I whirl around, ready to lay into him, when Saint materializes behind his cousin. “Don’t fight us on this.” Air whooshes out of his mouth as he rubs a spot between his brows. “We know how fucking badass you are, but you can’t have eyes and ears everywhere. You want to visit your friend and not look over your shoulder.”
“Can’t you ride with me?”
Galen’s head drops, and I feel like a bit of a bitch. Which is ridic, because he’s the one who tried to have me murdered. But it’s getting harder and harder to hold on to that anger and resentment.
“No.” Saint pushes between me and his cousin. “You two need to sort your shit.”
I open my mouth to snap at him that attempted murder is not someshit, but he stops me with a hard kiss. When he pulls back, he weaves his hands through my hair. “He fucked up. He knows it, and he’s genuinely sorry for his actions. Now, more than ever, we need unity. I won’t ask you to forgive him, because I can’t ask that of you, but I am asking if you could find a way of putting it behind you and work with Galen so it doesn’t get in the way of what we need to do.”
“Okay.” He arches a brow, and I know he was expecting an argument. “I can’t disagree with your logic, and my head is cluttered with all this stuff.” I glance at Galen. “I know this has to happen, so I’ll try, but I’m not making any promises.”
“I can drive,” Galen says a few minutes later when we land in the garage.
“You’re injured,” I say, opening the driver’s side door. “You keep lookout.”
I buckle my seat belt as he climbs into the passenger seat, hissing under his breath, his face contorting into a painful grimace. When he is finally settled, I pull out of the garage and along our driveway. “You still taking your meds and icing those ribs?” I inquire.
“Yeah. And I’ve seen a doc. Just have to wait for them to heal.”
An awkward silence fills the space between us, and maybe, I should attempt to smooth things over, but I’m too exhausted to go there tonight. So, I hook my iPhone to the stereo system and pull up one of my more mellow playlists, cranking up the volume as music pours into the car.
The roads are quiet, and we make it to the hospital in good time.
We walk silently side by side to Sariah’s room, and when we reach it, I rap gently on the door before poking my head inside.
Sean, Sar’s boyfriend, and Emmett, his fellow football player and friend, are alone with my bestie, sitting on either side of her cot.
Emmett hops up, walking toward me and pulling me into a bear hug. I’ve missed my friends. Missed normal days at school, hanging out in the cafeteria at lunchtime, just shooting the shit. “Thank fuck, you’re okay.” He keeps me in his arms as he shoots daggers at Galen over my head.
“Why wouldn’t I be? It was only the flu.” I shuck out of his hold, offering him a lopsided smile. Saint had texted me on Tuesday to say they’d spread the word at school that I had the flu and was sick in bed with no visitors permitted on the doctor’s orders.
“You were brief in your text messages, and that worried me.” Emmett continues glaring at Galen, so I loop my arm through his, dragging him over to the bed. “Plus, that asshole said jack shit every day when he turned up.” He jerks his head at Galen again, and I’m grateful he is in groveling mode, because otherwise, he’d most likely beat Emmett to a pulp for throwing shade.
“I slept most of the time, and I stayed away until the doc gave me the all clear because I didn’t want to risk passing anything to Sar.” I hate lying to my friends, but I must keep them out of this. “How has she been?” I bend down and kiss Sean on the cheek.
“The same.” His voice is monotone and bereft of hope.
“What are the doctors saying?”
“Every day that she doesn’t wake up lessens the possibility she will.”
Emmett pulls the chair around the bed, placing it beside Sean, and I sit down. “That sucks, but I refuse to believe it. Sar is a fighter, and she won’t give up. I bet she’s listening to all of us, having a little chuckle at our expense, because she’s healing herself, and she’ll wake up when the time is right.” I’m not sure I believe that, but after today, I need to cling to something positive, to believe there is hope and that good triumphs over evil sometimes.
“I want to believe that so bad,” Sean says, taking my free hand and squeezing it. His other hand is placed over Sariah’s hand on the bed. “But it’s hard to hold on to hope day in, day out when there is no change.”
“You’ve got to try, Sean, because Sar needs all of us to be strong for her.”
He nods, turning to face me with a sad smile. “I’m glad you’re here. We missed you.”
“I’ll be here as often as I can, but there’s a lot of shit going on right now.”
“Like what?” Emmett asks, folding his arms and staring at me.
“How’s your sister?” I purposely ask because it seems he needs a reminder.
A muscle ticks in his jaw. “She’s good,” he says, following my lead. “Still asking when you’re dropping by.”
“I’ll come by soon. I promise.”
