Me: What? I thought he wasn’t supposed to drive.
Brent: He’s not. His parents are freaking out.
I stared at the flickering screen and sent one last text.
Me: Sorry to hear about Trevor.
Brent: It’s so screwed up.
It was so much more than that. I gunned the car and hoped like heck Gram wasn’t watching, because honestly, I barely missed her prized geraniums as I barreled down the driveway and headed for town.
It was the only place I knew to go, but once I got there, I wasn’t exactly sure where to look. I drove past the fairgrounds where the Peach Festival had been held but it was empty. Nothing going on.
The baseball diamond next door was dark as was the football field behind the high school. I drove down Main Street and followed the signs to the hospital, retracing the route I’d taken only a few weeks earlier.
Weird. It felt so long ago. The festival. That first “non-date.” How had he managed to mean so much to me in such a short time?
I thought that maybe I loved Nathan.
No. That was wrong. I didn’t think anymore. I was sure of it.
I loved Nathan Everets, and I couldn’t picture my tomorrow without him in it.
“Crap,” I said aloud, glancing in my rearview mirror to make sure no one was behind me.
I had no idea if he would come to the hospital, but it was a place to start. I parked as best I could, considering I had to parallel-park Gram’s giant-ass car, and two minutes later, I ran through the front doors.
Trevor was on the fifth floor, and when I got off the elevator, the lounge area near the nurses’ station was empty. The whole place was quiet.
It smelled.
It smelled like pain and fear and death.
A walk around the nurses’ station and a quick glance down each hallway that led from the main desk told me the place was deserted. More than a little nervous, I returned to the lounge, unsure what to do.
I sat on the old, worn vinyl sofa that I’d sat on before and shoved my hands underneath my legs for warmth, shivering when I heard someone cry out from down the hall. Was it a patient? Or a family member.
I guess it didn’t matter, because either way, it meant that someone was in pain. Someone hurt, and that sucked.
A nurse at the station smiled at me. She looked young. Too young to be a nurse, but her pretty eyes and soft smile made me feel a little better. “Can I help you, hon? Visiting hours are nearly over.”
I shook my head. “I should go,” I said and jumped to my feet.
“Who are you here to see?” she asked.
“It’s fine. No one.”
I ran to the elevator, and once inside, pressed M for the main floor. The doors started to slide back into place but a large, meaty hand stopped them and a tall man stepped in with me.
I knew this man. I knew his tortured eyes. His large, powerful shoulders. The tattoos.
I recognized him from the last time I’d been here with Nathan. It was Trevor’s dad.
And boy, did he look awful.
We rode down in silence, and I’m pretty sure he didn’t even know I was there. He was off somewhere, somewhere dark and sad, and when he stepped off, I followed.
I followed him out the front doors of the hospital and down the side until he stopped near a stone bench and a waterfall. I shivered slightly as I watched him pull out a cigarette and light it.
He took a long drag and leaned against the bench, head bent toward the starless sky as he slowly exhaled.
I watched him take another long drag. I stepped back, wishing the shadows were darker here. Why had I followed him? What was I doing? I needed to find Nathan, not stalk Trevor’s dad.
“Do you know him?”
I jumped at the sound of his voice and glanced around quickly just to make sure he wasn’t talking to someone else. But there was no one there.
Shit.
“No,” I said carefully.
Trevor’s dad glanced my way, and the unmistakable sheen of tears glistened on his face. He didn’t try to wipe them. He just took another drag and flicked his ashes onto the ground.
“So why are you here?”
I stared back at him, unsure and more than a little intimidated by his size and his pain. I remembered how angry he’d been with Nathan. How he had threatened to kick Nathan’s ass if he ever…
Panicked, I took a step closer.
“I’m looking for Nathan.” The words tumbled from me before I could take them back, and I waited for his reaction, my gut churning with fear and my heart hurting at the pain in his eyes.
He didn’t say anything. He just watched me for a few seconds and then took another drag before tossing his cigarette. Carefully he ground the butt with his booted foot and then pushed off from the bench.
He was too quiet, and suddenly I was more than a little scared—not for me, but for Nathan.
“Did you…did he come by? His parents are worried and I know that…” I need to find him.
He stopped a few inches from me, this large, powerfully built man. His hands were tight at his sides, fisted, and I took a step back.
“Who are you?”
Surprised, I didn’t answer at first, and he shifted his feet, exhaling tiredly as he rolled his shoulders. The lines around his eyes deepened, sinking into his skin. I held my breath, not sure what to expect, but then he whispered, “Never mind.”
He moved past me and I turned to watch him, unsure what I should do or say to make things right. I wanted to make things right. I wanted him not to hurt.
Everything about the man screamed pain. God, there was so much pain, and I was sick of it. It hung in the air, sucking up all the oxygen, making it hard to breathe.
It slid over me. Into me. And I stumbled, tears springing to my eyes at the unfairness of it all.
What had I, or Nathan, or this man done to deserve the crap-ton of hurt thrown our way? Had we pissed off the higher power? Had we done something so bad that we needed this heavy dose of pain to tip the scales back to where they were supposed to be?
Was it just our bad luck? Or was it fate?
Or maybe I had it all wrong. Maybe there wasn’t a reason or a plan and I was overthinking everything. Maybe things just were, and the good and the bad happened for no reason other than they just did.
Stuff came at us, and it was up to each of us to handle it. Some of us survived and others, well, others just didn’t. Maybe that was the point of it all.
But if you were like me, you survived because someone gave you a reason to.
“He’s so sorry,” I whispered. “You have no idea.”
Trevor’s dad stopped but didn’t turn around, and I took that as a sign to keep going.
“Nathan would never hurt Trevor on purpose. The way he talks about him…it’s like they’re brothers or something, and it’s killing him to know he made a mistake that put his best friend in the hospital.”
My voice caught and I shuddered, cold and frustrated.
“I know that what happened to your son is the most awful thing ever—”
“You don’t know shit, little girl.”
I swallowed hard as Trevor’s dad turned around and glared at me. “Who are you again?” he barked.
“Monroe. My name is Monroe Blackwell. I’m just a friend and…and you might not like to hear this, because I know that most adults don’t like it when a kid tells them that, well, tells them that they’re wrong.” I paused and prayed for strength. “You’re wrong.”
He took a step closer, and that fear inside me expanded until I was trembling. But I didn’t back down. I couldn’t. I needed to make him understand. I needed to do this for the boy I loved.
“You’re wrong to hate Nathan for what happened to your son,” I gasped. “So, so wrong. It’s not fair.”