Together Forever- Chapters 3 & 4

"What?!?" Justin asked, practically screaming.

"It's dead," I stared at the phone, "The phone's dead." Lightning struck again, then thunder shook the house. This time I didn't jump. I simply hung up the phone. A minute later, the lights went back on. Justin took his arm off my shoulder. I said to Justin as I led him towards the front door, "Um, Justin? It's kinda late, and I have to get to bed before my parents come home."

"Oh, okay," he said, "Are you sure you're gonna be okay by yourself?"

"Kimberly's here, so I'm not by myself. I guess I'll be okay," I replied, then opened the door.

"Okay," he said, "I'll see you some other time okay?"

"Yeah, sure," I answered.

"Good-night," he kissed me on the cheek, then stepped out into the rain, which wasn't so bad anymore. My stomach fluttered.

"Bye," I said with a little wave as he turned to leave. Then I closed the door and turned to go upstairs. Seeing Kimberly walking half-way up the stairs, I gasped, "Kimberly, you scared me!"

"Huh? Oh, sorry," she said with a shrug. Half-asleep, she looked around, then asked, "Are mom and dad home yet?"

"No," I said.

"All this bad weather woke me up," Kimberly said with a sigh, then paused, "Oh, and, uh, Rosa? By the way, was that Justin leaving just now?"

"Huh?" I hadn't been paying too much attention, "Oh, yeah, it was. He just dropped by for a while."

"The power went out right?" she asked.

"Sure did," I sighed, getting annoyed by her questions.

Then I stared at her and asked, "What were you doing going back upstairs? I mean, why were you down here?"

"Wha? Oh, um, uh, er," she stammered, "I, er, um, well, I was just coming down for a drink of water, but I saw you and, uh, him, I, uh, decided to, uh, go right back to bed."

"Oh," I said, a little suspicious that she couldn't just say it straight out.

"Maybe we should both go to bed," she said.

"Alright," I said. I walked up the stairs with Kimberly in silence.

As I got the my bedroom door, I said, "G'night Kimmy."

"Night," she repeated as she went in her room and locked it. I went in my room and locked my door also. That night, I lay in bed thinking about that "mysterious" phone call.

"Hmmm," I said to myself, "Creepy."

I woke up to the ringing phone on my night-table the next morning. I hesitantly picked it up on the third ring, still lying in bed, "Hello?"

"Hi," said a female voice on the other line, "Is this the Nguyen residence?"

"Um, yes," I replied, "May I ask who's calling?"

"I'm Dr. Rosenburg, from the Queens Medical Center," she introduced herself, "And you are?"

"Um..." I said, sitting up, "Tommy and Kay's youngest daughter, Rosa. Did something happen to my parents?"

"Unfortunately, yes," she hesitated, "They were in a car accident."

"Oh, my God," I said slowly, "What happened?"

"Well, apparently, a tree was struck by lightning and fell on the road. A car crashed into it, and your parent's car was behind it, followed by a truck. I believe your parents were with your uncle and aunt?"

"Yes, they were, but it wasn't my parents car, it was my uncle's car," I said in a weak voice, then cleared my throat.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this. Anyways, all four of them are in very bad condition, severely injured. They will be staying here for a while. Also, we - "

"Oh, no," I interrupted.

"I'm sorry," she repeated, "Also, we tried to call last night, around 11:45. The electricity had short circuited and the lights went out, but the phones where still working. So we called, but then all the phones went out on the fourth or fifth ring."

"So that explains it," I said to myself, thinking about the previous night.

"You know what? Why don't you come and visit them?" she offered.

"Now?" I asked. "Whenever you're ready to come," she answered.

"Okay, thanx," I said.

"Alright, bye," the doctor said.

"Bye," I hung up the phone, then got up and opened my door. I stood there for one or two minutes, bracing myself to tell Kimberly what had happened.

"Kimberly?" I knocked on her door. No answer.

"Kimberly!" I impatiently knocked louder. Right when I was about to knock a third time, the door was opened by a very sleepy and aggravated big sister.

"What??" she whined, almost yelling. Then she plopped back into bed.

"We need to get down to the Medical Center NOW!"

"Why??" she whined again, "What the hell is your problem? It's 6:30! I need my beauty rest!"

"Well, your beauty rest can kiss my ass!" I shouted, "Mom, Dad, Uncle, and Auntie are in the damn hospital! We need to go now!"

"What?!?" she yelled, wide awake.

"They were in a car accident last night, in the storm," I tried to explain. Before I could finish my sentence, Kimberly had rushed to the bathroom to get ready. I sighed and waited for the bathroom. She came out, and I went in to use it. Then I went to my room and dumped on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Ten minutes later, we were off to the Queens Medical Center, which was a few miles away.

"I don't believe it," Kimberly said to herself.

"Yeah, me neither," I agreed, "I mean, ya know."

"How could this happen?" she continued, ignoring me.

A minute later, she started cursing, "Shit!"

"What?" I asked, "Are you okay?"

"I just went through a red light. Right in front of the damned police car!" she shouted.

