All We Can Do Is Wait(56)
“What were you doing with my sister?” Jason said suddenly, as if he’d just realized something.
Scott looked confused. “What?”
“With my sister. You guys have been talking all night; you went off somewhere just now. What the hell were you doing with Alexa?”
Alexa shot a hard look at her brother. “Jason, shut up, I didn’t do anything with him. That is not the point. The point is he lied and it’s really shitty that he would do that for this many hours when we’re all . . . when we’re all here. I mean, Jesus.” Her eyes welled up, and she turned and took a few paces away from the group to collect herself. Scott stood stock-still, his eyes cast to the ground.
Jason continued, “My parents might be dead, Morgan’s dad almost died.” Skyler saw something flash across Morgan’s face, there and then gone. “And you’re just lurking around, lying to us so you can see some girl who dumped you months ago? I mean, it’s fucked up, man. It’s really fucked up. They clearly want you to leave,” he said, gesturing toward Aimee’s parents. “So why don’t you get. The fuck. Out of here.”
Jason advanced on Scott as he said this, Scott bristling and standing up a little straighter, Morgan trailing after Jason. Skyler could see that things could be about to get bad, that Scott would maybe only take Jason getting in his face for so long. She thought about turning and leaving, about going for the door, about walking away from them and letting herself return to that place of relief, of good news.
But instead she found herself walking up and getting between Scott and Jason, putting a hand on Jason’s chest. “Stop it, Jason,” she said. “Come on. Just stop it.” He backed off, throwing his hands up. But then a second later he turned back toward Scott, looking like he was going to lunge at him. Skyler stepped in front of him, using her whole body to block his advance. “Jason, stop!” She pushed him back, not hard, but enough to create some space between them. Jason staggered back. He threw up his hands again, muttering, “O.K.! O.K.!”
Skyler turned to Scott, who was pacing, his defenses up. Skyler knew what that pacing meant; she’d seen it before, of course. She reached out, put a hand on his arm. “Scott?” she said calmly. “Scott.” He stopped and looked at her, chest heaving. “Look,” she said. “I don’t know what you did, or why you and Aimee broke up. But, yes, you could have told us. You probably should have told us.”
“I just really needed to be here. Even if I didn’t see her, I needed to know—”
“I know, I know. I get that,” Skyler said. She felt centered, somehow, though also a little like she was watching herself, from beside or above herself. She felt a little like Kate. “But everyone’s emotions are so crazy right now. You have to understand why Alexa’s upset. Maybe you should go. One of us can call you or something. I’ll call you. I’ll wait. I said I wasn’t going to leave until all you guys know, so I won’t. O.K.? Maybe just go home, and I can call you.”
Scott seemed to think about this for a moment. Skyler looked over to where Aimee’s parents were. They were watching this scene now, Skyler trying to calm everyone down. She shot another look at Scott, who was nodding his head, working through something.
Watching Scott sort things, Skyler felt oddly sure that she could defuse this situation, like she suddenly had some kind of divine strength or something. Maybe her grandmother saying, “Thank God, thank God,” on the phone had done something to Skyler, conferred some blessing upon her. Or maybe it was Kate, finally seeing her alive, touching her cheek in the hospital room. Some transference had happened. Kate always kept a cool head, or at least always seemed so confident that she knew, somehow, what to do. And now Skyler almost felt that way too.
She looked up at Scott, and he nodded one more time and said, “O.K. O.K. You’re right. I’m gonna go. I should go. You’re right.”
Jason put up a hand, said, “Bye!” while Morgan glared. Scott turned to get his coat from one of the chairs. Alexa was staring from a slight distance away, expression hard and fixed.
Though, Skyler quickly realized, Alexa wasn’t watching them, she was looking past them, at Aimee’s parents, who were now talking to a doctor, a tall South Asian woman with a puff of dark hair. Where had she come from?
The doctor was saying something softly to Aimee’s parents, her arms folded over her chest, Aimee’s mother clutching her husband, nodding her head, and then letting out a wail—a terrible sound, like something they talked about in the ancient Greek plays Skyler had read in English class the year before—so loud that everyone in the room turned, even the nurses. Aimee’s mom was crumpling to the floor while her husband tried to hold her up, looking only a little more sturdy himself. The doctor reached out a hand to put on Aimee’s mother’s shoulder, but she couldn’t reach her. Mrs. Peck was all the way on the floor now, shrieking, “No! No! No!”
Skyler saw Morgan grab Jason, who stood frozen, watching Aimee’s parents. Alexa had a hand over her mouth. Aimee’s mother made a loud, guttural sound, her husband now on the floor with her, holding her, the doctor standing over them, patient and waiting.
Skyler turned and looked at Scott, holding his coat, watching this all unfold with a faraway look on his face, as if he’d just been told something he didn’t understand, even though it was so horribly clear just then that Aimee was dead.