Chapter 3

Julie was sitting on the edge of her seat, tapping her foot restlessly as she waited for news about Matt. She saw her mom enter the hospital and she threw herself in her arms.

"Hun, what happened?" Tami asked as Julie burst into tears again.

"M-M-Matt-t was found beatten in front of his house." Julie muttered, her face buried in her moms sweatshirt. "And I... I broke up with him tonight. What if he dies mom? I lo-ove him... and he's in surgery and doesn't know I made a mistake."

Julie burst into tears again her sobbing masking her muttering "He doesn't know he's the one."

When Julie composed herself a bit Tami brought her to the chairs so they could sit down. "Hun do you know what exactly is the problem with Matt?" Tami asked.

"No-o." Julie responded wiping her tears with her shirt sleeves. "They wouldn't tell me. Nurse said they can only release pertinent information to family."

Tami nodded. "Ok. Hun you stay here I'll go check it out." With that she rose and walked over to the nurses station. "Excuse me. Hi. Could you please tell me status of Matt Saracen."

Nurse looked up at Tami. "Are you family ma'am?"

"No, but..." Tami responded but before she could continue the nurse interrupted her. "I'm sorry ma'am but I can't release patient information to non-family members."

"Look now. That boy's father is in Iraq and his grandmother suffers from dementia so he takes care of her. On top of that he goes to school, football practice and work every single day and yet he still finds time to be with my daughter and be the best damn boyfriend a mother could wish for her little girl. Now he may not be my blood but he is family and I want to... No I need to know what's wrong with him!" Tears started streaming down Tami's face as well now as she added "Please."

Nurse stared at her for awhile and then typed something in the computer. She looked up at Tami. "He has a broken clavicle and severe bruising. Concussion and four broken ribs. He also has a sprained wrist and two broken fingers on his right hand which were most likely caused by struggling and fighting back. The biggest issue is that one of the broken ribs punctured his lung and currently he's in surgery to repair the damage. Ma'am if anything new comes up I'll inform you right away. Best thing you can do now is wait and comfort your daughter." Tami held her hands over her mouth suppressing her sobs as she realized the nurse is right and she has to be there for Julie. "Thank you." She said to the nurse who gave her a nod and a small smile.

Tami made her way back to Julie who was talking on her cellphone. "Mom's back." Julie handed the cellphone to Tami "It's dad." Tami took the cellphone from her daughters hand and sat next to her. "Hey hun, could you grab me a cup of coffee while I talk to your father?" Tami asked Julie who nodded and left. "Thank you." Tami called after her. She put the cellphone to her ear then. "Hey hunny. Is Gracie ok?"

"She's fine. She's sleeping." Eric replied. "How's Matt doing?" Tami sighed and ran her hand trough her hair and then rested her elbows on her knees. "He's in surgery. He has four broken ribs and one of the ribs punctured a lung. And some other injuries I forgot now." Tami was silent for a bit. "Oh, I'm worried hun. And not just about Matt, about Julie too."

"Why Julie?" Her husband asked.

Tami sighed again. "I think she's feeling guilty."

Eric was silent on the other side before asking "Why guilty?"

"Well..." Tami started and then leaned back in her chair thinking how to summarize it for Eric before Julie returned.

"Matt's her first boyfriend and both Tyra and me were always talking about our first boyfriends and how Matt is a good first boyfriend compared to our experiences. And I think all that talk made her think that Matt's just a stepping stone to other boyfriends. During summer she told me that as a joke her and Matt were discussing the future and that she could actually imagine it perfectly and visualize herself being with Matt forever and it freaked her out. That's why she was flirting with that Swede guy that works with her at the pool. But mostly I'm worried about her because she acted on her fears and broke up with Matt tonight and if anything happens to him I don't think she'll ever forgive herself."

"Honey." Eric said after Tami finished with her speech. "Don't worry. Matt is resilient. He'll pull trough and everything will be fine."

Tami smiled. "Thank you hun."

Julie rested her head on the coffee machine while she waited for the thing to finish making the beverage. She kept playing her break up with Matt in her head. The hurt she saw in his face the raw pain that flashed in his eyes before he turned his back to her and walked away. Julie realized she'd do anything to never see that look on his face again.

Please be ok Matt. Please be ok. She thought.

Julie flashed back to Panthers State semi-final game, the "Mud-bowl", last year and remembered the joy she felt when she flung herself at Matt and the truth of the words that she said to him then

"I will always love you, no matter what happens." Julie wished she'll be able to tell him those words again.

"Jules!" She recognized her mother calling her. Snapping out of her reverie she saw her mom walking to her.

"Mom?" Julie asked fear creeping into her voice.

"It's ok Julie." Her mom said as she gathered her into a hug.

"He's out of the surgery the doctor said it went perfect. He's still unconscious but we'll be able to see him soon."

Julie squeezed her mom tighter and burst into tears again, but this time they were tears of joy.

End of chapter 3. Sorry it took me a bit longer to update had some computer issues. I also apologize for the shortness of the chapter. I expect future chapters will be longer and hopefully I'll be able to update regularly.