Just One of the Guys 3 My Someday...

by Kristi Pelton

Sam, Dylan and I sat in a private waiting room. An hour and a half had passed and the only news we’d gotten was that she was stable. A television sat in the corner muted and so were we. No one said a word.

  I looked at Ryan’s number on my phone a hundred times. I needed to call him, Matt and Katie. They deserved to know what was happening to their daughter, but I thought I’d better wait for news. At this point what I had to give them was not good.

  Hayden walked in and threw a t-shirt at Dylan then one at me. I had no idea where our clothes or surfboards were.

  “Thanks, man.”

  He sat next to Sam. “Any word?”

  All three of us shook our heads.

  A siren echoed in the distance and it sounded like someone else was being brought in, which irritated the hell out of me. I needed Em to have the attention she needed. Of course then I saw a man holding a woman as she wept walking down the hall. I wondered if it was their child. I was so selfish. That made me think twice about calling her brother now. Then that made me think about how bad I wanted to hold her. I collapsed into the chair and sobbed out loud. Sam’s arms wrapped around me and I heard her sniffing too.

  “This isn’t fair Sam,” I cried.

  “I know.”

  “You all are here for Emma?” A man in a white coat asked, and I lunged from where I sat wiping my face.

  “Yes, sir.”

  He smiled. “Please. Sit down.”

  “Please just say it,” I asked.

  “Emma is stable. We’ve run several different tests including an MRI, due to the seizure but that was perfect. Her body temperature nearly reached 105 and we knew something was driving it. We pulled some spinal fluid to make sure she wasn’t having some sort of bacterial infection. Everything came back ok.”

  I released an incredibly long sigh. “So, she’s going to be ok?” At that moment, Hank walked through the door and sat next to Sam.

  “We are fighting to keep her cool. The prolonged fever and accelerated heart rate are hurting us. We are still working on it.”

  “May I see her?”

  He shook his head. “Not for a bit.”

  “Why does she have this fever? And her heart rate? What’s happening?” I asked.

  “The blood tests came back and we found methylenedioxy and methylamphetamine in her system. Has she used before? Does she use a lot?”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Oh God!” Dylan said.

  “What is that?” I glared at him.

  “Molly,” Dylan simply stated.

  The doctor nodded. “Yes, Molly is the street name. We call it ecstasy mainly. She clearly overdosed on it.”

  “What the fuck? Emma doesn’t use. I’m sorry,” I apologized for my language.

  “Zach,” Hank said and I could tell by his voice, he demanded my attention. We all looked at him. “Sophia. She lured her into the bar earlier. I watched every second but Sophia had bought two shots before Emma got there. Emma drank hers but then left. I poured so I never gave it a second thought.”

  My fists clenched and anger swelled inside of me as the pieces fell together. “I can’t see her for how long?”

  He shrugged. “I’d say another hour or two.”

  “Thank you for your time,” I said shaking his hand.

  Then, without reservation and with clear intent, regardless of any promise made, I left there with one agenda.

  Chapter 20—Revenge

  “Zach, wait man.”

  Dylan’s voice behind me didn’t detour me in the slightest. And as the anger grew and began to boil, my footsteps picked up pace. Before I realized, I hurdled into the Jeep and directly into my seat. I measured Dylan’s pace and only counted to three. As the tires screeched and I shot a U in the parking lot, he rested in the passenger seat not looking at me but looking straight ahead. There was no question that he had my back.

  I drove straight to Panchas surprised to see a note on the door that read ‘CLOSED, DUE TO FAMILY EMERGENCY’ Hank closed because of Em. Tears filled my eyes and I rested my head on the steering wheel. The thought of Sophia drugging her came storming back.

  The rubber squealed again at take off and parking in front of her house. Within ten seconds, I vacated the Jeep, ran to the house and kicked in her damn door. Her wide-eyed gaze only met mine for a second before she bolted toward the kitchen. I followed her and Dylan went a different route. Thank God for that long mane because her hair was twisted in my hand and yanking her backward in only a few seconds.

  “Stop, Zach!” She yelled.

