Catching You (2 page)

“Everything is all right with you two, isn’t it?” Though she
sounded concerned, I knew she didn’t mean it. She didn’t like Ryan much and was
just praying that we’d break up.

“Yes, we’re fine,” I replied through gritted teeth. I hated
when my mother acted all overprotective of me.

“All right. I guess we’ll see you two for dinner, then.” She
kissed my cheek and started to walk away.

“I think you forgot the munchkins” I leaned down and pried
my little brothers Spenser and Noah from around my legs. “I’ll see you guys at
dinner.” I said and ruffled their curly red hair.

“Are you ready to go?” I hadn’t even noticed that Ryan had
come over by me.

“I guess so.”

Ryan laughed.“Is something wrong? You don’t sound like
yourself,” he said, running his finger over my cheek. I didn’t answer him. I
could smell the alcohol on his breath.

“You smell like alcohol. Have you been drinking?”I accused.

He didn’t answer me.“Let’s just go.”We said goodbye to our
friends and headed towards the car.

As we walked away, I noticed that Ryan was acting weird. He
kept glancing over his shoulder every few minutes.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He glanced back at me. “Nothing. I just thought my parents
would be here, but I guess they decided they had better things to do than be at
their own son’s graduation.”

I knew he was lying because he’d told me earlier in the
month that his parents were going to be off in the Bahamas the week of
graduation.

I didn’t know how else to bring up what I was going to say,
so I decided the blunt approach was the best one.

“What’s really going on? My first thought was that you were
cheating on me, but then I thought that was ridiculous. It is, isn’t it?” I
asked.

Ryan stopped. “Of course it is.”

I peered over at him. “Then what were you and Elisabeth
talking about for so long?”

He leaned over and kissed my forehead. “I don’t want to talk
about it right now, but it doesn’t have anything to do with our relationship.
In fact, not everything revolves around you, you know?”

Yanking open the car door, I didn’t even care as it hit the
car parked next to us. I slipped into the car, slammed the door shut behind me.

“Lauren! How could you do that? My father is going to kill
me now! He said that if I wrecked one more car, I’d have to take the bus
everywhere. He’s sick of paying for my ‘childish mistakes,’ as he likes to call
them. He had to do enough of that with my brother.”

 “Riding the bus isn’t that bad.” I reached over and patted
his arm. He pulled away.

“You just don’t understand,” he mumbled. Jamming the key in
the ignition, he roared out of the school parking lot, spitting gravel. He
cranked up the stereo, letting the sounds of electric guitar dull his thoughts.
I reached over and turned it down.

 "Ryan, what's going on?” His knuckles turned white
from the strong grip he had on the steering wheel. He closed his eyes, as if
driving by instinct.“Nothing.”He clenched the wheel tighter.

“It’s not nothing. I heard you say something about Ben back
there. What did you mean?”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now. Okay?”His voice
rose with each syllable.

“Well, I do. I’m sick of you not telling me things anymore.”

“Well, maybe that’s because every time I tried to, you
change the subject. Not everything is about you, Lauren.”

“Fine. Then what do you want to talk about? We’re alone, no
distractions. It’s the best time as any right now.”

“Since you asked, I guess I can’t keep avoiding it,” He
turned towards me. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking these last few weeks and
I want to break up.”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t even form words. My mind
was racing,
how could this be? Ryan wanted to break up with me. What
happened to us? I thought we were happy
. A few minutes later, I spoke, “It
isn’t Elisabeth, is it?” I asked softly. He shook his head.

“I just think that we need some time apart, that’s all.”

 “I don’t feel very well, do you think you could just take
me home? I’ll explain everything to my parents later.”

“Is it one of your normal headaches?” he asked, suddenly
concerned.

“I don’t think so. Can you just take me home?” He nodded.

I felt myself dozing off, hoping that a few minutes of sleep
would get rid of my headache.

A few minutes later, a car horn blared, jolting me awake.
The squealing of tires roared in my ears and all I saw before the two cars
collided were headlights coming at us. The air bag ballooned from the dashboard
causing my head to snap backwards. My life didn’t flash before my eyes like
everyone said but, I was immediately aware when I heard a loud snap. My fingers
flew to my face, catching tablespoons of blood in my cupped hands. I groaned.

