"JC…what about him?" Chris asked gravely.
JC walked up to the front of the bus, talked to the driver, and returned a minute later.
"JC…what happened to Justin?" Chris asked sternly.
"He's in the hospital."
"What?!"
"He's in the hospital." JC repeated.
"Oh my God." Joey said quietly.
"What happened?" Lance asked.
"He was in an accident…Remember how he was flying in today? Well, he arrived at the airport, then left to go to our hotel." JC stopped for a moment.
"Oh my God." Joey repeated.
"How could this happen?" Chris said.
No one responded.
"God!" He yelled. "Why did this happen?"
"JC, they didn't tell you anything else?" Lance asked.
"No. That's all they told me before I said I was on my way."
"It's not fair. Bad things aren't supposed to happen to good people." Chris said solemnly.
JC moved and put his hand on Chris's shoulder.
"Everything will be fine Chris. Just relax, we're all in this together."
JC felt tears forming in his eyes. He really didn't know what to think. He didn't even know the whole story, or what exactly what was wrong with Justin. But that didn't matter. He knew he had to try to stay strong though, the guys couldn't fall apart.
"Man…JC…I can't relax…" Chris broke off.
He too felt tears forming in his eyes, and he tried to stop them.
Jessica thought she saw a tear run down his face, but he rubbed his eyes, and walked to the front of the bus.
"Oh…we gotta take you home." JC said just realizing that fact. "I completely forgot…I'll go tell the driver."
"JC…I know you guys want to go see Justin, just take us with you, and I'll have my parents come pick us up. Don't make a trip out of your way to drop us off." Jessica said.
"Are you sure your parents won't care?" He asked.
"JC, Justin's in the hospital…I don't think they'll mind."
Everyone fell silent. No one knew what to say.
A million thoughts were racing through everyone's minds.
The guys were all still standing up. JC was pacing back and forth, Chris was still in the front, and Lance and Joey stood quietly.
Jessica looked at them all. Her mind was filled with so many different thoughts. First of all, she wished there was something she could do to make the guys feel a little better about the situation. She felt awful. She knew exactly what was going through their heads…after all, she had gone through the same thing.
She knew what it was like to have that gut feeling in your stomach, to want to cry, or even to want to scream, to constantly ask "why?" and to have that fear that the worst would happen. She knew that the hardest thing was to hear bad news like that from somebody…to not know exactly what was going on, and then having to look at your best friend lying in a hospital bed.
She looked over at Katie, who was still sitting quietly next to her.
'God, I'm going to miss her.' She thought.
They had been through so much together. They could talk about anything and everything. Jessica was going to miss not having her around, especially during the summers. The summer before, they would stay at each other's houses for several days at a time, and were constantly together. She knew they would keep in touch, but it wouldn't be the same.
Jessica snapped out of her train of thought and looked back at the guys.
JC looked like a nervous wreck, while Joey and Lance were frozen.
She knew there wasn't anything she could say to make them feel better, so she kept quiet.
'Poor Justin.' She thought. 'He seemed like such a nice guy…I hope he's all right.'
She really hoped that nothing too serious had happened. He was only 18 years old and was living his dream. It would be a shame if his career was shattered.
She really didn't know the guy that well, but she did know that he was genuinely sweet, and she felt awful. But it wasn't the same feeling she would've had if she had heard about it before she met the guys…when she was still only a fan. It was almost like they were friends.
'What am I thinking?' Jessica asked herself. 'There's no way that I can possibly sit here and call him my friend, when his best friends and brothers, are standing right here.'
She still felt awful though. Justin and all the guys had been there for her while Katie was in the hospital, and she felt like she owed it to them to be there.
It didn't have quite the same impact though. When they came to visit her and Katie, they honestly and truly made her feel better. They were people she looked up to, people that she respected, and people she held high standards for. When they came to visit her, life didn't seem so bad. She doubted that a younger girl, and a fan at that, could possibly make them feel any better.
'I should really just go home and let them be, they don't need me here.'
A lot of different thoughts ran through Jessica's head, until they arrived at the hospital.
Still silent, they all got off of the bus and walked to the door.
Jessica paused before she went in.
"What is it?" Katie asked her.
"I've been here one too many times, that's all."
Katie put her hand on Jessica's shoulder, and they walked inside.
They saw Kat standing in the lobby.
"Oh, you guys are here." She said.
"Yeah, now can you please tell us what happened?" Chris asked.
"Ok, why don't we all go over there and sit down." She said pointing to some empty chairs.
"How about you just tell us what happened." Chris said.
Kat realized right away that the guys were not taking this all so well.
"Ok. His plane arrived here safely, and I guess your manager had him take a taxi to the hotel. While they were driving, another driver on the other side of the road hit a patch of ice and slid over the center, into the other lane." She paused a minute. "The other car slammed into the side of the taxi, which then hit a tree. Justin and the driver got hit with impact from both sides."
"Are they going to be all right?" Lance asked.
"The driver is conscious, but he may have some serious physical injuries from the impact of hitting the tree."
"And Justin?" JC asked worried about the response.
"He's unconscious." She paused again. "He doesn't appear to have any physical damage, but his head, back, and neck took a lot of impact from the other car."
Everyone fell silent once again.
Jessica stood looking at the floor.
'That's exactly what happened to Katie.' She thought.
The guys didn't know what to think. Nothing like this had ever happened to any of them and they weren't quite sure how to deal with it.
"Can we go see him?" Joey asked.
"Not yet, he's still in the emergency room with the doctors." She said. "I'm sorry."
Kat hated having to deliver bad news to people, she always felt terrible. She decided to leave them be for a little bit, there was nothing more to say to them.
Jessica walked to the front desk.
"Can I use your phone to call home?" She asked.
"Sure sweetie."
Katie walked over to an empty chair and sat down, the guys followed. A few minutes later, Jessica joined them.
"My mom is coming as soon as she can." She said.
No one said another word. They all waited quietly for the doctor to come tell them that they could see Justin.
