Afire Love

Nicole:

Nathan just flew into town and I'm excited to see him, but I'm afraid that he might have a repeat of last year. Today was the anniverssary of our parents death and Tyler has a home game. I'm bringing Nathan to try and help get his mind off of everything. The whole game he was texting his friends and would only watch when Tyler was out there and then he would go back to his phone. Nathan is old enough that I don't have to tell him to get off his phone ebcause it's rude, but today I don't want to do anything to cause a fight, because that's not what either of us needs right now. "Nicole what are we doing after this?" "Probably going home, maybe grabbing food on the way t take home, why?" He was typing on his phone while he responded. "Cause the guys are in town and wanna go out and they asked me if I want to go." Nate met a group of guys the first year he came to Boston after our parents died. Whenver the anniverssary roles around, his buddies always travel to be with him, but it's never for the right reasons. They don't try to help him like Tyler and I do. they use our parents detah as a reason to get crazy drunk and act like idiots. "Let's see what Tyler was planning when we see him after the game okay?" Nate looked up at the clock and shook his head.

The third period was over and we both headed down toward the locker room. We had to wait for 45 minutes until Tyler was out of the room. "Hey babe!" He walked over with a smile and gave me a kiss. They won 5-1 and Tyler had 2 goals and 2 assists. "What did you think Nate?" Nate was looking down at his phone still texting. "Um, yeah great game Ty." Tyler's smile quickly faded and shook his head. "Oh hey Ty, um the guys wanna hang out, is it cool if I go? Like you didn't have plans or anything right?" Tyler chuckled, "Oh the same guys who almost got you killed last year? Why would you still want to hang out with them?" "Tyler, stop." I tried to pull Tyler away, but he wouldn't move. "No, Nicole. Do you want him going out with those guys again? Nate do you realize you could've died last year? The shit you put your sister through, I'm gonna say no, I don't want you going with them because I don't want to get a call at 2 A.M saying your in the ER, or worse dead." "Tyler stop!" "Look, Tyler say what you want, but I'm gonna go if I want, you're not my parent." Nate looked at me upset. "And neither are you! You bring me down here every year or have me come to Boston, but what is it doing? What are you trying to do? Make me somehow forget mom and dad are gone?"

"Nathan, I just don't want you to have to deal with it by yourself." "I'm not dealing with it by myself!" Nathan started walking toward the parking garage. "Oh yeah cause getting drunk and getting in car wrecks with your friends is any better!" He looked back at me and shook his head. "Don't wait up sis." He walked away and was gone. Tyler walked with me to the car and we went home. Tyler pulled out his phone and was qucikly typing on the screen. "Ty what are you doing?" "Let me know when the light changes." I watched the light confused. "It's green." "Thanks, I found it." He put his phone up to his ear and his grip got tighter on the steering wheel. "Nathan, I swear to god, if you don't get your ass back to our place in the next hour, I will have my teammates with me looking all over Dallas for you." He hung up his phone and punched the steering wheel. "Tyler!" "I'm sorry Nicole, this is just what I was afraid of. I knew he was gonna pull this shit coing down here." "So you're saying I shouldn't have invited him?" He looked at me calmer than before. "No, babe." He held my hand. "This isn't your fault please don't think I meant it like that. I'm just saying, he's 21 now, we have to let him be his own person. And at this point you can't help him anymore Nicole, he is making the decision to do what he wants, you can't control him." I sighed and looked down at my phone. "I know."

We got home and went inside and changed. I at on the couch and called Nathan probably 20 times. Everytime he sent me straight to voicemail. I sent tons of texts, he read everyone but wouldn't respond. Tyler was done with calling and texting. It had been 2 hours and Ty was done with trying to get him to come back. I decided to give him one last call, on the off chance maybe he would pick up. On the last ring Nate picked up the phone. "Hello?" I jumped off the couch. "Natahan? Oh my god! Tyler it's Nathan! Nate where are you? Are you okay?" "I'm fine, okay? I'll be back soon." He was wasted, I could tell by the slurring when he spoke. "Look, please just tell me you guys aren't driving." His friends started laughing. "And what if we are? haha, I mean we aren't driving too fast so don't worry." "Nathan I'm not joking, please stop driving!" "What? I can't hear you over the engine!" I heard his friend reving up the engine and I got worried. "Nate please! Stop dirving and get out of the car!" "Calm down sis, nothing is gonna hap-" All of a sudden I heard static and the line went silent. "Nathan? Nathan please answer me!" All I heard was Nathan's friends yelling. "Nate! Oh my god, is he okay? Nate can you hear us? Nathan this isn't funny, wake up! Wait here grab his phone. Hello?" "Is Nathan okay? This is his sister Nicole." "Um, Nicole, he isn't awake, I, I ,I don't what to do. He won't move. I mean I think he is bretahing, but I, I can't tell, what do we do!" "Calm down, okay? You need to call an ambulance, he needs to get to a hospital okay?" "Um, okay I'll call right now. I'm gonna hang up okay?" "Okay, bye."

The tears were running down my face and Tyler already had his keys in hand. "I'm sorry-" "Stop." Tyler gave me a kiss. "It's not your fault, everything is gonna be okay." We qucikly drove to the hospital and shortly there after the ambulnce arrived with Nathan. His friends were brought in later by police and Tyler talked to them outside while I waited to hear from doctors about Nathan condition. I probably sat in the ahllway for 2 hours. They had to immediately run multiple tests since Nathan was unconcious. Tyler came back in and found me talking to a nurse. "Hey, is he okay? What's going on?" I wiped the tears and tried to put a smile on my face. "Well, they put him in a coma, they ran a bunch of tests on his brain because they said he suffered severe head trauma. And they said he broke his neck, but they don't know if where he broke it will leave him paralized or not. They don't even know if he will actually function normally if he ever wakes up." Tyler wrapped me in a hug and we walked over to the room and looked at Nate through the window. "And what do you think?" He looked at me and I took a dep breath. "He's gonna wake up. He's gonna pull through. I know he will, he has to."