Read Online Paralyzed by Jeff Rud - Free Book Online Page B

“I’ve felt so bad with you lying in here. I wanted to let you know that I didn’t mean...”
    â€œNaw,” Nate said, shaking his head. “Don’t worry about it. It didn’t have anything to do with you. I’m the one who—”
    The door to the hospital room burst open. In strode Nate’s mom.
    â€œWhat are you doing in here?” she yelled, flashing me the same angry look she had given me last week. “I told you not to come back. We don’t need you here!”
    â€œMom,” Nate interrupted. “It’s okay. He’s my friend. We’ve been to football camp before. He’s just checking to see how I’m doing.”
    â€œFriend!” the woman shrieked. “What kind of friend does this to somebody?”
    When she said the word “this” she pointed to Nate, lying in the hospital bed. I was feeling sick to my stomach again.
    â€œStop it, Mom!” Nate yelled. “Reggie didn’t have anything to do with this. It was my fault, not his. Why are you doing this?”
    I didn’t know what to say. I started to back away from Nate’s bed. “I’d better be going, anyway,” I stammered. “I’ve got to get to school. Take care, Nate.”
    The woman had taken a seat in the corner of Nate’s room. She had her head buried in her hands. It seemed like she had already forgotten I was there. Nate waved at me and shrugged his shoulders, looking over at his mom and back at me.
    I left his room feeling a little better than when I had entered. The fact that Nate’s condition was improving was awesome news. He didn’t seem the least bit mad at me, which was also a huge relief. His mom, however, was a very different story.
    For the entire bus ride to school, all I did was think about what had happened in that hospital room. Nate’s Mom had been so upset. I still didn’t really understand why.
    My detour to the hospital meant that I had missed third-period math. It was lunch hour by the time I arrived at Lincoln. I was heading to the cafeteria to find some of the guys from the team when I heard myname being paged. I was to go to the office. Probably because I’d missed math.
    When I got to the office, Coach Clark was there waiting. Beside him was another man, wearing a dark suit and carrying a briefcase.
    â€œHi, Reggie,” Coach said, smiling. “This is Mr. Danton from the Northeast Athletic District office. He wants to speak with us. Can you spare a couple of minutes?”
    â€œSure.”
    The three of us walked down to Coach Clark’s office. Once inside, the coach pointed each of us to a chair and then closed the door before sitting down.
    â€œReggie, I’m sure you’re curious about what’s going on,” Mr. Danton said.
    I nodded.
    â€œHere’s the situation. We’ve had an official complaint about you from Milbury. It didn’t come from the coaches or the players. But the complainant feels that you behaved inappropriately during and after the play on which Nate Brown was injured.”
    Once again, I felt queasy, and my mouth went dry. Hadn’t pretty much everybody been telling me that none of this was my fault?
    â€œI’ll be straight with you, Reggie, because you deserve to know,” Mr. Danton continued. “The complaint is from Nate’s mother, Elizabeth Brown. She feels strongly that something you did on the field caused or helped to cause Nate’s injury. And she’s particularly upset because she feels you were celebrating after the play. She wants you suspended.”
    I was speechless.
    â€œWe’ve looked over the video from that play and directly afterward,” Mr. Danton continued. “There is no evidence to suggest that you did anything wrong. In fact, the accident was clearly Nate’s fault. And it’s obvious that what you were celebrating was your interception, not the fact somebody got