Another scar
Chapter 11
Dead
"Cody Jackson", the teacher called out for his name to check on the absence.
"He didn't come today either sir", a student answered.
Melissa poked Nathan's back to catch his attention, "oh, hey Mel"
"Nathan , Jackson has been absent for two weeks don't you think that there is something wrong going on ?", Melissa asked in almost a hushed voice so that the teacher wouldn't hear them .
"I don't know Mel, nobody ever heard from him since that day ". Nathan answered.
Melissa just nodded and tried to concentrate on class but she couldn't. She was worried about Jackson and it was driving her crazy.
After the school day was over, Melissa walked back home. She went up to her room to get some rest, she sure needs all the energy she can get to do the piles of homework their teacher gave them.
As soon as she lied on her bed and closed her eyes, the doorbell rang.
"Mom, could you answer that please? I'm too tired to get up ", she shouted for her mother.
"Sure honey", her mom replied on her way to open the door.
"Mel, it's for you ", Melissa's mom called for her.
Melissa forced herself up, this better be worth it she told herself.
She came downstairs and headed for the door to see who it was.
"Loren?" Melissa looked at her seeming really surprised, but Loren didn't look happy though.
"We need to talk ", Loren said with a harsh tone.
"Yeah, I can clearly see that ", Melissa said, closing the door behind her.
"I can't believe you call yourselves friends , Jackson has been in the hospital for two weeks , in the intensive care unit and none of you cared to look for him , or visit , or even check on him if he was ok ? " , Loren blurted out .
"Wait a second! When did this happen? And how? And why ? And….."
"it happened two weeks ago , right after that birthday party you were having , I called him and told him to come to the hospital immediately, his mom passed on , and he wasn't thinking straight , he told the police about some drug dealers , and they somehow knew about it and gave him a piece of their mind " , Loren explained , she was talking too fast because it was hard on her , she loved Jackson and she hated the fact that all of this was happening to him , it wasn't fair .
"Oh my god!" was all what Melissa said, and she started crying hysterically. Loren felt that she did what she had to do so she left Melissa by herself.
Melissa ran inside the house and picked up her cell phone and called Nathan.
"Please pick up".
The phone kept ringing until she heard an auto message.
"Hey, sup? Its Nathan I'm not around at the moment but you can leave a message right after you hear that whistle thingy ".
The whistle went on, and Melissa recorded her message.
"Nathan, I'm on my way to the hospital, please meet me there and call everybody else and ask them to come too, it's an emergency, don't be late please ".
Melissa closed her cell phone and put on her coat because it was freezing outside, then her dad drove her to the hospital.
Melissa asked for Jackson's room, and one of the nurses showed it to her.
She nervously opened the door, her heart beating so fast, and the tears were making it hard for her to see.
She entered, and she was greeted with people she didn't want to see at the moment out of embarrassment.
"Well, I'm surprised, turned out that you have a heart after all". Loren said.
Melissa kept her mouth shut and just took a seat next to Jackson.
"What brought you here?" Loren asked, looking pretty much annoyed from Melisa's presence .
"Loren leave the girl alone, better be late than never" , Asiah defended Melissa .
"Shut up Asiah , I'm not in the mood to deal with you now " , Loren said shooting daggers at him , she still hasn't quit forgiven him since last time .
Loren isn't a mean person, she is kind of tough and takes everything seriously, but she has one of the biggest hearts ever. Asiah knew all that, and that's why he puts up with her a lot.
After almost half an hour, Nathan got back home. He checked his voice messages and heard Melissa's voice message.
She seemed panicked and her voice was shaking, and he can tell that she was crying. He did exactly as she said, he called everyone and they all drove together to the hospital.
Once they entered, they called Melissa and took the room number. They were heading to a place totally not knowing or expecting what they are going to see, and they were all worried as hell.
Nathan busted the room's door open, his eyes didn't know where to look first, and he kept looking for something familiar.
He saw Melissa and knelt right besides her and gave her a hug. She looked like she really needed one, even though he had no idea about whets going on.
"Melissa, look at me ", Nathan said, lifting her head up.
"Melissa, tell us what happened, and why did we come here?" Nathan asked, and Melissa just pointed at the bed next to her. She was too upset to talk.
"Who is this?" Melissa didn't seem like she's going to answer Nathan's question any time sooner, so Nathan checked the patient's name that was written in some papers that were lying on a table in the room.
