Page 17 of More Trouble
5
Andre
Iwas numb.
Completely numb.
The call came shortly before midnight.
At first, when Scarlett’s number came up on my cell, I thought she was calling to tell me about the engagement. I could imagine her excitement, already beginning to plan the most epic wedding day she and Willa had been imagining since high school.
“Hey, Scarlett,” I answered the phone smiling.
When all I could hear were muffled sobs, I didn’t know what to think. Were they tears of joy? Or had Wes not proposed?
“Dre…it’s Wes.”
The seriousness of her tone jerked me fully awake. “What’s happened?”
“He’s…he’s been hit.”
“What do you mean?” I ran through the evening in my mind. Wes had left the diner, presumably to head home and pop the question to Scarlett straight away. How was it possible he ended up in some kind of fight?
“It was a car…he had a flat tire and they didn’t see him.” Her words came out rushed and I struggled to make sense of them.
“Wait, slow down, are you saying there was an accident?”
“A dumb, stupid drunk driver…” Scarlett dissolved into more sobs.
My ears pounded. The guy was going to pay.
“Where are you right now, Scarlett?”
“The hospital. Can you come?”
“Of course. Let me put on some clothes and I’ll be with you as soon as I can. Call me if anything else happens.”
I dragged on a pair of jeans and threw a sweater over my head, before jamming my feet into sneakers. I grabbed my jacket and headed out the bedroom, almost knocking Lyla over.
“Whoa, where are you off to in such a rush at this time of night? Booty call?” Lyla laughed at her own joke.
I rubbed my face. “If only. Wes has been in an accident. Scarlett’s at the hospital, I’m going to see her.”
Lyla ran back towards her bedroom. “Then I’m coming with you. Maddox will be there, and he’ll need me.”
“You don’t have to, I’m sure it’ll be fine.” I didn’t want to delay any further in getting to the hospital. “I don’t even know if Maddox knows.”
She came back out of her room, fully clothed, holding her cell towards me. “He knows. He’s there. He messaged me. We need to be quick.”
A river of ice snaked down my spine, her words echoing in my head.We need to be quick.
We got to the hospital in record time, despite the bad weather and me trying to drive extra carefully. I didn’t want to have an accident myself. Scarlett and Maddox were waiting in the emergency room. Lyla dashed straight towards Maddox and he enveloped her in a massive hug.
Scarlett stared at me, her eyes puffy and red. She looked drained; arms clutched around her middle as if trying to hold everything together. I stepped towards her and gathered her into my arms. Her body sagged against mine.
“He’s in surgery,” she whispered.
A nurse approached us and asked if we were Wes’s friends. Once confirmed, she explained he had internal bleeding and several broken bones, but they had to fix the potential life ending stuff first. Scarlett sobbed against my chest as the nurse returned to her station.
