Competing With the Star (Star #2) (16 page)

We went into the living room to eat our cupcakes and watch
Just Friends.
My mind was reeling and I just wanted to call Nick and hear his voice.

“He is so friend zoned,” Asia said, pointing to Ryan Reynolds on the TV screen.

“Yeah, but sometimes you do want that guy to go out with when you need an ego boost,” Simone said, laughing. “Like, I feel crappy, so where’s the guy who thinks I’m a goddess? He always makes me feel better. Huh, why not?”

Pilar looked over at me with her eyebrows raised. Even Asia got quiet.

The movie ended and Charlotte asked what we thought of it.

“Ryan Reynolds is hot,” Simone said. “How could anyone friend zone him?”

Asia laughed nervously and Pilar smiled and said, “And that sums it up, doesn’t it?”

“Whatever. Do you guys want to watch the next movie?” Simone asked.

“You know, I’m super exhausted,” I said. “It’s been a long day.”

Asia looked surprised. “Okay, well, we can text my dad. Hope you had a great birthday.”

She gave me a hug and Simone suggested they walk over to her house. Charlotte got up to leave and I told her to hang on so I could pack up a cupcake for her grandpa. While I was boxing it up, I asked if she could stay longer. Then I told Charlotte and Pilar what happened with Nick.

“That breaks my heart,” Charlotte said. “He must have felt so vulnerable coming over here.”

“Yeah, that is kind of big,” Pilar said. “He has consistently said he was innocent and my brother has said a ton of girls have been interested and he hasn’t been talking to any of them.”

“Should I call him?”

“I would, but I still like Lucas, so what do I know about anything?” Pilar asked.

Charlotte giggled. “Yeah, call Nick. He must be so anxious right now, wondering what you’re thinking and how you felt about the gift.”

“Would it be weird to ask you to put it on speaker? Like, I know it’s a private moment, but I kind of want every detail so I can better assess it and dissect it for when you ask me what I think later,” Pilar said, laughing.

“Give me a minute,” I said as I called him. “It went straight to voicemail. Is he blocking me?”

Charlotte shook her head. “Why would he spill his guts, give you an ‘I love you’ bracelet, and then block you?”

“Yeah, unless you shot him down, I’d say he’d at least wait for a call. Try a text,” Pilar said.

“What do I say in it?”

“Write, ‘Thanks for the bracelet. I’d like to talk. Please call me when you get a chance.’ It’s short and simple.”

I texted him and nothing happened. We all stared at the phone, waiting.

“What the crap, Nicholas?” Pilar said, poking my phone with her finger. “He always has his phone on him. Do you have their landline number?”

“Yeah, I’ve never used it, but he’s called me from it before.”

I called the home phone number next and still no answer.

“Maybe he went out,” Charlotte said.

“He hasn’t been feeling well, so I doubt it.”

“Let me call Kevin. Maybe he knows if he’s out with the guys,” Pilar said.

Charlotte and I went to get another cupcake when Pilar ran over to us.

“Kevin said he was at our house when he got a call. The nursing home was sending his grandfather to the hospital and they couldn’t reach his parents. He’s at St. Mary’s with him right now. Kevin’s supposed to keep trying to reach Nick’s mom and dad, but their phones are off because they’re at an event.”

“Is Mr. Jenkins going to be okay?”

“Don’t know, but Kevin said if we want to go up there, he’ll pick us up.”

“I don’t know. I mean, that might be too intrusive to show up like that,” I said.

Char shook her head. “If I was alone and my grandpa was in the hospital, I’d want somebody there who cared about me.”

Pilar nodded. “I agree. I would too, but you know him better than anyone, Hadley. What do you think he’d want you to do?”

I took a deep breath.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kevin drove up and Char and I got in the back. I asked if he had heard from Nick since he got the call.

“He texted me once to ask if I got ahold of his parents. His grandpa’s in a part of the hospital where you’re not allowed to use cell phones, so he has to walk to another wing to call and he doesn’t want to leave him alone.”

Charlotte reached over and squeezed my hand. “Is he in the ICU?” she asked.

“Yup. You guys are going to have to lie and say you’re family to get in there,” he said, and looked at his sister. “Good luck with that, P.”

“Maybe I’m adopted, or part of the family is Japanese. I’ll get huffy if they question me,” she said.

“We’re there enough with Grandma that they’ll probably recognize you,” he said.

He pulled up near the emergency room entrance. “Do we go in here?” I asked.

Kevin and Pilar looked at each other. “We’ve been through this a lot,” she said. “We kind of know the drill.”

“Yeah, I can’t get you into a club, but I know what to say to get you in the ICU. And that whole two people in the room at a time thing? I got that crap covered,” Kevin said.

Pilar smirked. “Limited visiting hours? I laugh in your face. I’m staying.”

“Good luck,” he said.

Pilar went up to the desk and said we were there to see Mr. Jenkins and said we were his grandchildren. Then she started asking the guy behind the counter pointed medical questions about levels and stuff I didn’t understand.

“Do you know his oxygen levels?”

“I just handle the charts,” he said. “You can ask the nurse.”

He let us in and Pilar winked at us. “You just gotta act like you know what you’re talking about.”

We got over to the room and suddenly I couldn’t move.

“I can’t intrude on this personal, private moment. He doesn’t need my drama on a day when his grandpa is in intensive care,” I said.

“You might be exactly what he needs,” Charlotte said. “The worst he can do is throw you out.”

