Tear: A Seaside Novel

Chapter Twenty-Four

I fought back tears as we walked into Demetri's room. A tube was coming out of his mouth, his face was bruised and bandaged. I choked back a sob when Alec fell to his knees next to his brother's bed. I didn't know what to say. What do you say? All of us were hurting, all in different ways. I did all I knew I could do. I put my hand on Alec's shoulder and watched a man, a very strong man, cry silently as he looked at his only remaining family, in a coma, in a hospital bed.

My fault, is all that ran through my head. The treacherous thoughts screamed at me! Why did I go for Demetri when I knew my heart belonged to Alec? Why did I drag both of them through this? I loved them both, I truly did. I was never one to understand people when they asked if you could love two people at one time. I thought they were stupid and selfish to even think of such a thing. But my heart was broken for the boy in the bed in front of me. I wanted to take his place. I wanted to remove the bandages one by one and kiss the bruises away.

My knees felt weak, so I walked over to the nearest chair and sat down. Alec didn't move. He grabbed his brother's hand. "I'm so sorry," he croaked.

The nurse came back in and told us it was time to leave.

I thought it would take ten men to get Alec to leave his brother's side, but he nodded his head and put his arm around me as we walked out.

"You need food," I said once we got back to the lobby. It had been hours since we had eaten.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you would be force feeding me," Alec joked. Tension released in my shoulders.

"Let's go grab some overnight stuff and some food and we can come back here."

"You sure you want to stay the night at the hospital?"

I exhaled. "I'm family, remember?"

"I won't ever forget." Alec kissed my cheek and we walked outside hand in hand.

****

The next three days flew by. I refused to go to school even though Alec was irritated with me for staying at the hospital. I couldn't leave Demetri's side any more than he could.

Like he said, we were family. I felt like I was the only family they had. It was like another half of my self was in that hospital bed.

Each night I would go into Demetri's room while Alec made phone calls to update his agent as well as his publicist. I was probably boring the poor guy to tears, but I kept reading from our senior lit class textbook as if nothing had happened. I'm sure inside Demetri was screaming for me to stop, which actually cheered me up when I got to the end of Hamlet.

The media had a field day with the accident. Some stations reported some really awful things, saying that Demetri had a drug problem, that he was high when he got into the accident. I was so angry most the time that when I walked out of the hospital and got a camera shoved in my face all I wanted to do was cry and lash out. Thankfully, Bob and Lloyd were lifesavers when it came to our security at the hospital. On several occasions I told them I wouldn't be upset at all if they suddenly lost control of their firearms.

They laughed.

Alec was talking quietly in the hall. I reached out and caressed Demetri's hand. His doctors had been slowly lessening the chemicals in his body. They figured he would be completely out his induced state over the next twenty-four hours. The bruises still looked dark and swollen across his face, but at least his lips had lost some of the swelling.

"Your brother told everyone I was his fiancée." I caressed his hand. "It was the only way they would let me see you." My chest clenched, I was too sad to laugh but I wanted to. "Trust me, I could have taken that tiny nurse. We all know how strong I am." I bit my lip and watched Demetri lay completely still, making no movement. "Alec also told me that you used to pee the bed when you were little and that you were scared of birds until you reached the age of twelve."