High School Affairs (MB Story)

Frantic

(Craig POV)

The hospital room is complete chaos. Nearly everyone is in tears and Tamara's father is going on a rampage.

"No Diane," he yells at his wife. "I will make a damn scene. My daughter is laying up in a damn hospitali room, with a bullet lodged in her stomach and no one knows how she was shot!"

Just then we hear rapid footsteps coming down the hall. Our heads turne to see Chris racing towards the receptionist desk. He begins asking the lady at the desk 100 questions per second and she struggles to get one word in.

"Chris," I call out to him.

Chris turns towards us and practically flies over. "What's going on? Is Tamara ok?" His eyes are wild and he looked raggedy.

"Where have you been?" I ask him.

"As soon as the ambulance got here the police came after me and took me down to the police station since I was the only witness. I told them she was shot but I didn't know by who." Chris avoids looking me in the eye during that last part and I have a feeling he knows exactly who did it.

Tamara's dad walks over to us. "Witness? You saw what happened to my daughter?"

"Yes and it's all my fault. I got her involved in something dangerous." He says.

Her father stares at Chris in disgust. His face turns up into a scowl and his eyes are bloodshot. "And who exactly are you? Tamara hasn't mentioned any boy to us. When---"

"Mr and Mrs. Sanders?" A nurse calls out, cutting her father off. Tamara's mother and father rush over to the nurse. "Come with me."

The nurse leads them down the hall and the waiting room falls silent again. Chris balls his fist up before spinning around and flipping over the coffee table infront of us. The magazines fly up in the air and scatter across the floor. We watch in shock as Chris punches the wall over and over, hard enough to leave a dent.

"Hey, I'm gonna need you to restrain yourself sir!" The lady at the desk scolds. Chris gives her a look that could kill and I was afraid he might go over there and throw her across the room next.

"Calm down Chris," Ray says jumping to his feet. "Take a seat man, relax." He pushes Chris down into the chair next to Jacob.

"Chris what's going on? Why did ya'll get shot at?" Ray asks. "I know damn well you know more than you said."

Chris slowly raises his head, his face was blotchy and he looks scared to death. It my first time seeing Chris looking scared and it actually scares me. Chris is the tough guy, the one that's made of steel and to see him scared means that something is definitely wrong.

Chris stares into space for a few minutes then take a deep breath. He begins telling us everything from becoming a dealer in 8th, to being Joey's most loyal and dedicated worker, to how Tamara wanted him to change to meet her standards, his internal battle, joey's threats, how he missed the deadline and everything else leading up to now.

"And the thing is. Joey's not gonna stop until I come back to him. I thought his target was my mom, I have no clue how he knows about Tamara. But I know he has people watching me, I can feel it, they're watching me right now." He says still staring into space. "And Joey's gonna take everyone I love away from me. One by one."

That part scares the shit out of me. I began to glance around, trying to tell who was watching us. The others do the same, wondering the same thing.

Who's gonna be next?

"YO, GET DOWN!" Alicia suddenly yells across from us.

I leap out my chair and drop to the floor, pulling Jasmine down with me just as I hear something shatter the glass window behind us. I feel the glass at it rains down over me and lands on the floor. I slowly look up to see a brick laying a few inches in front of me.

"What the?" The lady at the desk screams. She presses a button and a siren begins going off. The doors around us lock and the windows are covered with a steel sheet that came down from the ceiling.

I turn around to look at the shattered window and see a figure dressed from head to toe in black, running away from the scene and hopping into a red car. I notice Chris is still sitting in his seat. He's the only one not on the floor.

He glances at me with a blank look. "I bet it was one of Joey's guys. I was expecting something like this to happen, just not so quickly."

I slowly stand up as I hear cop car sirens heading towards the hospital. I can hear my pulse in my ears and I'm shaking badly. Everyone stands up, shaken up from what was happening. Nurses run around frantically, trying to calm people down but nothing was working. Patients are screaming in their rooms as cops came into the building.