I walked in and Nick was sitting next to his grandfather. He looked stunned when he saw me and stood up.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I heard you were here all by yourself,” I said. “How’s your grandpa?”

“It’s pneumonia. I think I got him sick. I wasn’t feeling well, like, two days after I saw him and I just had a little cold, but maybe this is all my fault. I swear I felt fine when I was at the nursing home. If I thought I was sick I never would have gone,” he said. “And mine lasted two days. I feel fine now or I wouldn’t be in here.”

“Of course not. You always put him first. This isn’t your fault.”

“I go every weekend to watch the movie with him. I don’t even know if he realizes that, but I didn’t want him to be confused and wonder where I was on Saturday, so I went. I was kind of tired, but that was it. No symptoms or anything.”

“You didn’t know.”

“I have good intentions, so why do I end up hurting everyone I care about?” he asked.

I didn’t know what to say so I walked over and sat down next to him. Mr. Jenkins had his eyes shut and an oxygen mask over his face.

“Is he going to be okay?” I asked.

“The doctors seem to think so. Thank you for coming.”

I nodded and said Pilar and Charlotte were in the hall.

“Oh, do you have to go?” he asked.

“I can stay as long as you need me.”

“Good, because I need you,” he said.

“Do you want me to go and see if Kevin heard from your parents yet?”

He shook his head. “No, just stay with me, please. I guess this isn’t the birthday you had planned, huh?”

“I got some nice gifts,” I said.

“Oh?”

“Mmhmm, I got a bracelet I love.”

“Oh yeah?”

I moved my sleeve and just pulled the
You’re My Person
one out to show him. “Pilar got it for me. Isn’t that sweet? And Asia got me this one.”

He nodded.

“But I kind of like this one as well,” I said, pulling my sleeve up to reveal the one he had given me.

He looked shocked. “You’re wearing it.”

“Yup.”

“Just to be clear, this is the one from me and not some other guy, right?”

“Yup.”

His grandpa made a gasping sound then and Nick stood up to check on him. Nick’s face was creased with worry and I realized that compared to the rest of us, Nick, Pilar, and Kevin had been through so much worrying about hospital visits and family members.

Nick sat back down and stared at his grandfather.

“I don’t get it, Hadley. I wasn’t that sick. I stayed home the extra days because after we talked on Saturday, it sounded like you were starting to see my side of it. I was hoping you’d call and when you didn’t, I was so down. I didn’t want to deal with facing anyone and I was hoping you’d reach out to me if you thought I was sick. And now I might have infect—”

“Don’t. You didn’t.”

“I caused this. It’s
all
my fault.”

I shook my head.

“Nick, honey, we didn’t have our phone on.” Nick’s mom rushed into the room with his dad. “Oh, Hadley, thank you for being here with him.”

The nurse filled in Nick’s parents on his grandpa’s condition and said Mr. Jenkins was stable.

“Hon, why don’t you take Hadley home? You could use some rest,” Mrs. Jenkins said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, go. Oh, Hadley, did you like your birthday gift?” she asked with a smile.

I nodded. “Loved it.”

“Good, now take the birthday girl home.”

Pilar and Charlotte were sitting on a bench by the nurse’s station.

“How is he?” Pilar asked him.

Nick filled her in and then blamed himself for causing it.

“You don’t even sound congested,” Charlotte said.

“Nick, take it from someone who has been here enough that the nurse over there called me by name,” Pilar said. “This was most likely caused by him getting food into his lungs. He’s in a wheelchair so he doesn’t move around like he used to and you and I both know they put them to bed soon after dinner at the home and that’s not the best thing for digestion. Plus, he needs a lot of liquids when he eats, so there ya go. It wasn’t your fault.”

He looked at me, unsure. “But I didn’t feel good Sunday night.”

“Hold on.” Pilar walked over to the nurse. “Do they know if this pneumonia is bacterial or what?”

The nurse looked at Nick. “It’s very common with people in wheelchairs to aspirate and we have orders that when he’s able to eat, he needs pureed foods for that reason. He’ll be fine.”

The nurse went back into the room and Nick looked over at Pilar.

“So it wasn’t my fault?” he asked.

Pilar shook her head.

We started to walk out of the ward when Nick asked if we could go into the chapel for a minute.

“Are you riding with us, Nick?” Pilar asked.

“No, I have my car.”

“Should we meet you at your house, Hadley?” she asked.

I nodded. “Why don’t you come over for a bit, Nick. You shouldn’t be alone tonight.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Nick and I went into the chapel and lit candles for his grandpa. We sat down and the room was so quiet and peaceful with the flickering candlelight. There was a book left open on the seat next to me with prayer petitions people had written down. I noticed one person had written:

Please pray for a merucal for my dad
.

I realized they meant miracle and had just sounded the word out. Nick reached over and held my hand as we sat in silence. After a few minutes we went out to the parking lot.

“You all right?” I asked.

“I dunno. I guess. That nurse seemed pretty sure Grandpa was going to be okay. Right?”

“Yeah, I don’t think she would have told you that if there was any doubt in her mind.”

He nodded. “True.”

“I had no idea how much Pilar had been through with her grandmother,” I said. “You should have heard her with the desk guy. She sounded like a doctor.”

“Yeah, she and Kevin are both talking about going to medical school. I think going through all of this with her grandmother has made her see everything differently, you know?”

We pulled into my driveway and went inside.

Charlotte and Pilar were at the table eating popcorn.

“We’ll give you a little privacy and take our snacks and go watch
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
,” Charlotte said.