Eye of The Tiger

Chapter Twelve

“Hey bro.... How ya feelin?” I ask CJ as he looks over at me from his hospital bed. He was connected to a whole bunch of tubes and one machine kept beeping constantly.
As soon as dad told us about the car accident, all of us rushed right to the hospital, including Emma. She was determined to drive us all there.
“I feel like I got hit by a bus,” he replied.
“You did get hit by a bus while you were driving,” mom said and dad slightly nudged her.
I let out a little snort. My family finds humor in almost any situation, good or bad.
“I can’t believe that bus driver hit you from behind because he was texting on his phone!” My mom said angrily.
“Do you need me to get you anything?” Emma asks him and he looks over surprised as if he’s just noticing that Emma is with us. He stares at her for a few seconds and I can swear that she blushes.
“No thanks Emma, but thank you for driving everyone here to come see me. That means a lot,” he tells her and they smile at each other. Mom looks at me and raises her eyebrows slightly.
Maybe they like each other.....
“I’m gonna go get some coffee,” dad says.
“We’ll come with you,” mom says, pulling my arm along.
I can take a hint. I wink at Emma as I pass her by. She blushes again.
***
“Is there something going on between CJ and Emma?” Dad asks me as we sit down with our coffees at one of the tables. I shrug my shoulders.
“I have no idea, but then again Emma did tell me that she thinks he’s cute, so maybe there is. But I’m not sure,” I say and start drinking my coffee.
     We chill and sip on our coffees for about 20 minutes and then Emma walks into the cafeteria with a big smile on her face and sits down beside me at our table.
“Why are you so smiley?” I ask her suspiciously.
My parents get up and go back to CJ’s room, leaving us to chat. Emma leans forward excitedly.
“CJ asked me out on a date!” She squeals.
“To where, the doctors office?” I ask and start laughing. Emma giggles.
“No silly... When he gets better of course, THEN we’ll go on a date. We haven’t picked what place yet though. He’s so freaking fine even with tubes hooked all up in him,” she says and we both start giggling again, sounding like teenagers.
“Mom just text me and said we can leave in 20 minutes if that’s okay,” I tell Emma and she nods yes, happy in her own little world.
“Sounds good. Just let me know.”
“Sooo.... Give me all the details of your conversation with CJ. I wanna know everything!” I say and she spends the next fifteen minutes telling me everything they talked about.
We were deep into conversation when my parents walked up to our table.
“Okay, we’re ready to leave whenever you are Emma,” my dad says.
“Okay. We’re ready now. Let me just throw my trash away,” she says, gathering up her stuff. I stand up and stretch my arms.
     After I get dropped off at home, I decide to relax and take a bubble bath. My body is tense from worrying about CJ. Now that I know he’s fine, I can finally relax my mind and body.
Flashback
“Everytime I close my eyes, I can picture the accident ... The way her body was slumped over... and all that blood,” I say tearfully into my mother’s shoulder.
“Oh sweetie.... I can’t imagine how horrible that must be for you. But please know that it wasn’t your fault. It was an accident honey,” my mom says, desperately trying to reassure me.
But no matter what she said, it would never bring Aaliyah back. She was gone forever.
“How do I make it stop, mom? How do I get these images out of my head?!” I cry.
My mother looks over at my father panicked, silently asking for help. He wipes away tears from her eyes and takes my hand.
“Honey bun, how bout I make you some special tea and we watch All In The Family together ? We can play some board games and order pizza too,” he suggests in a fake cheerful voice.
Even though I feel miserable, I can tell how much they are trying to cheer me up, so I go along with it and agree.
“Okay,” I relent.
“Okay, I’ll go put the kettle on and call your favorite pizza place,”  mom says, getting up from the couch.
     Just then, CJ walks into the room and sits down on the couch next to dad. He takes one look at my face and casts his eyes downward, but he doesn’t say anything. When he looks up at me, his eyes display an emotion that I feel deep down in my gut: Guilt.
“Keep your head up, honey bun. You’ll feel better soon,” my father says.
When dad goes into the kitchen, CJ looks over at me with a gaze so fierce, I burn with shame.
“I can’t believe that you have mom and dad feeling sorry for you about the ‘accident.’  You really have them believing that story, don’t you?”  he says, shaking his head in disbelief. 
“Keep your voice down, CJ. I don’t want them to hear you and I’m not telling them what really happened that night... I..I just can’t,” I say tearfully as mom comes back into the room.
We quickly drop the subject and watch the tv show.