Heart to Heart (3 page)

A public blowup; the gossip mill would be churning tomorrow. If anyone had seen them and had a
cell handy, the whole mess might be posted on YouTube or Facebook within hours. Not good.

A clap of thunder made me jump. “Where are you?”

“Just driving around. Some old country road.”

“It’s pouring here.”

“Here too.”

“Go home. Call me later.”

“I hate him …” Her voice trailed off. We lost the connection.

I paced the room, working up words to console her.
You’re right, he’s a creep. Jan went after him. He adores you, El. You!
Deep down I was thinking,
If I get my hands on you, Wyatt Nolan, you’re a dead man
. No wonder I didn’t want a boyfriend. Boys were trouble! They lied and cheated. The more I paced the madder I got. Wyatt was a snake.

At some point I sat down and picked up my geometry book. Studying for a test was over. I cleared my bed. Fuming, I stretched out, deciding that when Elowyn called I wasn’t going to say a thing to encourage her relationship with Wyatt. I was tired of being the messenger and the fixer. It was time I told El to lose him—not because I was jealous, but because I hated to see her so upset. She could easily find another boyfriend. A line of guys was waiting to grab her up.

I woke from my cell vibrating against my cheek. I
had set it not to ring because Mom didn’t allow me to take calls after ten and I was expecting Elowyn to get back to me. Disoriented, I sat up and looked at the clock bleary-eyed. Twelve-twenty. I snatched up the phone, flipped it open. “El?”

“Terri,” the voice said. “It’s Terri.”

I sat up straighter. “Yes?”

With a tight voice, she asked, “Is Elowyn over there with you? She hasn’t come home.”

“Is she there, Kassey?” Terri asked again.

“N-no,” I stuttered.

“Because if she is, if something’s happened—just tell me the truth. I won’t be mad. Her dad and I are worried sick.”

“She isn’t here, Terri. I swear. Cross my heart.”

“Oh, God,” Terri mumbled. “Have you heard from her tonight?”

“Yes! I did. She called me about eight.” I wasn’t sure how far to go with details.

“Where was she?”

“Driving home. On some country road.”

“But why? Why would she be out in the country?”

“Um—to clear her head.” My voice sounded
shaky and I realized this wasn’t the time to hold back anything. “She—um—she’d had a fight with Wyatt.”

“Was he with her?”

“No. She was alone.”

Silence. She finally said, “I know it’s late, but I’m calling his house.”

“Terri,” I blurted before she could ring off. “Please call me when you know something. Please.”

Her voice softened. “I will, honey. My first call will be to you.”

I was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee when Mom came downstairs at six-forty the next morning. She was partially dressed for work, having to leave the house by seven to get to her downtown office by eight in heavy Atlanta traffic. “What’s this? I usually have to drag you out of bed.” She looked hard at me. “Are you crying?”

I nodded.

She dropped down beside me. “What’s wrong?”

“Elowyn never came home last night.” Haltingly I told her what I knew.

“Her parents must be frantic,” she said.

“Where could she be?”

Mom smoothed my hair. “Maybe she’s at home by now and Terri’s just waiting for a decent hour to call.”

I shook my head. “She wouldn’t do that to me.”

Mom settled into a chair, took my hands in hers. “It’ll be all right, baby.”

I didn’t believe her. Clutching at her hands, I said, “Mom, please don’t make me go to school today.” Without Elowyn to pick me up, I’d have to ride the bus, and it was due two streets over in fifteen minutes. “I—I can’t sit in school … not knowing … anything….”

“Tell you what,” she said. “I’ll call Kathy and tell her I won’t be coming in until after lunch.”

“You’ll stay with me?”

“You shouldn’t be alone while you wait to find out what’s happened to your best friend.”

I threw my arms around her and sobbed.

For once I was glad about the cell phone ban at school. I knew the news about Elowyn, about her public blowup with Wyatt, would be all over the building, and since I was her best friend people would be looking to me for details. I only wanted to talk to Terri. Mom and I sat by our phones willing them to ring. When my cell finally rang it was about ten o’clock. I almost jumped out of my skin. I grabbed it and said, “Yes?”

“The police found her in her car this morning,” Terri said dully.

I screamed and Mom stood up and took the phone. She talked quietly, then hung up and said, “They’ve taken her to Emory Medical, neuro ICU. Get in the car.”

