Page 11 of Lucci

brEEZY

I looked over Lucci’s answers to the chapter review questions.

Out of twenty-five questions, he missed three of them.

“You have about eighteen more chapters to cover, and the information will get harder, but you’re off to a great start.

As long as you keep studying and applying yourself, I see you acing the class,” I marveled.

Lucci shook his head. “I dosed off twice reading chapter three. I had to get up and walk around for a minute to wake myself up.”

“I don’t think you’ll ever hear anyone say that real estate is interesting,” I replied with a giggle.

My phone was on silent. When I looked at the screen to check the time, I saw that I had three missed calls from Lauren’s mother and one missed call from Lauren.

My heart began to pound because I knew something wasn’t right.

I had met Lauren’s mother a few times, but she’d never called me.

I wasn’t even aware that she had my number.

“Everything good?” Lucci asked as I stared at my phone screen. I was almost afraid to return the call, but I knew I had to. “I don’t know,” I answered in a low tone as I called Lauren back.

Just when I thought the call would go to voicemail, Lauren answered. Right away, I knew something was wrong. I could tell she’d been crying. “Breezy,” her voice cracked sending my heart into overdrive.

“Lauren, what’s wrong, friend?”

“I was with Ty-Tyler, and we got into an accident. Somebody ran a red light, and ran into us. The car flipped, and I don’t k-know how Tyler is. They won’t tell me anything.” My gaze darted over to Lucci. Sure enough, his eyes were glued to me.

“Tell me what hospital you’re at. I’m on the way.”

“Diamond Cove Memorial.”

As I ended the call my mouth went dry. I hated that I had to be the one to break the news about his brother to Lucci.

“What’s good?” he inquired.

“You don’t have your phone?” my voice was quivering.

“I left it in the car. What’s good, Breezy?” his tone held a sense of urgency. I had to stop being a punk and spit it out.

“Lauren was riding with Tyler, and she said a car ran a red light and hit them. The car flipped. No one will tell her how Tyler is.”

Lucci shot up out of his seat and grabbed his keys.

Leaving his textbook, notebook, and pen on the table, he made a beeline for the exit.

We were in Barnes and Noble having the study session.

I grabbed his things along with mine and left too.

Despite knowing that Lauren was okay, I was still trembling.

My stomach was doing backflips, and it felt as if I was suffocating.

If Lauren had serious injuries, it still had to be a good sign that she was talking.

Not wanting to get into an accident myself, I drove the speed limit with my anxiety growing every inch of the way.

At the hospital, I cursed under my breath when I had to drive around way too long to find a parking space.

Looking for somewhere to park felt like time wasted but finally, I found an empty space.

There was a long ass walk from the parking lot, across a bridge, and into the hospital.

Walking as fast as my legs would carry me, I was out of breath by the time I entered the hospital and stood in the short line at the registration desk.

After being given Lauren’s room number, I waited impatiently for the elevator.

Everything was taking too damn long. My shirt was wet in the under-arm area from my arm pits sweating.

On the fifth floor, I stopped at the desk, and the nurse told me that Lauren had three visitors.

She explained that one of them had to leave the room before I could go in.

Too anxious to sit, I leaned against the wall and watched to see if anyone would leave her room, so I could go in.

I had just unlocked my phone to text her when a blood curdling scream stopped me mid-action.

Freezing, I held my breath as my blood ran cold.

The woman’s cries echoed through the hallway.

She just kept saying no, over and over again.

A figure darted past me damn near running.

His scent lingered behind him and even if I couldn’t see him my nose would have alerted me that it was Lucci.

He pushed the exit door open forcefully and walked through it.

It felt like my throat was closing up. Breathing was hard and swallowing was harder.

After about five minutes, Lauren’s mother walked out of the room accompanied by Lauren’s sister.

I cleared my throat and pushed up off the wall.

“Hi, Mrs. Lewis.”

“Hey, baby,” Lauren’s mother gave me a sad smile.

Her eyes were puffy from crying. “Lauren is in with her father. He’s about to leave.

Lyric drove me here. She’s going home to her kids, and I’m going to get my car.

