All We Can Do Is Wait(55)
Her grandmother started crying, saying she was sorry for not being there, that she and Skyler’s grandfather would fly home that day. But Skyler said no, it was all right, they didn’t need to, that there wasn’t anything they could do right now. She just had to tell them that Kate was alive, that she was going to survive. Skyler’s grandmother kept saying, “Thank God, thank God, thank God,” over and over again, and Skyler could hear her grandfather’s voice in the background, asking questions in Khmer, wanting to know what was going on, if Skyler and Kate were all right.
Skyler figured that her grandmother would tell him everything, so she said, “O.K., Grandma? Grandma? I have to go, I have to go see Kate again,” and her grandmother said, “I love you”—not something she said all that often, but not because she didn’t—and Skyler hung up, another teary wave of relief passing over her.
With the rain gone, the night felt renewed and cold, like real fall had finally set in, the city preparing itself for a long winter. But Skyler didn’t mind it then, the bite of the wind as she stood on the street corner, her fingers getting numb, her legs trembling. She didn’t even flinch when her phone buzzed and it was the unknown number, Danny again, sending just wtf.
She put the phone back in her bag, not knowing what else she would need it for that night. Unless she decided to track down her mother, but that prospect seemed exhausting and depressing, and Skyler wanted to keep feeling light and relieved.
She wasn’t sure what to do with herself. The doctors had told her that Kate would probably be asleep most of the night because of the pain medication. There would be another surgery early in the morning—nothing life-threatening, the doctors had promised her—and then the long road to recovery would begin.
But it would begin. Kate was already on her way, the short-haired woman, Dr. Lobel, had said, her smile warm and comforting. They were in the room with Kate, but she was asleep. Her face was bruised and she had lots of cuts, but she was still Kate, intact and alive and already fighting. It was the happiest Skyler had ever felt, knowing that she and Kate still had time, they had so much time, that Skyler could repay her sister for all the things Kate had done for her.
Suddenly, she thought of the others in the waiting room. Alexa and her brother, Scott and Morgan. She had promised them that she’d come back. That she wouldn’t go home until they all knew for sure about their loved ones. Skyler barely knew them, these scared and sad kids, but she didn’t want to go home, to be alone, just yet anyway. So she walked back down the block and through the emergency room doors, seeing that there were even fewer people now, that the four people she knew were all standing together, having some sort of heated discussion. When she got closer, she realized that Alexa was yelling, pointing a finger at Scott.
“I mean, you’ve just been lying to us this whole time?” Alexa was saying incredulously to Scott, who looked stunned, his mouth slightly agape, his chin quivering.
“I wasn’t lying,” he said meekly. “She was my girlfriend. She was my girlfriend!”
Skyler stood there for a second, not sure what to say, suddenly not sure she wanted to be back in this room at all. She considered turning around and quickly leaving. But then Alexa caught sight of Skyler and strode toward her.
“He lied, Scott lied this whole time. His ‘girlfriend,’ Aimee? They broke up, like, months ago. Her parents,” Aimee said, gesturing toward a well-dressed couple huddling close together in a corner, “they could not have been more shocked to see him here.”
Jason was shaking his head, glaring at Scott. “It’s pretty fucked up, man. It’s pretty fucked up,” seeming to enjoy someone else being at the receiving end of his sister’s disapproval.
Alexa nodded vigorously. “It’s really fucked up. Why lie? Here? When we’re all, like, going crazy just trying to hold it together.”
Scott didn’t speak, only turned to Skyler, his eyes pleading—for help or rescue or something. “You’re not Aimee’s boyfriend?” she asked him, as calmly and objectively as she could.
“I was. For a long time. But we broke up, in February. Because I messed up. And I don’t know. I guess I just put too much pressure on her.”
“What do you mean, ‘pressure’?” Skyler asked, hoping he wasn’t going to say what she feared he would say.
Scott seemed to sense her fear, though, quickly saying, “No, no, no, not, like, that kind of pressure. Just . . . I don’t know. She’s graduating. And I messed up at a party.”
“Messed up how?” Skyler asked, taking a step toward him, trying to put herself between him and Alexa, whose anger only seemed to be growing. And then Scott explained that people thought he’d hooked up with another girl at a party after a fight with Aimee. That when Aimee found out, she broke it off. That it happened over eight months ago, but Scott still loved her, would always love her.
“And so now you’re what?”
Everyone turned, surprised to hear Morgan speaking up.
“You’re here to make things better with the girl who dumped your ass? I’m sorry, but all of us”—Morgan pointed to Skyler and Alexa and Jason—“actually belong here. We’re all here for family, for people we love. I’m not sure pathetic ex-boyfriend really counts.”
It was the most Skyler had heard Morgan talk all night, and her voice was quivering with anger. Scott looked distraught, and Skyler felt an odd pang of sympathy for him, even though he’d been lying to them all day.