Possession

Chapter 5: Hospital Visit

Chapter 5
Hospital Visit

I was grounded for a week which was pretty good all things considered. I was also allowed to visit Andre in the hospital once. Other than that it was school and home. I went to visit him the next day to see if he was doing alright for myself.

Robert was already there playing a PSP game in Andre's room. After he had been stabilized his mother had him taken to a better hospital where she knew he'd be receiving better care. It was owned by Andre's uncle if Robert was to be believed.

"How's Andre doing?" I whisper as my parents closed the door behind them.

Robert's still wearing yesterday's clothes and he looks exhausted. One of his left fingers is wrapped in gauze. "He's fine. He broke a few ribs. Once he wakes up they're going to run a few tests for brain damage." He says tiredly poking away at his game before tossing it aside in disgust.

"He didn't hit his head. He suffocated. Why would he have brain damage?" I ask confused.

"It's called hypoxia." He yawned, "It's a condition brought on when the brain doesn't get the oxygen it needs and starts to die." He slumps over in the chair and goes to sleep.

I walk over to Andre where a heart monitor is silently keeping track of his heart beat. It's also watching his oxygen levels. I had to remember to look up hypoxia when I got home. It sounded almost like chicken pox so I can't imagine it being so serious.

As if sensing my presence Andre jumps awake. He looks startled as if he just woke from a bad dream. He yelps and wraps his arms around his ribs. He looks around in confusion, "Why am I in the hospital?" He asks.

"It's good to see your awake." I tell him.

He looks at me like I'm an alien. "Dyllan what is going on?" He asks.

"There was an accident and you were hurt." I start to explain when a hassled looking nurse strove into the room.

"Mr. Roberton's friends I'm going to have to ask you to leave." She looks at the crashed snoring Robert distastefully, "Him to." She says curtly.

I shake Robert awake and we say goodbye to Andre. He waves goodbye as we leave.

"Hey, Robert my family could give you a ride home. You should at least change your clothes." I offered.

He yawned sleepily, "If it's no trouble I wouldn't mind." In the car we both ride in the back.

"Are you going to be in trouble with your grandmother?" I ask him.

"Not really. 'I'm a victim of my own actions' as she says. My stupid ass got me into trouble and my stupid ass will get me out." He tells me. "What about you?" He asks.

"I'm grounded." I tell him.

"The cops probably let you off the hook too. It being your first time in trouble and Andre almost dying and everything." He laughs humorlessly.

"They did but my parents aren't quite as nice." I reply as light heartedly as I can. My parents drove up front in silence and Robert and I fell quiet to.

"I think Andre is pissed at me." Robert says quietly.

I look at him surprised, "What makes you think that?"

"When I was trying to move the stone and it fell on him worse it's just the feeling I got. Like he blamed me for what happened." He admits.

"I'm positive Andre doesn't blame you. It was an accident." I try to reassure him, "You couldn't have known that monument was going to fall and land on him." I'm pretty sure I'm not helping.

He seems to appreciate the effort though, "Thanks man. That helps a lot." He says but not sarcastically.

"Glad I could help." I mutter back feeling like an idiot. "So how long have you and Andre known each other?" I ask Robert suddenly curious.

"Well we've actually gone to the same school since fifth grade but we've been friends since freshmen year. You wouldn't believe it now but Andre was mega weird when he was a kid. He still is but he's gotten over it for the most part." Robert laughed.

I try to imagine Andre as a kid and all I got was someone hyper and probably getting in trouble a lot. "So what was Andre like? Did he still like risking his life for thrills even back then?" I ask.

"Actually he was artistic." He tells me. "You went to the public elementary school right?"

"For a few months." I reply.

"You know that mural in the sixth grade class of all those safari animals?" I nod, "Andre drew that then helped paint it."

"Wow!" I had no idea. I remember the mural quite well. The animals were quite convincingly life like.

"Yeah but he grew out of the artsy stuff in middle school. That's when he became the Andre we know today." He explained with amusement.

"What about you? What were you like?" I asked.

"I was the sweetest most innocent child ever." He says snobbishly turning his nose up in a joking way. Somehow the idea of Robert being innocent works even less than Andre being an artist. "Just kidding. I hung out with assholes so I was probably an asshole too." He says more seriously.

He's still an asshole but it's much easier to picture him being worse as a middle schooler and a downright terror in elementary school. Being precocious just doesn't work for him somehow.

"What about you?" He asks.

"Huh?" I ask intelligently.

"What were you like as a kid? I could picture you being an introvert and still being geeky but then yet one never knows." He says staring at me intently. He's kind of scaring me.

"Actually I was home schooled until three years ago." I say nervously.

"So you're one of those kids." He says smirking. I know full and well home schooled kids have all kinds of crazy rumors and misconceptions going about.

"Hey!" I reply insulted. "I just happened to be one of about three kids in the town I grew up in!"

"Why wasn't your town just lumped in with another school district then?" He challenged.

"I lived on an island on the coast of Maine, okay." I grumbled.

"So you're an island boy." Robert grinned mischievously. I never should have told him. Curse it.

Before he could ask more weird questions we got to his house and dropped him off. Before I could relax my mom looked at me over the seat, "I'm not sure I approve of your friend but he seems to mean well. I told you you'd make new friends in California." She turns around smiling. I sigh exasperatedly.