Page 11 of Distant Shores
She’d gotten a full ride scholarship to one of the best universities in Georgia, and was kicking ass in her pre-med program. This was where she’d been when Pops called her after the accident. When I’d woken from the anesthesia, the first words out of her mouth—through tears she’d tried her best to hide—were a thanks for coordinating my near-death experience so close to her school’s spring break.
I pulled my shirt away from my body, shaking off the memory and poked her with the crutch. “Let’s go.”
Delly used her student ID to buzz us into the building she’d called home over the past three years—a perk of graduating high school early and starting college at sixteen. We passed several groups of girls as we made our way down the hall. I vaguely recognized a few from previous visits, and a pair even came over and asked about my foot,which Delly apparently did not appreciate, if her dramatic sigh was anything to go by.
“I am so tired of dealing with that when you’re here.” She huffed as she unlocked her dorm and kept the door open wide for me. “I’ll be glad to finally be in off-campus housing in August.”
I frowned at her as I stepped inside. “People? I’m pretty sure you’ll see them whether I’m here or not.”
“No, you moron.”
I looked around to see if there was anything obvious she was lacking even though she’d be out of here for the summer in a week. Delly hated any insinuation that she couldn’t care for herself, but she didn’t protest too hard when I had supplies delivered for her. We might be more than a touch co-dependent because of our upbringing—or lack of—but her slight independent streak burned with the fury of a thousand suns.
“Wait,” I said, registering her words as I swiveled toward her on my good foot. “Not only am I drab, but I’m also a moron?” I frowned at her and slumped my shoulders dramatically. “This is really a tough day for me, isn’t it?”
“Tough life,” Delly countered. “You’re clueless, you know that?”
I shrugged. “I suppose I wouldn’t know, since that’s the definition.”
Her lips twitched before she walked to the mirror mounted on the wall and started fussing with her ponytail. “So…,” she asked casually, “heard from Sophie?”
“Weird question.” She hadn’t even crossed my mind until now. “But no.”
“Hmph.” She grabbed two sections of her hair and pulled them away from each other, tightening her ponytail.
“Why do you ask?”
Delly eyed me for a long moment, abandoning her mindless primping. “Because, my dear brother… Sophie sucks. And I just wanted confirmation of that. And to subtly point it out as a reminder for your future self.” She shrugged. “Just in case.”
I raised my eyebrows and circled my crutch at her in a “go on” gesture.
“Such a dork,” she muttered, but smiled. “My sweet, sweet brother. You fell down a mountain, and she didn’t even visit you in the hospital. And I’d know if she had, seeing as I was there until you were discharged.”
“I did not fall down a mountain,” I said, clinging to what truth I could. “That’s an extreme exaggeration.”
“You had a concussion,” she shot back, “and fucked your ankle.”
“Meh.”
I didn’t need to linger on it. I was still dealing with it every moment of every day—and some nights, too, thanks to the anxiety-induced nightmares. “It was a ravine. A creek bed, even. A small one. Not a mountain. And… actually, you know what? She did text me. Once.”
Delly pressed her lips together, forming an unimpressed line. “Because she wanted something, didn’t she? I told you she was a user from the start.” She glanced over her shoulder at me, a sad look on her face. “Users love you.”
I kept my mouth shut as she stared me down, because, well…
Yeah. It had sucked that the person I’d been casually seeing didn’t care to come to the hospital, but at the same time… I hadn’t missed her either.
“Whatever. I know I’m right,” she said, reaching down to grab a sparkling water from her mini fridge.
I leaned on my crutch to see how many she had in there, but she slammed the door shut before I could.
“Either way,” she said, then paused to take a long sip. “It shows how shitty she is, and now we can move on from her. Right?”
Delly had never even met Sophie, and I hadn’t cared to introduce them yet, which was the biggest red flag, really.
But at the same time… it was easy to remember the intense loneliness during those long nights in the hospital. When visiting hours were over, and Pops and Delly went back to the cabin, and the nurses finally kicked my best friend Cole out of my room. When I’d stared at the ceiling and wished for someone—not Sophie specifically—butsomeoneto talk to when I couldn’t close my eyes without seeing Pops’s vacant eyes before I fell or the flashes of morphine-induced hallucinations from those first couple days in the hospital. Or even just… someone to hold my hand through them.
“Sure,” I said belatedly when my sister eyed me expectantly. Judging by how little I’d thought of Sophie, I had apparently already moved on.
