Indoor Firework - RW

Finally

April 2016

This is a mess. Life is a mess. Whitey cannot believe that he and Vijay are having the make the trip to Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry to visit their pal who is definitely worse for wear to say the least. Simon is sat at Rick's bedside who has been awake and talking but is back asleep again; he has mainly slept for the past twenty-four hours. Peanut is sat in the café waiting for the arrival of their two bandmates to give them the rundown, right now he is tearing up a napkin out of frustration. This shouldn't have happened.

He can see it. He can see his friend rushing out of the house in a frenzy and just running into the road, getting hit by a silver Ford Mondeo. The way he rolled over the bonnet, the sound he made when he made contact with the ground; it was nightmarish. In fact, it was what kept Peanut up last night. 'Nut.' He hears and sees a flustered looking Whitey next to the table with Vijay stood a few paces behind looking stressed. 'How is he?'

'Tired.' Peanut replies and stands up, ready to lead his two friends to the ward which Rick is on. 'He is very concussed. He keeps getting confused, angry...he's been sick a few times.' When he first woke up, he had no idea where he was or what happened and for about twenty minutes his own identity was questionable to him. It was scary for Simon and Peanut but also Zosia who has been taken back to her mother's house.

She feels guilty. It was her telling him that because of what has happened recently she thought that having the baby would be unwise that caused him to react how he did. He just freaked out. He felt out of control and she didn't stop him from running. 'He's got three broken ribs, apparently he was lucky that his lung wasn't punctured...his elbow has been shattered and his wrist basically snapped.'

'He's in a bad way then.' Whitey comments with a sigh as they follow their capped friend towards Rick's private room. 'We need to cancel stuff.'

'But our first festival isn't until over a month away!' Vijay argues, 'Surely he will be fine by then.'

The drummer is already eating his own words when they walk into the room, they struggle to look at Rick because of the state he is in. 'I've written a statement.' Simon pipes up when the lads enter, 'For the fans and stuff. Shall I post it?'

'Yeah.' Whitey breathes, 'Is he...?'

'Alive?' Rick croaks having awoken after hearing his friends' voices. 'Yes. Alive but sore.'

'Good.' The guitarist states, 'You scared the crap out of us.'

'I'm glad you care.' His reply is definitely slightly sarcastic. 'Where's Zosia?'

'At her mum's.' Simon mumbles whilst looking at his phone probably reading through the written statement once again. 'She will be back later.' Deciding the statement is acceptable he posts it to the band's official Facebook page before posting a picture form on their Instagram and Twitter accounts. If he was more awake or focussed on it then perhaps it would be written better but like Peanut, he barely slept a wink last night so he is pretty exhausted.

Hello everyone!

I have some bad news for you but don't be alarmed. Yesterday, Ricky was hit by a car – his fault not the driver's – and has some bad injuries. Broken bones, bruises and a head injury but he is still being as annoying as ever. He's sleeping at the moment but he has a lot of support here at the hospital. We are all here now and his girlfriend is also and we all ask for some privacy at this difficult time.

He will make a full recovery and we hope that happens before our first festival date at the end of next month but right now we are unsure whether that will happen. We plan to stay together and support him.