  My nose was against her face. “You couldn’t leave well enough alone could you?”

  “I didn’t do anything!” Her voice shot up an octave as I tightened my grip.

  “DON’T FUCKING LIE TO ME!” I shouted and the entire house echoed. “Hank knows and has the damn glass with the residue.” That part was a lie but Dylan and I would both be present for her admission. “SHE’S HANGING ON BY A FUCKING THREAD SOPHIA!”

  Big teardrops spilled over her eyes. I’d never hit a girl, hell I’d never pulled a girl’s hair outside of something sexual, but I wanted to hurt this girl badly. I untangled my hand and shoved her away from me afraid of the emotion inside. Dylan stepped between us.

  “How many Soph? How many did you give her?” Dylan asked.

  “I crushed up a couple.”

  “A COUPLE? I TAKE ONE AND SHE’S LESS THAN HALF MY SIZE!! WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING??” The powerful intimidating steps toward her forced her to cower, and Dylan put his hand to my chest.

  “Is she going to be ok?” Sophia cried.

  My finger jetted out jabbing her nose. “You better fucking hope so. I swear on her life, I will kill you myself if she’s not.”

  Sophia slid down the wall weeping. “You used me. Over and over again,” she sobbed. “I loved you. I thought that maybe you’d choose me over your loneliness eventually, but she robbed me of that.”

  As much as she wanted to be coddled at this moment…that would never happen. My teeth ground together as I spoke, “she had me six years ago. No one was ever getting that piece of me. What we had was exactly that. You have 24 hours to turn yourself in. If you don’t, I will hunt you down. Clear?”

  She nodded pulling her legs into her chest and as Dylan and I left the room, I heard her cry, “I’m sorry.”

  Chapter 21—Emma—Awake

  As I opened my eyes I felt groggy…drunk…maybe hung over. Then the overwhelming smell of antiseptic or disinfectant penetrated my nostrils and a wave of nausea churned in my stomach. A television was on near the ceiling and Sportscenter played on the screen. Rolling my throbbing head to the left, I saw someone’s head buried in the mattress at my side. I think it was Zach. The room was dark…where were we?

  I reached for him and a sharp pain shot up my hand. An IV was in my arm and my eyes followed the line up to the bag of saline to my right. What the hell? Then I saw Sam in a chair and Dylan crashed on the bed across from me. My fingers raked through Zach’s hair and he jolted awake shooting his chair backward waking up everyone.

  “Get the nurse,” he said and Sam darted from the room.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked having difficulty finding my voice.

  “How do you feel?”

  I wasn’t sure I could answer. Confusion settled over me. I didn’t know why I was here. “Tired. My throat is sore. What happened?”

  A man came strolling through the door with a smile. “Emma Hendrick. I’m Dr. Long. You gave us a bit of a scare. How are you feeling?” he asked, shining a light in my eyes, which was very bright.

  “Ok I think.”

  He lifted the covers off my feet and brought some sort of silver tool up my arch making me want to kick him because it tickled so badly. “Excellent,” he said.

  “What happened?” I asked again.

  “Emma, can you tell me who everyone in this room is?” Giving the room a once over, I nodded. “Tell me,” he requested

  “That’s Zach,” and I smil
ed at him, but the smile he returned didn’t touch his eyes. “That’s Dylan and that…is Sa-mantha,” I chuckled… “and she’s single.”

  The good doctor smiled and gave Sam a wink. Sam glared at me.

  “Now tell me what city you are in.”

  “I think I’m in Newport Beach.”

  “Good. Do you remember anything about what brought you here?”

  My eyes instinctively closed. “Austin was here…but I came to you last night,” I said directed toward Zach. He smiled.

  “That’s right,” he said.

  “Then this morning you left me that surfboard note so I was walking to the beach to find you. That’s all I really remember. What happened?” I needed to know. “Why am I here? Why does my throat hurt?”

  The doctor sat on the bed. “Your throat hurts because we had to slide a tube down your esophagus to your stomach so that we could pump it.”

  “Pump it?” My eyes widened. “Why?”

