“Where’s Gavin?”
He shook his head. “Get some sleep, baby girl.”
AFTER A SOLIDday in the hospital, my phone went dead. I hadn’t heard from Gavin. If he needed to find me, it wouldn’t be that hard—after all, my parents’ phone number was tattooed on his hand.
Three days passed. The swelling went down in my knee and I was scheduled for surgery. My dad seemed to be taking my injury worse than me, though I was looped up on so many drugs I don’t think I really knew what was going on. My mom and Kiki were there a lot, Ling seemed to call every hour on the hour, and I literally couldn’t get rid of Lance.
An hour before my surgery, my family went to the hospital cafeteria to get some breakfast while Lance sat in a chair in my hospital room, studying. He looked up when he noticed me stirring after a short nap.
“Are you ready for this?” he asked.
“Lance Stone, you are a dead ringer for Tobey Maguire. Have I told you that?”
“Yeah, like nine hundred times in the last three days.” We laughed. I was on so many drugs, I couldn’t even remember what day of the week it was. “Do you like Tobey Maguire?” he asked.
“He seems nice, and he’s cute.” That made Lance smile.
“I can’t be here when you get out of surgery but your family will be. I’m pretty sure I’m the only person who still has a final left.”
I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. You’ve done enough.”
He looked at me tentatively. “I know there’s nothing between us, Penny, but I’d like there to be.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He stood and came toward me. Taking my hand in his, he said, “I know this isn’t the first thing on your mind, but I want to see you through this thing. I’ll be here for you, and then you can decide if you want there to be something more between us, too.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
Moments later, my family was back and the nurses were prepping me for surgery. My dad held my hand as they wheeled my bed down the hallway.
“Everything’s gonna be okay. I love you.”
My mom mouthed the words,I love you, too.
“Count backwards from twenty, Penny,” someone said.
“Twenty, nineteen, eighteen —”
“PENNY.” A SHORTbrown-haired nurse I had never seen before was hovering over me. “You’ve just had surgery and you’re in recovery. You’re coming out of the anesthesia. How are you feeling?”
“Gonna throw up.” They sat me up and gave me a little tub to throw up into.
My parents came in and stood on either side of my bed. “The doctor said the surgery went well,” my father said. “You have a long road ahead of you, but this was the first step and it was a success.”
I don’t think I even cared at that point, I was so exhausted and depressed. “Oh. Good. Where’s Keeks?”
“She’s at a friend’s,” my mother said.
They wheeled me back to my regular hospital room and tried to get me to eat some broth, which I threw up immediately afterward.
At around six p.m., my mother was getting ready to leave.
“You should go too, Dad. You need a shower. Your pits are stinking up this entire hospital floor.”
“Our funny little Sweet Pea is back,” my dad said.
