One Chance (15 page)

“O…kay,” I say through chattering teeth.

I watch as she disappears into the darkness.  I’m not sure how long I sit on the porch freezing before I finally hear someone. “Did you seriously think you would get away with it?” Meg says surprising me.

“Get away with what?” I ask still freezing.

“You think I don’t know you want Liam?”

“I…I don’t,” I say through chattering teeth again.

“Tonight you needed to learn your lesson.  He’s mine, he’s never going to be yours.  He can’t even stand you.  Why do you think he’s doing this to you?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“He wants you gone.  He never wanted you to come here in the first place.”

“Please let me…
in..inside,” I plead.

“I thought I liked you, but you’re just like every other sorry pathetic excuse for a bitch.  You need to be out by the end of the month.”

“Wh…what?” I try to shout.

“We voted
, you’re out of the sorority.  You have until the end of the month to get out of the house,” she says before walking away.

I can’t help when the tears fall.  What the hell have I done?  And why won’t she let me in the damn house?

“Hey,” Quinn yells surprising me, “I got the key,” she says as she unlocks the door quickly, and then rushes back over to help me up, “Holy shit Hails you’re beyond freezing.  Maybe I should take you to the hospital,” she says in a panic.

“No, just want inside,” I say trying to walk into house.

“Okay,” she says as we make our way up the stairs.  She rushes in to the bathroom and turns on the shower to a lukewarm temperature.  I strip and climb in wanting the water to warm me up, it slowly does, but it takes forever.

Once I feel a little better, I make my way over to our room before throwing on sweats and climbing under the covers, trying to get warm again.

“Haley, this has gotten out of control.”

“I have to be out of the house by the end of the month.”

“What?” she yells.

“Meg told me tonight.”

“When?”

“When you left to get to the key.”

“Meg showed up here and didn’t let you inside?” she asks confused.

“Yeah, told me to stay away from Liam. Told me the house voted me out.”

“When was this fucking meeting?  I should have been notified about it.”

“You weren’t
, because you’re my roommate.”

“I don’t give a fuck.  We are going to figure this out tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I say before finally succumbing to sleep.

For the next three days
, I do nothing but stay in bed and try to get warm.  I can’t stop freezing.  Quinn keeps insisting she take me to the hospital, but I feel like I just got the flu.  I also don’t want to have to see anyone, so instead I stay camped out in our room.

On day four
, Quinn seems extra pissed. “Haley you need to fucking eat, you haven’t eaten in three days,” she says as she sets soup down on the nightstand.  I can barely pick my head up rather than worry about trying to eat.

“Too tired, I’ll eat later,” I say as I close my eyes again.

“This shit is going to end now,” she yells as she storms out of the room.

Quinn

It takes me two seconds to run down the damn stairs ready to knock each one of these bitches out, and then I spot him, talking to Meg.  I can see they are in some type of heated discussion, but they haven’t seen anything from me yet.

“You have some fucking nerve showing your face here after wh
at you’ve done,” I yell at Liam as I shove him in the chest.

“What are you talking about?” he asks playing dumb.

“You’re a fucking asshole, and you,” I say as I look at Meg, “What fucking kind of President are you?”

“Excuse me?” she says looking pissed.

“You kept Haley outside in the fucking cold, bitching at her, telling her she has to leave the fucking house because of this dickhead,” I yell pointing towards Liam, “She has yet to get out of bed in four fucking days, because of what you assholes did to her.

“We didn’t do anything,” Meg retorts.

“Oh you did, and you’re going to see how big of a fucking bitch I can be.”

“What are you going to do about it Quinn?” Meg asks sounding bored.

“First, I’m going to figure out what the hell is wrong with Haley and when I’m done I will be back for both of you,” I yell before turning around.

“What the hell do you mean?  What’s wrong with Haley?” Liam asks out of nowhere.

I can’t help how fast I turn around, rage set in, “Don’t you fucking play stupid you fucking asshole.  The underwear, the bras, the fucking pictures, or how about the fucking beer, ice, and cold water that was dumped on her repeatedly the other night.  Then we come the hell home, to be locked outside.  I’m telling you now, if anything happens to her it’s your fault,” I say before turning and running back up the stairs.

I barely make it through the door before Liam almost knocks me over to get to Haley. “Leave her the hell alone,” I yell as I get closer.

“Haley, Haley, look at me,” Liam says to her.

“Too tired, so cold,” she slurs.

“She’s been like this for four days?” he asks anger written all over his face.

“Yes asshole, no thanks to you.  She won’t let me take her to the hospital.”

Before I know it, Liam has her scooped up in his arms, “Let’s go now,” he demands.  I grab my keys and run down the stairs to open the door. I unlock my car and hop inside; Liam slides into the back seat cradling Haley like she’s a small child.

Meg and some of the other girls are standing on the porch watching us. I pull out as fast as possible heading towards the nearest hospital.

“I didn’t know,” I hear Liam say.

“You didn’t know what?” I ask, not knowing if he was talking to me or Haley.

“About the party the other night.  That wasn’t me.”

“Could have fooled us.”

“I’m serious,” he says never taking his eyes off of her, “Shit Hails, I’m so sorry.”  It takes only a few minutes before I’m pulling up to the emergency exit.  Liam hops out of the car with Haley still in his arms and rushes inside.  I follow right behind.  A nurse pulls a gurney and a doctor comes rushing to Haley’s aid.  I watch in fear as they rush down a hallway with Haley.

