Her whole world crashed around her. Or maybe it was just the car turning upside down. She wasn't sure anymore. One minute her best friend Emily and she were singing along to "Thanking of You", the next minute the car was flipped over, and her ears rang with the volume of a million of Derek's stupid scream-o bands. She turned to her left to see Emily in the driver's seat, bleeding profusely from her head, and barely holding onto consciousness.
"Em?" she tried to say. She knew she said it, but she could not hear it over the obnoxious ringing in her ears that dominated every sound. The girls dangled in the upside-down car. The other driver seemed to have left and hot tears of rage and pain swelled up in the girl's eyes. She spotted her cellphone on the roof of the car, and grabbed it. She brushed the car's ceiling with her hand and felt sticky blood on her finger-tips, and realized it was her own. Her hair was soaked in it as it streamed from her ears. The ringing in them faded, but as she dialed 911, she heard nothing on the other line. Just quiet ringing. She hung up the phone in frustration and dialed a new number.
Her ears strained to do their job, pick up on the sound of the numbers being clicked, of sirens in the air, of anything, but they failed her. Despite her inability to hear, she spoke into the phone.
"Derek!?" she shouted, unaware of how loud her voice was.
"Listen I hope you're there because I can't hear shit right now! Em and I got into a car wreck on East 18th, I need you to get an ambulance and get Em to a hospital, and she's unconscious and bleeding really badly! God, I hope you're there… Please come for me. I can't hear and I'm bleeding from my ears I'm so confused, and I need your help."
Across town, the boy with the light brown hair with the usually villainous smirk on his face was now wearing an unfamiliar look of terror.
"Case! Case, can you hear me!? Come on Spacey, please hear me! Nora's calling an ambulance, I'm on my way right now. Hold on, okay? I will be right there, I promise." Derek spoke pointlessly into the receiver. He was grateful his younger siblings were out of the house, and his dad was at work. He didn't want to freak out in front of them. Derek panicked and nearly dropped his keys as he put them into the ignition. Nora hopped in the passenger seat and let out a shaky breath. She didn't need to tell Derek to step on it, they both knew he would. She let out quiet tears as the smell of the rubber from Derek's tires overcame the car. She couldn't be strong.
Nora's eldest step-son looked at her. His step-mom was truly vulnerable in front of him for the first time. As the tears streamed down her face, Derek took one hand off the steering wheel, and took her hand in his. Neither of them commented on the gesture. They both knew what it meant to her. A car honked at Derek and he let out a low growl as he sped down the highway. Nora flicked her eyes to him in surprise. Perhaps all these years of fighting were just their way of showing affection for one another. She knew this was an emergency, but she never thought she'd see her step-son worry so much over her daughter. It was a nice patch of light in the dark sky of this situation. Perhaps they could be a family after all. That was assuming Casey made it… no, she couldn't think that way. Casey would make it. Her daughter was a fighter.
She wasn't surprised when they made it there faster than the ambulance. Derek did some red-light running of his own on the way there. Derek was already by Casey's side when Nora caught up to him.
"Derek, get me out of here," she groaned, barely holding on. He shook his head.
"I can't… my English teacher was an EMT once. Unless the car is gonna catch fire, you're not supposed to move somebody out of it. If you have any spinal damage and I move you, you could get some serious damage to your back," he explained. He held her hand and she gripped it tight enough to make him hurt. Nora looked surprised at him for his knowledge and she stroked her daughter's shoulder from outside the shattered car window. Casey, however, looked at him with confusion. She shook her head lightly.
"I can't hear you…" she whispered, terrified. He looked deep into her eyes with a look that conveyed one thing.
Hold on.
She nodded, understanding. She reached out her other hand to Emily's and held onto it despite the fact the girl was unconscious. Nora's eyes suddenly widened.
"I have to call Emily's parents and tell them. I will be right back!" She gave Casey's shoulder a comforting squeeze and walked away. Casey looked at Derek questioningly. He raised his hand to his ear with a pinky and thumb sticking out in the universal "phone" gesture, then pointed to Emily, and then mouthed to her slowly "MOM" and "DAD". He figured she could read those words better than "parents" or "family". She nodded. Derek was fluent in American Sign Language, but Casey knew none of it. It was the only class he liked. Suddenly he heard the sirens and perked up, looking around. Casey tapped his cheek with her hand.
"What are you hearing?" she asked. He mouthed, "HELP." She smiled a weak smile, and let her eyes flutter shut. Derek flicked her on the nose and her eyes shot open.
"Stay awake!" he said, emphasizing the words with his mouth. She rolled her eyes and he smiled. She would be okay. The EMT's approached and Derek got out of the way so they could do their job. He went to find Nora, and saw George fumble out of his car, running towards him.
"Is she okay?" he asked his son, eyes filled with worry. Derek looked at him curiously. He didn't realize his dad cared about Nora's kids so much. He nodded.
"Spacey's conscious anyway. Emily's not. They're loading them both up as we speak to take them to the hospital. One of us can ride with her, but we've gotta figure it out now. Nora's trying to contact Em's family."
"Go with them. I'll take Nora when she's done talking to Emily's family," George said to his son with a sound of authority in his voice Derek only knew to come out in dire situations. His memory flew back to when Edwin accidentally roller skated into the pool on a freezing cold day. George instructed him to draw him a hot bath in exactly that tone just before he dived into the pool to save Edwin. When his dad put on that voice, you didn't question. In this case, he wouldn't have either way.
Derek ran into the back of the ambulance, and quick as lightning the car took off at maximum speed. He held onto his step-sister's hand. Neither made any more attempts to communicate verbally. They just squeezed each other's hand and he gave her a reassuring smile. She gave a half-hearted one back.
