Chapter 13 #2
Jet had a nasty bruise blooming under his left eye, sweeping across his cheekbone in a riot of color. Adrian was sporting a sling and a busted lip, while Loren had little cuts scattered across the right side of her face.
I tried to concentrate on their faces, trying and failing to read their expressions. They were all pale and shocked, eyes like dinner plates as they looked up at Shep and I.
“Max, thanks for being here man,” Jet said, getting to his feet to pull me into a hug. I froze in his arms, not sure how to respond.
“Sebastian,” I managed to scrape out, searching Jet’s face for some scrap of information, the slightest change in his eyes at the mention of his best friend.
“He’s still in surgery,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Last we heard, they were taking out his spleen. Uh…I think they said his lung collapsed but they were able to deal with that. His collarbone’s broken. The doctor seemed pretty positive though, when he came in.”
“He’s alive?” Shep asked, glancing back at me before turning to Jet. “Dude, they’re saying on the news that he died.”
“What? They’re saying Sebastian’s dead?” Jet looked over at Adrian and Loren. “Do they know something we don’t?”
“No,” Adrian shook his head. “The doctor said it’s gonna be a while before they stabilize him but they seemed pretty sure he’d be ok in the long run. Lor, we should probably start making calls, get this clarified before there’s a vigil outside the hospital.”
“On it,” she nodded grimly, pulling her cell phone from her pocket as she ducked out of the room.
“He’s not dead?” I stammered, taking in everyone’s stunned faces. It was too much information, too fast. I swayed on my feet.
“Hey, Max, let’s sit down,” Shep said, leading me over to one of the fading sofas. I collapsed onto it, feeling every inch of my body shaking as I drew in a breath. For the first time since I’d seen that godforsaken news report, it felt like it went all the way down into my lungs .
“He’s not dead,” I repeated, my chest loosening as Jet grinned at me.
“He’s not,” he replied, smile widening. “You can’t get rid of him that easily.”
“I’m never letting him out of my sight again,” I replied, before covering my face with my hands so I could smother the laugh and the tears that threatened to overwhelm me.
Shep sat on one side of me, Mira on the other. He put one of his big hands on my knee and Mira slung her arm around my shoulders. I knew both of them could probably feel me shaking between them, but neither of them said anything – just held on to me, quiet and sure, the same way they always had.
I was so grateful that I felt like I was going to crumble under the weight of it. Mira was ok. Sebastian was in surgery, but he was going to be ok. Burning Bright, their crew, everyone was safe and accounted for.
It took Loren a few minutes to get everything straightened out, but she ducked back into the relatives room to tell us that the fatality being reported by the media was the driver of the car that had careened into the buses on the highway.
All the major news stations were running updated reports, confirming that Sebastian was alive and expected to make a full recovery.
A quick statement had been posted on all of Burning Bright’s social media accounts, confirming that there had been an accident but that the band and their crew had all survived and were receiving the appropriate medical care.
It took an hour or so for Adrian’s laptop to show up at the hospital, alongside some officers from the LAPD. They took Adrian into another room down the hall to give a statement, before giving him his laptop back so that he could start dealing with cancelling down the rest of the tour.
Jet, Mira, Loren, Steve and the other members of the band and crew who’d been on the buses all took turns to give their statements, although from what I could gather there wasn’t much information they could give the police.
They’d been on the buses, driving along the highway when the car hit the first bus, losing control and careening into the second bus, pushing both buses off the road.
“It all happened so fast,” Mira told me, shaking her head sadly. “A few seconds, that’s all it was.”
Annabelle had gotten to the hospital not long after Shep and I. Mira was sitting with her legs flung over Annabelle’s lap while Jet was out rounding up some food for everyone. I didn’t think I could eat, couldn’t picture doing something so mundane while Sebastian was in surgery.
A few seconds, Mira had said. A few seconds, and Sebastian could’ve died.
His spleen had been damaged which was causing internal bleeding, his doctor explained when he’d stepped into the room to give us an hourly update.
That was why they decided just to take it out.
By all accounts, he’d be able to live a normal life without it.
He’d be more prone to infection, maybe, but that was something they could manage.