Then my vision went blank.

My head felt fuzzy as I struggled to open my eyes.
Where am
I?
The walls were stark white and the florescent lights so bright I had to
squint to see anything. I tried to sit up, but found myself unable to move. I
looked down and saw that I was wearing a hospital gown. It was short-sleeved,
thigh length with snaps on the sleeves and the shoulders as to not disturb the
IV that I had in my left hand.
What happened?

“Mom, what’s going on?” I asked. My voice sounded scratchy.
My parents were sitting in the rooms only chairs, my father sleeping with his
head against the wall. At that moment, she glanced over at me.

“Can we get a nurse in here? My daughter’s awake!” she
bolted out of the chair and ran for the door. “My daughter’s awake!” she
repeated. She woke my father with her screeching.

“Mom, do you think you can keep it down?” I begged. I place
my hand at my temple; my head felt like a million jackhammers were going off at
once. I turned to my father.

“What happened?” I asked.

My father started to say something, but paused. He glanced
over at my mother and she nodded. When he patted my hand, I noticed that he had
tears in his eyes. Now, I was definitely worried.

“Honey, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you and Ryan
were in a car accident tonight. The doctors say you’ll be fine, though. You
just bruised your ribs and have a few cuts, nothing major.”

“What about Ryan?” I blurted out. My parents looked at each
other again.

My father cleared his throat. “Honey, Ryan didn’t make it.
The doctor said that with his injuries he more than likely died on impact. I’m
sorry.”

I felt his arms go around me in a hug, but I was
frozen. It couldn’t be true.

“You’re lying. It can’t be true. Ryan can’t be dead,” I said.
My voice shook. Tears swam from behind my eyes. I wouldn’t let them fall.

“It’s true. I’m really sorry.” My father moved away from the
bed. My mother leaned over, gave me a hug. I didn’t return it.

“I want to be alone.” My voice cracked.

“Of course. We’ll go.” My mother gave my father a “let’s go”
look and gestured to the door.

“Oh.” He walked towards the door. He turned in the doorway.
“Bye, sweetheart.” He gave a sad smile.

“Bye, Dad,” I managed. I sighed in relief as the footsteps
faded down the hall. Leaning my head against the pillow, I glanced at the
clock. 10:00 pm. The graduation ceremony had ended around 7:30 p.m. so
that meant Ryan I should have made it to dinner with my parents shortly after.
Instead, he’s dead and I’m in a hospital bed with bruised ribs and a few cuts.

I tried hard to remember what happened after Ryan and I left
the school, but couldn’t remember much at all. I vaguely remember fighting
about something and then I woke up in the hospital. I must have been given some
pain medicine because I could feel my eyes starting to get heavy. A few minutes
later, I was asleep.

The next morning I tried to roll over, but found it
difficult to move. I opened my eyes and realized I wasn’t in my bedroom. That’s
when I remembered the accident, a tear rolled down my cheek, but I quickly
brushed it away.

Glancing towards the window, I noticed my mother sitting in
one of the chairs.

“Morning, Mom, "I groaned trying to sit up.

She rushed over, firing questions at me. “Did you get any
sleep last night? How are you feeling this morning?”

“I’m in a little bit of pain because of my ribs.” I took a
deep breath, winced, and gave my mother a disgruntled look.

“Well, let me see if I can track down a nurse so she can
give you some pain medication. The doctor came in earlier, but you were still
sleeping and he didn’t want to disturb you. I’ll get the nurse to track down
the doctor for you.”

I glanced around the room and saw a cart to my right. I tried
to lean over and move it towards me, but the pain in my ribs stopped me. When
my mother came back with the doctor, I was trying to catch my breath.

"I'm glad to see that you're awake now. I’m Dr.
Summers, how are you feeling this morning?” he asked

“I’m a little sore and hungry.”My stomach let out a big
growl.

“I guess that’s proof there, isn’t it?” He came over and
pressed on my ribs.

I winced. It even hurt taking a breath.

