Chapter Twenty-Five
I'm woken up by a nurse gently shaking my shoulder. He looks apologetic when I glare at him and he quickly says, "I'm sorry for waking you, but there's media outside of the hospital…"
I groan, sitting up. My back feels completely stiff and my neck kills. I fell asleep on the small space next to Caleb's arm, holding his hand. "Get them out of here, please." I knew that the news of my parents' car accident would get out soon, but I didn't think it would be less than twenty-four hours soon. The last thing I wanted to do was to talk to any media about it.
He nods and then tells me that I need to leave and wait for visiting hours. I don't argue – I'm hungry and haven't seen Christina since before I passed out.
She's still in the waiting room and she's leaning against the wall, asleep. I kick her foot, causing her to jump and wake up. She looks around, disoriented. "What the hell, Tris?" She wipes the dried drool away from her mouth and then sighs. "Anything change with Caleb?"
"No and the nurse kicked me out. He said I can come back to see him during visiting hours. I'm just going to go get breakfast."
She stands up, yawning. "I'll come with you." I shake my head, grabbing her wrist.
Shaking my head, I give her a small and tired smile. "Chris, you're supposed to be leaving for Cedar Lake later this afternoon. Go get ready."
Christina narrows her eyes at me, as if I insulted her. "I'm not going, Tris. I'm staying here with you. You need me. Besides, I already told everyone else to go on. They stopped by late last night and wanted to talk to you. The nurse wouldn't let them and they promised me that they would stay here and skip senior week. But then I got pissed and told them about the amount of money we've already spent for the house and boat rental. They're going and I'm staying."
Arguing with Christina was like arguing with a brick wall – it wouldn't get you anywhere.
As we're sitting in the cafeteria eating a muffin and drinking some coffee, I look at Christina and realize she keeps looking at me when she doesn't think I'm watching. She's looking at me like she's waiting for something. Like she's waiting for me to break down and go completely mental.
Clearing my throat, she looks up at me. "Have you by any chance seen Tobias?"
She shakes her head. "No, but I was out for a good…. six or seven hours from the time you went to Caleb's room until Will and the others showed up."
I didn't know whether I expected him to show up or not. He had wanted to talk, didn't he? If he still wanted to be with me, he would have shown up. He would have come running when he got my voicemail…
Susan was sitting next to Caleb when I got back to the room and, giving me a sad smile, she nods to a bag sitting in the corner of the room. "I stopped by your parents' house and grabbed you some new clothes." She glances at my outfit and then focuses back on Caleb. "I didn't think you would want to stay in your dress."
"Thank you." I slip into the bathroom to change, bunching the dress up and stuffing it in the bag, wanting to completely forget about it.
Susan had brought me a pair of skinny jeans and a plain white t-shirt. I was extremely thankful, happy to be out of my graduation dress. Once I was back in Caleb's room, I sat on the other side of him, placing my hand on top of his arm.
"I told him he has to wake up because he promised you a big wedding and our parents would be angry if he went back on that promise." I say, my voice barely audible. Susan chuckles and then sniffs. "I'll also kick his ass if he goes back on that promise." I add on.
Dr. Kang comes into the room then and looks up from his clipboard. "Ah, Miss Prior. I'm actually glad that you're here." He looks over at Susan and then back to me. "Caleb's nurse took some of his vitals this morning and everything is looking good, his vitals are going up. And from the looks of it, he should be awake in a few hours."
Susan lets out a sound of relief and then slumps forward, kissing the top of Caleb's hand, ignoring the IVs.
Dr. Kang's hopeful expression turns into one of despair. "There's also the matter of your father, of course. He only has a few more days on the life support before his entire body shuts down. When do you want to…?"
"I want to wait for my brother to wake up. He deserves to say his goodbyes." He gives me a nod and then ducks out of the room, shutting the clear sliding door behind him.
The doctor's news gave both Susan and I hope and neither of us wanted to leave. Even when we both got hungry, Christina gladly ran down to the cafeteria and grabbed us all lunch and then sat in the room with us.
After a bit, Christina left to go call Will and see what was going on at the senior week house.
When she left, Susan and I sat in silence, staring at Caleb and waiting for him to show signs of waking up. Susan held his good hand tightly, whispering things into their closed hands.
Suddenly, I notice Caleb's arm twitch. It was a small movement, but it was movement. Susan noticed too and she dropped his hand, looking up at me in shock.
We both held our breath, waiting for another sign of movement. His good hand flexes and then his eyes open. Susan quickly hits the button for the nurse and a nurse appears in the doorway and Susan yells, "He's waking up! We need Dr. Kang!"
