I opened my eyes and jumped as I realized my brother was still in my bed. He had startled me. We hadn't slept in the same bed for a while, since we started touching each other. We always finished and he would go back to his room. I stretched and moved slowly so as not to wake him. Squinting my eyes I saw that it was only 3 a.m. I sighed, I could never sleep in no matter how late I went to bed. I rolled back over and watched Jason, sleeping peacefully.
Jason and I were only a couple of years apart in age, me being the older. While we were growing up there was never any sexual tension between us. We were just siblings. We played together, we had mutual friends. We fought like all siblings do. I loved him; we were close. We were taught that family meant everything and they always came first. So even if I was fuming at him over some stupid prank he did or something he said, I still loved him; but I had never thought about having sex with him. We never spoke to each other about our relationships with the opposite sex. If we had opinions about who the other was dating we would talk about it. Usually we just said that whoever it was was either a bitch or an asshole. We never really chose the greatest of partners. But that was it, we had an everyday normal sibling relationship.
When I left for college we spoke less. I saw him when I would come home for the holidays, or he would confiscate the phone from Mom or Dad to tell me something that was going on but our relationship did not stay close while I was away. And then I received the worst phone call of my life.
Jason was on the other end and I had to calm him down. He was crying so hard I couldn't understand what he was saying, "brother, take a breath. I don't understand."
"Mom! Dad!"
"What about them?"
"They're, they're gone."
It didn't register with me what he meant.
"Gone where?"
"Goddamn it, Josie!"
I heard the phone being taken away from him and an unknown voice came on the line.
"This is Officer Stilton. Who am I speaking to?"
"I'm Josie, Jason's sister."
"Are you the daughter of Jenna and James Creighton?"
I huffed and wanted to say, "duh I just said." But bit my tongue and instead said, "Yes."
"There's been an accident. We are taking your brother, Jason to the hospital."
My first thought was, why are they calling me about this and not mom and dad. I was two states away. I couldn't pick Jason up from the hospital. Then I got angry at Jason. Was he drinking and driving? I would kill him.
"Um, okay. Have you informed my parents about this?"
"Miss. Your parents were also involved in the accident."
"Okay, are they being taken to the hospital too?"
"Miss, I'm sorry to inform you that your brother is the only survivor."
I had no words. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't be real. I felt like I was going to be sick. My hands came to my mouth and I breathed deeply. My voice was shaky when I was able to speak again, "Um. What hospital?" The officer told me where they were taking Jason. "Are his injuries serious?"
"He will probably be in the hospital for a while but you would need to speak to the doctor he sees to know the exact severity of his injuries. He is alive and speaking."
I wanted to yell that I knew that, Jason called me and the officer was speaking on Jason's phone.
"Okay. Tell Jason that I'm catching the next flight home."
It took me a while to get my things together. For what seemed like ages I couldn't stop crying. I couldn't think about what to do next, then how much stuff to take with me. But I finally managed to pull myself together and get a flight that left in four hours.
I got to the hospital and practically ran to Jason. One arm and one leg were strung up. His face was bruised; his eyes almost swollen shut.
"Jason."
His head turned to me and he gave a sigh of relief. I went to him not knowing if I should touch him. He was in so much pain. I decided that he could tell me to stop and bent over hugging him around the neck and kissing his forehead. His voice was groggy and horse when he spoke, "drunk driver."
"Shhhh.. We can talk about it later."
"No. Now. The guy was drunk. We were coming home from dinner. We had the green light. The guy just plowed right through the red. He hit Mom's side." Jason started weeping and I rubbed his head as tears came to my eyes.
"They had no chance. The car hit so hard. I heard them say that the only reason why I'm still here is because I was in the backseat."
His weeping grew harder. I did my best to console him but ended up having to call for the nurse and ask if he could have more pain meds. He fell asleep shortly after and I went to find his doctor.
"What is the extent of his injuries?"
"He was very lucky, Miss..."
"Call me Josie."
"Miss Josie. His right leg and arm are broken. That was the side of impact but so far he has no internal bleeding, no head trauma, or any other concerns. We are going to keep him overnight for monitoring and in the morning if there are only broken bones we will get them casted and he can go home."
I nodded and asked where the lobby was. I needed coffee, it was going to be a long night.
Jason moved in bed next to me and I snapped out of my thoughts. I looked at him. He was so beautiful. I wanted to reign kisses all over his face but instead I skipped ahead in my thoughts. I didn't need to relive what had happened to mom and dad again.