Your brother is mean

Norah managed to utter one more word before she slipped into unconsciousness.

“Ryan.”

Eli and Joe looked at each other, their anger was evident on their faces. “I’m going to kill that guy.” Joe said.

Five minutes later, the ambulance had arrived at Norah’s house.

“Joe, I’m riding with the ambulance.” Eli said. “Are you coming to the hospital?”

“Yeah.” Joe replied. “But there’s something I have to do first.”

--

Joe arrived at Ryan’s apartment and banged on the door.

“Jeez. Relax, I’m coming.” He heard him say through the door.

The second Ryan opened his door, Joe let his fist make contact with his face. Ryan fell down on the floor, and Joe kicked him in the gut, hard. He bent down so he was closer to Ryan’s face.

“Now, you listen to me. You are going to stay away from Norah.” He said, in a tone that scared Ryan. “You are not going to see her, talk to her, or even think about her ever again. If you ever come near her again, I will kill you. Got it?”

Ryan looked at him in fear. He nodded.

“Good.” Joe said. “You better hope she doesn’t die.”

With that, Joe left Ryan’s apartment, slamming the door behind him.

--

When he arrived at the hospital, he found Eli, Jay and Nick sitting in a waiting room.

“How is she?” he asked, softly, afraid of the answer.

“The doctor just came to tell us.” Eli said. “She’s got some internal bleeding, and the wound on her head was really bad. They stopped it from bleeding, but she had already lost so much blood.” Eli sniffled.

“What does that mean?” Joe said. “She’s okay, right? If they stopped the bleeding?”

Nick looked at him with tears in his eyes. “She lost a lot of blood, Joe. She went into a coma, and she stopped breathing for a while. Her brain couldn’t get oxygen.” Nick paused, before he continued. “She might have brain damage when she wakes up from her coma.”

“If she wakes up.” Jay added.

Joe fell to his knees. He couldn’t understand how Ryan could do this to her. She didn’t deserve it, any of it. He felt the tears build up in his eyes.

“Joe?” Nick asked. Joe lifted his head to look at him. “Where were you just now?”

“Ryan.” He said. “I went to talk to Ryan.”

At the mention of his name, the other three boys got looks of pure hatred on their faces.

“He’s not going to be bothering Norah anymore.” He said.

Eli looked down. “Thanks.” He said. “If I would have gone there, I probably would have done something incredibly stupid.”

The boys were all silent for a few minutes. The quiet was interrupted when the doctor came to talk to them.

“Are you here for Gabriella Adams?” he asked.

“It’s Norah.” Joe said, softly.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” The doctor said. “Norah’s awake now. We have just done some tests to see if there was any damage to her brain, but everything seemed to be fine.”

“Thank God.” Eli said.

“Can we see her?” Nick asked.

“Only family for the time being.” The doctor said.

“They are family.” Eli answered.

--

Norah smiled weakly when the boys walked into her room.

“Hey, Norah.” Eli said. “You gave us quite a scare.” He walked over to the bed and kissed her forehead.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“I’m fine.” She said. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” Nick said.

Norah smiled at him. “Don’t I get a hug?” she asked.

She didn’t have to ask twice. As soon as the words left her mouth, Norah was crushed by Nick’s arms. She looked over at Jay and saw he was crying.

“Hey, Jay. Come here.” She said, opening her arms to hug him.

“I was so scared.” He said. “I thought I was going to lose you.”

“You’re not going to lose me, kiddo.” She said. “I’ll always be here for you.”

In the meantime, Joe was sitting in the corner of the room watching the scene in front of him. He hadn’t said one word since he got inside her room, and he wasn’t planning on it.

“Joe.” Norah said. He looked at her for a second, and then got up from his seat and left the room, without saying anything.

Norah looked at her brothers and best friend sadly.

“Don’t worry about it, Norah.” Nick said. “I’ll talk to him later.”

“I just wanted to thank him.” She whispered. “If he hadn’t found me when he did..”

“Let’s not talk about that.” Jay said. “You’re okay now and that’s what matters.”

“Did you call mom?” Norah asked Eli.

“Yeah.” He looked down.

“She’s not coming, is she?” Norah asked, disappointed.

“She said she was really busy with work, but she sends her love.” Eli tried to smile.

“Her daughter almost died, and she can’t even come to see me?” Norah asked, on the point of tears.

Eli hugged her. “Well, you got us. And we’ll always be here for you.”

Norah sniffled. “I know.” She said, and she smiled.

A nurse walked into the room. “Miss. Adams. The police are here to ask you some questions.”

Norah looked at Eli, frightened. “The police? Why do I have to talk to the police?” she asked.

“Norah, you have to tell them what happened.” He said.

“I can’t.” she said. “He’ll kill me.”

“No, he won’t. He’s not coming near you ever again.” Eli said. “And you have to tell the police, so they can make sure he never does this again, to anyone.”

Norah nodded, right when two police officers walked through the door.

“We’d like to talk to Miss. Adams alone, please.” One of them said, while looking at the boys.

“Can my brother stay with me, please?” Norah asked.

The second police officer gave her a sympathetic smile. “Of course.” He said.

It was hard for Norah to get through the questions. She had to relive everything that happened. But when it was over, she was happy to know that Ryan would be getting what he deserved now.