AJ had gone to this hospital and waited for his mother. She was late, but he supposed that she had just gotten out of work which was more than half an hour away.

"Excuse me, sir, but you can't stand there. You're blocking the way of the doctors from the emergency room," an old woman said. AJ looked at her. She was wearing a white nurse's outfit with her hair clipped in a French twist.

"I'm sorry�I don't know where the waiting room is. Could you possibly lead me there?" He replied sweetly. The woman smiled.

"You're that boy from that group�Backstreet Boys, right?" She said, signaling for him to follow her.

"Yeah. My best friend got in a car accident, and my mom says it's really bad. She's not here yet, and I have no idea where my best friend is." AJ felt comfortable talking to the nurse. She was very kind, unlike some of the nurses he has talked to during the time he had been waiting for Denise.

"And who might this best friend be?"

"Her name is Juliette Sarancelli. I think she's in the emergency room�"

"Juliette Sarancelli�" The nurse looked at her clipboard and searched the papers clipped on it.

"What?" AJ asked when she was done.

"She's one of mine," the nurse said with a smile.

"Do you know if she's okay?"

"I haven't received word yet, but you know, she did look kind of bad when she came in. But I'm sure they'll have her out of the ER in no time."

"Do you know anything about the accident?" AJ asked immediately. He was so scared. He didn't want anything to happen to Juliette.

"I'm sorry, son. I don't. She's your best friend, you say?"

"Yeah. She's my world. She's like the sister I never had but so much better. We've known each other forever. My mom and her parents have been friends since high school, so we were kinda forced to be friends." The nurse smiled at AJ. She liked this kid. He looked like a teenager, but acted much more mature. He had on his blue Nike cap with his rings on four fingers, he looked familiar to her. He reminded her of someone, but could figure out who.

"She's really special to you. I had a friendship like that once. We were unpopular, so the only friends that we had were each other. But one day, he was playing ball with his father and some man just ran close to them and shot them both�" The nurse's eyes were watering, but she fought back the tears. AJ looked at her thoughtfully. What a nice lady, he thought. She could probably help me cope with this whole Juliette deal since she's been through it before. I can't believe I'm actually befriending an old hospital nurse.