"Oh my God you could have been dead!" Alicia exclaims. She was right, if she didn't say something one of us sitting on this side probably would have been brain dead.

Jasmine turns to me and wraps her arms around my waist. She's shaking just like the rest of us and I hate seeing her scared like this. She rest her head against my chest and I hold her tightly as we watch the cops asks people questions and investigate the window.

An officer approaches us and out the corner of my eye I see Chris get tense. The officer asks us about the broken window and we look at Chris.

"Tell them Chris. Tell them who did it, just tell them everything." I say.

"No, Joey will kill my mom. I know he will. And what about me? I was involved with them once, I've never killed no body but what I did do could get me arrested." Chris says. He looks like be was about to run but Jaida suddenly grabbed his arm. He looks down at her as she stared up at him.

"Just do it for Tamara, Chris. Jail time is way better than being buried isnt it?" She asks in a voice so low that I can barely hear her.

"She's right." The officer says.

Chris takes his gaze away from Jaida and slowly follows the officer towards a secluded corner. He looks back at us occasionally, probably not completely sold on the idea of ratting Joey out. We watch as he talk to the officer, his hands going in and out of his pocket constantly.

We remain in the hospital all night. No one slept at all because truthfully, we're too scared to shut our eyes for even a minute. The cops put police tape near the area of the broken window and take the brick for finger prints.

Chris told the police everything and the police officer wrote it down.

"This case seems kinda weird to me. I'm gonna have to talk to the chief and report back to you soon. You're free to go for now." The officer says. Chris nods and plops down in one of the plastic chairs relieved.

It's 2:00 in the morning by the time Tamara's parents came out. Their faces are grim and they look tired. We jump up as they walk over.

"How is she?" Chris ask immediately.

"Critical condition, if they don't stop her internal bleeding soon she could die." His mom says. "The bullet entered her back and punctured her stomach so they have to go in and do surgery to stitch it up. The surgery's risky because of how long it takes but we're letting them do it. You kids should go home."

"No!" Chris cries out so loudly that it makes us jump. "I can't go home without knowing she's ok. I-I have to stay."

"Look son---," Mr. Sanders says.

"In all due respect Mr. Sanders, no matter what you say I'm not leaving this hospital until I know for sure Tamara's gonna make it. This is all my fault and I want to apolofize as soon as she wakes up. I'm gonna go crazy if I'm not here through everything." Chris says boldly. He sound like the same hard headed, headstrong guy he was before.

Her parents exchange a look before nodding. "Alright Chris, you can stay. But the rest of you have to leave in five minutes."

We nod and Chris turns to us. "I fucked up bad guys. And I'm sorry about puttin yall at risk like this."

A tear falls down his cheek and I go into shock. Chresanto August is crying!

"Aww, Chris." Alicia says hugging him. Soon Jaida and Jasmine have joined and it's one big group hug. Chris pulls back and wipes his eyes on his shirt.

"What if she doesn't make it through the operation? I'm gonna have to live with that weight on my shoulders for the rest of my life." Chris mumbles with his head hung low and eyes locked on the ground.

I put an arm around him in a brotherly way. "Stop thinking so negatively Chris. Just think of how much ass kissing you're going to have to do when she does wake up. I mean come on, it's Tamara, she's gonna pull through this."

"And if she doesn't?" Chris mumbles again.

"Ugh, shut the fuck up with this "if" stuff. What happened to the the optimistic Chris we know and love?" Ray asks suddenly. Chris jerks his head up surprised and gives a small smile.

"When did you grow balls of steel?" He asks. Ray shrugs and Chris stands up straighter, pressing his palms against his eyes then letting out a deep breath. "Ya'll should go. I know you're tired."

"You better call us as soon as she wakes up." Jaida says.

"Alright, I'll see ya'll tomorrow." Chris says waving goodbye. We say bye and watch as he turns and heads down the hall to Tamara's room.

That night after I had climbed into bed, I said a quick prayer for Tamara. She had to be ok for Jaida, her family and all of her friends...especially Chris.