Adventures of the Streets

Hours for One Boy

Jacey

7951.

That's how many hours I have spent in the general hospital in the past 3 years. Most of the time it was sitting in the worn out lobby chairs, bouncing my legs with anticipation, and watching my older brother body slam a vending machine becasue it ate his money without giving him anything in return.

Waiting isn't the worst part for me-the result is. Every time, except once, the answers have been positive. Now it's only a matter of hours before we get more news.

I look around me. I see the same sickly creme colored walls and white tiled floors. The coffee table with last year's Parent and Kids magazine edition still lies there, untouched. The wall wide window is greasy with our forehead prints. The painting of the red-spotted Dalmatians still hangs next to the fist sized hole in the wall.

The only other people in the room is a family consisting of a mom and two girls who looked to be 10 and 13. They've been coming to the hospital for about two weeks now; we've been here three. Sam had introduced herself like the polite human being she is and found out that the family is here for their husband/father. He was a police officer, shot in the lower back twice. He could be paralyzed. The family hadn't told us much.

The room is eerily quiet, as usual, with the little girls sleeping on their mother's lap, seeing as though it is 2:00 a.m. Sam sits next to me, trying to figure out a ridiculous math problem. Ashton's out, doing something that could get us in jail again. And Jesse...

I was nodding off to sleep when I heard a loud BANG! that startled me. I knew what it was. I had heard too many times. "It's a Cheeto bag, Ashton!" I scream at my older brother.

"I'm a growing boy Jacey, okay? I need my food!" he yelled right back. By now the two little girls~I think their names are Megan and Casey~had woken up and were rubbing the sleep from their eyes.

"Really, Ashton," Sam muttered. She got up from her seat and walked over to the little girls. "Are you two hungry?" she asked with a sincere smile. They nodded. "Come on. I'll take you to get some food." The mother, Lisa, looked at Sam with a thankful expression. She kissed her girls goodbye and then fell asleep on the couch.

I punched Ashton in the arm. "Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"You deserved it." I walked back to my seat with Ashton following me. He sat wear Sam sat and looked at me.

"What?" I asked.

"What do you think is going to happen? With Jesse and all? I mean, how many times do we have to keep coming back here?"

I sighed with sad amusement. "I hope we don't have too. He keeps fighting and winning but he just jeeps getting hurt and..."

"He's an idiot," Ashton finished for me.

"Yeah, that's sums it up. I mean... What are we going to do about him? He can't keep doing this."

Ashton wrapped an arm around my shoulders, giving me a sideways hug. I don't like being touched, but Ashton is my sibling. It's different.

"Don't worry babe," he said softly. He kissed the top of my head and didn't say anything more.

...

"Jacey, wake up," someone said while shaking my shoulder.

"No," I responded.

"He's awake." I sat up straight. Sam sat next to me. Her wide rimmed glasses were hanging off her nose, her hazel eyes wandering my face. She had thrown up her brown hair into a messy ponytail. Ashton and her are twins, but it was still kind of creepy how much they looked alike.

"Come on, I'll take you to him."

I got up from my chair and followed Sam out of the lobby and down a hallway. After a left turn, we finally arrived at room 19. Sam opened the door and we walked in to find our brothers yelling, "But I shot you first!"

and "Pass me the damn pudding cup!"

"Jesse, watch your damn language!" Sam shouted. Jesse looked at us in the doorway and smiled when he saw me.

"Jacey!" he yelled as he got out of the hospital bed. He was wearing a blue sweatshirt and basketball shorts. His brown hair was tousled as usual. His blue eyes were still bright with curiosity. He was bigger than most 15 year old boys; he was just as buff as Ashton, if not buffer. The only new thing about him was the boot on his left foot.

"Hey lil' bro," I said. He picked me up into a hug. When he put me down I looked him up and down at shoulders length away. He had a cut above his right eye and all over his hands. "Shouldn't you be using your crutches?"

"Crutches, smutches. I've had worse," he said, waving aside the question. He hated being handicapped. "So when do I get to go?"

"The doctor said in about a day or so," Ashton said.

"Why so long? It's just a little broken," Jesse complained.

"Jess, you broke nine bones in your foot and have a concussion," Sam reasoned.

"Your point?"

"Jess, we got a game to finish," Ashton said. "I'm going to beat you so bad you'll probably end up in the hospital, AGAIN."

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching and playing Xbox games on the small TV and eating the leftover food Jesse didn't want. The regular nurse would come in and tell us to quiet down or she would have to kick us out of the room- we never got quiet. After being back in the lobby for five minutes I decided to sneak back to Jesse's room.

I opened the door quietly and walked in. He was watching a segment on matter and mass that was playing on the Discovery Channel. That boy is such a nerd, but then again I am too.

"Jacey... I thought you were finally gone!" my brother teased.

"I can bribe the doctor to make you stay longer."

"I mean, Jacey, good to see you again!"

"Hm, that's what I thought." I sat on the edge of his bed, careful not to move his foot. "Jesse, we need to talk."

"Are you breaking up with me? Is it my hair? I can get it cut just please don't leave me!" Jesse cried.

I glared at him, but after two seconds I burst out laughing.

"Kid you should quit the fighting and become a comedian," I said wiping away the tears. "Which is what I really wanted to talk to you about..."

"That I should become a comedian? Because I have school and I need to-"

"No, you idiot. I'm saying you should stop...fighting."

The room was quiet for a good five minutes after that. Finally, Jesse spoke. "What do you mean 'quit fighting'?" The kid sounded truly confused.

"I mean that maybe you should stop hurting yourself. We can make money another way Jesse, that's not a problem. The problem is that you keep getting hurt and we can't watch you be in pain anymore." He looked at me with a blank expression.

"No," he said plainly.

"No?"

"No," he said.

"Jess, think about it. What benefit do you get from fighting?"

"Jacey, it's more like what benefits don't I get. In fighting I get to go against someone who I have never met and beat the shit out of them. And while that may sound cruel, it just makes it easier."

"Easier for what?" I asked.

"Easier to escape."

***
Hey guys! So this is my first time writing a book here on Wattpad and I would just like to know what your opinion on it is so far. I will try to make the next chapters better. I haven't really figured out the whole book yet.... BUT NO WORRIES! Ignore the crappy cover that I made

Thanks a ton
Anna. XX