We made our way to Walker about twenty minutes after Lauren left. Nick and Dylan were already there. Meredith, Brian, Jaime and I were greeted with joy, because firstly the three of them hadn't seen us for a while and secondly, we are always happy to see each other. We always greet each other with hugs, no matter where we are and how long we haven't seen each other. After hugging us all at least twice, Dylan paused.

"Where are Lauren and Joey?" He asked. He must have seen on our faces that something was wrong because I asked again. What's up with them? Did something happen?"

I shrugged apologetically. "We'll explain later. Please wait a moment, will you?"

He nodded. Albeit with a very worried expression on his face, but he nodded.

We made ourselves comfortable in the living room and just talked like that. I couldn't concentrate properly. There were two reasons for this. First, of course, Joey. And second Meredith. Mere sat across from me. Directly opposite. And she looked adorable. She always laughs a lot and today again. She has a wonderful laugh, so contagious. And her eyes shine so much. Her beautiful brown eyes. I could lose myself in them, I could stare endlessly into her eyes and not get tired. She's the prettiest and kindest person I've ever met. Really everything about her is beautiful. I think I'm falling in love with Mere. Slowly but surely. Later, Brian. For now, you stop staring at Meredith.

"Bri, is everything okay?" She asked me.

As if waking from a daydream, I continued to stare at her, this time because I wasn't exactly sure what to answer. "Um ... yes, I'm fine"

She didn't look like she believed it, but she didn't ask any further questions. For the next few minutes, however, she gave me a concerned look every now and then.

About half an hour later the doorbell rang again. It had to be Lauren. I jumped up to open the door for her.

"Hi" I hugged her too. "We haven't told them yet"

She apparently understood what I was talking about. For some reason I wanted to get around saying what "it" is.

"Well then, let's get it over with," and we went back to the others.

"Hi Lo, nice to see you," greeted the other Lauren and gave her a short hug.

"What's going on?" Joe asked, concerned.

Before saying anything, she sat down next to Jaime, then sighed. "Joey had an accident"

Joe, Nick, and Dylan stared at her silently, then looked at us as if to make sure this was really true.

"What?" Nick asked slowly. "When? How? Why? How is he?"

"Joey got hit by a car yesterday," Jaime said. "He was in the wrong spot on the sidewalk and a car went off the road because of the black ice. He is still unconscious"

"And you tell us that only now?" Joe shouted upset. "We've been sitting here for over half an hour and you haven't said a word about it!"

"I think we wanted to wait for Lauren"

"Where have you been anyway?"

"With Joey," Lauren replied quietly.

Dylan didn't say anything. Dylan just sat there. Dylan looked like he didn't really know what to do. Dylan was confused.

Eventually he said, "What about him now? Is there anything we can do?"

"At the moment it doesn't look like it. We have to wait until he's awake and then we'll see"

We all sat in silence for a while. For a long time. Joe rested his forehead on his hands and looked at the floor. Dylan and Nick stared at different walls, blinking every now and then. The rest of us just kept quiet, we had already more or less processed the whole thing yesterday, so we knew that it would take time.

The rest of the afternoon was rather sad. We tried to be happy, but we didn't really succeed. I caught myself staring at Meredith several times. She just looked so pretty, even if she was sad. Without my noticing it, a smile crept onto my face. Was I really falling in love right now? Could I do that? Was that possible? I had just accepted it earlier, but now I was unsure. What was Mere to me? One of my best friends, if not my best friend, yeah. But was there really more to what I felt for her, or was I just blown away? Always those stupid feelings to worry about...

In the evening everyone went back to their apartments and didn't stay at mine again. So, I had enough time to think without being distracted by Meredith the whole time. But that didn't really help me. I could only continue to suspect that I was about to fall in love with Meredith. But I still wasn't sure, although every time I thought about the matter, I felt more certain. And in retrospect, I even imagined that she would look over at me once in a while in the afternoon. Was it normal when you loved someone? I didn't know, I'd never really been in love before. Strictly speaking, I didn't even know if I was in love. But I could assume it and I was happy with that for the moment. I need someone to analyze my feelings with me. I would have loved to have done it with Joey, only for known reasons that was not possible at the moment. Brian maybe. I looked at the clock. 10:42 pm. No, I would wait until the next day to do that. I was too tired now. The last picture I had in mind before I fell asleep was Meredith's smiling face.

******************************************

I woke up to my phone ringing. I was sure I had only had a few minutes of sleep, but as I reached for my cell phone, I glanced at the clock on my bedside table. 5:13 am. After all, I had slept six and a half hours. Without looking at the number, I answered the call.

"Hello?" I asked sleepily and rubbed my eyes.

"Brian? He woke up," I heard Lauren say excitedly.

"Who? Joey?"

"Duh! Who else do we know who should wake up?"

"Probably pretty much everyone at this time of day," I replied as I was getting dressed in something different. "Can we see him? Do you know anything? Who else did you tell?"

"Yes, we can see him. I have only called you and Rosenthal. Could you call the others? Please?"

"Yeah, sure. You go ahead. And above all, drive carefully. The roads are still slippery and you are probably nervous. Be careful!"

"Yes, Brian. I'll be careful. But you too"

"See you" And with that, I ended the call.

Meanwhile I was dressed warm enough to go outside.

I quickly dialed Meredith contact and called.

"Please, Mere, please wake up. That's important," I muttered to myself, because it felt like an eternity before Meredith answered the call.

"Brian? Do you know what time it is? What is so important?"

"Mere! Joey woke up!" I said no more and I heard Meredith climb out of bed.

"Really!? And what's next?"

"Lo is already on the way to him, we should let the others know. We're allowed to see him" I'm just as excited now as Lauren was when she told me about it.

"Great! You call Brian, I call Jaime, then it'll be faster"

"Lauren called Brian already. I'll call Dylan" Then I hung up.