Authors: Fabio Bueno
She sighs. “Another pair gone.”
“We’ll get you another
,
”
I say. I’m more worried about her head.
“No, we can’t. They’re special prescription. Made in London.
It’ll
take weeks.
”
We reach an agreement: I won’t call 911, but I’ll drive her to the ER. I
tell
her she
needs to have x-rays, and she agrees
with reluctance (after all, I’m experienced in head injuries).
“How are you feeling?” I ask.
She coughs more before answering. “Half-dead.”
“Will you tell me what
happened?”
My eyes are on the road. I go as fast as the law allows. No sense
crashing the car
on our way to the hospital.
She says in a low voice,
“I was so stupid. I actually believed Jane wanted to talk
.
But she asked me—as a Sister.”
“Sister?”
“Later,” she says, her voice tired and raspy.
She uses her ripped t-shirt to stop the ble
eding. She’s wearing my spare shirt I keep i
n the gym bag.
I sneak a peek and smile.
“What?” she asks.
“Not many girls can pull off wearing a ‘Yes, I’m handsome’ t-shirt,” I say.
She looks down
at her chest
and sees the wet circles of her bra. She
deliberately
wraps
her arms
around herself
.
“You didn’t waste
any
time undressing me,” she says.
I smile, not because of the joke, but because she seems to be doing well. I
say
, “
I’m a trained lifeguard.
It was all very professional.”
“Did you sneak a peek?”
“No comment
,” I say, grinning.
“You saved me,” she says. “Thanks.”
“I guess we’re even now.”
Drake fills
out
the
ER
paperwork for me. He’s a little surprised when he learns I want to pay for it and not use insurance, but he doesn’t ask
any questions
.
They insist
on
calling Aunt Gemma. I’m
only
seventeen, after all.
A young doctor arrives and says,
“Hey, it’s you guys again
.
”
I recognize
her.
She
attended to Drake when he had
a
concussion. When we tell her I
hit my head and almost drowned
, her
eyebrows go up.
“How did that happen?” she asks, sounding skeptical.
Drake opens his mouth, but I cut him off.
“Drake was in the locker room
,
and I was by the pool. I was
monkeying
around while I waited for him. I slipped on the wet floor, hit my head, and fell into the water.”
“Uh-huh,” she says, not entirely convinced. “Let me take a loo
k.” She examines me for a while
and adds, “You bumped your head on what, exactly?”
“I… I’m not sure,” I say.
Drake says, “I guess it was on the ladder’s handrail. She was close to the steps when I found her.”
I sho
o
t him a thankful look. The doctor
glares
at him.
“How long did it take to resuscitate her?”
Drake narrows his eyes. “From the time I
heard the splash
to the time she was breathing again… about two minutes?”
She nods. “I’m
order
ing
a CAT
s
can.” She asks Drake,
“
Would you mind going to the nurse’s station and asking one of the nurses to
come here, please?
”
Drake is eager to comply. After he leaves, she turns to me, “Are you sure that’s what happened?”
She’s
onto
my lie. Oh, God
d
ess. I stall. “What do you mean?” I ask, trembling a bit.
“Did he hit you?”
I exhale. I smile to her. “Drake? Are you kidding? He’s the sweetest guy I know.”
“Are you sure?” She is looking into my eyes.
“Yeah!”
“And he saved you? Performed CPR and everything?”
I nod.
She doesn’t say anything for
a
while. We’re having
a
staring contest. Finally, she leans forward.
“In that case,” she whispers, “you hold on to this guy.” She winks.
I’m stunned. Before I can say anything, Drake is back.
“
The nurse wi
ll
be right here,
”
he says.
The doctor
checks
my injury
again
. She asks to see Drake’s scar, and
he
shows it to her.
Shaking
her head,
she
says, “
N
ow you have matching scars.
Almost i
n the same
spot
.
You could
ha
ve
just
sprung for matching tattoos instead
.
”
***
Aunt Gemma is freaking out when she arrives. I told her to not call my mother,
but she
is taking none of it.
“And what is that boy doing here?” Gemma whispers to me.
I’m glad Drake is
at
the
cafeteria
getting coffee. It’s his turn to walk around
the hospital
in drenched clothes. And it’s my turn to spend the night in the building.
“H
e saved me and brought me here
. I guess
he earned the right to
stay
.
”
“Did you slip and hit your head?” she asks, as suspicious as the young doctor.
