- Brandon's POV -
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My brain felt fried. So did the rest of my body. I groggily opened my eyes, attempting to clear the buzz in my ears. “Wha…What happened?” I murmured. My lips were chapped.
“Brandon?” I heard a gasp from beside me. “Oh, Brandon! You’re awake!”
“Mom?” I painfully moved my head to look at the owner of the voice. There sat my mom, anxiously wringing her hands but now with a relieved smile on her face. She leaned forward to hug me, but when she touched me, pain shot through my shoulders and I yelped.
“Oh!” She pulled back. “Sorry, dear. I got a little ahead of myself.” Leaning over, she pressed a button on the side of the table. At first, I was confused—Why is there a button on the table?—but then my brain slowly registered the sterile white walls and IV cord hooked up to my hand.
My dad sat in a chair on the other side of the room, also smiling at me. “Welcome to the land of the living,” he said, rising to come stand beside me. “You almost left it.”
“John!” scolded Mom. “Don’t tease like that!”
“Oh come on, Charlotte, he’s fine now.” Dad winked at me.
I would have smiled, but even blinking brought sharp pain to my head. “What happened to me? Why do I feel like I’ve been set on fire? Why am I in the hospital?”
Mom shared a look with Dad. “Well,” she said hesitantly, “as unlikely as it seems, you…were struck by lightning.”
“I what?!” I tried to push myself up into a straighter sitting position, but groaned and fell back against the hospital bed as the pain in my skull returned. “I what?” I repeated.
“You were struck by lightning,” Dad affirmed. “What do you remember of last night?”
A nurse in turquoise scrubs rushed in and began bustling around me, but my parents refused to be pushed to the side. As the nurse checked my vitals and the levels in my IV, I recounted what I recalled.
“I was playing volleyball,” I said slowly. The nurse muttered something about straining myself by talking, but I continued. “I was going to drink a gatorade…it was raining…and I leaned out of the shelter and then…” I trailed off as I remembered the loud crack and blinding flash.
“And then the lightning hit you and you blacked out,” my dad finished for me. “Your friends called an ambulance and they rushed you here.” He shook his head. "The strange thing is, you’re fine. There’s nothing wrong with you, on the outside, that is.”
The nurse affirmed his statements. “You’re all good,” she told me. “Your vitals are working. We couldn’t even find the place the lightning struck you.” She shook her head, her ponytail bouncing around. “It’s all very odd. The doctors are going to come check you and later we’ll run some X-rays, but if all is well there’s no reason for you to stay here.”
My headache was gradually lessening, so I made it into a sitting position. “And you’re sure I got struck by lightning?” I was finding it hard to accept it. After all, the probability of being struck by lightning was extremely low. Maybe I just—Maybe it was—Well, I guess it couldn’t be anything other than lightning, I admitted to myself.
“Yes,” Mom nodded. “It was definitely lightning.”
I shook my head, wincing at the pain. “Ow,” I said, putting a hand to my head.
“We should go.” My mom stood up, motioning for Dad to do the same. “You need rest,” she said in her no-nonsense mom voice. “We’ll let you get inspected and then sleep.” Leaning down, she kissed my forehead, ignoring my protests that I felt fine.
Dad gave me a look that said “there’s no moving her now,” and smiled at me. “See you tomorrow, Brandon.”
“Bye guys.” I gave a small wave that actually didn’t hurt too much.
The nurse fluffed my pillows and told me the doctor would be in shortly. “Just lie back and relax,” she said.
So I did.
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(the chapters get longer but these are kinda short; to make up for it i'll post two today)
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