Page 48 of Built to Fall
All the while, I’m brushing Lina’s caramel brown hair back, even though none of it’s in her face. I try coaxing her awake, and eventually, her eyes begin fluttering open. She’s still breathless when she begins looking around with her head in my lap.
“Hey, hey.” I place a hand on her shoulder to stop her from trying to stand up. “You’re okay. Just lie down.”
Lina’s hazel eyes fill with tears.Jesus,it makes my heart fuckinghurt.
“I don’t feel good,” she says, sounding delirious.
“I know, I know.” I’m not sure why I’m repeating every word I’m saying. I think I’m more trying to reassure myself.
It only takes a few minutes before the ambulance shows up, and my stomach sinks when Lina doesn’t put up a single complaint as she’s put on a stretcher and loaded into the ambulance. She doesn’t fight it in the way she fights everything else.
In fact, when one of the paramedics looks down at her and asks, “Do you want him to come with you?” The last thing she does is argue.
She looks toward me with the saddest eyes I’ve ever seen. “Please?” she croaks.
It wasn’t even a question, not for me. I’m jumping in the back of the ambulance before the medic can even give me the okay.
I sit on the bench to her left, resting my hand on the railing of the gurney as the back doors are shut and the ambulance takes off toward the hospital.
“Okay, dear, I’m going to ask you some questions while I set you up with an IV. It’s okay if you don’t know all the answers, since it’s likely you’ll still be experiencing some brain fog. Alright?” The medic says.
No kidding, she's experiencing brain fog. It’s probably the only reason she asked me to sit next to her.
Lina nods.
“Name?”
“Evangelina Everhart.”I didn’t even know Lina was short for something.
The medic ties a blue tourniquet around her upper arm, and Lina winces when she places the IV.
“Date of birth?”
“March 13th, 2005.”
“Do you have any medical conditions you’re aware of?”
She shakes her head.
“Have you been sleeping alright?”
Lina hesitates, which is why I say, “She hasn’t been sleeping.”
The medic jots it down on the clipboard. “Have you been stressed recently?”
Lina’s shoulders hitch slightly. “I guess. I don’t really know.”
She glances back and forth between Lina and the heart monitor she’s hooked up to. “We’ll keep monitoring your vitals en route and get you some IV fluids. You’re severely dehydrated and hypotensive. Could be exertional syncope followed by a seizure—possibly brought on by exhaustion or electrolyte imbalance. But the doctors will know more once they run labs.”
“I had a seizure?” Lina looks toward me, confused.
“Yeah.” I don’t know what more to say.
Her expression looks pained, like there’s a magnitude to the situation that she’s only now being forced to grapple with. I don’t even entirely know what’s going on, and yet it’s weighing down onme.I can’t even imagine how she’s feeling.
“Okay.” She nods strongly. “Okay.”
“Hey”—I reach for her hand—“it’s alright. I’m sure it was nothing.”