  “Emma when you got to us, your body was overheating. You were having seizures and you’d lost consciousness. So, unclear what was going on, we ran some tests and your blood work came back positive for metha…”

  “For ecstasy,” Zach interrupted.

  “That’s right,” the doctor added.

  “Wha??” Fear shot through me. The only person I knew who had it was Zach. My eyes bore in to his.

  “You should be ready to go home in the morning. We will continue to monitor your body temperature and heart rate tonight.” He patted my leg as he talked then left the room taking another look at Sam.

  “Say goodbye,” Zach said with an almost stern tone to Sam and Dylan. And they did, hugging me before they left.

  Once they were gone and we were alone, he sat in the chair next to the bed and tucked my hand beneath his chin, his eyes not finding mine.

  “Zach?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “What happened? Did you…”

  The grip on my hand tightened. “Don’t Em. Don’t ask that. The thought that you could possibly think that rips me apart.”

  Tears squeezed out my eyes. “Look at me,” I pled and he did. “Talk to me. What happened?”

  The breath he inhaled and released was the longest I’d heard him ever take. He was scaring me.

  “It was Sophia,” he said so softly.

  “Sophia?” I wasn’t following. “SOPHIA! We had a drink!” I remembered now.

  He sat upright. “Yes. That’s right.”

  “The shot tasted so bitter.” A queasy feeling touched my stomach.

  He drew down my face slowly with the backs of his fingers “I’m sure it did.”

  I sat up in bed for the first time and a loud beep echoed in the room. Zach shot up with wide eyes as a nurse burst through the door she smiled when she saw that I was ok.

  “I think one of your leads came off,” she said reaching under my gown. She re-hooked a cord on a little patch covering my chest. “There you go,” she patted my arm then left.

  “I need to go to the bathroom,” I said.

  Zach came to my side and scooped me into his arms. I would never tire of him caring for me. “I got you. Pull the pole as we walk.” He was amazing how he maneuvered cords and everything.

  “I could have walked.”

  He remained quiet and once back to the bed, he climbed in next to me positioning me with my head on his chest. Beneath my ear, his heart thumped a lulling rhythm. I knew we had Sophia to talk about but I could barely keep my eyes open.

  “Zach…why’d she do it?”

  My head rose and fell with his deep breath. “I don’t know baby…getting back at me the way she knew would hurt me most…hurting you.”

  “She wants you? She wants you to be hers?” I asked and felt pretty confident how he felt about that.

  His fingers massaged my scalp and my eyes closed waiting…

  “Em. It will never matter who wants me…I am and will always be yours. And I swear to you, I won’t ever let anyone hurt you ever again. This tops the worst days of my life.”

  I glanced up at him. “I’m sorry.”

  His lips pressed into my hair and he inhaled. I couldn’t possibly smell good but didn’t have the energy to pull away. “Baby. Don’t say sorry. Please… You did nothing wrong. There was someone in my life that was shady. I exposed you to that.”

  “Zach. Don’t. I walked back into your life willingly. You didn’t bring her to me. Though I knew that first night I wanted to punch her in the face.”

  A rumble of laughter shook his chest. “I appreciate you wanted to punch her because that means it stirred something deep inside of you.”

  I bit his chest. “It stirred something alright.”

  “Em. I was pretty fucked up that night. I’d seen you at different times in my dreams and I truly for a few moments didn’t think you were real. And the only thing going through my mind was ‘are you kidding me? I’ve waited for this moment for four and a half damn years and this is what’s happening?’ Trust me, that was not how I saw it playing out in my mind.”

  “Well, maybe you should have kept the lil guy in your britches.” I smiled where he couldn’t see.

  “The lil guy, eh?”

  “Mmmm, hmmm.” It was me now who shook with the giggles.

  He smacked my ass lightly and said, “If I remember right, the lil guy made you cry out last night.”

  “That’s true…I liked his eagerness. He gets an A for playing well with others. He’s a champ in my book…” I giggled and yawned.

  His hands traced circles on my back. “Go to sleep you clown,” he chuckled… “before I get kicked out of your bed.”

