Risking it All

15

Somewhere around 2 am I had to pee. I got up and looked around. Mom was asleep, Nick's dad was nowhere in sight and there was no one else in the lobby. I walked past the desk and down the hall, remembering where the bathroom was. I also had the urge to go see Nick again. Because after all, I promised him. I'll just go take a little late night walk.
I scowled at myself in the bathroom mirror. I had bags under my eyes and was extremely pale. I turned on the faucet and splashed water on my face. With a sigh I walked out of the bathroom and headed further down the hall. When I got outside of Nick's room, I heard two voices. I slammed myself against the wall so I wouldn't be seen. I peeked over and saw the nice nurse and a doctor discussing something. I had to strain my ears to listen, but I heard bits and pieces of their conversation.
"Should we tell her?" I heard the nurse say. I saw the doctor shake his head. "I don't want her to worry," he said. "She's had enough stress today." He flipped through more papers in his binder. "Well, she'll find out eventually." The doctor nodded. "I'll just go check on him and then I'll go talk to her." The doctor walked into Nick's room. They are finally going to tell me what's wrong with Nick. I quickly ran back to the elevator and went back to the lobby.
Mom's face when the doctor told her about Nick was not exactly what I had expected. She gasped and threw her hands up to her mouth. It can't be that bad. But when the doctor left, Mom fell back into the chair and started crying. It wasn't obnoxiously loud crying like you see people do in movies when they recieve bad news. It was a silent cry, the kind I usually do. It's the kind when tears that gently fall down from your face. I saw the doctor turn down a hallway. With a glance at my mom, I ran down the same hallway and follow the doctor. He stopped in front of room 12. I caught up with him.
"Excuse me," I said when I walked up to him. He looked up and seemed surprised to see me. "Oh," he said. "You're Mackenzie, right?" he asked. I nodded. He seemed awkward around me, as if he didn't want to talk to me. "You're Nick's doctor," I started. "Now please, tell me what happened to Nick. What's wrong with him?" The doctor sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He didn't respond for a minute until he explained it to me. "You know, I really didn't want to tell you this, but I guess I should." He took a deep breath before he said, "Okay. When Nick was in the car, the other car rammed into him from the back. It hit him with so much force that the impact paralyzed him from the waist down." He didn't say anything else after that. He didn't have to. I ran away from the doctor and down the hall to my mom. "Mackenzie!" he called after me. Ignoring him with tears running down my face, I run to my mother. She wrapped her arms around me and we both cried. Nothing ever felt better than just letting he tears come out. These were tears that I had to cry, from when I first met Nick, to when now. My mom tried to calm me down, but it was no use. I cried for a few more minutes, until the tears stopped and went down to a slow rate. I leaned against my mom and fell asleep listening to the sound of her heartbeat.