All We Can Do Is Wait(21)

Scott liked that idea, that he was some deep, pensive person. Truth was, he wasn’t. Not really. Usually if he was daydreaming he was thinking about sex—with Aimee, yeah, but also with Victoria Justice, or Danielle Hughes from physics class. Or, more recently, he was thinking about Aimee leaving, about what his last year at school would be like after she was gone. He’d entertain fantasies about her forgoing some faraway school, about visiting her at BU or somewhere, just up the Green Line, not so far away at all.

Now maybe none of that would happen. Maybe Aimee was dead. Jesus. No. That couldn’t be true. That couldn’t actually be true.

These thoughts ran through his head and then he’d ask Alexa something else about herself, where she wanted to apply next year (“Not sure, maybe nowhere”), what music she listened to (“Taylor. I’m boring.”), and his mind would settle a little again. She had a calming effect, Alexa, the adultish rich girl with tired but piercing eyes.

Those eyes darted up suddenly, and Alexa made a little sound. Scott followed her gaze and saw a tall kid, broad-shouldered but skinny, making his way toward the table. The brother, he figured. Jason. He was wearing tight jeans and a dirty-looking sweater, longish hair swept back in a messy bird’s nest on top of his head.

“Glad you decided to come back,” Alexa said to him, the annoyance in her voice not really masking the relief that was in there too. Jason sighed and sat down across from her, slumping over the table and rubbing his eyes. “I was just outside again. I didn’t really go anywhere.”

“You see anything?” Scott asked, figuring what the fuck, they may as well all act like they knew each other. Jason turned to him, looking a little confused. “Where?”

“Outside,” Scott pressed. “Did you see anything?”

Jason, eyes a little glassy, still looked lost. “Um . . .”

“He means, like, ambulances or anything, Jason,” Alexa said, leaning in toward her brother.

Jason nodded. “Oh right, no. I mean, nothing new. I tried to find that lady, but I couldn’t.”

“Mary Oakes,” Alexa explained to Scott.

He nodded his head. “Ah.”

“Jason, this is Scott. He goes to Newton North. He’s waiting to hear about his girlfriend, Aimee.”

Scott extended his hand to Jason, who tentatively took it in his own, gave it a thin little shake. “Nice to meet you,” Jason said. “Sorry about your girlfriend.”

Scott nodded, said thanks. “Sorry about your parents, man.”

Jason nodded too. “Yeah,” he mumbled. “They’ll be fine.”

Which, of course, Jason had no way of knowing. None of them did. Mary Oakes had disappeared behind her swinging doors, and everyone in the waiting room was standing around aimlessly. Scott, Alexa, and Jason were among the few people sitting down. Scott felt a quick pang of guilt, like maybe he should be up and doing something, trying to get an update on Aimee. But what could he really do? He wasn’t family. Aimee’s parents would be on their way. They were both doctors. They’d know what to do, and Scott would just . . . be there.

“Hey,” Scott heard, and looked up to find Alexa giving a friendly little wave to a girl perched on an end table a few seats down from them.

“Hey,” the girl replied, quiet, shaky.

Alexa waved her over to the group, and as the girl approached, Alexa sat up straighter in her chair. “Are you here alone?”

“Oh. Um. Yeah,” the girl answered. “Waiting to hear about my sister.”

“What’s her name?” Alexa asked.

“Kate Vong. I asked the woman at the desk about her, but no one really seems to know anything.”

Scott could sense the girl’s frustration; he felt it too. “Yeah, we’re getting that sense too. I’m Scott, by the way. This is Alexa.”

“Skyler,” the girl said, giving another small wave. “Hi.”

“This is my brother, Jason,” Alexa said, but Jason just crossed his arms and gave a quick nod to Skyler.

Was this guy an asshole or what, Scott found himself thinking. Jason came off like he thought he was better than everyone else, even though he was obviously a total mess. Scott could see why Alexa seemed so annoyed with him, this hipster prick who didn’t even seem to notice where he was, let alone why he was there. Scott wasn’t really the aggressive, get-in-a-fight type, but he thought, sitting at the table and looking at Jason draped in his chair, that he would absolutely punch him in the face if Alexa asked him to.

Skyler sat down next to them, but kept furtively checking her phone and then putting it back in her bag, and it made Scott anxious, like something was about to happen. He turned to Alexa, who was staring hard at Jason as he picked at his nails. “You think we should go try to find Umbridge? See if she knows anything?”

Jason looked up. “I thought her name was Mary.”

“Yeah, it is. I was just . . . It was a joke. Like Dolores Umbridge.”

Jason looked at Scott blankly.

“From Harry Potter?”

Skyler laughed, but Jason’s expression didn’t change.

“Oh. Right. I didn’t see it.”

Alexa rolled her eyes. “My brother isn’t into Harry Potter. Or anything else that involves joy of any kind.”

Jason glared at her.