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Chapter Eight: Waking Up
Brick
What the hell happened to me?
Last thing I remember... it was cold. And everything was in searing pain. I was with Blossom... Had she come to visit me? I couldn't remember. The fondness I had for the memory was remarkable...
But what happened before that? Oh... I remembered now.
I had pressed the gas pedal. The crowd went wild in anticipation. I smiled and took off down the street next to my competitors when the signal was given. I tried to cut in front of Mitch, who was my only real competition. I checked back on him, looking through my rearview mirror, after I cut him off. I went even faster, and as I turned and looked, I didn't see an angry expression.
His expression was one of fear.
As I turned back to face the road, I realized that there was a severe curve which I was not going to be able to turn in time. I slammed my foot against the brakes, grimacing, as the car skid towards a streetlight. I didn't think it would be too much of a problem. Maybe a few injuries. But that was when I noticed I hadn't taken the time to put on my safety belt.
I flew through the windshield and hit the ground at 90 mph speeds. I hit the cement with a crash. I remember looking down at my body and seeing a shard of glass wedged in my stomach. I had hit my head on the streetlight when flying from the car. After years of dealing with dangerous situations, I didn't need a doctor to tell me that I had internal bleeding and a bad concussion.
People surrounded me and then my consciousness disappeared.
I opened my eyes warily. At first, everything felt normal, and then pain shot through my body like electricity. "Ahh!" I yelled, thrashing around only to find that I was bound to the bed.
"Yeah, we figured you'd do that," a deep voice said.
I squinted to see Boomer and Butch sitting on a sofa staring at me with two totally different looks on their faces. Boomer looked scared, like I had just grown a second head, and Butch looked like he was going to burst into laughter.
"Are you okay?" Boomer said.
"Damnit! No, I'm not okay!" I shouted, throwing a water bottle from a table at my brothers. "Damnit, it hurts!" I started to cry, the tears flowing down my face like a stream. Profanities flowed from my lips, which were cracked.
"Whoa," Boomer muttered to Butch. "I've only seen him cry one other time, back when the girls made us shrink when we first came back. It's been a long time since then... he doesn't just cry at just anything. He must be really hurt."
The pain pumped through my body and in every pore of my skin. It burned and yet it felt like I was freezing at the same time. I couldn't even think because my brain throbbed and pulsed with a headache that would have killed a small animal.
Butch scoffed. "He's just a big baby. Hey, Brick, guess what."
I looked at him, through watery eyes, not saying anything.
"Your left arm is quite literally the only bone in your entire body that you didn't do any damage to. Pretty funny, isn't it?" He laughed. "So while you're sitting there, you can still hurl punches at us, eh?"
I didn't find this the least bit funny. Yet I could find no words to shoot back at him. Every time I thought of something good to say, they dried up on my tongue and never escaped my lips.
"Butch, stop it..." Boomer scolded. "He's hurt, okay? Give him a break. Why do you have to be so damn mean all the time?"
Butch glared at him with furious emerald eyes and then stormed out of the room, knocking over trays and chairs and slamming the door behind him.
"Don't worry about him," Boomer said, inching towards me. "That's just his way of coping with this. You really scared us. You probably feel it, but you don't realize the extent of the damage. Brick, if only I could find a mirror... You break out from the hospital again and faint off the roof of a building and they'll have to hospitalize you permanently. You're half-dead. We're just relieved to see you awake."
I nodded slowly. My neck hurt as if someone had snapped it in half. I probably had whiplash of some sort.
"Brick, you've been out cold for two weeks. If you weren't made out of Chemical X, you'd probably be dead. Literally the only things unbroken or cut or fractured are a few vital bones -- like your neck and sort of your spine and a few important parts of your skull -- and your arm. It's insane," he continued. "Only good thing is that you've lost 23 pounds. You won't have to go on a diet again for fifteen years..."
My voice was fading fast. I was losing everything... even consciousness. "Boomer..." I whispered. "Please get Blossom. Have her visit me, please. I..." I suddenly felt too tired to continue my sentence. There were so many things I wanted to say... so many things to do... so many pleas... but I was just too tired, and they weren't worth it.
I let my eyelids close, and Boomer turned away.
