Seriously. Over 75% of our class stopped by. The hospital is an hour and a half away from town.

Anyways, so everyone was very testy. It ended up being about 3 o'clock when a doctor finally came out. I was sitting with Xander on the floor, in the corner. Drifting back and before between sleep and consciousness.

"Family of Connor Johnson?" I heard someone ask. I opened my eyes to find the doctor standing there, he had bags underneath his eyes, and looked dead tired. Then again, didn't we all? I stood up with only a little help from Xander. Everyone ended up standing, claiming to be family of Cole. The doctor looked around at us with wide eyes, finally looking awake.

"I'm his mother." Joyce stepped forwards and signaled for me and Xander to help Connor, while Xander got Connor up and I explained to him that the doctor came out Connor worked out of the trance he had been in since we had gotten to the hospital. It was like he was a toddler, constantly needing help moving, understanding, remembering, even thinking. One nurse wanted us to admit him into the ER along with his brother.

The doctor stepped out into the hall with Joyce and Ralph. We all waited some more. Before we heard the door open and close. I was leaning against the wall, staring intently at my feet. I heard whispers and mumbles and then Joyce crying and Ralph reassuring her. And as I looked up I saw something inside of Connor snap. He stormed out of the building. Just as James walked in, he must of just got here. Ryan followed Connor out while James came over to talk to me and Xander. He already knew everything we did, so we all looked towards Ralph, knowing he would be the only one able to explain. The only one physically able to right now. It's not that he didn't care, or wasn't as upset. He just had to be strong for his family. I knew firsthand what that was like. So I instantly felt sorry for him.