Blown Apart

23

Brynlee POV

Cody and I sat at the top of the stairs while we watched mom leave. I'd had trouble sleeping; it wasn't the same without Cece here. Or Bronte. Or mama. It was strange and everytime I closed my eyes I saw what had happened. I relived the moment. I saw a broken Bronte even though I hadn't even seen her yet. I could imagine it. I imagine the hospital room and the wailing crying from parents and children. The fear that ran through my heart like it was being squeezed so hard I couldn't breathe. And that was it. I was scared. Fear ran through my whole body. And as much as we had sat in Cece's hospital room, sitting watching crappy hospital TV in silence hugging each other not talking. All I could feel was fear. Mine and everyone else's in that room. What my parents had seemed to forget was how scared everyone else was in our family just as much as they were.

I had gone upstairs to Cody's room after about 10 minutes of mom leaving me alone. I thought about going to sleep in my parents' room. Like we did when we were younger once we had a nightmare. But my mom was worried and angry and wouldn't know what to say. And to be honest after she got angry with me I wasn't willing to make conversation which she would undoubtedly do. So I went to see Cody and to my surprise he was sitting in his bed just staring at the wall. He looked at me, also surprised by seeing me awake. And without having to speak, I knew why. I knew that it was the same reason as me. He took a pillow from behind his back and through it on the floor along with his duvet. He went to stand up and lay on the floor giving me the bed as I shook my head. It wasn't like I was planning to sleep. But by the looks of it neither was he.

We sat in silence for ages. Both staring at the wall. Not necessarily at anything. Because all I was trying to not think of, was everything going through my brain. So we both looked at a wall. After about an hour of neither of us trying to even attempt to go to sleep. Cody stood up which took my eyes away from the wall and to him. He came back with a pack of cards and sat down. He sat back on the bed as I stood up and joined him. He dealt the cards and we started playing in silence. It was only about five games later that he said something.
"I was thinking before Bronte comes home we clean her room." He said I nodded and paused before saying anything.
"She doesn't like people going into her room." I say both pointing about things we already knew.
"Yeah I know," He paused, "I went in there before I came to my room. It's a mess. And from what I have heard she isn't going to find mobility very easy. And not even just with her... her... but she had operations on everything too and she doesn't want to go to clean it. It will be a nice surprise if she comes home." He said if. Not knowing his mistake, I try to correct him.
"When?" It came out as a question but I didn't intend it.
"She is gonna come back." Cody said again more confidently. I didn't say anything. I was worried she wouldn't.
"We haven't seen her yet we shouldn't worry." Again Cody tried to make it all okay but if we were being honest we had no idea what to think.

We had spent most of the night in silence playing games. It was a nice distraction even though I would have liked to sleep, I knew I couldn't and it was better for me if I didn't. So by the time we heard Mom get up and saw it was 2:30 in the morning we knew one of two things. Either she couldn't sleep or something was wrong. Both of us thought the latter and immediately all the panic we were starting to suppress was starting to surface again and that's when Cody and I moved to the top of the stairs.

We heard her make herself a coffee and turn on and then off the TV. As soon as we heard the doorbell ring we both instantly knew it was not a good sign. We heard Mima and Pops walk in and it was nice to see them as it had been so long. But that also meant that something had to be seriously wrong had to have happened. And immediately I thought the worst.

As soon as we heard the door close I ran downstairs, tears streaming down my face I ran to mima.
"Is Bronte okay? What's happened? What's wrong?" I said panicking.
"Shhh it's okay, calm down. Your Mom has just had to go to the hospital Bronte is having to go back into surgery and they are running a few tests. We are going to go up later. Your parents just wanted you and your brother to get some sleep and relax a bit and not have to be in a hospital." Mima says as she stands in front of me with her arms on my shoulder. I started to breathe knowing at least she was still alive. Cody started to walk up behind me showing that he was here too.
"Have long have you guys been up for?" Pops asks looking at both of us who have clear bags underneath our eyes.
"Technically speaking we never went to sleep." Cody said as I look down to the floor.
"You guys really need some sleep. I can't imagine how little you guys have slept. The whole point in you guys coming home and us coming over is so you guys can sleep in." Pops replied to us which we knew was true we hadn't slept a lot but to be honest it didn't look like they had much either.
"And you, have you guys been able to sleep either, like normal?" Cody asked. And they both looked at each other and shook their heads. And at that it summed up how most people in their family were doing. They probably thought seeing us would make it better but in reality it would have made it worse.
"Is there any way you guys are going to be able to go back to sleep?" Again we shake our heads. We didn't want to even try.
"Well i'm not planning to go to the hospital so soon. We were going to go up for lunch. And it's way too early for breakfast."
"Why don't we watch a movie?" I ask knowing that that will definitely calm me down as a minimum. And watching something other than weird hospital shows makes me feel a lot calmer.

We all sit down on the couches as Cody put on a movie. I sat next to Mima and leaned into her and about half way during the movie I slowly felt my eyes become too heavy to keep open. I eventually gave in and fell asleep.