Chapter 7
A faint tapping on my window woke me up. I looked up and saw a dark figure
outside
my window.
"Huh?" I mumbled as I got up and opened the window.
In fell Nick.
"Nick, I'm grounded, you can't stay," I told him
as I threw a sweatshirt on
top of my tank top.
"I know, I called
and your mom told me what happened. Ouch, no tv for two
days? Man I couldn't
live like that!" Nick said with a smile on his face.
"I know you
couldn't," I said as I punched his arm lightly.
"But here's why
I'm here. You'll never guess...." Nick told me, he voice
trailing off as
he waited for me to play his little guessing game.
"Nick, I don't care.
I'm not in the mood," I told him as I started to brush
my hair.
"Fine, if you don't want to hear that AJ woke up.."
"What?!"
I yelled raising me voice and cutting him off.
"Shhhh! Your mom will
hear us," Nick said signalling for me to lower my
voice.
"What
do you mean? Can he talk? Move?" I asked in a whisper.
"Yep, he's
almost as good as new. The doctors can't figure out why. I mean
all of a sudden
he just woke up about an hour ago."
Right after I left! I thought to myself.
"Well can we go see him?" I asked anxiously.
"Uh...you're
grounded." Nick reminded me. I got up and went over to my desk
and grabbed
a sheet of paper and a big blue marker.
"Gone to bed, do no disturb.
~L" I read as I wrote the letters and went and
stuck the note on the outside
of my door.
"Come on" I told Nick as I swung my legs out the window
and proceeded to
climb down the trellis to the ground.
"Oh boy..."
Nick mumbled as he climbed down beside me. We both had to jump
behind the bushes
and crawl along the fence in hopes that my parents
wouldn't look out the living
room window and see me trying to make a mad
getaway.
"Safety,"
Nick said as the two of us ran out from the end of the bushes and
into his car
that was parked a block down the street.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
"E?"
AJ asked as I ran towards his bed.
"Yeah!" I yelled and gave him
a huge hug and he kissed me on the cheek.
"I missed you so much! Hey
Frick! Hey Frack! Hey Kev, D, PJ - hey!" AJ said
trying to say hi to everyone
who had gathered around his bedside.
"Man, what was it like being in
a coma?" asked Howie.
"Dark..." said AJ making all of us laugh.
"But you know something? I kept having these dreams that this angel kept
coming
and visiting me, and she would sing to me and at the end of her song
she'd always
kiss me. It was the weirdest thing," he said. I must have had
the biggest
grin on my face.
"That's so neat!" Jessie said as she looked at
me and smiled. She knew it
was me.
"Well, are you hungry?"
asked Kevin.
"Is that all you can think about?" Brian asked him
as he grabbed his arm
and twisted it.
"Ouch!" Brian yelled
when Kevin ended up twisting Brian's arm around.
"Well, you deserve
it! You tried to hurt me first," Kevin said as he let go
of Brian who was
now rubbing his wrist.
"Did not!" yelled Brian.
"Hey
Jess, your lover has a boo boo. Go kiss it better!" Nick laughed.
"Shut
up Carter!" she yelled back at him as she hit him with her magazine.
"Nick, you're such a dork!" I said to him.
"Am not!"
Nick said as he tried to grab my sweatshirt.
"Man, I've missed you guys
so much!" AJ said laughing at all of us. I think
at that point we all realised
how much we had missed each other.
"Aww! We missed you too!" Nick
said as he grabbed AJ and rubbed his
knuckles in AJ's hair giving him a Charley
horse.
"Ok, I didn't miss you that much!" AJ said as he hit Nick
with a pillow. We
all laughed and then talked for at least another hour until
I realised that
it was already 9:00 and visiting hours were over. Not to mention
that I had
to get back and pray that my parents hadn't found out that I was missing
in
action.
"Bye AJ" we all said and gave him hugs.
"Well we'll be back tomorrow to see you, except for me that is..." I said
as I looked at the floor.
"Why not you?" AJ asked me.
"Well, I'm grounded, as we speak, until tomorrow."
"So how'd
you get out?"
"Down the trellis.."