"Oh, man!" I said, "Damn!" She pulled over at the next traffic light, and stepped out of the car. A young police officer stepped out of the police car and walked toward Kimberly.

"Ma'am, I need to see your driver's license and registration, please," he said.

"Yes, sir, hold on," Kimberly clenched her teeth, and pulled out her wallet, then took out her license.

The policeman looked at the card and said, "You know you'll be getting a ticket for speeding, don't you?"

"Speeding?" she eyed him.

"Well, speeding AND going through a red light," he answered.

"Well, uh, yes sir," Kimberly hesitated, "Damn."

"Perfect," I mumbled to myself, "Just perfect." I knew what I had to do. I opened the passenger door and stepped out. I pushed past Kimberly, facing the cop.

"Officer, um, look, this is kind of an emergency. We need to get to the hospital."

"And for what reason?" he asked.

"Our parents were in a car accident and we're going to visit them," I replied.

"And you can't wait?" he asked impatiently.

"No," I answered, "We haven't seen them in over a day and need to go see them."

"Hmm..." he hesitated, "All right, I'll let you off this time, but don't let me catch you going through red light or speeding again. You could hurt someone on the street or even yourself."

"Yes sir," Kimberly said immediately.

"Thank you, officer," I said, as I walked around the car to the passenger side of the car. The cop went back to his patrol car without saying a word and drove off. Kimberly and I were back on the road and were at the medical center in fifteen minutes.

"Um, we're here to see Tommy and Kay Nguyen and Steven and Stephanie Tieu," Kimberly mumbled.

The receptionist flipped through a book, and without looking up, pointed toward the elevators and said, "Second floor, Room 231."

"Thank you," Kimberly uttered.

When we got there, our parents were asleep. We stayed there for a half hour, and they were still asleep. Kimberly and I decided that we should go home and visit them again later. When we got home, the phone was ringing. Anonymous call.

"Damn," I thought, "I hate these damn anonymous calls."

I picked up the phone, "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me, Chris. Is Kimberly there?" the voice on the other line asked.

"Yeah, hold on," I walked over to Kimberly and handed her the phone. Then I went upstairs to my bedroom and locked the door. I just lay on my bed staring into space, thinking about my parents.

Fifteen minutes later, there was a knock on my door. It was Kimberly.

"I'm done talking to Chris, but Justin wants to talk to you," she said as she handed me the phone.

"Thanks," I took the phone, then closed the door and locked it, as usual.

"Hi," I said.

"I'm sorry," Justin said over the phone.

"Sorry for what?" I asked.

"Kimberly told Chris about your parents and he told me," he answered.

"Oh," I said.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I will be," I replied, "in a while." We talked for about ten minutes, then hung up.

Two weeks later, Mom, Dad, Auntie and Uncle were out of the hospital and back home again. One day, Daisy, Alice, Acyuta, Kimberly and I were at the swings in the park, talking, waiting for the guys to show up. We had planned a group date to a movie theatre. We were going to see Tarzan.

"Hi, guys!" Daisy was the first to see the guys coming.

"Hi," Joey put his arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. She giggled. JC had also brought Alice a rose.

"Boo!" came a loud voice from behind me.

"Ahh! What the he- Oh, man! Not you again!" I laughed as I saw Justin, "What's with you sneaking up on me like that?"

"You're just so easy to scare," he chuckled.

"C'mon guys, we better go," Lance said, "Don't wanna be late." We piled into Justin's Mercedes and went off to the theatre.

In the car, a thought came up in my mind, "Hey, guys?"

"Yeah?" Justin said.

"Some friends of our invited us to a surprise birthday party for Melissa and Antoinette, some twins in our school. They said we could invite whoever we wanted to," I said, "So do you guys wanna come?"

"Sure, why not?" JC said, his arm around Alice.

Chris yelled, "Okay!" like a little kid, causing Kimberly to laugh.

"What?" Chris whined, confused.

"Hey, why don't we be like surprise guests and give them a little performance or something?" Lance said.

"That's a great idea!" Daisy said enthusiastically.

"All right, let's do it," Joey agreed.

"Yeah, but first, we gotta go see the movie," Alice laughed.

"Besides, the party's in three weeks," Acyuta added.

"Tarzan" was okay. I thought it was kinda sad how Kerchak died in the end. It was funny too, because when it came to the part of the movie where all the gorillas where messing up the place and singing "Trashin' The Camp," the guys sang along too. That kinda brought some attention to some fans sitting in the rows in front of us. The guys signed some autographs for them, and when the movie was over, the ten of us all ran out to the car as fast as our legs could carry us.

"What a day," Justin sighed, steering the wheel with one hand as the other ran through his hair.

"Yeah," JC said, looking at Alice.

"So, Alice, what was the movie about?" Daisy joked, "That is, if you saw it."

"What!?!" Alice screamed, "Um, well, it was, uh, about, uh, Tarzan! Yeah, that's it!" Everyone laughed while Alice and JC blushed.

"Well what about you?" Alice blurted, seeing Daisy sitting on Joey's lap.

"I saw it," Daisy said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Sure you did," Kimberly nodded, laughing.