Crossing the Barrier (33 page)

Chapter Sixty-Two

MALAKAI

When Malakai woke
up from surgery, he felt like the room was tilted at an angle, and his arm was numb.

“Hey, you okay, dude?” David asked, walking to his side.

“Yeah,” Malakai said, puzzled to see his friend.

Then he remembered his father was not here. His father was gone, again.

“You by yourself?”

“Nah. Trainer Smith is here. He went to get coffee. He should be here shortly. You should be released in an hour or so. I don’t know how it works, but the trainer has the authority to sign you out.”

“Lily? She’s not with you?” Malakai asked, searching behind David.

David sighed. “I knew you would ask about her.”

“Wh…what’s going on?” he asked, trying to sit.

His heartbeat accelerated, and the heart monitor picked up on it.

“Calm down, dude,” David said, pushing him back on the bed. “Nothing happened to her, I mean physically. But when she got home last night, all of her stuff was sitting in a moving truck at the curb, and her mother had changed the locks on the house.”

“What?” Malakai asked, trying to sit again.

He wasn’t sure he had heard right. It couldn’t be. The drugs must be making him imagine things.

The heart monitor was picking up again.

Lily, kicked out of her house?

“Calm down, dude. You’ll have the nurses come running, and you’ll be stuck in here for another day or so,” David said, pushing him back down on the bed again.

“Her mother kicked her out?”

“Yeah. My mom was still trying to reach Charlie when I left this morning. Listen, dude, don’t worry about her. My mom’s taking care of her.”

“I should be there,” he said, guilt choking him.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it, man. There’s nothing you can do right now. You’re chained to this bed until you’re discharged.”

It seemed like the doctors and nurses were never satisfied enough to discharge him. They kept on checking on him while all he wanted was to leave and get to Lily. By the time he was finally allowed to leave, two hours later, his arm had begun to regain sensation, and he was getting increasingly uncomfortable.

Ten minutes after he was pronounced ready to go, he was dressed in the clothes David had brought him and was following his friend and the trainer to the parking lot.

“You sure you’re okay with driving him home, David?” the trainer asked once they were in the parking lot.

“Yeah, I’ve got this.”

David opened the door to his truck and Malakai got in. As Malakai buckled his seat belt, the trainer took a step forward and stood in the doorway.

“You’ll be all right?”

“Yeah, I think,” Malakai answered.

“David, stop at the pharmacy for his meds on your way,” the trainer said, looking at David over the cab.

“Will do.”

“Now, if something seems out of place, or you feel weird in any way, you call me, okay?”

Malakai nodded.

The trainer took a last look at Malakai, then closed the truck door.

A few moments later, David pulled out from the parking lot and drove down the road to the highway.

“I really don’t feel so good,” Malakai said five minutes later.

They had been driving on the highway, and the motion of the truck did not agree with him at all. He had the impression he was on a boat during a storm.

“No kidding,” David said with a chuckle.

“David, I think…I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Hold on,” David said, becoming serious.

He merged to the right, a car honking as he drove by, and took the next exit.

The moment David found a place to park, Malakai was out of the truck and emptying his stomach in the nearest trash can. It was a miracle he had been able to hold on for that long.

“Dude, maybe I should have let the trainer drive you home,” David said, scratching the back of his head. “Maybe we should go back to the hospital.”

“No. I have to get to Lily. Besides, the anesthesiologist said it could happen.”

“Yeah, but I don’t like it.”

Malakai sat down at the curb, exhausted. He had a bad taste in his mouth, and his arm was throbbing.

“Listen, dude, let me get you something to drink. I’ll be right back.”

Malakai nodded and watched David walk to a nearby store. Once alone, he put his good arm across his knees and laid his head on it.

Lily needed him, and he couldn’t pull it together.

What type of boyfriend was he?

“Here,” David said, interrupting his thoughts.

Malakai looked up. David was offering him a bottle of blue energy drink, the kind he liked. The cap was already removed. Malakai took the bottle from the center and took a sip. He rinsed his mouth and spit it out. Once he was done, he drank some more, relieved the bad taste was mostly gone.

“Okay, man, we’ve got quite a ways to go still,” David said, concerned. “You think you can make it?”

Malakai nodded and gave David the bottle of energy drink. David recapped it and helped Malakai to his feet.

“You sure you want to go to Lily?” he asked. “I should take you home so you can rest.”

“Lily,” Malakai said, getting into the truck.

David closed his door.

Malakai put his head on the headrest and closed his eyes. He wished all of this was a bad dream, but the throbbing in his arm told him otherwise. He had dozed off at some point since all of a sudden, they were at David’s house.

“We’re here,” David said.

Malakai got out of the pickup truck as best he could, then leaned on it, not sure he would make it to the door.

“This is a bad idea,” David said, walking to his side and assisting him to the front door.

Someone opened the door as they got closer.

“Malakai,” Nicole said, coming to meet them. “David, you did well. I forgot to tell you to bring him here before you left. And you wouldn’t answer your phone. He needs someone to look after him.”

“Mom, he wants to see Lily.”

“Lily’s gone to her uncle’s.”

Malakai stopped in his tracks and tried to turn around to make his way back to the truck, but David stopped him.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Nicole asked, coming to his other side and grabbing his upper arm, careful not to touch his injury.