"And into
my getaway car!" Nick said cutting me off.
"Yeah, but
I'll be back on Thursday, Promise," I told him and
with that we all left.
When I got home, I quietly crawled into my room, threw on my pyjama's and
flopped
down into my bed and fell asleep.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
"School was
the last thing I want to go to" thought as I got up. I didn't
have time
to shower so I twisted my hair up into a french twist and stuck in
two hair chopsticks.
I threw on my Gap Carpenter jeans and my Tommy Hilfiger
shirt and slipped my
platform runners onto my feet.
"Hi honey," my mom said as I entered
the kitchen.
"Hi," I said grabbing a poptart out of the toaster
and throwing my backpack
over my shoulder and heading towards the door.
"See you after school," my mom said as I closed the door behind me.
When I got to school, I looked at AJ's locker which was beside mine. It was
covered
in notes all hoping he'd get better. I gathered them up as Jessie
came up beside
me.
"Hey! What's up?" she asked.
"Not much, just getting
these notes for AJ."
"Hey, do you want me to take them? Nick and
I are heading over to the
hospital after school." She offered.
"Sure,
and can you tell him I hope he gets better?"
"Of course,"
she said nodding. The bell rang and we ran off to Science.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
*
I opened the front door to my house and yelled hello at the top of my
lungs.
No one answered.
"Hello," I repeated. Still no answer. I walked
into
the kitchen and looked at the fridge where I saw a note stuck.
"Gone
to the mall with Angie, Hannah and Lucas. Davy is at Max's. Dad's at
work. Can
you take out some chicken and defrost it for me? Remember Sara's
coming home
for two days tomorrow.
Love,
mom
xo"
I had completely forgot.
Sara, my older sister who was away attending
university in New York was flying
home for a few days tomorrow. I couldn't
wait to see her. It had been over six
months since we last saw each other
and I missed her so much. Everyone always
mistook us for twins because we
look so much alike and we were so close.
I opened the freezer and grabbed a bag of chicken and stuck in the
microwave
to defrost. And then grabbed a glass of milk and went into the
living room and
sat down at our grand piano. I hadn't played in so long that
the cold ivory keys
beneath my fingers felt odd.
I let my hands run over the keys and got the
hang of it again. I opened my
mouth and began to sing "My Time Has Come"
by Destiny's child because it
described the way I was feeling.
It's to
far, it's to fast
It's to quick, it won't last
It's not right, but it's not
wrong
There's no time, alone
But I've come much too far
And I know what's
in my heart
And I know what I feel
I can tell when it is real
My time
has come
It's ok, be afraid
It's allright, you just take that fear
Turn
it into your strength
It's called life
And that's why we're here
And
now I've come much to far
And I know what's on my heart
And I know what I
feel
And this time I know it's real
My time has come"
I hadn't
even finished playing the song when the phone
rang. I ran to get it.
"Hello?" I said.
"Hi!" It was AJ!
"Oh my
gosh! Where are you?" I asked .
"At the hospital."
"Why are you out of bed?"
"Because I can walk!"
"Really?"
"E, I wasn't crippled!" he said with a laugh.
"I know that but aren't you hooked up to a lot of machines?"
"Yeah,
but the IV pump has wheels on it. Brian already climbed on it and
sent it down
the hall. He's out of control over here!"
"That's Brian for you!"
I said laughing.
"So you're still grounded?"
"Yeah..."
"Well are you gonna come and see me tomorrow?"
"Of course!"
"Well too bad for you cause I won't be here!"
"Huh? What are
you talking about AJ?"
"I'm getting discharged tomorrow!"
"Awesome! How long till you can come back to school?"
"I can
on Monday!"
"That's great!"
"Yeah I..."
AJ paused, "E, I gotta go cause the nurse needs to check my IV
pump. After
Brian went down the hall on it, it sort of got a bit dislodged
from my hand."
"Ow!" I said.
"Oh yes! But I'll see you tomorrow! Maybe I
can drop by and your house!"
"Kay, see you then!" I said and
we hung up. I was so relieved to know that
AJ was going to be alright.
