When Our Worlds Collide (Our Worlds #1)(113)

“If you’re going to puke, try doing it out the window, kid,” he requests. I roll my eyes. Getting sick is the last thing on my mind. I just need to get to Kennedy. I needed to see her to make sure she would be alright. I know she never will be. How could she be?

The ride takes more than twenty minutes. I can tell the driver is hauling ass for my benefit. I must look like the mess that I feel. I throw a hundred dollar bill in the front seat telling him to keep the change. I didn’t want to waste any time waiting for him to count out change for me.

I storm the front door of the emergency room frantically looking around for any sign of Violet or Kennedy’s parents. They would have been called. They had to be around here somewhere.

“Graham…” Violet shouts grabbing my attention. I look over the room again. I see her sitting slouched down in a chair looking helpless. I approach her to see her eyes rimmed in red and her face blotchy from crying.

“Is she okay?” I stand in front of Violet waiting for an answer. She flies off of her chair and into my arms stretching her arms around my neck. She begins to cry again. “Please tell me she’s going to be okay.” I sit Violet back down beside me holding her hand. I know how I feel, but Kennedy’s Violet’s best friend, her sister.

“Graham, he beat the shit out of her. He…” Violet lets the thought break off before finishing. She doesn’t need to say the words out loud for me to understand.

“Fuck,” I utter under my breath resting my head in my hands. I’m far from religious. Even with that I found myself praying. Praying to any spiritual thing out there in the universe that can somehow pull some strings to insure that Kennedy will be okay. She has to be okay. If she’s not okay then I’m never going to be okay.

I don’t know how long Violet and I have been sitting in the waiting room when she abruptly stands from her chair releasing her hold on my hand. I don’t budge. I don’t want to face whoever she’s talking to.

Someone sits down in Violet’s abandoned seat putting a hand on my shoulder. Whoever it is, they don’t say anything. I’m to blame for this, just like I’m to blame for everything else. The car accident, Craig’s first attack, and now this is on my hands. Ever since I came into Kennedy’s life nothing good has happened for her.

“I know what you are doing and you can’t,” a soft voice whispers. I look beside me to see Kennedy’s mother rubbing her hand over my back. “You can’t blame yourself for what happened to her. Just like she can’t blame herself for what happens to you. Things happen. Sometimes they are good and sometimes they are…horrific.” Mrs. Conrad brushes away a few tears from her cheeks.

I look at her to see how scared she looks. She’s fearful for her daughter, the type of person she’ll be after the attack. The way she’ll look at the world knowing how hateful it can be to the kindest of people.

I stand pulling her into a hug. The hug might have been for my benefit or for hers. I don’t think it really mattered. It just seems like the right thing to do.

“I’m so…sorry,” I apologize pulling away from her to pace the length of the empty waiting room. It’s just Kennedy’s parents, Violet, and I in here. They all watch me.

“Graham, she’s going to be okay. Maybe not right away, but at some point she’ll be okay. She’s going to need you,” Mr. Conrad explains sitting down in the seat that I occupied only minutes before. He’s watching me. I can’t hold it in anymore. I fall to my knees and ball. I mean I really let it all out. I don’t think I’ve ever cried like this.

“She has to be okay,” I say through the sobs to anyone willing to listen as I sit in the middle of the room clenching at my stomach.

“She will be, sweetie,” Mrs. Conrad explains again.

“I’m going to fucking kill him. I warned him…” I say out loud not really caring who’s listening to me as I get up and pace the waiting room again. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”

Mr. Conrad stands stepping in front of me stopping my assault on the carpet. “I think that’s the last thing Kennedy needs right now,” he pats me on the shoulder. How could he be so calm and keeping such a level head about this?

The four of us sit in the waiting room for god knows how long until a doctor comes out to talk to Kennedy’s parents. They step aside leaving Violet and I alone again. Dan races through the doors wrapping Violet in a hug. He kisses her on the head repeatedly telling her that everything’s going to be just fine. I wish I believed him.

“Graham, if you want to see Kennedy you can go back to her,” Mrs. Conrad says with a pained smile. “I need to warn you that she looks bad. Don’t be alarmed when you first see her for the first time.” Mrs. Conrad grabs my hand squeezing it with reassurance. My legs feel numb. They don’t want to move.

“She’d want to see you whether you believe it or not,” Dan says while still holding tight to Violet.

I take a few steps towards the waiting doctor that’s standing in the door way to the emergency room. He gives me a sympathetic practiced smile. This can’t be easy on the staff. No one wants to see anyone hurt the way Kennedy has been tonight. I can imagine it’s especially hard the younger they are.

I follow him until he points to a shut door. He tells me that it’s okay to go in. He must see the fear in my eyes. He nods his head with some form of understanding of what I’m going through. I stand frozen for a few minutes until I build up enough courage to walk in. I grab the door handle to slide the door open. There’s a curtain blocking me from seeing her, but I can hear her. Her soft sweet voice is strained with a rasp that fills the room as she talks with a nurse.