I
recite
the same story I
told
the doctor. Gemma swallows
it
, but gets back to Drake.
“What about
t
his boy?
Connor
should be here. I’ll call him,” she says, reaching for her purse.
“No!”
N
o way I want to see
Connor
, especially in this situation.
H
e
would meet
Drake, and I’m not ready to handle this right now. Yes, it’s not as important as the search, but it’s still a big deal. To me.
Gemma eyes
me. I say, “
Connor
has nothing to do with it.” She has the phone in her hand now. I add, “Besides, he must be busy with the search.
N
o need to
distract him with a trivial matter.”
This
placate
s
her. “What about Katherine?”
s
he asks.
“If she knew, she’d call me back to London.” I lower my voice and whisper, “And you know the Mothers need me here.”
Gemma nods, deep in thought,
and leaves the phone alone. Thank Goddess the
Knowings
are so gullible.
Drake comes back. After a few awkward moments between Gemma and him, I tell him
he can
go home.
I sho
o
t a look to Gemma, who huffs and puffs, but leaves us alone for a moment. I beckon to Drake.
He approaches my bed. I think about kissing him. But
it would
only confuse him further.
Instead, I whisper in his ear, “Thank you. I’ll tell you what happened. I promise.”
He nods,
but
leaves without smiling.
Oh, Goddess.
Skye called my house this morning. She wants to meet and talk. I’m glad she’s keeping her promise. I pick her up.
Yep, I’m skipping school again.
We
need
to
get
new phones (Mona is going to be mad). I ch
o
ose
a mall
on the Eastside. We cross the 520 bridge on our
way over, the
waves splashing on the sides of the floating structure
.
I want
to put an ocean between us and Jane, but I guess Lake Washington will have to do. Besides, I don’t want to run into
anybody
I know while we have our little chat.
At the
store,
I ask for waterproof phones. T
he sales clerk gives us horrible service
, but
Skye
can’t
stop laughing.
I know
of
this big, beautiful park south of the mall
, nest
l
ed between tall office buildings.
We buy ice cream and amble
over
there. We pick a bench apart from everybody else and watch the joggers circle the half-mile ring around the park.
On the lawn, away from us, a dog fetches a
Frisbee
.
To our right, water
cascades
into a mirror pool. I don’t like being so close to water after our
recent
experience, but Skye doesn’t mind.
We finish our ice creams and take
our time.
“So…” I say.
“So…”
“Ladies first.” I
bow theatrically
.
She sighs and looks down. Then a burst of words comes out of her.
“Jane approached me when school was over. She wanted to talk,
away from other people.
I still can’t believe I fell for that.”
I put my hand on hers. “You’re just too trusting.”
She shak
es her head. “I should ha
ve learned not to be by now.”
“What do you mean?”
I hope she’s not talking about me.
Skye glances at me
, but soon lowers her eyes again. “I
thought the pool building would be empty, and we went there. We talked a little bit, and when I got distracted, she pulled out a knife and hit
me with its
butt
. That’s the last thing I remember.”
She looks at me with expectant eyes. Maybe she realizes I know she’s lying. Well, no reason to leave her hanging.
“What did you talk about? Me? Mr. Darcy?”
She turns to me and says, “Who?”
“Your boyfriend? Or is he Jane’s now?”
Her hand grabs the bench
. “Jane’s?
”
I’m angry, but I can’t leave her in the dark. “Jane told me she hooked up with your ex. British dude. What is he doing here?”
Her other hand covers her mouth. A light shines in her eyes. “He knows her!
Wait.
That’s
how he knows her?”
She bites her
fist
softly, staring into the distance. It’s like I’m not here.
“Snap out of it, Skye. Do you think that’s why she attacked you?”
Sky
e turns to me, her eyes wide. “It might be.”
She sounds
detached
.
I try to forget what
her shocked reaction
spells for me. She has feelings, huge feelings for this guy. I’ll go into that later. Now I need to know something else.
Slowly
, I reach for her hand
,
the one
still
covering
her mouth
,
and
ask,
“What did you talk about then? Why did you act like you knew each other on your first day?”
She looks
past
me. She’s making something up.
Even now, she won’t tell me the truth.
I give her another chance. “Before you answer, there’s something you must know. When I arrived at the pool, Jane was in a trance
of sorts
, chanting or praying
or whatever
, with blood on her hands, totally
spazzed
out.”