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“Brian… Bri, wake up man!”

Brian slowly opened his eyes, which widened when he realized that it was Howie who was trying to frantically wake him up. “What time is it?”

“You slept the whole day…” Howie responded. “But Dr. McNorton came not too long ago, he said that Nick is conscious.”

A small grin had slowly crept up on his face. “Are you serious?”

Howie smiled, “Yeah… he said he was waiting for us man!”

He quickly shot up from his bed, regretting it seconds later as the pain kicked him for doing so. With the help of Howie, he got off his bed and had stood on wobbly legs. Once they were both standing, they both looked down at the one wheelchair that was positioned in front of them.

Brian gestured for Howie to take a seat. “Go man… I’m not as weak as you, no offense… plus, I need to walk this off.”

Howie simply obliged, sitting down on the wheelchair and had waited patiently until Brian was ready. Brian looked up forward towards the door, something kicking in his mind. There was something that had happened before he fell asleep, but for the life of him, he just couldn’t remember what. With regret, he pushed the thought aside, and began to push Howie out of their room and into the hall. They stood there for a while, watching as nurses and a few anonymous patients pass their way, not paying them any mind.

Hesitantly, he began to push Howie towards Nick’s room, a sick anticipation slowly growing within him. Half of him wanted to bust through Nick’s room and just embrace him, but his other half wanted to run away and never face Nick again, there was a splitting image of Aaron within Nick, that’s what everyone said.

Before he knew it, both he and Howie stood before Nick’s room, the door was wide open, with nurses bustling back and forth.

“Go in…” Dr. McNorton said from behind them, both he and Howie turned to look at him. “He’s been waiting for you guys…”

Slowly, Brian pushed Howie into the room, situating him on the left side of Nick’s bed, while he took his place on the right side of his bed.

Brian sighed in relief, a little ounce of color had came back to his flesh. The bandage around his head and on his nose was new, no sign of fresh blood seeping through. He was staring up at the ceiling, as if not even realizing that they were there, but all of a sudden, Nick’s head slowly craned to the side, his eyes glazing over towards Brian.

“Hi…” he croaked.

For once since the crash, he smiled his famous warm grin. “Hi Nick…”

Nick slowly turned his head towards Howie. “Hey D…”

“Hey there buddy…” Howie replied with a smile. “How you holding up there? You gave us all quite a scare…”

Nick sighed, turning his head back so that he was staring up at the ceiling. “Didn’t mean to… but I’ve had better days… I think we all had…”

Brian continued to stare at Nick, who was busy talking to Howie at the moment. Images of Aaron began to flash through his mind, which made the fact of him being in the same room as Nick even harder. Nick’s voice wasn’t even the same, his voice sounded stuffed up and low, he knew it was because of his broken nose, but it was as if this wasn’t even Nick.

As Howie continued to talk with Nick, he glanced over at Brian, who seemed to be in his own little world, fighting his inner demons once again. That’s when it hit him, when he looked back over at Nick, Aaron flashed through his mind. Nick didn’t even know that his little brother was dead, it was as if Nick forgot that Aaron was on their bus when it crashed. He could see what Brian was seeing, he could feel what Brian was feeling, he was thinking exactly Brian was thinking about.

“Where’ Kevin and AJ?”

Nick’s question broke both Brian and Howie of their thoughts. “They’re sleeping…” Howie replied. Nick stared at him for a while, wondering if he really meant it or if he was talking to him as if he was some sort of kid that didn’t understand what death was. He remembered when he was a kid, whoever had passed away, his mother would tell him that they went to sleep, and they would be sleeping for a very long time. He couldn’t help than to think that that was Howie’s way of telling him that they were dead, he was no longer a kid.

“What do you mean they’re sleeping? Are they dead? If they are, just tell me, I’m not a fucking kid anymore D… you can tell me!” Nick snapped, he didn’t mean to sound so mean, but he was scared and he was waiting for them to tell him that yes, both Kevin and AJ were dead.

“No…” Howie shook his head. “They’re not dead Nick… no one died…” Howie bit his tongue as soon as he said that, and Brian simply snapped his head up at him with wide eyes. Howie could feel his own blood fill his mouth, it was painful, but he swallowed the bitter, thick liquid.

Nick relaxed a bit, allowing his head to fall back on his pillow. There was something else he wanted to ask them, but he just couldn’t think of it at the moment. Whatever it was, it was kicking him in the head, nagging at him, which made his headache even worse.

Brian quickly turned away from Nick, hoping he didn’t see his alarmed look. His eyes fell to the corner of the room, and he gasped. There sat Aaron, in the empty chair in the corner of the room. “Why didn’t you tell him?” Aaron had asked him. “Why aren’t you going to tell my brother that I’m dead?” Brian began to shake his head, this wasn’t happening, he was hallucinating. “He needs to know, how long are you going to keep him in the dark? He’s my brother Brian… my big brother, why are you doing this to him?”

“He’s not ready to know…” Brian muttered.

Both Howie and Nick looked towards Brian, who was staring at absolutely nothing in the corner of the room, just an empty chair. “Who’s not ready to know what?” Nick had asked him, but Brian ignored him.

Both Aaron and Brian had turned to look at Nick and Howie, who was staring at him, dumbfounded. Brian turned towards the corner of the room once more to look at Aaron. “He needs to know…” Aaron told him again. “You can’t keep it from him forever… he will find out that I am gone, but the question is, when are you going to allow him? Tell him Brian…” and in a blink of an eye, he was gone.

Brian began to hyperventilate, he needed to get out of that room, and he needed to get out of there now.

“Rok…” Nick called out to him, but Brian continued to ignore him.

This time, Howie rose from his wheelchair and slowly crept his way towards Brian, who was staggering his way out of the room. “Brian…” Howie called out. “Brian, answer me.”

Brian continued to make his way out of the room, he only turned to glance over his shoulder, and when he did, instead of seeing Nick on the bed, he saw Aaron. “Tell him… now.”

Brian shook his head and continued walking, but as soon as he took another step, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he felt himself falling, face first, towards the hard tiled floor. Without thinking, Howie quickly lunged at him and had prevented his head from hitting the ground.

“Call a nurse Nick…” Howie shouted.

Nick nodded and had pressed his emergency call button, and within seconds, three nurses had filed into Nick’s room, finding both Howie and Brian on the ground.

“What happened?”

Howie shrugged, “He was trying to get out of here, and then, he just fell unconscious and collapsed.”

Dr. McNorton then walked into the room, scooting the crouching nurses away. He placed his two fingers on Brian’s lolled neck, checking for a pulse. “He’s just unconscious, his body is too exhausted, my guess is that stress is wearing him out too much, both physically and mentally. Not to worry though, we’ll just give him some shots to keep him calm when he awakes. For now, he’s just gonna have to get as much rest as he can get.”

Two male nurses had walked into the room and had lifted Brian’s limp form off the ground, placing him on a stretcher they had brought in with them. Howie had turned back towards Nick, who was watching everything in puzzlement. “You alright Nick?”

“Go…” was all that Nick said. “He needs you, don’t worry about me.”

Howie nodded, and with the help of the nurses, he got back into his wheelchair and was wheeled back into their room.