What Happened This Morning?

I got a call from my friend Katie this morning. At first, I'm a little rude, asking her, "WHY THE HECK ARE YOU CALLING ME FIFTEEN MINUTES BEFORE MY ALARM GOES OFF?!" (It was 7:12. I get up at 7:30.) 

She goes, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just cranky. Why are you calling?"

"Hunter Moss was in a really, really bad car accident last night."

I sit up. "Oh my God. Is he okay?!"

"He's not dead. Calm down, hun. He's in critical condition. But Lauren - Jake Miller was in that car, too. I don't know him, but Charlie Mercier [who told Katie all this] knows him, and you know him."

"WHAT HAPPENED."

"Lauren, Jake's dead."

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't get air. "No. That's not possible."

"They were out late last night... They had a car accident. Jake's girlfriend was in the car; she's the one that texted Charlie about all this. Charlie said that Hunter should be fine, though!" Katie kept trying to calm me down, because I was about to lose it.

"HOW LATE?! WHAT HAPPENED?! WHAT HOSPITAL IS HUNTER IN?!" 

"I don't know. Charlie didn't know all that. He just told me about Hunter and Jake. Apparently, at least two other people were in the car, and they're okay. Do you need to call your parents?"

"Y-yeah."

"Okay. I'll let you do that. See if they know anything. I'll talk to you in a bit, okay? Just keep praying. Charlie said Hunter should be fine. So calm down, hun."

"O-okay." I hang up, then immediately call my mom. "MOM. DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT."

She's confused. "No, I don't."

"MOM. DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT?!"

She kept repeating, "No." 

I said, "I'm going to tell you. Hunter and Jake were in a car accident late last night. Hunter is in critical condition at some hospital; Charlie didnt know which. He told Katie all this. Jake... Mom, Jake's dead."

She starts denying it. "No, no. He couldn't be. Sarah [my sister] was texting Cassidy [Hunter's sister] last night. She didn't say anything."

"It must've happened later than that. I don't know when it happened. But Mom...Jake's dead."

"I'm going to call Cherene [our youth pastor] and see what she knows. I'll call you back." And she hangs up.

So I start texting Katie.

Mom calls about ten minutes later. "Oh my God, it's true. I just talked to Deanna [Hunter's mom]. She said they were out at 2:00 a.m., driving on Highway 41. Jake was speeding, and he lost control of the car and hit a tree. She wasn't sure whether he died at the scene or in the ambulance, but he didn't make it to the hospital. It took them TWO HOURS to cut somebody out of the car. Two. Hours, Lauren. And Hunter's about to go into surgery right now. His intestines were sliced and spilled into his abdomen, so he's going into surgery to get that cleaned up and make sure there's no infection. His dad drove in from Atlanta to be here this morning. They think he should be okay. Deanna said the others in the car are okay."

"Mom, Jake's girlfriend was in that car."

"Just think about how they're going to tell Blake."

Blake is Jake's brother. They're not twins, but they're close enough in age to be, and they're extremely funny to be around. Jake always took his ADHD meds, but Blake never did, so Blake was always in-your-face LOOK AT ME I'M AWESOME while Jake was the more subltle I WILL CUT YOU.

"I don't want to."

"I'm going to call the school and see if they know. See if I can talk to a counselor there." (Mom was crying when she called me. They lost Mrs. Carolyn a few months ago; now Jake Miller's gone. This is absolutely devastating. Jake just graduated from high school back in May, too.)

"Okay."

"How am I going to tell Sarah?"

"I don't know. She might hear at school today. Charlie's the one that texted Katie."

"I'm going to call the school, and I'll call you later. Are you going to come home?"

"Yeah. I'm going to take a shower. I don't think I'd be able to hold myself together through these classes. I'll send messages to my teachers."

"Okay. Just pull yourself together and be careful coming home, okay?"

"Okay."

And then we hung up. I texted Katie what my mother had told me, and she and I went back and forth.

I sent messages to my teachers.

Mom called again. "Hunter's out of surgery. He was walking around last night, and said that his stomach hurt, so they hospitalized him immediately. They went in, presurgery, found the infection, then took him into surgery to clean him up and get everything back in place. He's going to be fine. It wasn't Jake's girlfriend; it was Bailey and Bailey's girlfriend in the car. They're both fine; they have several broken bones. It was the girlfriend that took two hours to cut out. I called the school and talked to them. Most people from the church are at the hospital (the preacher, the puppet teachers, most people) and several are at Jake's house. It's going to be difficult. Take a shower. Come home. I talked to the people at the school, and they said they're going to handle it. I didn't mention names."

So now I'm about to take a shower and head home. I'm still going to go to the football game tonight, but I'm still unsure as to what's going to happen. I may go to the hospital. 

I'm just... Oh my God. I thought if one of the Miller boys would die, it would be Blake, as horrible as that sounds. He's just insane, off-the-wall. Hilarious. He'd be the ADHD one that would take his eyes off the road and crash. I never...I never would've thought that it'd be Jake. He was so calm and collected.

I hope Blake's going to be okay. Oh my God, I hope he's going to be okay. (They were telling him around 7:40ish.)

It's going to be a bad couple of days.