Page 111 of Until Nalia
Still looking terrified, she runs away.
“Honey, you need to wake up.” I lean over Zuri and try to talk myself out of losing my shit. She’s breathing and has a pulse; she’s okay. I need her to wake up before Nalia gets here.
I feel someone join me, and when I look up, my dad is falling to his knees on the opposite side of me.
“Is she okay?”
“Yeah, I think so, I just need her to wake up.” I turn to look towards the exit of the stairs when I hear a gasp and find Nalia standing there with her dad.
“Logan.” The pain in her voice makes my chest ache.
“She’s breathing, baby,” I tell her, then look at her dad when he appears at her side. “Does anyone know if an ambulance is on the way?”
“They should be here any minute,” my dad tells me.
“Let's get her out of here, so it’s easier for them to move her,” I tell him, and he and Nico help me get her out from behind the stairs.
As Nalia comes over to her once we have her on the ground, I check her pulse and her breathing again, while I pray like I have never prayed before.
“She’s right over here.” A voice says, and I look up and watch two EMTs come into the gym with a gurney. Neither of them hesitates, loading her onto it, and within minutes, Nalia and I are following them outside. I don’t even give them the option to leave either of us behind. I push Nalia into the back of the ambulance and get in with her, telling my dad and hers to keep an eye on the kids and to let them know that we will call when we can.
Sitting in the chair next to Zuri’s hospital bed, I watch her and Nalia as they both sleep peacefully. Before we even arrived at the hospital, Zuri had woken up disoriented and confused, but she was awake and talking, which was a relief to me but more to Nalia, who was terrified up until that point.
After we arrived at the hospital, the ER doctor came in to check Zuri over, and she told him what happened. She said that when she was behind the bleachers and realized that she wasn’t going to be able to get out, she couldn’t seem to catch her breath and doesn’t remember anything after that. After hearing her explain things, he concluded that she probably had a panic attack from being confined in the small space and hyperventilated, which caused her to pass out. Still, he told us that he wanted to keep her overnight to monitor her, and I knew that I would feel better having her in a place where we could get her help if something out of the ordinary happened.
I also knew that I would be better off here with her and Nalia since if I had left last night there is no doubt I would have gone to Matthew’s house and maybe burnt it to the ground after hearing from Zuri exactly what he and his friends did.
Apparently, he and his friends had come across Zuri and her friend while they were in the cafeteria talking, and after harassing both girls, Matthew stole her friend’s phone out of her hand and ran off with it. The girls both followed the boys to the gym to get it back, but Matthew tossed it behind the bleachers that had been out at the time. The girls had both gone back behind the bleachers to retrieve it, but while they were back there, the boys started to shove the bleachers up against the wall. Evelyn was able to get out before they were closed completely, but Zuri wasn’t fast enough and got stuck. The last thing she remembers is hearing Evelyn yelling at the boys, trying to get them to help her get Zuri out, but either they wouldn’t listen or they couldn’t get the stairs back open.
And it honestly doesn’t fucking matter. The reality is Zuri and her friend could have been seriously injured. I doubt the boys knew that there was room behind the bleachers for someone to stand when they were pressed up against the wall. And I guarantee they didn’t know that there weren’t any sharp pieces of metal or anything else that could have struck the girls.
Dragging my eyes off the Nalia and Zuri, I look to the window and close my eyes that are burning from not sleeping at all last night. Between Nalia’s family coming by, the police showing up late in the evening, the kids stopping in with their mom and grandparents, and the nurses coming into the room every hour, there wasn’t really time to rest. Plus, the chair I’m in is shit.
“Hey, guys, mind if Dr. Justice comes in?” one of the nurses who had been in earlier asks, dragging me from my thoughts while a man in scrubs comes in behind her.
“Sure.” I sit up, and Nalia sleepily does the same. Neither of the girls got much more sleep than I did last night, with people constantly in and out of the room.
“I’m just going to look you over and ask a few questions then you guys are free to head on home,” Dr. Justice says coming to stand at the edge of the bed. It doesn’t take him long at all to evaluate Zuri and before he leaves the room, he hands Nalia over the discharge papers and sends us on our way, making sure that we know to come back if we think we need to.
“I’m so hungry,” Zuri tells us from the backseat when we are five minutes from the house. “Can I have bacon?”
“Yeah, sweetheart.” I look over at Nalia when she squeezes my hand.
“Are Billie and Cooper home?”
“Gigi and Pops are bringing them home now,” I tell her as my cell starts to ring. “Speak of the devil. Hey, honey,” I answer the call form Billie on the car stereo.
“Umm, Dad.” She sounds nervous, and my spine stiffens.
“What happened?”
“We just got home and Matthew’s parents just pulled up. They are like really upset.”
Shit, glance over at Nalia and she presses her lips together. “Where’s Gigi and Pops?”
“They’re talking to them outside.”
“We’re on our way home; we should be there in a few minutes, stay inside with your brother.”