I run out and park my car before heading back inside to see what’s going on.  The nurse at the nurse’s station directs me to the waiting area, where I see Liam pacing the floor.

“I don’t like you,” I can’t help but tell him.

“I don’t like you either.”

“You don’t even know me,” I snap back.

“I know the fucking bet you had with Haley, that’s enough for me to know.”

“You really are fucking stupid.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.  I knew all about you, before I ever even fucking saw you.  You knew Haley and if you think that’s who she is, then I guess you don’t really know her after all and you sure as hell don’t fucking deserve her.”

“What are you talking about?” he asks frustrated as he runs his hands through his hair.

“There was no fucking bet Liam, there never was,” I scream, thankful there’s no one else in the room.

“No bet?  But Haley said…”

“I know what she said, but she lied.”

“Why?”

“Are you seriously that fucking stupid?” I ask again.

The look I get shows that Liam would like nothing more than to rip me limb from limb, but doesn’t get the chance because people start filling in the waiting room, wanting to know what’s going on with Haley.

“How’s she doing?” Rebecca asks worriedly.  There have been six girls that stuck up for Haley other than me, six girls in an entire sorority house.

“We don’t know anything yet.”

“I got here as soon as I heard,” she says as she looks around.

“You all can fucking leave,” I scream to all the fake ass people standing in this waiting room. “NOW.”

“You heard her, get the fuck out.  You didn’t give a shit about Haley before, you don’t need to be here now, so get the hell out,” Rebecca yells.

Quickly a bunch of people turn and leave, letting only about ten people in the waiting room.

“You can leave to, I can take it from here,” I tell Liam, still pissed off because of his actions.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“It’s your fault she’s even here,” I snap.

“Fuck,” he yells as he runs his hands through his hair again.

“Did you call her family?” Rebecca asks me.

“Shit,” I say going to grab my phone.

“I already called,” Liam says surprising me.

“When?”

“When you moved your car.  They’re taking the next flight out.”

“But we don’t even know what’s wrong with her,” I say confused.

“It’s not hard to tell it’s more than the damn flu,” he says with venom in his voice.  I’m not sure how long we sit in the waiting room, waiting for any news on what’s wrong with Haley.  I want to go home and kill every one of those bitches, it’s because of them and Liam that Haley’s even here in the first place.

“Why does it look like you want to murder someone?” Rebecca asks.

“Because I do.  She shouldn’t be here, this shouldn’t be happening to her,” I say feeling helpless.  Just then the doctor walks towards us.

“Are you here for Haley Lawrence?” the doctor asks.

“Yes,” Liam and I say at the same time as we stand up.  Rebecca’s up right beside me, along with Cara, Rob, and a few other people.

“What’s wrong with her?” I ask, wanting answers now.

“Haley has meningitis,” he says, surprising us all.

“What?” How’s that even possible?” I ask confused, “She was cold and wet, but how did she get that?”

“It could have come from anyone that had it, hers is bacterial meningitis and it’s serious,” he says with a look of worry.

“How serious?” Liam asks.

“We’re monitoring her and she’s on antibiotics, but we aren’t sure how far it’s spread yet,” he says.

“Can
’t that be fatal?” Rebecca asks nervously.

“Yes it can.  It was wise that you brought her in when you did.  I’m running some more tests and I will let you know when I know anything else,” the doctor says before turning to leave.

“Thank you doctor,” I say softly before lowering myself on the chair.

“Are you alright?” Rebecca asks as she sits beside me.

“Why didn’t I bring her in here the first night, then they would have caught it sooner?” I say, wanting nothing more than to kick myself in my own ass.

“Don’t do that,” Liam says quickly, “You know damn well she wouldn’t have come.”

“But I should have pushed harder,” I argue.

“You know her, she’s stubborn, it wouldn’t have mattered,” he says softly, “I need to make some calls,” he says before leaving the room.

Liam’s gone for about twenty minutes.  I can’t help but get up and pace the damn room, wanting more answers.

Liam

After making my last call, I head back to the waiting room for more information.  I never thought my brother would be so pissed, that’s gonna be interesting when he gets here, I think as I walk back.  I see the doctor turning the corner towards the waiting room.

“Any news doc?” I
ask as I walk faster towards him.

“She’s stable.  She’s on the antibiotics and we have a fluid drip on her because she’s pretty dehydrated.”

“Can I see her?”

“Usually
, it’s family only.”

“They’
re on their way.  She’s practically family doc, please,” I plead with the man.

“For a few minutes, she’s not going to be responsive though.”

“What? Why?” I ask nervously.

“We put her on a sedative to calm her down.”

“What’s going on?  Any news on Haley?” Quinn asks as she storms towards us.

“I was just explaining that she’s stable now.”

“Thank God,” she breathes a sign of relief, “Can I see her?”

“As I was telling this gentleman, she’s not going to be responsive
, because we have her sedated right now,” the doctor says.

“That’s okay, I just need to see her,” Quinn says quickly.

“Only one at a time,” the doctor says, “Sir, you may follow me,” he says as he leads me to Haley’s room.

“What?” Quinn shrieks as
she follows me down the hall, “You shouldn’t get to see her,” she bitches.

“I need to give updates, I need to make sure she’s okay,” I say before deciding I should just ignore her completely.

“She wouldn’t want you here.”

“That’s not really a question she can answer right now,” I say as we come to a stop.

“She’s in there, take your time,” the doctor says before walking away.