Broken (The Outsiders Series) (16 page)

18

Vani was taken to the hospital. She suffered from internal bleeding, fractured ribs, and a broken nose.

I’m there every day. School doesn’t matter to me anymore. Nothing matters except Vani and the recovery of her broken body and shattered soul.

Principal Wiggins stops by to personally deliver my class work and homework. He picks it up every Friday and brings back the grades on the following Monday.
Mrs. Tucker took off work, and Jeb gives her the money he would have given me, so that she can make it to the hospital each day.

Each day, I tell Vani about Anne Marie and everyone else. They’re getting into some serious trouble over this.
They’re expelled from school grounds and are getting sent to an alternative school. They’re all receiving one-on-one counseling sessions with a psychologist. And they’re still investigating the physical abuse. Vani doesn’t want to press charges, but Mrs. Tucker is pushing it.

And I don’t care about any of that anymore. Anne Marie got what she deserved. She’s gone from her popularity world. She’s going to be known as a bully when she goes to that alternative school. She won’t get anything that she wants. Jail, on top of all that, would be cool. But it’s not something
that I care too much about. All I care about is Vani.

“Carter,” she whispers. It’s been a couple days after the accident and she’s waking up from one of her pain pills. Her voice is small and scratchy. She doesn’t use it as much as she should because she’s always knocked out.

I look up from the novel I’m reading for Spanish. She wanted us to read a novel that we enjoy, except she wanted us to read it in Spanish. I decided on The
Diary of Anne Frank
. It’s because I watched
The Freedom Writers
for Vani. And after watching the kids and how the book affected them, I had to find out on my own. I plan on reading it in English after I’m done, because I’m sure I’m not getting a lot out of this version.

“Yes?” I say as I shut my book.

“Thank you for saving me. I would’ve lost the will to live without you.” She looks up at me with her beautiful green eyes, and I shiver inside. She is
my
reason for living. There is no way, I could be hers.

But
I smile and squeeze her hand. “Are you hurting? Do you want me to call the nurse?” I ask. I pull my hand away to reach for the alarm button.

Vani
shakes her head. She reaches out to take my hand again. When she finally has it, she rubs her thumb along the back of it and looks at me. Her hands are soft and I squeeze it in a silent signal of my love.

“I love you,” she says simply. “You were the one that saved me from myself, Carter. Before you came, I didn’t want to live anymore. I just wanted to survive.”

“Vani,” I start.

She shushes me so that she can continue her speech. “
Your persistence and fight showed me that I could be wanted – and not in the way that a mother wants her child to be safe and healthy. Really wanted. Because, for the first time, someone that I didn’t know wanted to see who I really am. You pushed your way into my life. You fought for me. And, sometimes, I still don’t know why.” She pauses and I interrupt.

“
Your strength to overcome everything that you’ve faced showed me that I can’t feel sorry for myself. You’re so much stronger than I ever thought possible, Vani. Here you are, open to love. And it’s so easy for you.”

She shakes her head. “No it’s not,” she argues. “
I don’t know how to love any more than you do.” She laughs.

“I guess we’re just two broken people,” I say with a sigh.

“But we found each other. And that’s all that matters.”

I look up into her green eyes. “You make me whole, Vani. You are my purpose, my future, my everything. And I will never walk away, even when you push me. I will
stand by you. And I will never leave you again. I’ve learned my lesson, Vani.”

Vani reaches up and touches my cheek. “
Did you know that I wanted to say yes? To the winter formal, I mean.” She pulls away and bites her lower lip in an attempt at hiding a smile.

“Why didn’t you?” I ask.

She shrugs and smiles to herself. “I didn’t want to ruin your chances at making friends, at being someone.”

“So you always cared about me,” I say more to myself than her.

“Of course I did, Carter. Because you always cared about me. Sometimes, you have to make sure that you aren’t being selfish.”

“So you pushed me away.” I smile at her. “But I wouldn’t budge.”

She shakes her head.

“Vani,” I say.

“Hm,” she replies. Gosh I love it when she does that.

“You were created to save me.”

“No,” she says with a shake of her head. “We were created to save each other.” She winces and takes a deep breath. Her heart monitor starts beeping faster.

“I love you, Vani. More than anything,” I say as I reach over and press the button to call the nurse in.

---

Over the next few days, they lower Vani’s dosages of the pain medicine. She’s up a lot more, and the teachers are sending her alternative assignments and stuff.

I’m helping her with a Spanish assignment, when I bring up Colton. I’ve been thinking about him a lot, and he’s stopped by a couple times. Vani’s always asleep, though. He stopped by yesterday, but she said she wasn’t ready to see him. And she stopped the conversation right there.

“Vani,” I say.

“Hm,” she replies.

“I told Colton to stop by after lunch. He’ll be here soon.”

Vani closes her notebook, closes her eyes, and sighs. “I told you that I wasn’t ready, Carter. Colton is something that I can’t deal with right now. Please just tell him I’m asleep.” She looks up at me, pleading.

I shake my head. “Vani, you’ll never be ready.”

She turns her head. I know she’s angry with me, but she’s not the only one suffering. Colton is hurt too, and she has no idea how much she hurt him when she said that she wouldn’t talk to him.

“Vani,” I say as I reach out to take her hand. “You need to do this. He’s feeling the same way you are, and this is something that you need to face. And you’re not alone. You have Colton, and you have me.”

Vani shakes her head. I squeeze her hand, and she finally turns to look at me. Her eyes are filled with tears that haven’t fallen yet. I reach forward and frame her face with my hands.

“You can do this,” I say. “You’re brave and good and strong.”

“What am I supposed to say?” she whispers.

