You and Everything After (Falling #2)(88)

“Shut up!” she says, shoving me on the shoulder.

“Google it. Look up my name, Louisiana Samaritan Hospital, and Dr. Bunshee,” I say, and she studies me for a few seconds, waiting for me to break. I cross my heart and her eyes widen.

“Okay, I’m Googling that. Tonight,” she says.

“Go right ahead,” I say.

“Oh I am,” she says back.

“Whatever. That’s fine, go do it,” I tease back.

“I’m totally doing it,” she smiles.

“Go on then. Go ahead,” I hold my arm out, and she stands, challenging me.

“Okay. Here I go. This is me…going to Google you and your famous legs,” she says, folding her arms over her chest while she walks by stomping. Her body is perfectly straight, and her steps come easily. No weaving or stumbling. I notice. Her mom notices. Neither of us says a word.

“Whatever. You’ll find it online,” I say back, keeping our silly banter going.

“Oh, I’m sure I will,” she says over her shoulder.

I watch until her door closes to her room and then I turn my attention back to the television. It’s some nature show, and it sucks balls. “Mrs. Owens?” I ask, trying to be as polite as possible, and not insult her absolutely horrid taste in television. “Would you mind too terribly if I maybe changed the channel, for just a few minutes?” And then lost the remote and somehow stabbed this channel so you could never get it back?

Cass’s mom closes the magazine she’s been reading, pulls her glasses from her face, and then clicks off the small reading lamp next to her chair. She stops in front of me and hands me the remote. “You can call me Diana, Tyson,” she says during our exchange. And then she smiles. Not a fake one, but a real one.

“I’ll do my best, Mrs. Owens,” I say, and her eyes soften.

As soon as she leaves the room, I switch the channel for Sports Center, and I watch just long enough until I feel like it’s safe to follow Cass’s steps down the hall to her room. I knock with the tips of my fingers, just loud enough for her to notice, and she opens her door. Standing. Not swaying. Her eyes focus on me. Her laptop is closed on her bed where she was sitting.

She pokes her head out and scans the hall, then she opens her door wide and waves me inside.

And somehow I end up holding her until the morning.





Chapter 28





Cass


It was literally a caravan to my doctor’s office. There were five of us in the waiting room, and everyone wanted to join me when they called me back. The scene was a bit mortifying. My neurologist sees mostly older people, seniors. My visits already garner a lot of attention because I sort of stand out. But when I walked in with a posse?

I really only wanted Ty, but that would have opened up a whole new shit storm. So I let my mom come. It seems like doctors are places moms are supposed to be at with their daughters. We should do some things that are…normal.

Nothing was a surprise. I was relapsing. I haven’t relapsed in a while, since I quit playing soccer. My mom hasn’t said it, but she’s thought it. I can see it behind her eyes. My body was fatigued—under unnatural stress—and even though the doctor threw in that flare-ups can happen at any time, for any reason, I knew on some level that those things probably played a part. It was my mom’s conclusion. It was my conclusion, even if I didn’t like it.

Dr. Peeples ordered intravenous steroids at the medical center for a few days, plus an MRI to see if there was any active cell damage happening in my brain that would be causing the blurry vision, or maybe one of my old lesions is getting bigger. Either way, the steroids should calm everything down. Then, I’d be good to go. “Good to go,” Dr. Peeples said.

I had a feeling my parents and I were bound to have different definitions of “good to go.”

“He said you could start today, if you want. I really think that’s best,” my mother says as we all stroll through the parking lot. I nod in agreement. Steroids make me sick to my stomach and turn my face red and puffy, like an Oompa Loompa. So Ty should get to see that during the week he’s here. Awesome.

The medical center is the next parking lot over, and I really wasn’t up for having the posse follow me to my next stop. “Mom, why don’t you and Paige head home? Dad can take Ty and me,” I suggest, hoping she gives me this. Please, just give me this.

“Oh, there’s a really cute store that just opened up at the strip mall down the road. Great jewelry. Let’s go; we can meet them after for lunch,” Paige says, tugging on my mom’s sleeve. Her eyes meet mine for a brief second. I may be imagining it, but I think she’s doing me a favor.

“Well…” my mom says, swinging her keys back and forth between my sister and me. I think she’s actually saying “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” in her head. “I guess you know what you’re doing, Cass. You’ve done these before. And we can all meet up after?”

“Sounds good,” I say, tugging on my dad’s arm, dragging him to his car. I’m not giving her a chance to flop on this decision.

“Subtle, Cassidy,” my dad says as he pushes the UNLOCK button and waits for Ty at the side of the vehicle to take his chair for him. I notice my father’s gaze fall to Ty as he lifts himself to the edge of the seat, his arms fully flexed as he swings his body inside. It’s a move that Ty somehow makes look effortless even though there are about a hundred moving parts in his body doing the work. My dad doesn’t stare, but he notices. And I notice that.