  No further words were exchanged, as I nestled as close to him as I could.

  Chapter 22—Zach

  The hot water raining down over me felt good but as much as I enjoyed a shower, I needed to get back to Emma. She was being released today. Her time with me had been short and filled with drama. I wanted the chance to show her normalcy. To watch a movie with her. To cook…to bake. To have babies… I wanted to tell her this. I want to ride a bike on the boardwalk with her. I want to build sand castles. I’ll change the diapers…

  When I got back to the hospital, she was awake and finishing her breakfast. Her face was makeup-free and her hair pulled up into a messy bun. She looked absolutely stunning. The color was back in her face and relief engulfed me.

  “Good morning beautiful,” I greeted.

  She held up a spoonful of oatmeal. The glob of grain stuck to the spoon and her lip pulled up. “For you maybe. This is gross.”

  I smiled. “How about we blow this joint and get you some real food?” I sat next to her and pulled her in for a hug. “I’ve missed you.”

  “You’ve been gone forever,” she said and her mood seemed soured.

  “It was only about 30 minutes. What’s wrong baby?”

  She shook her head, but I knew…something was off.

  “Tell me…”

  She tossed her spoon into her oatmeal and lay back on the bed. “Sophia was here,” she whispered.

  My fingers instinctively curled forming fists and I slowly rose to my feet. “What did she say? Did she give you anything?”

  She shook her head. “You called the police on her?”

  “You’re damn right I did, Emma!” I tried desperately to stay calm but I wanted to destroy this room. How dare that little bitch come near her again? If my head could blow off my shoulders…it would have shot directly through this hospital roof.

  Emma sat upright and looked down at her fidgeting hands. I’d scared her I think and that wasn’t ok either. Damn it. Counting to ten quietly in my head, I finally said, “look baby, she could have killed you.” My voice cracked as those words came out and I had to take another breath. I bent down and knelt on one leg, taking her hands and forcing her to look at me. “When I was out in that water, sitting on my board, Dylan and I were watching you. We could tell you weren’t ok. There wasn’t a wave to get in to you. The
ocean didn’t have a fucking wave in that moment,” I couldn’t hold it in and I was embarrassed, so I buried my face in her hands and rested my head on her thigh. She untangled her hands with mine and then tangled her fingers in my hair. I sniffed, trying to gather myself. “You were out of it. People were touching you…trying to help you and I was stuck in that moment. Paralyzed by fear. When I got to you…it was the most helpless feeling I’d ever felt. Dylan, God…he jumped to it. He was taking your pulse and doing his thing. I was…fucked. Then the paramedics were there and you were still unconscious. Em, I had just gotten you back,” I cried, it was beyond holding in. I wept…truly wept in her arms. “And I thought when I saw you having that seizure…God baby…”

  “Zach. I’m ok…now. Please. Look at me.”

  I shook my head. Ashamed at who had been in my life when she got here. Ashamed that it was so evil that she got hurt. Ashamed that I couldn’t protect her when she needed me. I should have stayed with her that morning. She forced my chin up, I couldn’t deny her. Quickly, I wiped my face with my hands.

  “I’m ok…,” she whispered caressing my cheeks. “I’m here.”

  My arms circled her waist and I clung to her.

  “Zach, I don’t want charges pressed against Sophia. All I’d ask is that she pay for my medical bills,” she said softly. “She is sorry. I believe her. She offered to pay for everything.”

  Releasing her, I shot up off the ground. “Why would you trust her, Em? Why?”

  “I don’t know Zach. But I do. She was remorseful. She said that her family has money and she’ll pay. Is that true?”

  I stood in the middle of that sterile hospital room, staring at the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. The woman I wanted to make happy more than anything in this world. Yet, here she was asking from me the one thing that would be hardest to give. To forgive and allow a person that nearly killed my love to walk… My fingers intertwined and rested on top of my head; I couldn’t speak. She stood and took two steps toward me. For the first time I noticed her IV had been taken out. I wouldn’t allow another step. Whisking her into my arms, I cradled her and sat on the bed.