Don't own, just manipulate.
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"Guys!" Yolei was freaking out about something as she ran into the pizza place. The others groaned inwardly. She approached the table, out of breath and feebly waving her pager. Most eyes in the restaurant were on her. She panted, regaining enough breath to speak. "I just got an email from the hospital," Now she had their attention. Eyes wide, T.K., Davis, and Kari waited to hear what she would say next.
"Cody's in a coma."
"What?!" exclaimed Davis, always the one to talk before he thought.
"A coma, Davis. He got hit by a drunk driver." Sympathetic looks all around. "They said he had," she paused, slightly stumbling over the words, "inter-cranial injury with concussion, and internal bleeding. He's on life-support."
Kari, ever the caring one, moved over to Yolei and patted her arm. "I-I'm so sorry, Yolei. Do you want to talk about it?"
"No, I'm okay, Kari. But we could go visit him, visiting hours are open right now…"
"Alright, let's go," Kari answered. T.K. and Davis groaned. Kari glared at them. Davis stared longingly at the pizza. With a sigh, they both got up. "Here, we'll take my car." Kari pulled out her keyring, adorned with an impossible amount of keys and cute and witty keychains. Finding the remote button, she pressed it, and the lights flashed on on the car as it unlocked.
The car was a present from her parents, of course, which she received on her sixteenth birthday. What parents couldn't give their daughter her dream car? Especially a girl like Kari. Sparkling clean record, obedient, a sweetheart. They couldn't not get it for her. The car itself was a cute vapor blue Volkswagen Beetle that just screamed Kari. The outside was adorned with removable stickers, and the majority of the windows were covered with window clings.
She waved the group into the car, easily fitting all four teens inside. After clambering into the front seat, she shifted out of park and pulled out of the parking lot, towards the hospital.
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Patiently, they waited in the elevator, an uneasy silence falling over them as they waited. Finally the doors slid smoothly open with a soft 'ding' and the group traveled in silence down the sterile halls. Finally coming to Cody's room, Yolei threw herself, sobbing, face-first onto Cody's bed. The others just looked on, unsure what to do or say. In the dim light of the window-blinded room, another figure could be discerned, resting in an uncomfortable standard-issue hospital chair.
Izzy had come to visit Cody, of course. He had seen so much of himself in the little chap. Only a few minutes after the doctors had deemed it okay to visit him, Izzy had arrived, keeping a silent vigil over the small boy who was like a little brother to him.
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Izzy had always been the geekiest one of the group. It wasn't that he didn't fit in, oh no, the others in the group frequently included him and requested his presence. In early years, he was hardly ever seen without his yellow pineapple laptop in his hands or in its backpack. But soon he grew away from it, discovering he could obtain more interaction socially than digitally. Slowly, he grew out of his shell, spending more time out at clubs or just generally out with society than he did bathing the light off his computer screen. He had even started dating around.
Speaking of dates, Izzy was currently sprucing himself up before his second date with a special someone. A few months ago, he had cut his hair down from its old mass into a much more manageable length.
Having dressed himself casually, now he was focusing on his hair as the radio warbled in the background. First, he pushed it forward. Then flat. Then spiked up. Then to the back. Then parted on the side. He almost left it in the side part, but realized that it looked like he was trying too hard. Instead, he pushed both hands through his hair for a 'just rolled out of bed' look.
Finishing with his grooming, he drove off to meet his date at a small café in town. Reaching the coffee shop, he stopped and put his Jeep in park at the side of the road.
He walked in, quickly recognizing the young man he had met at The Pulse the other night and took out to dinner.
Claudio stood up, greeting Izzy with his friendly latino smile, the same smile that had so disarmed Izzy the other night. Izzy's heart skipped a beat whenever he looked into that mocha-colored face, those swirling chocolate pools flecked with greenish-gold. His dark hair was combed but not too tidy.
Izzy climbed into the high seat across from Claudio and gestured for him to do the same.
"I was hoping you hadn't forgotten me," commented Claudio, in a joking manner, his accented voice adding a lilting quality to his speech.
Izzy smiled, reaching out to rest his hand on top of Claudio's. "How could I forget someone like you?" After an order of coffee, the two settled into easy conversation.