“Liv, are you okay, baby?” I repeat.
The anguish in her eyes is there, but also something else. She goes to open her mouth to say something, but words escape her.
“Talk to me, Liv.”
Her eyes meet mine, and the pain I see in them almost brings me to my knees. “It is all my fault,” she whispers in a breath, dropping her eyes down to her feet.
I wrap my arms around her, holding her tight against my chest. “What? No, Liv. This is not your fault. You had nothing to do with this.”
Her body trembles in my arms, and I realize she’s crying. “Didn’t I, though?” she mumbles into my chest. “He was upset because I called things off, and he started drinking. I know he has poor coping skills and uses substances to cope.” The words come out garbled as she sobs, burying her face into my shirt. “I should have stopped him. I should have been a better friend to him despite what he did. Now it all seems stupid in comparison.”
“Look, Liv, this isn’t your fault, he made a bad choice, and it was a terrible accident. Maybe we should go to the hospital.”
My words seem to snap her out of it because she takes a quick step away from me, eyes now wild with concern. “Yes. I need to call my mom to see if she heard anything about Brodie coming in.”
She starts to jog back up to where our stuff was, and I do my best to keep up with her.
“Okay, let me find the guys, and we’ll take you.”
I split from her to gather my friends and, thankfully, find them all at the truck. Everything was packed up and ready to go.
“Hey guys, we need to give Liv a ride to the hospital.”
“Of course,” Jameson replies, jumping into the driver's seat and turning on the truck. “We’ll wait here for you.”
My brain is spinning as I head back to get Liv. As an orthopedic trauma surgeon in training, I’ve seen unfortunate injuries like this all too often. My brain is anticipating the worst, but I’m hoping I’m wrong for Liv’s sake. I find Liv frantically stuffing her things into her bag.
“Ready when you are, Liv.” She gives me a quick nod as she throws her bag over her shoulder and walks to her friends. I hear her tell them she’s heading to the hospital and they can meet her there. “Don’t worry about the stuff,” I hear Emma say, “the guys will get it loaded up, and they will meet us there too” The girls exchange a few hugs, and I can see tears brimming on all of their eyes.
“Ready?” I say tentatively behind Liv.
She turns and says nothing but grabs my hand tightly, and our fingers link together. Her grip on my hand doesn’t falter as we walk toward the truck.
I sit Liv in the back seat and slide right next to her into the truck. Theo and Eric are already in the front, and Jameson gets in last on the other side of Liv.
“Liv, what hospital would they be taking him to? I need to plug in my GPS to get there,” Theo asks as he searches closet hospitals.
“Bayside Hospital,” she says quickly. Her eyes stare straight ahead, but her hand stays locked in mine, knuckles white from how hard she’s holding on to me. I rub my thumb along the back of her hand, hoping it will calm her nerves even a little bit.
I put my other hand on her thigh and gave it a slight squeeze. She shivers.
“Are you cold? I have a long sleeve T-shirt in my bag.”
“I’m not cold,” she replies.
Although it was only three words, I’m glad she’s finally said something. She looks at me and leans closer. I can see little bumps start to form on her arm.
“You have goose bumps all over.”
“Yeah, but I don’t feel cold.”
Another shiver seems to run through her, and I just continue to hold on to her.
“Don’t worry. We are almost there.” Jameson looks at the GPS. “We should be there in less than ten minutes, Liv.”
“Thank you,” she says so softly I almost didn’t hear it.
Liv’s phone pings with a text message, and she grabs it from her bag to look at it. “It’s my mom. She said that there was a trauma activation called, and they’re ready in the OR should he be taken in for surgery.” A pause. “She didn’t realize it was Brodie,” she choked out.