“Lily,” he said, his heart tearing at the thought she wasn’t here, that she was alone.

“You’re in absolutely no condition to go see her right now,” Nicole said severely, pulling him toward the house. “Besides, you look like crap. She doesn’t need to worry about you on top of everything else that’s going on.

“Now, let’s take care of you, then we’ll figure out a way for you to see her, once you look a little better than a corpse.”

“That’s right. Talk to him, Mom. He wouldn’t listen to me,” David said over Malakai’s head.

“Not helping, David.”

They made their way into the house, and David brought Malakai to a guest room.

“You’re sure it’s okay if I stay here? I won’t be in the way or anything?” Malakai asked, sitting on the bed.

David chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. Besides, now that I’m thinking of it, if Mom had known I left you home alone, she would have chewed me to bits. She’s quite the mother hen, my mom,” he added, proudly.

Malakai nodded, then looked at the bed. He really wanted to be alone right now. He was in pain, and knowing he had no parents to help him made him feel even worse.

“I’ll get you some ice. The doctor did say the swelling has to go down before your appointment Tuesday morning.”

Malakai nodded again. Slowly, he lay on the bed and put a pillow under his splinted arm. He then brought his good arm over his eyes and closed them, wishing he could sleep.

“Here,” David said, startling him.

Malakai had begun to drowse off.

“Thanks,” he said, taking the ice and putting it around his arm. “Would you give me my phone? I really should call Lily.”

“Yeah, sure.”

David retrieved it from Malakai’s bag and gave it to him.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then,” David said and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Malakai looked at his phone and dialed Lily.

“Malakai,” she answered after the first ring.

Her voice was broken.

“Are you okay?” they both asked at the same time.

“You go first,” Lily quickly said.

“I’m okay,” he said, squeezing his eyes shut. “You?”

“No, I’m not,” she said, sniffling.

“I’m so sorry I can’t be there,” he said, feeling a stab to his chest. “I…I’m so sorry. I wanted to go to you when I found out you weren’t here, but Nicole wouldn’t let me.”

“You’re at David’s?”

“Yeah, David took me here to see you, and Nicole didn’t want me to be home alone,” he said. “I thought you were still here. I’m so sorry I’m not there for you.”

“I’m sorry I’m not there for you, too,” she said, sniffling again.

They talked for a few minutes and hung up.

Malakai put his phone on the bedside table and winced when he felt the pull and hitch of his arm. He brought his good arm over his eyes again and tried to sleep. He didn’t know how long he had lain there before sleep finally claimed him.

Chapter Sixty-Three

MALAKAI

The pain woke
Malakai later that evening, the pain and the fact he was so warm he was drenched. He opened his eyes slowly, realizing the warmth on his right side was actually someone.

“Lily,” he called.

As her only response, she hugged him, cutting his air supply.

“Hey,” he said, caressing her hair. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t go to you.”

“I know.”

Sorry didn’t even begin to really express how he felt.

He felt inadequate; after all, she couldn’t rely on him. He felt like a loser, just like when he hadn’t caught the ball that would have given the team the game.

“Tell me what happened,” he said, his throat raw.

She did, sobbing against his side, holding him like he was a life preserver in the middle of the ocean.

“I’m so, so sorry,” he said again, at a loss for what else to say.

How could he even try to help his girl? Without thinking, Malakai moved his injured arm to hold her. The pain that shot through him was blinding.

“Malakai!” Lily cried, suddenly looking up at him.

Malakai was short of breath, and tears came to his eyes. He was angry to the point of hitting something.

“I…I think I need the painkillers,” he said a little shorter than he intended. “And I need to use the bathroom.”

Lily got up and waited by the bed. Slowly Malakai sat, and, as she approached to help him, he just looked away in shame. He didn’t want Lily to see him this way, weak and sick. He didn’t want her to be there for him. He wanted to be there for her. This reverse of situation was not setting well with him.

Lily must have felt it because she took a step back.

“I’ll…I’ll get the painkillers,” she said and walked out of the door.

Malakai closed his eyes, fighting the pain in his arm and the pain in his heart. Why did he have to break his arm just when Lily needed him the most? Why did he have to be so weak when he so desperately needed to be strong for her?

“Hey man, need a hand?” David said, walking into the room.

“David, I’m…How can Lily want me after this? I’m not even there for her.”

He had failed her over and over again. With Wes, with her mother, and now with this.

“Stop talking nonsense,” David said, helping him to his feet. “The drugs are making you say stupid things.”

The moment he was up, the room tilted, and Malakai tilted with it. He would have fallen if David hadn’t caught him.

“Dude,” he exclaimed, making Malakai sit on the bed again. “Mom! Come here!”

A moment later, Nicole walked into the room and closed the door. Malakai was grateful for the little privacy it would afford him. He really didn’t want Lily to see him like this.

“Mom, he was just about to pass out.”

“Malakai, talk to me, honey. What’s going on?”

“The room is spinning. I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Probably an aftereffect of the anesthesia,” Nicole said. “Why are you trying to get up?”

“Restroom.”

“Oh, yes,” she said slowly. “Then let’s try to get you on your feet but slowly. Tell us if it’s too much or if you need to throw up.”

After a few minutes, Malakai was able to go to the restroom and make his way back to his room where he sat on the bed. He had begun to shiver in his wet clothes.