As soon as he read the name, the papers dropped from his hands.
"Nathan? What's wrong? Who is he?" Daley nervously asked Nathan.
"I…its, Jackson ", Nathan said under his breath, Daley barely heard him.
"Jackson?" Daley questioned again to make sure it was really him. Melissa silently nodded.
Lex and Taylor and Eric's jaws dropped. No way was that Jackson; they can barely see him under all those tubes. And his face was all swollen. The doctors were waiting for his body to recover a little bit so they can operate on him. His condition was so bad and they needed to operate on him as soon as possible.
Minutes later, three doctors came into the room to check on Jackson and discuss his situation and to decide the treatment plan.
"good evening everyone , I'm doctor Jones , and these are doctor Pauch and doctor parker , could you step aside please so we could examine the patient ?" .
Everybody moved out of the doctor's way. After they checked everything, the three doctors went to a small corner in the room and started to quietly discuss Jackson's health.
"We need to operate right away", doctor parker whispered to his two other colleges.
"I say we should wait a little bit longer and see what happens", doctor Jones said, disagreeing with doctor parker.
"He may not have ti…."
"THE PATIENT'S VITALS ARE DROPPING!" one of the nurses shouted, alarming the doctors.
All of the three doctors drove their attention to Jackson immediately.
"Doctor, his pulse is dropping too", the nurse announced.
Suddenly the screen showed a flat line, and the beeping sound was lower.
"Quick! Get everybody out of here and prepare the patient for electric shocks". The nurse did exactly as doctor Pauch instructed.
"I'm afraid I'm going to ask you to leave miss", the nurse told Melissa.
"No, what's going on?" Melissa asked, resisting going outside.
"Please, miss, you have to take your friends and go outside, the doctor asked me to do this, you can observe from there", the nurse lid the group of eight outside the room. And started observing from the room's windows.
" charge to 100 " , doctor Jones ordered. And while they charge the electric shockers, doctor
"Charged", the nurse announced, handing the electric shockers to doctor Jones. He pressed them into Jackson's chest.
"Clear".
His body rose up a little due to the shock. "Do we have a pulse?" the doctor asked. And the nurse's answer came negative.
"Ok, let's try again, charge to 200"
"Charged"
He pressed the shockers into Jackson chest again. And still, nothing changed.
Outside the room, Jackson's friends were absorbing. This wasn't good, and they knew it.
"Sir, it's been like three minutes, I don't think that we should keep trying", the nurse suggested.
"I guess you're right", doctor Jones agreed with her, looking really disappointed because they couldn't save him.
Melissa saw the doctors taking off their gloves, and the nurses stepping away from Jackson.
"No", she whispered.
"Time of death, 11:30 p.m." doctor parker announced.
Everybody just broke down. They couldn't believe it.
"He can't be dead! There must be something the doctors can do to save him ", Melissa screamed.
"Melissa, I'm so sorry, they did everything they could", Daley said.
Then she turned to Nathan, who was just speechless.
"Nathan, say something", Daley whispered to him.
"I, I don't know what to say ", Nathan stuttered.
And Melissa kept hitting the window and pulling on her hair. She went insane. No one knew the way she felt. She loved Jackson, she should have defended him and helped him and supported him through everything. But instead, she just went with the flow.
"Doctor, wait! " the nurse said, catching the three doctors attention.
"I think we just had a pulse", she continued.
"Quick, take him to the O.R" doctor Pauch yelled. So they moved Jackson's bed as fast as they could to the operation room.
"Hey, where are they taking him?", Taylor suddenly asked .
"I don't know, maybe they are going to operate on him ", Lex answered.
"So, he's not dead?" Eric asked.
"No, no he's not", Melissa said, wiping her eyes, and started running behind Jackson's bed.
"Melissa, what are you doing?" Nathan yelled while he was following her.
"What I should have done from the first place", she answered him.
"And what is that Mel?" Nathan asked, stopping for a moment to catch his breath.
Melissa turned to him and faced his eyes and answered his question
"I should have been with him, I should have stayed with him all the time, but I'm not going to do the same mistake again, he needs me Nathan, and I won't let him down".
Nathan smiled at her and patted her shoulder.
"Do what you have to do", he told her. And with that they both left. Melissa to the operation room. And Nathan back to the waiting room with the rest of his friends.
Woooooh , that's one hell of a long chapter isn't it ? oh well , as I said before , this story doesn't seem to finish !
