Little Do We Know(31)

I sprinted across my front lawn, up the stairs, and into the house. I shouted for my parents while I ran to the house phone, and then I dialed 911. As I waited for someone to answer, Dad ran into the kitchen. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Mom was on his heels, tightening her robe around her waist. I pointed at Luke’s car through the window.

“It’s Luke. His whole left side is swollen and purple, and he’s barely breathing.”

Dad raced for the front door. I shoved the phone into Mom’s hands and took off after him. We rounded the corner together, and when he reached Luke’s car, he opened the driver’s-side door and crouched down. I leaned over his shoulder.

Dad felt his wrist, like I had, looking for his pulse, and when he couldn’t find it, he tried his neck instead. He lifted Luke’s shirt and pressed his fingertips below the bruise and above it.

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked.

“I’m not sure,” Dad said.

“Is he going to be okay?”

Dad shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Shouldn’t we pull him out and give him CPR or mouth-to-mouth or something?”

“I don’t know, Hannah!” Dad’s voice shook. The sirens wailed in the distance. “That ambulance needs to be here now!” he screamed. Dad never screamed.

I didn’t know what to do with my hands. I rubbed them on my sweats. I wrapped them around the door frame and unwrapped them again. I kept my eyes on Luke’s face the entire time. I closed my eyes and prayed under my breath. “Please, Lord. Let him wake up. Please, let him wake up.”

“Luke!” Dad grasped his shoulders. “Come on, son, I need you to try to talk to me. Stay with me, okay? Help is on the way, but I need you to stay with me.”

The sirens grew louder.

Dad stood and wrapped his arms around Luke. I thought he was going to try to move him, so I stood by, ready to help, but he kept his head bent low and his mouth right next to Luke’s ear. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but I could see his lips moving. And then I realized he was talking to him.

I could see the blue-and-red lights spinning now. The ambulance flew through the stop sign without even slowing down, and I waved my arms in the air, signaling it. I kept waving, even after it pulled to a stop right next to me.

The EMTs jumped out and raced toward the car. As Dad and I stepped away to make room, I heard a phone chirp. I felt for it in my pocket, thinking it was mine, and then remembered it was still inside on the kitchen counter, where I’d left it, mid-text exchange with Aaron.

And then I saw Luke’s phone on the floor in front of the passenger seat, screen bright, with a message waiting. I ran around to the other side, opened the door, and gagged again; the puke smell was even worse over there.

Emory: Where are you?!?

The phone was locked. I couldn’t reply, so I took off running for her house. The sprinklers must have come on at some point, because by the time I got there, my bare feet were covered in mud.

“Emory!” I screamed. I couldn’t quite reach the window, so I slapped my hand against the gray siding below it instead. “Emory!”

She pulled hard on the shade, and it snapped up. Then she slid the window open and leaned out. Her long hair dangled over her shoulders, barely covering the black lace lingerie thing she had on.

“What are you doing here?”

“It’s Luke. Something’s wrong.”

She must have seen the glow from the ambulance lights around the corner, because her eyes grew wide and she left the window without saying another word.

I ran back to the car. By the time I got there, the whole neighborhood had gathered along the curb, dressed in sweats and bathrobes, watching the scene unfold. Dad was standing on the sidewalk with his arm around my mom.

Luke was already on the stretcher; they were wheeling him around to the back of the ambulance. Without thinking, I ran toward him.

“Wait!” I yelled as I slid in next to the gurney. I grabbed his shoulders and lowered my mouth to his ear.

And I said the first thing that came to mind.





Luke was blue.

I couldn’t see much from where I stood, but the skin on his left leg was blue and his whole body was rigid. His neck was twisted to one side at an uncomfortable-looking angle.

“Luke!” I screamed as I pushed my way through the crowd, fighting to get to him. But then one of the paramedics stepped in front of me and put her arm out, blocking my way.

“Please, let us do our jobs. Stay back so we can help him.”

“That’s my boyfriend!” I lunged forward, but she wrapped her arms around me and I couldn’t move. The other EMTs loaded the stretcher into the ambulance while I desperately tried to twist out of her grasp. “Please. I want to go with him!”

“I’m sorry,” she said as she loosened her hold on me. “Family only. You’ll need to follow us.” She let me go, climbed inside, and slammed the doors behind her.

The sirens blared, and the lights flashed, and the ambulance sped away, leaving me standing in the middle of the street. I wrapped my arms around myself, and that’s when I realized I was wearing a thin layer of sheer black lace. And nothing else.

Hannah’s mom was there in a matter of seconds, covering me with a bathrobe and leading me over to the curb.