"Ouch, that hurts! Do you think you could be a little
gentler?" I asked scowling at him.

 "Sorry. I just wanted to check something."

He then turned to my mother, "Her ribs are definitely
bruised, but there isn't much we can do, except give you a prescription for
ibuprofen to give her as needed. It's important that she takes it because it
will help with breathing as she begins to heal.”

 "I'm also going to send you home with an incentive
Spiro meter, which is a tool that encourages deep breathing. It measures lung
capacity so Lauren will be able to see how well her lungs are recovering as her
ribs heal. I'll go find a nurse and we'll get you some pain medication for
those ribs."

“Am I able to eat yet?” I asked as he began walking towards
the door. He chuckled.

“You did say you were hungry. Let me check with the nurse
about what you can eat for now.” My mother followed him out.

“Thanks.”
I closed my eyes
as they left the room. I heard
him
and
my mother whispering
in the hall and then silence.
A nurse walked in a few minutes later.

“Dr. Summers told me
that you’re hungry.” She glanced down at a clipboard, “It says here that you’re
on a liquid only diet.” She looked around and saw the cart that was pushed
aside.

“Here you go, dear.” She
rolled it over towards me and opened the lid. She smiled and went over to put
something in the IV drip before she left the room. Before I could start to eat,
I heard a knock at the door.

“Go away!” I yelled. The knock came again. Whoever it was
wasn’t listening. The door opened and Elisabeth stood in the doorway. She was wearing
pink sweatpants with Aero on the butt, a white, short sleeved t-shirt that said
“This one time at band camp…” and pink flip flops. She had her dark brown hair thrown
in a messy ponytail and it looked like it hadn’t been washed since yesterday.

“Oh hey, how’d you get in here? Visiting hours aren’t until
11:00 am, it’s only 9:30,” I said, glancing up at the clock.

“I told the nurse I was your sister,” she replied.

“That’s priceless.” I smiled. She didn’t smile back. She
looked down at her nails and began picking at her manicure.

“You can come closer. I’m not contagious,” I said, trying to
lighten the mood.

 She began bouncing from one foot to another. “I’m sorry to hear
about Ryan.”

 “Thanks.” I glanced over at Elisabeth; she’d moved further
into the room, but was still keeping her distance.

 “That’s better,” I said. She smiled sadly.

 “So, what’s going on?”I asked.

 “Nothing. I heard about the accident and wanted to come
visit you. I had to make sure you were all right. After hearing that Ryan died,
I was scared. They told me that you were okay, but I had to see for myself.”

“Thanks. Physically I’m all right, except the ribs, but
mentally may take a while. I can tell that something else is wrong, now spill
it,” I joked.

“Um, Ryan told me he broke up with you. Is it true?”

“Yeah, he did.” I frowned. “How did you know that? It just
happened yesterday after graduation.”

Elisabeth was quiet for a moment. “That’s what we were
talking about afterwards. I saw you looking over at us. I’m the reason, Lauren”

I stuttered, “Wha…What do you mean you’re the reason?”

“I’m the reason you two broke up. Ryan and I were seeing
each other. We have been for a while now.. I told him I wasn’t going to
continue sneaking around behind your back.” She paused. “It was either you or
me. He couldn’t have both anymore.”

She continued talking, but I stopped listening. I couldn’t
take this right now. I felt sick to my stomach. I leaned down, grabbed the
basin the nurse left earlier and took
a
deep
breath waiting for the nausea to pass. It didn’t.

A few minutes later, I threw up everything that I’d eaten
the day before and my chest felt like it was on fire. Elisabeth came over, “Are
you okay? Do you want me to get the doctor?” she asked quietly.

I shook my head. “ No. I just want you to leave.”

“Lauren, about what I said…” Her words trail off.

“Get out!”I yelled. Elisabeth just stood there. “I said get
out!” I repeated.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Yeah, I am, too,” I said voice muffled into my pillow. I
turned away hoping she’d get the hint. I waited until I heard retreating
footsteps to look and see if she was gone.

I couldn’t believe I heard her right… she and Ryan had been
“seeing” each other behind my back. My best friend, my boyfriend.
I thought
he loved me.