Dr. Kang made his way into the room quickly and nurses pushed Susan and I aside while they took the jump out of his throat to let him breathe properly and then they took his vitals and asked him some questions.
"Do you know your name?" Dr. Kang asks while shining a light into his eyes.
Caleb blinks against the light. "Caleb Prior." His voice is hoarse and Susan grabs my arm tightly.
Dr. Kang nods, holding his finger in front of Caleb's eyes. "And do you know where you are?"
"In the hospital because some jackass hit our car…" I can't help but laugh. His attitude was still there, even after waking up after a major brain surgery. He finally looked up to where Susan and I were standing. "Are you two okay?"
We both nod and he visibly relaxes. The doctor finishes up and then lets us know that Caleb will have to stay another three days just to make sure he's completely better and he doesn't have a seizure or relapse. Once he left, Susan hurried to Caleb's side and started to pepper kisses all over his face. "Don't ever scare me like that again." She tells him, and he smiles at her. Then he looks at me. "Where are Mom and Dad?"
Susan and I glanced at each other nervously and then I shook my head. "Dad is…he's in another room." I look at him, knowing my face was probably giving everything away. "Waiting for you."
The doctors finish up and Caleb is moved into a normal room, finally out of the ICU. He's not allowed to be up and walking around, so after he managers to keep some food down, a nurse helps him into a wheelchair and we head to our father's room.
"Oh my God." Caleb gasps when he sees our father. "Is he going to be okay?" He asks me, still looking at dad.
I shake my head, frowning. "No. The doctor said he's brain dead and the only thing keeping him alive is the life support, but we can't keep him on it forever. He told me it's my decision of when to unplug him, but I didn't think it would be fair to you to unplug him before you got to see him one last time."
Caleb nods. "Thank you." He says, his voice low. He wheels himself over to the bedside and then touches dad's hand. "Goddammit, why did this have to happen?"
Dr. Kang is standing behind me and I feel slightly uncomfortable by his hovering. He has to know that as soon as Caleb's done, I'm going to tell him to unplug him.
Turning to face me, Caleb has tears falling down his cheeks. "I'm done…" The nurse wheels him out and I turn to Dr. Kang. He gives me a small nod and then I take a seat next to Dad, taking his hand in mine. "I'm so sorry Dad, about everything. I'm sorry you had to deal with my…problem. I'm sorry I was ever angry with you. You were just protecting me. I'm sorry I never got to tell you that I love you one last time."
Dr. Kang begins to speak, telling me what was going to happen once he shut off the monitor. He explained how his heart would completely stop and then his organs would slowly begin to shut down, completely shutting off after about two hours.
I tried to tune him out and just stared at my father's face, peaceful, even with the cuts and bruises on his face from the accident.
Once the doctor is done, he ushers me out of the room and Christina is waiting for me in the hallway. I go straight into her arms, burying my face in her shoulder, shaking uncontrollably with sobs.
We waited to have the funeral for my parents until Caleb was out of the hospital and once he was better.
It was a small funeral, put together by Susan and Caleb. I didn't want to have a say in it. Why would I? I was racked with guilt, knowing that they both died without me telling them that I loved them one last time. My father – thinking I was still angry with him. All of my anger disappeared as soon as I got the call from the doctor telling me he was in an accident.
Besides, he was right about Tobias. He didn't really love me. He didn't even show up to the hospital after I had called him, begging him to be with me, be at the hospital for me. He never showed up and he never called.
I didn't bother calling him for the funeral, everyone knew when it was – the media was all over Caleb and I after the news broke of my parents' accident. We didn't want them at the funeral, but it was inevitable. But that didn't stop Caleb from hiring some police officers to make sure that they stayed away from the funeral home and far away once we got to the cemetery.
Christina was by my side through the whole thing, sitting next to me at the viewing and then standing beside me at the cemetery, holding my hand tightly.
She had been by my side since that day that I felt like if she left, I would break down. She was one of the last chords holding me on Earth. If she disappeared or left, I would have a thin chord, barely holding me here.
Caleb had tried talking me into taking a semester of college off, starting in the spring semester instead of the fall semester. I didn't want that. It would just mean more time sitting around, thinking about everything. I needed to go to class and think about something else for a while. It would keep me pretty preoccupied.
"It's not healthy to bottle up all your emotions…" Caleb warned me, but I just shook it off.
Ignoring my emotions was a hell of a lot better than letting them consume me all at once. I didn't need that. Not right now.
I know this was short, but I hadn't planned on making this chapter extremely long. It was kind of just a fluff chapter to push the story along. Also, I'm super happy with the reviews from the previous chapter. I was hoping that nobody had expected where I was going.