The Four: Senior Year

Chapter Eighteen - Bro...

"Hello?"

"I know. I'm sorry. I should be home but something came up."

"Day'quan and I are on our way to the hospital."

"Mom, no. Calm down. I'm ok. It's Malcolm."

"It's a long story. We're actually following behind the ambulance right now. I think we're pretty close to the hospital."

"Yes ma'am, I will. I'll call back once we get some more information."

"No ma'am, I won't need a ride home."

"Okay. I love you too. See you later."

I end the phone call with Mom as we closely follow behind the red and white EMS vehicle carrying Malcolm inside with Jesseka by his side. Day'quan is hugging the steering wheel closely as he tries to keep up with the ambulance.

We ride in silence. No music playing, no conversation between us and I'm sure the air isn't even running either. This entire car ride to the hospital is absolutely quiet. I glance over to Day'quan and he's seriously focused on the ambulance in front of us.

As we get caught at a red light, I slowly place my hand onto Day'quan's, which is tightly gripping the steering wheel. This gets his attention for only a brief moment while we are stopped. The light turns green and I remove my hand from his to allow him full control of the steering wheel.

But in that moment, he looks at me. The only thing I can see is anger, sorrow, and worry in his eyes. He is tense, extremely tense and I don't see him calming down anytime soon.

We arrive at the hospital and Day'quan quickly searches through the parking lot to try to find the closest spot nearest the door but is unsuccessful. He ends his search and we exit the vehicle, almost sprinting through the lot to the hospital's emergency doors.

Jesseka stops us at the door, tells us that they rushed Malcolm to the O.R. and that we were asked to wait in the waiting room. Day'quan ignores the request to sit down and walks past Jesseka to the nearest nurse's station. We follow close behind him.

"Umm, excuse me, ma'am." Day'quan gets the nurse's attention. "My friend was jus' taken back there and I'm wantin' to kno' how long will it before we hear somethin' 'bout him?"

"I can't tell you that right now sir. He was just sent back to be examed further. You and your friends will have to wait in the lobby until I am told something from the doctor," she replies as she peers over her eyeglasses at the three of us.

"Umm, okay, thank you, ma'am. But as soon as you hear somethin', please let us kno'," he begs the nurse.

We walk a few feet down the hall, towards the lobby, and sit in the only three empty seats, that are next to each other, near the back wall. I take the middle chair while Day'quan and Jesseka occupy the seats on each side of me.

We sit here still not saying anything to each other. Again, with nothing to say. This whole situation has left us speechless. The only conversations going on between us are the ones that we're having with ourselves, or at least I am anyway.

The lobby, on the other hand, is busy. It is practically full, full of people expressing pretty much the same emotions as us. A few of the kids that are here are either sleep or fully immersed in a cell phone while their parents are ignoring them.