Page 61 of Hear Me Roar

Hazel stirred as I ended the call and laid back onto the mattress in a heap. She rolled over toward me and splayed a hand on my chest, melting into my side. “Everythingokay?”

I sighed and brought her hand to my lips, kissing the inside of her wrist. “No, it’snot.”

“What’s goingon?”

“Luis wreckedout.”

“What?” she asked in disbelief, picking her headup.

“He’s stable, but they have him in surgery. The nurse that called said he sustained seriousinjuries.”

“Oh my God. And Rey…” she gasped, covering hermouth.

“I was gonna run over there to see him, but he won’t be in recovery for awhile.”

“Where’d they takehim?”

“Cedar-Sinai.”

“We can always get there early. Let’s have a shower, go eat breakfast. Then we’ll go check on him,” shesuggested.

“Yeah, I guess we can do that,” I agreed, though I wasn’t sure I could stomach a plate of food after this blow. “Let me call Manny real quick and let him know we’re gonna beleaving.”

“I’ll start the water.” Her lips pressed against my cheek before she climbed over me and padded into the bathroom, lightly closing the door behindherself.

Illuminating the screen on my phone once more, I scrolled through my recent calls and clicked on Manny’s name. A second later, I could hear the ring in my ear and Manny’s ringer from the living room downstairs. It rang a few times before his hoarse voiceechoed.

“Everything alright,man?”

“Nah, Luis got into a nasty accident. Hazel and I are gonna head over to Cedar-Sinai.”

“Shit, is heokay?”

“He’s stable, apparently, but he’s got seriousinjuries.”

“Fuckin’ hell. Does Reyna know?” he questioned, just as Kilo began sniffing under thedoor.

“At this point, no. She hasn't answered herphone.”

“I’m sure she's passed out, given thetime.”

“I know,” I sighed. “Just makes the situation worse. I'm gonna hop in the shower before we go. I just wanted you to know so you wouldn't flip out when you woke up and didn't find ushere.”

“I'll fill M in when she wakes uptoo.”

“Thanks, bro. As soon as I find out exactly what's going on, I'll give youcall.”

If it wasn'tone thing, it was another. One after another, to be exact. I couldn't catch a damn break. Life clearly was intent on breaking me and I didn't understand what I'd done so wrong to deserve even half of it. Yes, I knowIwasn't the one who'd been in a severe accident, but my best friend had, the man who I considered my brother. To see him out cold in a hospital bed, banged the hell up, was not easy, to say theleast.

Walking in here, I was well aware of the fact the wreck had been bad, but when the doctor actually explained what happened, I wanted to throw up. Basically, the driver who struck Luis ran the stop sign at over sixty miles per hour, t-boning him right in the driver's side. The impact was so strong, it wrapped Luis’ car into a tree on the passenger side, pinning him between both points. When the paramedics arrived on scene, they had to use the jaws of life to pry him out. He was beat up, with cuts on his head from the glass, a swollen nose, and a busted hip from the steering wheel, but the worst was the damage to his legs. All in all, my best friend was lucky to be alive, but the road ahead was going to be extremelydifficult.

With my shoulders slumped over, I cradled my head in hands, my eyes trained on the floor beside my brother’s bed. We’d been here for an hour and he hadn’t woken up yet, which had me on edge, despite the nurse warning us this might happen due to the morphine. Hazel rubbed my back from the seat beside me, her legs curled up underherself.

“He's gonna be okay,” she murmuredsoftly.

“What if he can't walk again?” Iasked.

“He will. It'll take time and patience, but he’ll pull through this, babe. We just have to stay positive. If he wakes up to doubt, he'll lose faith in himself before even gettingstarted.”

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