The drive to the sprawling medical complex seemed endless and the February day—gray, cloudy, and cold—matched my mood. I didn’t trust myself to talk, but Mom told me what Terri had said, which wasn’t much. “Her car skidded off the road in the rain and hit a ditch. The air bag deployed, but she hit at an angle and didn’t get much protection. A man walking his dog in a field saw the back end of the car sticking up from a ditch. It was lucky he came by because the car couldn’t be seen from the road.” Mom glanced over at me huddled in the corner of her car. “She’s hurt bad, Kassey.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. I wanted to cover my ears too.

“That’s why she’s at Emory. They’re the best for head injuries.”

Neuro ICU was a giant, dimly lit room behind a glass wall. Machines sat beside every bed and nurses worked as quietly as ghosts, checking IVs and monitors attached to silent, sleeping patients. The central nurses’ station directed us to a family waiting room where we found Terri, her hands covering her face. When Mom spoke, Terri bolted from her chair and hugged her, then me. She smelled like coffee, mints,
and fear. I started to cry but made myself stop. Terri didn’t need me to fall apart. “H-how is she? Is she in that room?” I pointed at the glass room down the hall.

“In bed number eight. They only let us in for ten minutes every hour. She’s in a bad way,” Terri said, her voice husky.

Just then, Matt, Elowyn’s dad, walked in with two cups of coffee. He looked haggard and grim. His skin had a grayish color. “Hey, Kassey … Susan. Would you like some coffee? I don’t mind going down for it. Better than the stuff up here.” He nodded toward a small table with a coffeepot and Styrofoam cups. The stink of burned coffee hung in the air and made my stomach queasy. I hadn’t eaten anything this morning. Mom and I declined his offer.

“What else do you know?” Mom asked.

“In the accident her head was slammed sideways into the glass.”

“My fault,” Matt mumbled. “I shouldn’t have bought her the car.”

Terri took his hand, shushed him. “Don’t say that, honey. It was an accident.”

I remembered how happy Elowyn was with her beautiful new red car.

“Thank God she was wearing her seat belt or she could have been thrown from the car and killed,” Terri said.

I thought back to the times we’d not worn our belts while driving. I wouldn’t do that ever again.

“She has a massive head trauma and a broken foot—the foot probably from applying the brakes,” Matt said. “Some internal bruising from the seat belt, but no other broken bones.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” I asked, hope growing in me.

“Bones heal,” Terri said. “She has a deep brain injury with massive swelling. She’s in a coma. Not so easy to come out of that.”

My hope tumbled. “Can they help her?”

“They’re trying to get the swelling down. It’s not so simple.”

It didn’t seem possible that life could get so topsy-turvy in such a short amount of time. Only yesterday Elowyn and I had been at school laughing in the halls and feeling invincible after volleyball practice, talking about crushing Decatur in Friday night’s match. Only yesterday she’d asked me to go with her to the mall. If I’d gone, she might not have been driving on that stretch of road. I’d have been with her and would have been talking to her, trying to defuse the situation with Wyatt. I should have been with her.

I asked, “Can I see her?”

Terri glanced at my mom. “I’d rather you not go in there today. Maybe tomorrow.”

I was torn between wanting to see her and touch
her and the fear of doing either thing. Mom put her arm around me. “We’ll come back later.”

“But I don’t want to leave.”

Terri took my hand. A fine mist of tears clouded her eyes. “Please. Later.”

We drove home in silence. My mom was always smart about knowing when to talk to me and when not to. I was grateful for that because my emotions were raw and ragged and I didn’t feel like talking. As we rounded the corner of our street, I saw someone sitting on our front-porch step.

“I wonder who that is,” Mom said.

As she turned into the driveway, I recognized the person wearing a gray parka huddled in the cold. I unsnapped my seat belt and flew out of the car even before Mom had fully stopped. I ran swinging my arms and snarling straight at Wyatt Nolan.

I pummeled him with my fists, flailing my arms and yelling the whole time. He didn’t try to move away, just hunched over and covered his head with his arms. He didn’t say a word, just kept taking my blows. I’m pretty strong from playing volleyball, so I know I was hurting him.

From behind me, I heard Mom shouting. “Kassey! What’s the matter with you? Stop that! Now!” She tugged at my arms until she broke through my fury. She crouched next to Wyatt. “Are you all right?”

