Jealousy by Jenna Galicki

still no answer. She couldn’t call Peter.  He was already at the electronics store, and he was too busy to leave, plus, she didn’t want to hear another lecture about how irresponsible she was.
    “ Damn it!”  She hit her leg with her fist.  She had no choice but to check on it herself.  If she ran, maybe she could still catch her train.  She abruptly turned and bolted across the street back toward the house.
    She never saw the car coming.  She only heard the blaring sound of its horn and the screech of its tires on the asphalt.  She didn ’t even have time to scream.
     
    Chapter Seventeen:
    For two hours Justin paced around the stark white hospital waiting room.  It was morbidly quiet and the somber faces of its inhabitants, all waiting for news about the prognosis of their loved ones, unnerved him.  Justin repeatedly asked the nurse for an update on Heather’s condition, but there was none.  Heather was still in surgery.
    Justin chewed his last fingernail and turned away from the window.  He watched Peter, who still hadn ’t moved from in front of the small TV on the wall.  He wondered how Peter managed to remain calm and composed. He wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake some emotion into him.  Justin sat down next to Peter, but he couldn’t sit still for more than a few minutes.  He harassed the nurse again.  She was starting to get annoyed.
    The doctor finally appeared, still in his operating room scrubs, and asked for the family of Heather Cooper.  Justin ru shed to the doctor’s side, but he had to wait for Peter to get up from the TV before the doctor could explain what happened to her.
    Heather was hit by a car while crossing the street and thrown several yards.  When she landed, she was impaled by a piece of metal.  It entered her lower back and almost protruded through the front of her abdomen. Her right kidney was lacerated and her spleen was severely injured in the accident.  They were unable to save either organ.  The main concern right now was the function of her remaining kidney.  It needed to handle the extra burden of doing its job without its mate.  She also had three fractured ribs, a pulmonary contusion and extensive bruising.  It was a miracle she didn’t break any bones or have a concussion.
    Justin stared at the doctor, almost in shock, as he absorbed the extent of Heather ’s injuries. She was lucky to be alive.
    Justin and Heather were born a month apart and grew up next door to each other in the same little town in the suburbs of New York City.  When Justin turned 18 and decided to move out of his parents’ house, he couldn’t leave without Heather.  They searched for apartments together and finally found two that were within walking distance of one another.  Years later, when Peter needed to move closer to his electronics store, Heather wouldn’t go with him unless Justin moved out to Long Island near them.  Justin didn’t hesitate, even though it added another 40 minutes to his commute into Manhattan to the salon every day.  He ended up taking an apartment five blocks away from Heather’s new house.  They had been inseparable since they were babies, never more than an arms’ length from each other.
    The thought of losing Heather arrested him.  She had been beside him for the last 32 years.  She gave him the strength to persevere when society crippled him. He could never go on without her.  Never.  Overwhelmed by the thought of losing his best friend, Justin sobbed heavily into his hands.
    The doctor reassured Justin that Heather’s condition was stable, but he wouldn’t believe she was OK until he saw her.  They were keeping her sedated for the next 24-48 hours to compensate for the pain, but he didn’t care.  He needed to see her.
    Justin knew Heather would look bad, but he wasn ’t prepared for her altered appearance.  Her face was swollen almost beyond recognition and she had a breathing tube in her throat.  Various machines