Sebastian’s left lung had collapsed, caused by a couple of his ribs breaking.
They’d been able to reinflate his lung with no issues, and the doctor was confident the ribs and Sebastian’s lung would heal well.
Same with his collarbone – his left arm was going to be in a sling for 2 to 3 weeks, then he’d have to rest his shoulder for another couple of weeks before starting physio.
Still, it’d been a “clean” break and should heal fully within 6 to 8 weeks.
We all watched the doctor deliver his update in silence.
I felt like a little kid, looking to the grown up in the room for guidance.
Loren was taking notes on her phone of everything the doctor said.
It had already been decided that Burning Bright were going to stay in LA for a while – Sebastian was going to be staying at Jet’s place, while he healed.
I wondered if he’d agree to it, or if he’d put up a fight and insist on returning to New York.
“Even if he does argue the point, he’ll lose,” Jet assured me with a knowing smile when I asked if Sebastian would agree to stay in LA for a while. “But I don’t think he’s going to fight me on this.”
“Why not? He’s pretty contrary when he wants to be,” I pointed out, even though I hoped Jet was right. I wanted Sebastian to be close by, needed him to be close by.
“Because we’re all here,” he shrugged. “Sebastian loves New York, we all do, but as long as we’re together, it doesn’t really matter where we happen to be. I’m sure you guys feel the same.”
I glanced around the room at my band mates, who were more of a family to me than my own family had ever been, and realized Jet was right.
When I thought of home, I didn’t think of Utah and I didn’t think of LA – I thought of Shep’s easy warmth, Mira’s grit and Annabelle’s relentless pursuit of joy.
I thought of music so loud I could feel it in my bones, long nights and deserted highways, laughing up at the endless dark sky and feeling like I could go anywhere, do anything, be anyone because I had the best friends in the fucking world.
“You’re right,” I nodded. “It’ll be good to have you guys close by. Tour was fun, before…”
Before I screwed it up? Before my feelings for Sebastian became so huge and so intense that they didn’t fit in the big, dark box I’d shoved them in anymore.
Before before before. I’d realized, after we’d left the tour, that I’d subconsciously split my life into before Sebastian and after Sebastian.
Before I knew what it was like to fall in love with someone, and after.
“It was fun, wasn’t it?” Mira smiled, reaching over and squeezing my knee. “It felt like summer camp every day.”
That’s how it started – hours of reminiscing about tour, both the most recent one and that life-altering run we’d done half a decade before.
It ushered in a quiet, tentative joy as the night faded into a faltering new day.
Something terrible had happened, but we were there together and we were going to be ok.
Sebastian was going to be ok.
He woke up just after 7am. Jet, Eddie and Steve went in to see him first. Shep, Mira, Annabelle and I stayed in the relatives room.
I wasn’t sure if they’d tell Sebastian I was there, or if he’d even want to see me if they did.
I called Abbey to let her know that Sebastian was awake and so I could speak to Sara for a little bit.
She didn’t really understand the situation (which I grateful for, because I had no idea how to explain it to her) but she knew that Sebastian was nearby and she wanted to see him.
“Abbey says Sebastian has an ouchie and the nice people at the hospital are giving him lots of cool band-aids,” she said, still huffing down the line because I’d told her no when she asked if she could visit him. “I have cool band-aids, dinosaur ones, I could come help.”
“Sebastian is going to be fine, sweetie, I promise. But he just needs some time to get better, ok? He wouldn’t want to use up all your band-aids, you need ‘em.”
“Will you tell him I said hi?” Sara asked, and I could practically hear her pouting down the line.
“Sure,” I agreed, even though I still had no idea when – if – I’d see him any time soon.
“Ok, can we have macaroni for dinner?”
Abbey took the phone back from Sara then, and we hashed out a plan for the day. I was going to come home for a bit, get showered and changed, maybe have a nap and have lunch with Sara, then head back in the afternoon.
Mira was going to stay with Jet. Annabelle and Shep were going to head home for a bit as well, and we’d meet up after lunch to head back to the hospital together.
After the news had broken that Sebastian was still alive, the hospital security team were able to get the photographers to leave so getting out of the hospital had been way less traumatic than getting in.