“She’s with Maria and Julien in the car.” He looks at Ryder. “They’re waiting on you.”
Ryder hands him his car keys. “Give these to Jules and tell him to take them home. I’ll handle Jay.”
“Whatever you say man. Jay?”
When I see Elijah’s expression, my stomach churns again. “She’s torn up man. She just zoned out and won’t talk, but we’re taking care of her. She’s in good hands. You take care of you now.”
Elijah fist bumps Ryder and leaves.
“Come on. I’m taking you to the hospital just to make sure.” Ryder lifts me off the bed and helps carry me downstairs and out to my car. Everyone is looking at us, whispering, but they can all go fuck themselves.
I hand Ryder my keys and he opens the back door to my truck. “I think it may be better if you lay down back here.”
“God, my parents are going to kill me when they find out.”
“This may not be the worst of it. I’ll explain it all to you later, after we get you checked out by a doctor.”
Ryder slips into the driver’s seat and turns the engine. I take out my phone.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea right now,” Ryder says, his eyes looking back at me from the rear-view mirror.
“She needs to know I love her and that I didn’t cheat on her. She needs to know. I can’t lose her, Ryder.” Great. Now I’m a fucking pussy on top of everything else, I chastise myself as tears gather behind my eyes.
“We’ll figure out what happened. You won’t lose her. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Why would you do that for me? After what I did to you?”
Ryder slows down to stop at a light and twists around to look down at me in the back seat. “Because I love her, and she chose you.”
The light turns green and we drive in silence until we get to the ER. I try to type out a quick text to Liz, but my fingers keep smearing across the screen and it's hard to make out the small letters on my phone.
Me: luv u princes fuckg mch. i lv you. all r next times. pls 4 give me.
Ryder walks me into the ER and after he tells the check-in nurse that I may have unknowingly ingested a date-rape drug, they get a doctor immediately and rush me back to a room.
After the nurses take several vials of blood and a urine sample, I am hooked up to an IV. We’re now waiting for the doctor to come back with the lab results. Ryder hasn’t left my side. His loyalty to me compounds my shitty mood because his support and friendship are just two more things I don’t deserve. He called my parents, a conversation I’m glad not to have overheard. I keep checking my phone every five seconds hoping to see a text from Liz. Nothing. I blow out a disgusted huff and toss my phone on the hospital bed.
“Julien said he’s on his way with your parents.”
I adjust my position on the bed and the IV line tugs. I hiss at the sting it creates and stop moving. Fucking uncomfortable beds. If I never see the inside of a hospital again, it will be too soon. Of course, the automatic blood pressure cuff attached to my arm decides to turn on. The nurse set it to take my blood pressure every fifteen minutes and it’s driving me fucking insane.
“Why is it taking so long?” I complain sounding like a whiny bitch. I can’t help it because that’s exactly how I feel right now. “Did Jules say anything about Liz? How’s she doing? Has she asked about me? Does she know I’m here?” I’d give anything to see her beautiful face walk through my hospital room door.
“He said she fell asleep in the car and didn't want to wake her. He carried her upstairs to her room. Her parents are out, but Hailey was home and will keep an eye on her.” My hope deflates like a popped balloon. She doesn’t know. She’s not coming.
“Are you going to finally fill me in on what the hell happened at the party?”
“Are you sure you’re ready to hear it?” I nod yes even though my mind screams no. Ryder tells me what happened out on the back patio with Marshall and his side goons. When he describes how that sleazy prick kept taunting Liz to get a reaction from Julien, my blood boils with rage which causes the heart rate monitor to rapidly beep. A nurse is in my room a minute later to check on me. I want Ryder to be able to get everything out before my parents arrive, so I focus on calming down. I don’t want any more interruptions from the hospital staff thinking I’m having a heart attack.
As soon as the nurse leaves, I turn back to Ryder. “What happened next?”
“Next, you come charging out and knock Marshall to the ground. We didn’t know what was going on at first because it all happened so fast. As soon as we realized it was you, we jumped in. But fuck, man. You wouldn’t stop. I have never seen anything like that - never seenyoulike that before. You beat on Marshall until he was no longer moving, and you still didn’t stop.”
I cringe. “I don’t remember. Why can’t I remember? Fuck!” I look down at my hands which the nurses cleaned up and bandaged after I was placed in the room.
“That may not be the worst of it.” He hands me his phone. A video is pulled up. “Hit play,” he says. I watch the video and even though it’s dark and you can’t make out who is who, I know what I’m viewing. I watch as my dark form sits on top of a body on the ground assailing it with punch after punch. Once the video ends, I hand Ry back his phone.
“They could press charges against us. Marshall’s family could sue you. This may get worse before it gets better.”