I smile. “Tell him how you feel. Start with that. Everything else will fall into place.”

Vani sighs.

I open my mouth, ready to comfort her some more, but there’s a soft knock on the door. Vani freezes before pulling away and pushing her hair behind her ears. She wipes her eyes and nods once. I stand up and open the door.

Colton is standing there with flowers and a card. He walks in and gives them to Vani. She takes them and smiles up at him.

“I’ll be outside,” I say as I head toward the door.

“I love you,” Vani says.

“And I love you,” I reply. Then, I
head out to the snack lounge, where I sit until Colton comes out. He’s got a smile on his face, and he walks up and shakes my hand before pulling me into a hug. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to how much these guys hug.

“Thank you,” he says. “And thank you for being good to her.”

I nod, and Colton walks away. I know we won’t ever be friends. I don’t think it’s in the cards for us. But I’ve got Vani and Lane and Ryan. That’s all I’ll ever need.

---

A few weeks later, I’m walking down the hallway with Vani, Lane, and Ryan. Yeah, Lane and Ryan are together now. And both of them seem pretty happy too. They keep talking about the prom, because it’s two weeks away. Neither Vani nor I knew about it, because we haven’t been at school until today.

“So why didn’t you tell me about it?” Vani asks Lane.

“I didn’t want to stress you out about it,” Lane says sweetly. “I knew you’d worry about the dress and stuff.”

Vani shrugs. “I only have one dress so there isn’t much to worry about,” she says. And I squeeze her hand, because it’s amazing how unafraid she is. She knows that
she can be herself, and people will be okay with that. I still can’t understand how no one cares about how I lied.

“Besides,” Colton says as he slings his arm around Ryan’s shoulder. “There’s something you need to see, Vani.”

Vani bites her bottom lip and looks at the ground. “What is it?” she asks.

Colton laughs and squeezes between Lane and Vani so that he can be the one to show her.

I’m not surprised when I step around the corner and see huge posters that tell everyone to vote for Vani as prom queen. Her eyes get super huge. And I figure that it’s usually a senior, so there must be some school pride thing going on. The tears in Vani’s eyes tell me that it’s the truth. And when she reaches up to touch one of the posters, Lane bursts into tears with her.

“I can’t hold it in anymore,” she says to Ryan and Colton.

I knit my brows in confusion. “What are you talking about, Lane? You haven’t stopped crying since Vani left the hospital.

We all laugh and she hits me lightly. “Oh hush, Carter.”

“I think she’s talking about something else,” Colton says as we turn down the hall toward the main office. When we get there, he pushes the door open. “Can we go look at it again?” he asks the woman in the front.

She smiles and waves at Vani before waving us to the back.

Vani and I follow Colton and the rest of the gang. We turn into a room that holds a bunch of paperwork and extra school supplies. And there, hanging on one of the metal racks, is a dark blue prom dress.

And two weeks later, when Vani walks down the steps from her apartment, I have to force myself to breathe. The dress is a tank top that crosses in the back and ties behind her shoulders. It cuts down low so that I can see her back. And the front, well let’s just say that Vani has some amazing cleavage. It’s not pouring out of her dress like Candy’s probably are tonight. It’s perfect.

Vani bites her lower lip and spins around for me to see.

Her hair is curled and pulled back into a bun. Shorter pieces of hair fall out to frame her face. And she’s got on these amazing silver shoes. Yeah, she’s pretty much perfect. And I make sure to tell her it too.

I lean down to kiss her soft lips. She pulls back with a laugh, telling me that I can’t smudge her lipstick until after her mom and Jeb take pictures. I laugh with her and hold my arm out so that we can walk inside. Lane and Ryan, along with Colton and a new girl, wait for us.

Colton’s mouth drops open when he sees Vani. He walks up to her and gives her a hug before going back to stand with his date. Lane’s on the verge of crying again. She laughs to make herself stop.
And Ryan just pats my back.

I smile and think back to how he was always there for me, even if he was afraid to show it. He
fought Todd that second time. He found me and took me to go save Vani. He saved Vani with that text. He was a good friend to me, the best one – other than Lane, of course.

After our hellos, we stand in the front hall while the parents take a hundred pictures. Lane’s mom was the craziest. She made us do all kinds of poses. We stood on the stairs, stood in front of the door, stood on the porch with the sunset around us, and even stood by the limo that Colton’s dad got us. He also got us a hotel room: one for all of us so there’d be no funny business – according to his words.

We finally get away from the flashing lights and into the limo. It gives us just enough time to swing by the restaurant so that we can eat something. And when we get there, we’re surprised by the fake wine and high-end steak. Mr. Hudson comes out with his apron on and talks to us for a while. No wonder why he didn’t show up to take pictures. And he’s doing a great job of getting them now.

And when we’re done with our amazing food, we get back in the limo and head to the gym. The dance has an old southern charm theme, and we walk into a room full of white columns and southern belles. Men in old suits – chaperones – walk around and escort us to the photo booth, where we stand in front of a picture of a white mansion. When we finish with the pictures, we head out onto the dance floor, where a slow song starts up right away. It’s perfect.

And Vani looks flawless tonight.

I pull her into my arms and we sway to the soft song. After a few seconds, I realize that it’s our song, and I pull Vani’s lips up to meet mine. She kisses me softly. It makes my insides tingle and I have to pull back before I try to make out with her in front of everyone. She’s not that kind of girl. And I don’t want the whole school to wonder about the two of us and whether we’ve slept together. Time to keep it classy.

When I pull back, I tell her I love her. And she leans forward so that she can rest her head on my chest. We sway like that for a few more songs. Then, we wait for the voting and the crowning.