Page 44 of Sunday

“What was that?”

“When I was lying in the hospital bed, and you told me that I could have found another ride or drove instead of you. That I knew the condition you were in, and I should have been a better friend by putting my foot down.”

The tears I’d been trying to hold back flowed freely from my eyes at the moment. I pressed my fist against my mouth and choked back a sob. My heart ached for her. I wasn’t a good friend. I wasn’t shit to her back then, and she deserved so much better.

I shook my head. “I was such a selfish, cold bitch. I’m so sorry, Layla. You didn’t deserve that.”

“No, I didn’t. But you were my friend, Sunday. You were selfish, but you weren’t cold or a bitch. Those things were never in your nature. You were scared, especially with the police investigation hanging over our heads.”

“Meanwhile, my best friend was lying in a hospital bed, struggling to recover. And you were struggling to regain control of your legs.”

The tears wouldn’t stop, and I could barely speak over them.

“We all thought it was temporary at that time. And it would have been. What none of us could have known was that I would be diagnosed with MS while in the hospital and lose my mobility soon after.”

“I’m so very sorry,” I apologized with a sincerely repentant heart. “I tried reaching out to you in the months afterward, but your mother said you didn’t want to hear from me.”

In the first several weeks after her accident, Layla stayed in contact with me, and I thought we would be okay. Then, one day, she no longer accepted my visits.

“I didn’t, Sunday. I was extremely angry with you, with Derek, with God, and with the world as a whole. I felt like everything had been so unfair. Here I was with these track scholarships to college, and I couldn’t run anymore. How was I supposed to pay for college or even attend when I couldn’t walk? I didn’t want everyone looking at me in this chair and asking what happened or feeling sorry for me.”

“We all lost that night, Layla. And it was because I was too much of a coward to speak up and do what was right. Derek eventually went to jail for selling drugs to minors. I lost my best friend, and you losteverything.”

Layla nodded and grabbed a tissue to wipe her eyes. She pressed her lips together tightly as she looked up at the ceiling, closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. She held her breath before she finally released it and smiled again.

“Did you ever tell your mother about . . . the baby?”

I grabbed more napkins and pressed them into her hands. She wiped her face just as the waiter returned to take our orders.

We placed our orders, handed our menus over, and resumed our conversation.

“When the doctors gave me that news, it was before you all were in the room with me. I was alone at that point, and I asked him not to share that with anyone. You were the only person who knew about the baby or the loss of it. It wasn’t until a week later that I eventually told her. As you can imagine, she was devastated. She couldn’t believe that I had gotten pregnant, knowing that I was jeopardizing my scholarship. She asked me how I could be so careless. She blamed you.”

“For you getting pregnant? Me?” I slapped my hand against my chest.

“Yeah. Not that you got me pregnant. But she didn’t believe you were the best influence on my life. She thought that I wouldn’t have been messing around with Craig if it wasn’t for your influence. She thought you and Derek were moving way too fast and too soon. I told her that my choices were mine. You weren’t around when it happened. You weren’t in the bedroom with me or on the phone. That was strictly mine and Craig’s doing.”

“So, when you decided to push me out of your life, I’ll bet she was super excited about that.”

Layla nodded and sighed loudly. “She was. But in time, she regretted it. After I pushed everyone out of my life, she encouraged me to reach out to you. She said that I was sinking into depression and what I was going through wasn’t good for me. She thought I needed to surround myself with things and people who were familiar to me.”

I reached across the table and grabbed her hands. “I’m sorry, Layla. I should have been there. I wish that I had been there for you. You shouldn’t have had to go through that alone.”

“Eventually, I didn’t.”

The smile that graced her lips told me that there was so much more to her story.

“I’m listening.”

I rested my arms on the table and folded them as I leaned forward eagerly to hear the rest of her story.

“I was going through rehab before the MS stole my mobility. And there was another patient in there who had suffered a football injury in college. He was regaining his ability to walk again too. We were both frustrated, but he was able to put his frustration aside when he saw me break down crying one day. He encouraged me, and we made a pact to be each other’s support system and bet which one of us would gain mobility again first.”

Layla’s chuckle was soft and sweet as her eyes stared off into a faraway place, and I could tell she was lost in a beautiful memory.

“I regained mobility first, and then he did. We developed a beautiful friendship over the next several weeks, but I eventually lost mine again. He was by my side, encouraging me and comforting me every step of the way.”

She pulled her hand from on her lap where it had been resting. When she laid it on the table, I noticed the pear-cut diamond ring on her hand. She twisted it left and then right, anda smile graced her beautiful, round brown face. Her hazel eyes twinkled merrily as she looked up at me.

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