Page 61 of Hello Forever
She let out a shuddering breath. “You are really bruised. Quite like a horror movie, actually. But there’s only one bad cut, on your cheekbone. You can decide later if you want plastic surgery forthescar.”
That didn’t sound too bad. Any time a doctor said “decide later” that meant it wasn’t dire. “And my eye?” That was by far the creepiest thingshe’dsaid.
“The doctor will come by later,” she whispered. “They’ll take off the bandage and check yourvision.”
I felt a little shimmy of fear at the sound of that. My vision was pretty damned crucial. There was one question I still had to ask. “Where’sCax?”
She sighed. “He has some things todealwith.”
“Buthe’sokay?”
“He’s fine, honey. NobodyhurtCax.”
“Where’s his dad? He’s theonewho…”
She squeezed my hand. “The police are going to want you to tell them about it. They’re lookingforhim.”
“Seriously?” Everything was so confusing. So I decided to takeanothernap.
* * *
Two days wentby before I felt even a little bit like myself. The nurses kept telling me that the body heals on its own time. Apparently I didn’t have a lot of say over it. I kept drifting off in the middle of sentences. “You have a concussion, too,” people kept telling me. “Takeiteasy.”
As if I had a choice. My mother was like a dragon at the gates. She regulated who was allowed to see me and who was not. I had brief visits from Boz, who had apparently helped the EMTs carry me out of the woods to the waiting ambulance. Not that I remembered. “I guess I…owe you a case of beer?” I suggested. What did one get for the guy who’d hefted your broken body off the frozenpathway?
“At least,” he said. “You’re heavier thanyoulook.”
The ophthalmologist kept making return visits to check on my vision. I was having trouble focusing my right eye, and it freaked me right out. “I know the blurriness is odd, but that might be 20/20 a month from now,” my female surgeon assured me morethanonce.
I wasn’t blind, anyway. So that wassomething.
The other thing that freaked me out? Cax never came to see me, and nobody would tell me why. Each time I woke up from one of my many naps, I’d look around the room for him with my blurryvision.
He was neverthere.
ChapterTwenty-One
Cax
It was late—nineo’clock already. I had no idea if they’d let me see him, but I had to try. Room 412 was at the end of a long hall, and just knowing he was down there somewhere made me start to jog. Nobodystoppedme.
I was afraid that Axel wasn’t going to want a thing to do with me now, not after all the trouble I’d caused him. It would break my heart, but I’d understand. When he was well enough to leave the hospital I imagined that he’d go somewhere far away from here. Probably backtoOhio…
The door to room 412 was ajar, but it was completely quiet inside. The soft, yellow glow of lamplight shone on the walls. I nudged the door open and looked at the sleeping figure on the bed. Half his face was obscured by a big bandage, and the other half was bruised purple andgreen.
A sob pulsed in my throat. I clamped a hand over my mouth. What hadIdone?
Someone rose from the chair beside the bed. His mother. She looked exactly the same as I remembered from all those years ago. Yay—another person who surely hated me now. But when I braced myself to meet her eyes, I found her face softening. “Cax,” she whispered. “You look justthesame.”
Did I? I didn’t feelthesame.
“He’s been waiting for you,”shesaid.
My throat was twisted tight. “I’vebeen…”
“I know,” she said, resting a hand on my back. “You have a lot on your plate.” To my surprise, she wrapped her arms around me andhuggedme.
I just stood there feeling stunned. I almost got this woman’s son killed, and now she was hugging me? “I’m sorry,”Isaid.
