Short Stories

Brain Damage

October 8th, 2022

Sirens. I didn't know where the sound was coming from or where it was going. I had no clue that it would be Caleb. My mother and father rushed down the stairs to turn on the news, like they always do when they hear sirens, since nothing much ever happens in Jensinville. The headline read: "Colossal Crash On The 469! Father killed. Mother and Daughter survive, almost by miracle!' At the moment, my parents were in panic and I was sitting there, unaware that it was my best friend.

The next day, Caleb wasn't at school. He wasn't there the next day and the day after that either. A week passed and Caleb still hadn't shown up to any of his classes. I was starting to get worried that something might have happened to him. The amount of text messages didn't even add up to the amount of times I tried to call him. Every time I call him, hearing the exact same thing, "Hey. Its Caleb. I can't come to the phone right now. Leave a message and i'll call you when I get a chance" I could hear my faded voice in the background along with his laugh. Oh how I missed his laugh! And then it was silent. I kept calling, thinking he'd eventually pick up, until the only thing I called for was the voicemail, the only way I could hear his voice.

November 28th, 2022

It was about a month and a half since the last time i'd seen Caleb and still no sign of him. "Jessica!" My mother yelled. "We need to get in the car right now, it's about Ava!" "You mean Caleb?" I asked. "Now's not the time to be correcting me, get in the car!" I put on my shoes as fast as I could. My head was rushing so quickly I started getting lightheaded. "Honey, Av-I mean Caleb has been in the hospital since October."

I didn't know what was worse; the fact that my best friend was in the hospital or the fact that I had the audacity to be thinking, "Why did it take almost two months for anyone to tell me?" and "Why didn't he tell me he was hurt?" I tried not to let my emotions and my agonizing distress and anxiety overflow and take over me, but the closer and closer I got to Caleb, the stronger the emotions got and the harder they were to handle.

We finally arrived at the hospital and my mom told me to go sit down in the waiting room while she talks to the lady at the front desk. I didn't want to sit, I wanted to see Caleb.

After about two hours, 40 text messages and 6 games of Sudoku, we were finally done waiting. I was so excited to see Caleb, I was almost bouncing off the walls. Before we got into the hospital room, the doctor stopped us. "Before you go in, there is something you should know. During the crash, Ava witnessed many injuries most of them have healed except her Inferior Parietal Lobe that controls her mathematical reasoning, language comprehension, and her use of tools." I paid very little attention, after all, all I wanted to do was see him.

As I entered the room, I could see Caleb's face. He looked a bit different but still recognizable. Even though the bandages were covering up most of his head, you could still see that his hair grew at least a couple of inches, his once smooth, tan face now a pale white and covered in acne. If you looked close enough, his beautiful bright, blue eyes were now faded into a dark grey.

"You-are-here-now." He said. His voice was slower and his English is weaker but he still had the same voice. "Jessica-it's-been-too-long." I could feel tears filling up in my eyes as he spoke. He was right, it had been too long. "You-did-not-change-at-all." he said "Still-same-Jess." I felt like my world had just crumbled and is slowly trying to rebuild itself piece by piece. All at once, I found my best friend, and then lost them again.

January 3rd, 2023

Caleb had been in the hospital since the crash, I've only visited him once since before the accident and he was finally able to come back to school. "Hello, Jessica." He said on our way to school. His dialect was better but he still had trouble with grammar and reading. "Hey, you ready to come back to school? I bet it's weird since it's been so long." I asked. "Yes, I guess so. I am excited to see the old friends." Caleb said.

Caleb had to be put into new classes for "special educational purposes", so he was only in my homeroom. "Welcome back Caleb." Said our teacher. "We've been worried and we're glad that you're back and safe." When it was time to sign the attendance sheet, like the class does every morning, Caleb looked confused, as if he didn't know how to use a pencil. He just stared at the pencil for a few seconds, glanced at the paper and then handed it to me. I wrote his name down for him on the sheet so he wouldn't be marked absent, but I didn't know how to help him.

July 14th, 2023

Months past and time was catching up to all of us. Caleb was getting better but with every day I could feel him and I growing further apart. If we weren't fighting, our conversations wouldn't last longer than 10 minutes at the most. Most of the arguments about dumb things like video games or sports, but also deeper ones about him ever getting better. The fights were usually harmless and we forgave each other after a few days but there was one agreement that drove both of us to the edge.

It started on a pretty normal day.

August 30th, 2023

It was hot and the beach seemed like a great place to go. I brought Caleb along but he refused to go into the water. He said "It was the doctors orders to not go in salt water. My skin is still fragile from the crash and I haven't tried to swim since the crash." I thought it was completely stupid. We started arguing and arguing and arguing. I thought it would never stop. The words that were said we both knew we didn't mean, but they still heart like knives being stabbed through our windpipes. Finally, I asked why he even went to the beach in the first place. "For you." he said. "For you. Everything I've ever done, was for you. I love you and I always have, ever since we were kids!"

October 4th, 2023

We didn't speak for weeks, maybe months until finally, I got a call from his phone. "Hello?" I said. "Why are you calling?" "This is Caleb's mother. Sweetheart, Caleb is in the hospital."

I dropped the phone. Crying, I ran to my mom and yelled at her to start the car and head to the hospital. My heart was racing faster than it ever has before. The hospital let us into the room and the doctor told us that Caleb had a seizure and was rushed into the hospital a couple of hours ago. In that moment, I took back everything I said to him. Every mean word I called him when we were fighting, because seeing him in a hospital bed made me realized how much I loved him too, and how many times I wasn't there for him.

Like at his birthday party, that got rained out so I never came. Or when I promised to be there for him when he told his parents he wanted to be transgender, and then ended up telling everyone at school. And I should've never left his side, no matter how many words were said.

He's done so much for me, but I've never done anything for him. Caleb went to every play I was in, even the super cheesy ones, and cheered me on. He remembered my birthday when everyone else forgot. He even got bullied for me from time to time.

Caleb was still unconscious in the hospital bed. Unconscious, but still breathing, which was the only relieving part of the situation.

He finally woke up. He had no idea what was going on and where he was. He started freaking out and that was all before he saw I was here. He was less surprised that he had just had a seizure and more surprised I had come to see him.

There was silence for a couple of minutes and then I finally spoke. "Look, I know we had our fights and this might not change anything, and I can't believe it took you being in a hospital bed twice for me to realize it but, I love you too. You've always been there for me even when no one else was, you were there to pick me up when I fell. I wish I could've done that for you."

"I said I loved you, not because I wanted you to change," Caleb said, growing weaker every minute, "I said it so you would stay the same." Caleb started getting dizzier, I could see his heart rate going down on the monitor. I went and moved the chair I was sitting in closer to him so I could hug him tight. "Please don't leave me. I've already lost you once, I don't want to lose you again" "Don't worry." He was talking almost at a whisper now. "Even if i'm not actually here, I'll always be with y-" And just like that, he was gone.