Chaos | A Ninjago High School AU

Chapter 18

Kai's POV

I lied. I told the doctors I was his brother, so they'd let me in and sit with him. They only let direct family in, and it's not like his dad was going to show up anytime soon. I am the closest thing that Cole has to a family.

They put him on a ventilator when he first got here, but he's off it now. They also gave him some anti-inflammatory drug that helped lessen the inflammation in his lungs. They took a scan of his chest, but the results haven't came back yet.

Once we brought him here, I let Nya leave. She was a wreck. She wanted to not care, but it was obvious she did. I let Jay drive her home in my truck, which really shows how much I care. 

"Can you tell me what you saw? Are there any symptoms you noticed he had in the past couple days?" the doctor asks me. He has kind, dark eyes, and a warm smile. His grey hair is slicked back, giving him a professional appeal.

"I didn't see him fall down, but he's been coughing a lot lately, and he's been really pale. Sometimes it looked like it took him a lot of effort just to breathe," I look at my unconscious best friend. He looks like a ghost of himself, a pale shell of who Cole is. His chest slowly rises and falls though, which settles my nerves a bit.

"Is he into smoking or vaping?" the doctor asks, and I feel reluctant to answer. I don't want him to get in trouble and be mad at me when he wakes up. "Don't worry, he won't be in trouble."

"He smokes and vapes. I've tried to get him to stop, but he does it when he gets sad," I sigh, looking over at my best friend.

"From the information I've collected, I think he has EVALI, but we won't know until the results come back," the doctor looks over at Cole.

"What's that?"

"E-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury. We've seen several other teenagers with symptoms just like his," the doctor sighs.

"Is there a cure?" I ask with hope.

"At this point in time, the best thing for you to do is get him off of his vape," the doctor says vape as if it's the worst thing that's happened to this world.

"Will he be up soon?" I ask.

"Hopefully. We need his legal guardian to come," the doctor tells me, making my eyes widen.

"No, that can't happen. Cole's dad...I mean our dad, is not tolerant of this type of stuff. If he found out Cole was vaping..." I trail off, thinking of the horror that would be.

"You don't have to fake being his brother. I don't care if you're not. You obviously care about him a decent amount," the doctor stands up, flattening out his coat. "Alert someone if he wakes up."

"Of course," I give him a weak smile as he leaves the room.

I lose track of time as I sit in this closed off room. It's so small, with only two chairs and the small hospital bed. There's also a chair for the doctor along with a desk. Everything is either light blue, white, or light grey, and it's sickening at this point.

"Come on Cole. Wake up please," I beg, even though he can't hear me. I sit there for hours, just waiting for him to wake up. My gaze is interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in," I sigh, keeping my eyes on Cole as if he'll disappear if I shift my eyes away from him for even a second.

"I got you some food. I didn't know what you wanted, but you seem like a spicy chicken sandwich guy," at the sound of her voice, I'm able to take my eyes off of Cole and look at her. Skylor is standing there, a bag from some generic fast food place in one hand and a stack of clothes in the other. "I also stopped by your house. Nya was nice enough to give me some clothes for you to change into."