Just Not Sure - Chapter 6

They sat in the small front room of the First Aid Building, watching out the window. Kristin noticed two snowmobiles come up to the lodge trailing stretchers with Chris and Jenna on them. As the paramedics prepared to carry the two to the ambulances waiting, they went outside and Kristin pushed them to the front of the crowd that was forming. "Please, we were with them. I’m her sister." The five of them followed the ambulances closely in the Taylor’s mini-van, Kristin driving.

Matt took out his cell phone and dialed the number of his family’s cabin where everybody who wasn’t skiing was spending the day.

"Hello?" Greg answered right before letting out a sneeze. "What’s up?"

"Hey, I can’t talk. We are on the way to the hospital, Jenna and Chris got into a bad snowboard accident," Matt explained.

"Oh my god! Are they okay?" Greg’s scratchy voice sounded alarmed

"Well we don’t really know they are in the ambulances, we are following them to the hospital and they are both unconscious. Can you put their parents on the phone?" Matt asked

"Ok I’ll go get them. Ill talk to you later," Greg said giving the phone to Chris’ mom

"Hello Mrs. T, um… We have some bad news to tell you…" Matt continued to the parents about what happened.

*

Courtney subconsciously reached for her cross again, but realized it wasn’t there.

"My cross!" She cried out. "It must have fallen off in the snow." She started to cry.

"It’s just a necklace, Courtney." Jesse said.

Kristin looked at Jesse with somber eyes. "It’s not just the necklace, Jess." She said quietly.

Jesse nodded understandingly, and Courtney sobbed into his shoulder. "Why did this happen? Why to Jenna and Chris? I’m so…terrified for them." She looked up; tears welled in her eyes. Jesse hugged her and she buried her head back into his shirt.

"Me too, Sweetie…Me too," Jesse said softly, his voice trailing off. Nobody else said anything the rest of the ride to the hospital. The only sound that was heard was the sirens off the two ambulances they were following close behind, and the occasional sobs from all of the worried friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Miss. Miller?" A man in a long white surgeon’s coat, obviously a doctor of some sort, called for Kristin after stepping into the hospital’s small waiting room. The group had been sitting in the room for an hour while they waited for some news, preferably good news. Kristin stood up quickly, almost hitting Frankie in the head with her hand. Frankie was beginning to doze off, like everyone else.

"Is there anyone here with Christopher Trousdale?" Another doctor came through the swinging doors. All of them raised their hands, even Kristin, who was just approaching the other doctor. "I just need to see one of you." Matt got up and walked over to the doctor. "Chris has severe hypothermia. We’ve been slowly bringing up his temperature, and so far it’s been successful. You and your friends may see him, but he will probably be disoriented and his speech will slur a little."

Jenna wasn’t any better. "Jenna suffers with a concussion and has been unconscious for over four hours, as I’ve heard." The doctor told Kristin. " She also had a head laceration which required 14 stitches and severely fractured her kneecap. When she came in, she also had mild hypothermia, but we brought her body temperature back to normal."

"Then we can see her?" Kristin asked hopefully.

"Well, she won’t be awake, but you may see her. Do your parents know she’s here?"

"Yes, they’re on their way." Matt had called while Kristin and Frankie filled out the medical papers. Kristin and Matt both walked over to the other three. "We can see them now. Chris will be disoriented, and Jenna’s unconscious. But nothing life threatening. Come on." Kristin had gotten the room numbers from the doctors; they were in rooms right next to each other. Frankie and Jesse quickly sat up, anxious to see the two. But Courtney didn’t get up.

"Aren’t you coming?" Jesse asked.

"I can’t." Tears filled her eyes and started to stream down her face. "I don’t want to see Jenna like that. I want to see the Jenna I see everyday back home, who dances and sings when and where she feels like it. When she wakes up, I’ll go." Courtney didn’t want to see her best friend lying on a hospital bed, hooked up to machines that kept her going.

"I’ll stay with her." Matt said, knowing they couldn’t just leave Courtney sitting in the waiting room alone. He sat down next to Courtney, who hadn’t stopped crying since she saw the stretchers at Camelback. He put his arm around her comfortingly and she leaned her head on his shoulder. "They’re gonna be ok, I promise."

Jesse walked into Chris’ room to see Chris sitting up watching TV. "Hey! How are you." Jesse said cheerily.

Chris looked up at Jesse, managing a smile. "Okay. How’s Jenna?" He hoarsely whispered.

Jesse looked at Frankie, unsure of what to tell him and what not to.

"She hasn’t come to yet." Kristin said kneeling next to the bed, "But we’re going to see her after you. What happened up there?"

"Um…um…" Chris started to breathe heavily and squinted his eyes, making it seem like he had difficulty remembering anything that happened that night. He knew mostly what happened up until the point when he blacked out. He didn’t want to tell them what happened because he convinced Jenna to go with him on the harder path that was above her ability and very dangerous. He thought it was his fault for the accident…. "Well… uh… we were…uh…" he tried to think of a story to tell them about how all of this happened but he couldn’t hold back the truth anymore. "It was all my fault!" he burst out while his eyes started to fill with tears.

"I’m sure it’s not your fault, Chris," Frankie tried to assure him.

"It is MY fault… I…I told her that we should go off the trail so we could try this hidden path that we found!" He was now hysterical, in tears, and it was getting hard for him to talk. "Th-The path was unlit and wasn’t cleared of sticks and rocks, a-and there was a lot of ice…’’ he went on. " It was too dangerous I should’ve n-never suggested that we go! I’m so s-sorry! I tried to help her! I tried! I was too late! I-I couldn’t help her!"