“Mom, don’t—”

She whipped around and said, “You stop it! Stand back. I mean it. You don’t go around attacking people. You’re not an animal.”

Wyatt looked up. “It’s okay, Mrs. Mesacheck. I deserve it.” His voice was flat. He was bleeding above his left eye. My anger deflated at the sight of his bright red blood trickling down his temple.

“Come inside,” Mom said. “Let me clean you up.”

I didn’t want the traitor inside our house.

Mom gritted her teeth at me. “I’ll deal with you later.”

Much later, after Wyatt was patched up and we were sitting in our kitchen drinking colas, Mom said, “Tell me what set you off, Kassey.”

“He cheated on Elowyn,” I growled.

“It wasn’t what it looked like,” Wyatt said.

“What was it then?”

“I was meeting Jon Lewis at the movies, you know, to see that new action flick, the kind of movie Elowyn hates. I was waiting outside for him and he called and said his dad had grounded him and he couldn’t come. So I was thinking about seeing it by myself when Jan sees me and comes over and we start talking. Turns out she wanted to see that movie too and she was by herself, so we just bought our tickets and went inside and saw it.”

Jan was a snake. And hers was a crime of opportunity. I’ll
bet
she’d come to see that movie.

Wyatt continued. “I didn’t buy her ticket or anything. She bought the drinks and popcorn. All we did was sit together.”

“And share popcorn,” I said sarcastically. “How tender.”

“Kassey,” Mom warned.

“When we went outside after the movie, well, that’s when El saw us.”

“You were holding hands,” I reminded him.

“Jan just grabbed my hand to say thank you.”

I rolled my eyes. How can guys be so dumb!

“I wasn’t cheating!” he cried.

“Do you know what’s happened to Elowyn?” Mom asked.

He nodded. “Elowyn had a car wreck and she’s in the hospital. It’s all over school.”

“How? I didn’t tell anyone,” I said.

“Her dad called in to the front office. Principal Banks announced it over the PA this afternoon.”

“It was bound to come out,” Mom said.

“Why did you come here?” I asked, emotion clogging my throat.

“Because you’re her best friend. I figured you’d know more than anyone how she’s doing. I want to know.”

“Her family is at the hospital.” I saw pain and fear and regret in his dark brown eyes. “Are you sorry because of what happened to Elowyn, or because you got caught with Jan?”

“Not fair,” he said as Mom shot me another warning look.

I crossed my arms, slouched in my chair. “She’s at Emory, in the neuro unit. That’s how she is. She’s in a coma.”

I skipped school the next day too. Mom dropped me off at Emory and said she’d be back when she got off work, insisting that this was the last day I could skip classes. I hurried up to the ICU, found Terri in the family waiting area. She looked as if she hadn’t slept a wink. “How is she?”

“No change.”

My heart plunged. “I—I thought maybe …”

Terri shook her head. “We talked to her neurologist this morning. They keep doing a test on her … the Glasgow. It measures sensitivity to pain in a head-injured patient. A normal reading is fifteen. Elowyn’s a three.”

The news took the wind out of me.

“Matt’s a basket case. I made him go home and clean up. I’ll go when he comes back, then we sit and wait.” She stared at me. “I’m glad you’re here, Kassey.”

“Does this mean I can see her today?”

“Actually, her neurologist wants the people closest to her to talk to her. He says that even when patients are in a coma, they don’t lose their sense of hearing. If we all talk to her, maybe she’ll hear us and …” Her voice broke. “And she’ll come back to us.”

“I can talk to her. I have a million stories,” I said. Over the years Elowyn and I had shared our lives and had a lot of adventures. Surely she’d remember them and wake up smiling.

I turned toward the unit. Terri caught my arm. “She looks pretty grim. Bruised and swollen. Not like the girl you know.”

Terri hadn’t lied. Elowyn’s head, swollen and wrapped in white bandages, looked huge, her face puffy. She looked like a giant marshmallow. I stored the word image so I could tease her with it when she was well. Her eyes were ringed with raccoon-like circles of red-purple, and her eyelids didn’t quite close. IVs and tubes ran from every opening in her body over and under the sheets covering her. Her chest rose and fell with the help of a machine.

“A ventilator,” Terri whispered. “Until she can breathe on her own.”