I paced back and forward across the white tile flooring of the hospital waiting room. My hands were still shaking waiting for the doctor to come out and inform us about what's going on with JuJu.
I was finally able to call my mama and she informed JuJu's bestfriend and my brother as we all sat around waiting for any information from the doctor.
I felt my eyes water again and my bottom lip started to quiver just thinking about the condition of JuJu. It was unbelievable to think we were the victim of a hate crime.
It doesn't make sense that we are still dealing with hate crimes in this day and age. What was the reason for those men to attack us? All we were doing was enjoying the rest of our night alone together. It all happened in a second and if I could've changed everything that happened.
What if I didn't decide to go to the boardwalk and just go straight home? JuJu would still be fine right? She'll be laid up underneath me as we watched a show on Netflix. She wouldn't be in this condition right? I could've prevented this right?
"Baby take deep breaths and try to calm down. We don't need you stressing yourself out that much. We all are worried but all we could do is pray." My mama rubbed her hands up and down my body as she wiped my tears with her thump.
Nodding I walked over to the chairs sitting by JuJu's best friend. I have yet to meet her and this is how we're introducing our relationship to our loved one.
"Hey it's not your fault. It was an attack that you had no control over. JuJu is a soldier shell pull through." She smiled at me causing a smile to reside on my face.
"Maylee but you could call me May." She extender her hand to me causing to take it into my own.
"Brianna but you could call me Bri." She nodded before looking ahead staring at none particular.
"You know that you can't change the past but you could move forward with you present and future. We can't go back in time and save JuJu from getting shot. I like to think that everything happens for a reason and I'm 100% sure that y'all will grow stronger for this incident." Maylee smiled at me taking my hand into her own rubbing her thumb over it.
"How you know that's?" I furrowed my eyes brows in confusion.
"I been through it multiple times. I was shot also from a hate crime and it only built me as a person. I could easily say the same for JuJu." She looked down at her phone hearing the ringer going off. I looked down reading the name that displayed. 'Austin'.
"Excuse me I have to take this. Remember what I told you about not blaming yourself sweetheart." She got up placing the phone to her ear.
"Ma it's time for me to go I gotta get Karter bathe and into her bed. She has a field trip tomorrow." He stood to his feet with a knocked out Karter on his shoulder. He placed a kiss on her cheek before coming towards me.
"Stay positive sis. I'll come see you and JuJu tomorrow. I love you." He placer a kiss on my forehead before walking towards the elevator.
I leaned my head back in the chair closing my eyes from the raging headache. The constant thumping to my head soon turned into throbbing.
When my eyes closed the events from earlier flooded my vision. The image of JuJu body laid on the concrete with blood spilling out of her filled my mind. The panic and adrenaline flooded my body causing my fight or flight senses to kick in.
I didn't care about my own health or safety I just wanted JuJu to be safe. I wanted to protect us and get us out of that situation as fast as I could but it ended horribly. Me and JuJu played out cards we were given damn good.
It gave me a sense of happiness to know that we defended ourselves to the best of our ability. Those boys that attacked us wasn't real men, just boys in a grown man body. No real man would feel offended watching two people be in love especially when it has nothing to do with them.
Real men wouldn't put their hands on women for declining them. Real men wouldn't call a woman out of her name for turning them down. Real men wouldn't do nothing that those little boys did last night.
I didn't even know I was crying until I opened my eyes and seen my mama holding onto me singing the same song she sung to us as kids that always calmed us down. She wiped my tears as she continued singing to me. We rocked back and forth as she sung to me letting me cry in her chest.
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"Wake yo baby girl, the doctors coming." My mama rubbed my back waking me up softly.
Squinting my eyes so that they could adjust to the bright lights in the hospital. Finally when my eyes were able to adjust I seen a man dressed in a white coat walking towards up. I jumped up wiping my mouth and the crust out my eyes.
"Goodmorning, sorry it took so long to get back to y'all." His bright smile laced on his face.
"It's okay. Can you tell us how she is?" I placed my hands in my jeans pocket to keep it from shaking but it continued.
"Well she's doing just fine and sleeping peacefully in the room. It took us so long because we needed to give her a blood sugar to transfer to make up for all the blood she lost. It's a miracle that the shot didn't hit any important bones or organs. It was 1 cm away from hitting her spine which would've caused major problems. In all my years I never seen a miracle like this. Consider that young woman a miracle. She's in room 459 and I'll be in there shortly to discuss further." He smiled before walking off.
I threw my head back feeling tears of joy fall down my face.
"Thank you God. Thank you." I raised my hands in the air as tears continued to fall.
