The Height of Fame

Chapter 19

"Mom!" 

I jump out of my seat and run into my mom's arms as she walks through the doors of the hospital. Dani does the same to our brother and Christina to our dad. Kath stays seated next to Lisa, still trying to get her to talk. 

"Any news?" mom asks. 

"None so far." 

As soon as I say that, a doctor walks into the waiting room. Everyone's heads turn, hoping to hear the name of their loved one. 

"Lauren Cimorelli?" he says. Nervousness bites at my stomach as I hear my sister's name. His face is neutral, not giving anything away. A few heads in the waiting room turn as they recognize her name. One look at Mike's death glare makes them divert their eyes.

"Stay here," our dad says. Our parents walk over as Mike joins us in our corner of the waiting room. I bounce my leg, shaking the bench I share with him. 

"Sorry," I say apologetically. He smiles and puts his arm around me. 

"Don't worry about it kid." 

The doctor leads them out of sight of us so we can't judge their reactions. The minutes that pass by as we wait seem as long as the five hours that we've been here. In reality, only ten minutes have passed when they walk back in but it seems like an eternity. Their faces look worried. Worried is good though. That has to mean she's still alive. 

They walk over to us and sit down next to Christina. 

"She's alive. They managed to stabilize her for now," my dad says quietly.

Relief immediately floods through my body. She's alive. That's all that matters to me right now. 

"What'd he say?" Dani asks immediately. 

"Those pills that Amy found in Lauren's bag were Aderrall and Oxymorphone. They found that, along with marijuana and alcohol in her system. They think that the combination of those caused her overdose," he explains. 

"How is she doing? Can we see her?" Christina asks. 

Mom leans forward before speaking. "They're moving her to ICU in a little bit. It'll probably be a while more before we can see her, and only three at a time. Girls, she's not in good shape right now. She had a seizure and her heart stopped on the way here. They lost her for about three minutes. They're monitoring her brain activity and while they don't think there is any damage, we won't know until she wakes up." 

"Wakes up? What do you mean?" 

"When the paramedics were resuscitating her one of her ribs broke, puncturing a lung. They had to rush her into surgery. She's on a ventilator right now and under heavy sedation." 

We all go quiet, letting our mom's words sink in. That's when Lisa finally loses it. First, it's silent tears but it quickly escalates into a full-on breakdown that none of us can calm her down from. Our mom tries to hug her but Lisa just pushes her away. 

"Lisa please," mom begs. 

"Mom just stop! She did this to herself. She did this to us! She obviously didn't care about what would happen or how it would affect us. How could she do this?" she screams. 

I shoot Mike a look and reading my mind we both stand up. 

"Lisa, let's go for a walk," Mike says. 

"I don't want to go for a-," but I cut her off. 

"Come on Lise." 

She sees my face and just nods, assenting to our walk. James gets up to follow us but Mike stops him.