Chapter 43

Caitlin's Point of View. ;)

I realize that I'm so obviously more excited about Sidney's birthday when he's not awake at 7:30 AM like I am. I never wake up early, and I feel so anxious and excited. But nervous at the same time. I poke Sidney in the face. I like to watch him wake up. It's so cute.
"huh?" He mumbles and rolls to his right, falling off the bed and ripping the covers off of me in the process. The cold air shocks me when it hits my body so I follow him to the ground.
"It's cold!" I shreik as quietly as possible trying to rip the covers off of him. He smiles and sits up, rubbing his head a little bit. But he knows what I want and he pulls the comforter around him more snugly. He smirks at me as I dance around. Finally I give up and run for the sweatshirt he wore last night. It's as cold as the room but at least it will warm up eventually.
I sit on the edge of Sidney's bed and look down at him in triumph. I may not have gotten the covers back but I did get his delicious smelling sweatshirt and warmth. "Happy birthday," I grin at him cheesily.
He smiles back. "Thanks Caitlin."
I lean over to kiss him and all of a sudden the door is opening. Sidney and I both sit up straight. He hits his head off of his bedstand and I get a crick in my neck from moving so quickly. Plus I'm blushing. His mom kind of makes a horrified face and backs out of the door, slowly closing it behind her.
"oops," I whisper, feeling extremely embarrassed and sorry.
"It's alright," Sidney says, "she's probably walked in on worse with Taylor," he laughs.
I'm kind of appalled at that thought. She's just a kid.
"I'm kidding, Caitlin." Sidney laughs at me. I blush again and sit there awkwardly.
"oh," I laugh.
"you're too cute," he smiles. "Come on lets go get some breakfast. My parents are obviously up."
I follow him out of his room awkwardly and continue to look down when I see Mrs. Crosby out of the corner of my eye. Sidney smirks at me when I look at him, obviously not as embarrassed as me.
We eat cereal even though Mrs. Crosby wants to make us something delicious. Everyone in the family takes their turn saying happy birthday through the course of breakfast.
After, his mother insists that we all get dressed and ready for the day because we're going somewhere to visit someone or other. I didn't really pay attention because I couldn't hear over the crunching of my Crunch Berries. I love Sidney's younger sister for liking the same ridiculously unhealthy sugary cereal that I do.
I wear a nice pink plaid shirt and capris. I throw my hair into a messy bun and  make my bangs look extra cute by teasing them a little bit.  I don't apply any makeup except mascara. '
"You look great," Sidney says as he's still getting ready. I don't know how that man can take so long but I swear it took him forever just to pick an outfit.
Finally, he decides on one and we head back out to the family room. Sidney's parents and sister are all waiting around. "You could have told us to hurry," I apologize.
"It's fine, we're not in a rush. Actually, we started a movie, but if we don't tell Sidney to get ready at least 2 hours before we're going somewhere, he's liable to make us late!" Sidney's mom laughs. "I've never met a boy who took so long to get ready until I had him in the house." This time everyone laughs and Sidney kind of gives his mom a death glare. I pat him on the shoulder and suppress another laugh as he looks at me.
We sit down on the love seat to watch the movie with his family and that's when I get the text.

Kris's Point of View =/

Ruthanne lays motionless at the bottom of the stairs and I yell again, not knowing what to do. "Ruthanne!" I say, alarmed. Ruthanne's mom comes rushing out of her office and we reach her body at the same time.
"Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God," Ruthanne's mom is saying. She rushes off to get the phone before I can suggest calling an ambulance. If Ruthanne's not woken up yet, something might be seriously wrong. I grab Ruthanne's hand and rub it, then put my head by her mouth to hear or feel her breath. This is insanely stressful. If she got hurt... "Ruthanne? Honey?" I say, right next to her face. Her eyelids fluttering is the only response I get.
I try and keep the crazy thoughts in my head to a minimum. What's best for Ruthanne right now. She's still lying motionless. She really took a wild fall, and there were a couple somersaults in there. Hopefully she didn't do anything to her neck.
After a few moments, I look away from her body and see the box that she was carrying. The contents are scattered and a stray trophy that was in it lays beneath her arm. There's a  large gash where the trophy sliced her soft upper arm open adn she's bleeding on the floor. I send Ruthanne's mom for something to clean it up a little bit.
I can feel tears in my eyes and I can't stop holding Ruthanne's hand. It's so soft, and fragile. What would I do if I could never hold her hand again? Suddenly I'm thinking about my summer and the loss of Luc and feeling bad for myself instead of her. I force myself to snap out of it and focus on the situation at hand. It's not about me. We have to get help for Ruthanne.

It feels like forever before the ambulance arrives and Ruthanne's mom and I took turns freaking out. Really, it's been about 15 minutes.  By the time they got here though, she would open her eyes and then close them again. It's something, right!? They allow me to ride in the ambulance with her because she really came alive when they put her on a stretcher and her hand lost contact with mine.
In the ambulance they're doing all sorts of things to her and asking her questions and all I can do is just hold her hand. I've never felt more helpless.

In the hospital, I have to wait in the waiting room for a while before they get her situated. I managed to steal her phone out of her pocket while we were in the ambulance.
I send Caitlin a quick text. I don't mean to freak her out, but I feel like she deserves to know. There's an instant reply asking if she's alright. To tell the truth, I don't know anything yet and I can't do anything about it and I'm sitting here with my elbows on my knees and my face in my hands. I don't reply after that. I know it's terrible, but I don't know anything at this point, and I'm already trying so hard not to cry.
The lady at the desk recognized me when I walked in. And she's been staring ever since. Normally I would be friendly and say hello or something, or even just smile, but I stand up and pace and run back to the desk to ask if I can go see Ruthanne yet.
"Yes, you can go see her," the nurse gives me a broken smile "She's in room 378" I'm too worried to respond to the smile. After looking at a map of the hospital for a couple of seconds I dash down the hall towards the elevator so I  can get to the fourth floor. I need to see Ruthanne, to make sure she's alright.