Footsteps echo around the corner. I look up automatically. Tess appears first. Leo right behind her.
“Hey,” Tess says immediately, wrapping me in a hug so fast I don’t even have time to prepare for it.“Are you ok?”
The question alone makes my eyes fill again.
“I’m alright,” I say quickly, wiping at my face before the tears can fall again.
Leo hands out coffee like he expected we’d all be here waiting.
He gives Gwen two cups, one for her and one for Zane.
“Don’t you want any?” she asks.
He shakes his head.
“Where did Zane go?”
“He’s trying to find a doctor,” Gwen explains.“Anyone who can tell us something.”
Leo nods and sits beside us.
We’ve barely been sitting for a minute when more footsteps approach from the other direction. This time, the man who rounds the corner is unmistakable, even though I’ve only ever seen him on the Jumbotron before.
“Coach,” I say, standing automatically.
“Any news?” he asks immediately.
I shake my head. He sighs and sits down beside us like he belongs here just as much as the rest of us do.
“Those assholes hit him way too hard,” I say before I can stop myself.
“I’ve already told the board to review it,” Coach replies quietly.“That wasn’t hockey.”
“You think it was revenge?” Gwen asks carefully.
“I’m not making assumptions,” he says.“But I didn’t like what I saw.”
Neither did I. Not for a second.
“Coach?” Zane’s voice appears from the hallway as he returns.“What are you doing here?”
“Same as you,” Coach replies easily.“Any news?”
“I found a nurse,” Zane says, sitting beside Gwen again.“The surgery’s done. The doctor’s coming in about fifteen minutes.”
Fifteen minutes suddenly feels like hours.
We wait together in silence that stretches longer than it should. Leo and Coach are talking quietly about the last period while Tess tries to distract me with stories about bakery disasters that somehow involve flour explosions and burnt croissants. I try to laugh at the right moments, even though my mind keeps drifting back to the image of Blake in the hospital bed.
“I’m going to the bathroom,” Zane says eventually, squeezing Gwen’s hand before standing again.
“I always get lost in hospitals,” Coach mutters, following him down the hallway.
The moment they disappear around the corner, I hear footsteps approaching again.
This time they belong to a doctor.
“How did it go?” I ask immediately.
