Chapter 41
Jayce
Two weeks went by withoutme hearing from Macey, and each time I stopped by the fire house to see if she was there or working, she never seemed to be. I didn’t see her around in any of her classes, either, despite being asked by multiple professors if I’d seen her recently. I had to tell them what I told everyone else. No, I hadn’t.
“Have you heard anything from Macey?” Candace asked one Thursday afternoon, leaning up against one of the door frames of the locker room. I glanced up from tying my shoe and shook my head.
“No. She’s still ignoring my calls and texts, and I don’t really see her around campus, either. Every time I go to the fire house, she’s not there. At least, that’s what they tell me anyway.”
Candace nodded, and I could tell by the way she was looking at me that she was debating whether or not to say what she wanted to say, and a squeezing sensation in my chest forced me to attention.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, hitching my game bag over my shoulder. “Have you heard from her? Is she okay?”
Candace swallowed, taking a small breath. “It’s none of my business, Jayce, but I’ve been volunteering at the hospital on the weekends, and I’ve seen Macey there.”
“Oh,” I said, disappointed that this was the big revelation. “Yeah, well she’s an EMT right? She’s bound to be there sometimes. Not that anyone sees her anymore, I guess. Maybe she went back to Michigan to see her—”
“That’s not what I mean,” Candace said, cutting me off. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was around, then she stepped into the locker room and closed the door behind her until it was just the two of us left. “I mean, she’s there as a patient.”
“A patient?” I repeated, and it took a moment for my brain to wrap around what Candace was telling me. “Is she okay? Is she hurt? Or—or sick?”
“I don’t know,” Candace said with a weak shrug. “I’m just a volunteer so I don’t have access to patient files, but she’s been there every time I’ve been there. She hasn’t seen me, though.”
“What floor?” I asked, and a huge part of me was terrified to hear the answer.
“I don’t think I should say,” Candace whispered. “She’s the one you need to talk to, Jayce.”
“What floor, Candace?”
“The third floor. Oncology.”
~~
THE REST OF THE DAYseemed to pass in a hazy blur, and even before the start of my last class I ditched early, heading straight to my car to drive home, to my mother’s house. She was there, which was rare, and I felt like I had steam escaping from my ears as I pulled into the driveway and stormed up to the front door, opening it without even knocking.
I found my mother sitting at our old dining room table, a glass of wine a few inches from her fingers. She looked up when she saw me come in, but she didn’t look surprised. Not even a little bit.
“Hi, J,” she said, and I scowled at her.
“You knew,” I snarled, knuckles clenched in anger on top of the dining room table. I wanted to hit something, to scream, to pull the fucking photos off the wall and slam them against the floor until the glass shattered and flew. “You knew and you didn’t tell me.”
“You know that’s not how this works,” Mom said. She reached for her half-empty wine glass and raised it to her lips but didn’t drink before lowering it again. “It was not my business to tell you. I’m Macey’s nurse, and that’s all there is to it. There are rules about these things, honey, and I wasn’t about to go behind my patient’s back.”