"Chris, what happened once you were on the path?" Kristin asked touching his hand comfortingly.

"W-Well she started to loose control of her board, and she started going so fast… She called for me to help her, but I slipped. By the time I got to her she had already hit into tree. She was knocked unconscious and I wrapped my jacket around her. I-It was the only thing I could do!"

Th-The rest was just a big blur, because I sat with her in the snow with no jacket for three hours. I-I didn’t know what to do! I tried to help her!"

It’s ok Chris I’m sure you tried your hardest to help her, but you have to calm down, remember you are in the hospital too and getting all worked up can’t be very good for your health right now," Jesse said.

"I know, but I’m just so scared that she won’t be ok." Chris said calming down. Then he looked around the room, "Where is Matt and Courtney?"

"Courtney couldn’t take coming to see you two, It would’ve been to hard for her. She is not taking this very well," Jesse said thinking about his upset girlfriend. Matt stayed to wait with her."

"And he called your parents and Greg and they are on their way," Frankie added.

"We’re going to see Jenna now, okay?" Kristin said to Chris. "We will come back to see you later with Matt, and hopefully Courtney. You should get some rest now."

"Alright. I will, and thanks guys for coming to see me." Chris said weakly. All of the friends said goodbye to Chris and started to walk out the door Jesse was the last person to leave, but right before he stepped out the door Chris called to him, "Jess, can you do something for me?"

"Sure. What do ya need."

"I-I know she won’t be able to hear you, but… Can you tell Jenna I’m sorry and that I love her?" Chris asked, pleading with his tired light brown eyes.

"I will," Jesse replied, "but you don’t need to be sorry. You saved her life," he said walking towards the door.

"Thanks man, I guess you’re right," Chris said, still feeling guilty about the crash.

"OK I promise I’ll tell her and I will see you later." Jesse said, then walked out the door to go catch up with the others.

*

It had been an hour since the rest of the group left Matt and Courtney in the waiting room. Matt had spent half an hour trying to calm Courtney down. Finally he got her to relax and fall asleep. He decided that since Katy is friends with Jenna and Chris, he would call her and tell her what had happened. He figured that she would also want to talk to Courtney, but he wanted to let her rest. He hit #1 on his speed dial and shortly after two rings she picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, It’s me."

"Hi! Why are you calling again so soon, you said you weren’t gonna be back at the cabin until really late."

"Well…the thing is, we’re not at the cabin…we’re at the hospital," He said uneasily awaiting her reaction.

"WHAT!?! WHY?!? WHO!?! What happened?!? Is everyone okay!?!" She screamed into the phone causing Matt to hold the phone away from his ear.

"Shhhhh! You are a little loud," he whispered sarcastically, trying not to wake up Courtney. "Now…To answer all of your questions, Yes I am at the hospital, I’m at the hospital because Jenna and Chris got into a snowboarding accident. I’m not sure how it happened."

"Oh my God! Are they okay?!?"

"Frankie, Kristin, and Jesse left a little while ago to go see them. Chris is okay but Jenna is still unconscious. They’re pretty sure she will be fine. I didn’t go with them because I stayed with Courtney… She’s not taking this very well. She was in tears the whole way here and about a half-hour after we got here. She’s sleeping right now I finally calmed her down.

"If she was awake, I’d talk to her, but I don’t want to wake her up. When she wakes up tell her call me." Katy said concerned about her friend. "I have to go, my mom needs the phone. Please call me to let me know how Jenna and Chris are feeling. "I’ll talk to you soon. I love you."

"I love you too. Bye…" he said, hanging up his cell phone and sighing. He wished she didn’t have to go so soon, he really needed someone to talk to, and missed her terribly. He hadn’t seen her since about a month before they left for Pennsylvania.

*

While Matt was talking to Katy, the three downhearted friends walked into Jenna’s hospital room. The sight of her lying silent and still on the white hospital bed was so hard for the friends to take in. It was so difficult to speak to her when they knew she wouldn’t answer back like Chris had. All they could do was pray she would soon be okay. They just stood there, nobody saying a word. Seeing Jenna was the hardest for Kristin, and Frankie walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her as she turned her head away, trying to hide the tears that came to her eyes. They all agreed that it was a good thing that Courtney had refused to see her. After staying for a few minutes, the room silent except for the heart monitor, they decided it was time to leave. Kristin and Frankie walked out the door, and Jesse started to follow them. Then he remembered what he had promised Chris.

"I’ll catch up guys, I’ll meet you in the waiting room," Jesse said, walking back into the room. He knelt down next to the bed and thought about how he would say what he was about to tell Jenna.

"I know you probably can’t hear me…but Chris feels so guilty about what happened, and he’s taking it all out on himself. He wants you to know…he wants you to know how sorry he is," he went on in a soft voice, his voice breaking for a moment, "and… he loves you… he loves you more than anything in the world right now." After that was said, Jenna awoke and her eyes slowly opened. It was a miracle. Jesse smiled and she barely smiled back, too weak to talk. But he knew exactly what she was trying to say.

After he alerted a nurse, Jesse practically ran to the waiting room to tell the others that Jenna was okay. Courtney had awakened as soon as Greg and the adults arrived, and there was a lot of commotion. He told them all and then walked over to Courtney and gave her a kiss.

"I told you everything would be okay," he said smiling. Then Jesse, Courtney, and Matt left the group to visit Chris and tell him the news.