Unexpected

  I walked along the side of the pavement with my best friend, Clair. We were coming home from school although it had been a while since school was over. We went to our usual coffee shop because Blair had to complain about her new history teacher, Mr. Darwin.

  “He made me stand up and he yelled at me without reason!” said Clair, crossing her arms across her chest angrily. She huffed and threw her long hair off her shoulder.

  “What were you doing before you were yelled at?” I asked and took another sip of my coffee. Clair looked down on the ground and sighed. I smiled, knowing that Clair had not been yelled at for no reason at all.

  Then suddenly, my phone began buzzing in my bag and it made a loud enough noise to catch the attention of a small group at the park we passed by. I took it out and saw it was my mother.

  “Hello?” I answered and spoke into the small, black device. I gasped at the words my mother said to me and glanced at Clair for comfort. “I’m on my way.” The energy in my voice was lost. I felt weak and despair. 

  “What’s wrong?” asked Clair, tightly gripping my shoulder. I couldn’t even bring myself to answer her. Instead, I dumped my coffee cup and caught a cab. Blair followed me and she climbed into the cab.

  I caught my breath and told the cab driver to take us to Margaret Wilson Memorial. I looked at Clair and knew I had to explain to her what was going on. She looked at me patiently, waiting for an explanation to my strange behavior.

  “Dan’s in the hospital and so is Lily. They got mugged and Lily got shot,” I said and when the word’s came out of my mouth, I couldn’t believe they were real. Clair’s mouth hung wide open.

  Dan and Lily were my step brother and sister. We never got along well but I cared about them. They were family and I had to be there for them. Lily was close to Clair, even if they weren’t best friends, they were close.

  The cab stopped. Clair paid the driver and we both ran into the hospital. We acquired the room number from the receptionist and continued down the wide, clean hallways, bumping into people but we couldn’t care about them.

  I finally reached the room with Clair right by my side. We both sucked in some air and smiled. Lily and Dan were in separate beds, lying comfortable with goofy grins on their faces. My mother and step father were sitting next to them.

  “What happened to you guys?” I cried, hugging them both and going to my mother. She had a tiny smile on her pale face.

  “Lily was coming out of the library and Dan passed by. On their way home, they got mugged,” my mother said, sighing at the end of the sentence.

  “Are they going to be okay?” I asked and a sigh escaped from my lips as well.

  Mother nodded and wore a hopeful smile. As long as they were fine and were going to be okay, I had nothing to worry about.