Promises (Jack Gilinsky)

Chapter 67

Charlotte's POV:

I gave in.

I couldn't help but give in to the boys' demands to come to the hospital to see Jack. But right now, I'm kind of wishing I hadn't.

At this point, we all have clearance to see Jack together, but I'm not sure whether that will make it easier for me or not.

Walking through the hospital entrance was enough to make my heart race, and every second that we're in the elevator, it just beats faster.

As we enter into the waiting room that I've become much too familiar with, I see Jack's dad. From what I've heard, his parents have been taking turns staying at the hospital so that they can work and sleep. Mr. Gilinsky smiles as we enter.

"So can we just go right in?" Taylor asks him.

"From what they've told me, yes. Just be careful not to make too much noise." Mr. Gilinsky tells us. So we go back into the hall with all the rooms and find Jack's.

Seeing that he's not in the ICU anymore just makes me happy, but it still could be a lot better. I can feel myself shaking incredibly as we approach the door, so I stay towards the back of the group so nobody notices. But, Cam sees me and take any hand, trying to keep me calm like Jack had so many times before. I guess that our little conversation we had earlier has made at least some difference.

I walk in behind everybody and stay towards the back of the room, not exactly wanting to be close to Jack. When I look at him, I see the life has been partially restored in him. His pale skin has gained at least some color back, and the majority of cuts and scrapes on his arms and face have faded and healed. This is the first sign of hope that I've seen in a while.

I slowly step closer and observe the surroundings. There aren't nearly as many machines hooked up to him as there were before, which is pretty relieving. Looking around, it seems as though we're in a scene from a movie. There's a big group of people standing around, staring at the person that they are just waiting to wake up.

But, the longer we stand there, the more weird it gets. Nobody says anything. Nobody does anything. We just stand there. The only sound you can hear are the beeps come from the machines. It's as if even everybody in the hall has stopped as well, because we can't even hear the bustling of nurses and doctors.

I see Nash and Sam take a seat in chairs around the bed and motion for me to sit next to them. I do, mainly just because I don't want to get too close to Jack right now.

Everybody just stares at him for another minute or two before Johnson finally approaches the hospital bed. The only way to explain the emotion on his face would be despair. This boy has probably gone longer without talking to Jack than he has since they met, and I can't imagine how bad that must feel. They've known each other since kindergarten, and now Johnson's just stuck waiting.

He doesn't say anything. He doesn't do anything. He just stands there. That's probably the same thing I would do. After all, what else can he do? There's other people around, so he can't get too emotional, and I don't know if he would anyway. By now, we've all gotten so used to this sight that any other raw emotion that we might show has disappeared, and we can't do anything but stare. That's when the doctor comes in.

"Oh, I see that you all found your way down here on your own," he says as if he didn't know we were in here. But then again, we did just walk in here without really asking any employees.

"Yeah, pretty much," Johnson says.

"Well, just to let you all know, things are looking pretty good," the doctor tells us. "Everything seems to be normal with him, so the only thing we can do now is wait for him to wake up."