Lauren has a concussion, two broken ribs, and a fractured wrist, but praise God, she’s going to be okay.

Because of the concussion and the broken ribs, they want to keep her for another twelve hours or so, then prayerfully, she can go home. ”

“That’s good to hear.” I breathed a sigh of relief.

A light-skinned man walked by with his teeth clenched together making his jaw muscles flex. He was walking with his hands in his pockets, and his eyes were empty. The look of agony was written all over his face, and the striking resemblance he had to Lucci and Tyler made my heart break.

Mrs. Lewis and Lyric said their goodbyes, and I walked slowly toward Lauren’s room.

I hated being the one that had to tell Lucci about the accident, and I didn’t want to be the one to tell her about Tyler.

Life was so unfair. Every time I saw Tyler he was smiling.

He made Lauren giggle and blush. I liked them together and now, he could be gone?

It was some straight up bullshit, and I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news.

Before I could make it inside Lauren’s room, Lucci walked back in looking somber, but he wasn’t alone.

There was a pretty, frantic woman with him and from the way she clung to his arm, I assumed she was his girlfriend.

It wasn’t the time for jealousy or dumb crushes.

Someone may have lost their life. I could pretend to others.

I could even lie to myself, but God knew the truth.

And the truth was, I wished it was me comforting Lucci and not her.

It had been a long six days. I alternated with Lauren’s mother and her sister helping take care of her.

I cooked, did her laundry, ran errands for her, or anything that Lauren needed me to do.

The Hellcat Barbies had come together and sent her flowers, edible arrangements, and had groceries delivered to the house.

Tyler had indeed passed, and Lauren was taking it very hard.

Due to her ribs being broken, she was in a lot of pain and crying made it worse, so she slept a lot.

Pain and all, she insisted on going to Tyler’s wake.

I loathed seeing dead bodies, but I wanted to support her.

Every single day it crossed my mind to reach out to Lucci, but I didn’t know what to say.

I was sure he was sick of hearing that cliché sorry for your loss bullshit.

I didn’t want to be just another person calling his phone.

But I also didn’t want him to think that I didn’t care about what he was going through because I did.

I needed something to calm my nerves, so I took an Ativan before leaving the house.

From the time I was about twelve, I’d started randomly having crippling anxiety attacks.

They were so bad that there were times I thought I’d die.

My heart would race, my palms would sweat, and I’d hyperventilate.

Death was one of the many things that could trigger it.

I only took the medication as needed, and it was my first dose in about five months.

Of course, I knew everyone hated death, but it hit me different for some reason.

It was the one thing in life that I feared the most.

I texted Lauren that I was outside and waited patiently for her to walk out to the car. Leaning over, I opened the door for her and pushed it open. She got in the car slowly. “Hey. Thanks for coming with me.” Lauren’s tone was somber, and I immediately felt for her.

“You don’t have to thank me. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Tyler wasn’t her boyfriend, but she really liked him, and I knew she was taking his death super hard.

The idiot that ran the light had been charged with drunk driving and manslaughter.

Currently, he was out on bond. The fact that he cost a person his life, but he was still alive, was sickening.

After I parked, Lauren and I walked to the funeral home entrance side by side.

Goosebumps pricked my arms as we trekked into the building.

We peeked into the first room, and a low groan like sob pushed from Lauren’s throat as Tyler’s casket came into view.

He was dressed in a suit, and I could see the makeup caked on his face from where we were.

Tears stung my orbs as I stood with my heart breaking. “We don’t have to do this,” I stated in a low tone using the back of my hand to wipe my tears away.

Lauren stood frozen in place. She didn’t make a move to go forward nor to pivot and head for the door.

I stood patiently by her side because whatever she wanted to do, I was with it.

I didn’t care to look at Tyler in his final state.

I also had no desire to stare into the face of his grief-stricken family and friends.

The soft music wafting from the speakers made chills run down my spine.

The low whimpers of agony coming from the room that held Tyler’s body made my heart ache.

I wasn’t going to make a move until my friend did, but Lord knows it was taking a lot for me to hold it together for her.