Before they knew it, they reached the other end of the path, one-point-four miles down.
“Whoa, time to turn around already,” Bria said.
“Thank God,” Katie said, breathless, “I’m ready to call it quits.”
Katie sat on a stump at the end of the path, taking a drink from her water bottle. Up ahead, the silhouette of a jogger approached them, growing larger each second. And as it got closer, Bria knew just who it was. She’d recognize that gait anywhere. It wasn’t the gait of a runner. It was that of another type of athlete—like, a football player—who just happened to be running.
“Hey, ladies,” Knox said, running his forearm across his dripping brow. He was shirtless in the summer-like heat, and Bria couldn’t help but get a good look. He had clearly aged, with a few more freckles dotting his shoulders and a bit more hair across the top of his chest, but he still had most of the muscle definition of a high school running back.
“Hey, Knox!” Katie squealed happily.
“Hey,” Bria said, “you’re still running?”
“Yeah, I guess that’s one of the things you got me stuck on,” he said with a half-smile. “You still running?”
“Oh yeah, all the time,” she said. They both paused for a moment, awkwardly looking down on the ground.
“You guys should go together, like you used to!” Katie said. She meant it innocently, but Bria was glad someone else said it, so that it didn’t have to be her.
“Yeah, that would be cool,” Knox said. “Well, I’m gonna head on back. See ya.”
He turned around and began running back toward the trail head. Bria and Katie started back that way too, at a slower pace.
“How come you guys haven’t hung out again since the other day?” Katie asked once Knox was out of earshot.
“I don’t know, I mean, we’re not that close anymore,” Bria said, shrugging it off as if the same question hadn’t been weighing on her too.
“That’s sad. He was so fun,” Katie said. They walked in silence for a bit, Bria soaking in Katie’s words. About a quarter-mile from the car, Katie turned noticeably pale.
“You okay, kiddo?” Bria asked, rubbing her shoulder. Katie nodded. “Do you need to take a break?”
Katie shook her head, but stopped. She wobbled from side to side for a moment, and scurried off the path into the grass. She vomited forcefully as Bria held back her hair.
“Oh, man, Kates,” Bria said, “let’s get you home.”
Poor kid. The medicines always messed with her stomach. She had lost a ton of weight as a kid because of it. They started walking again, but after only a few steps, Katie stopped. She took a few steps forward, and a few back, before collapsing completely in Bria’s arms, her eyes rolling back in her head.
“Katie! Katie!” Bria shouted. She panicked. There was no cell service in the woods, and of course, not a single walker, jogger, or bicyclist to be seen. “Help! Hello? Anyone around? Katie!” she cried, tapping her sister’s cheeks lightly.
“B?” she heard him say, emerging from the trees like some sort of woodland animal. “What happened?” Bria had tears streaming down her face now.
“She just. . .passed out!” she cried, shakily holding her sister. Knox knelt down, gently scooping Katie out of her arms.
“You go run up ahead and call for help. I got her,” he said calmly. She nodded and took off, staring at her phone, stopping to dial 911, then her mother, as soon as she saw she had a cell signal. She ran the rest of the way to her car and paced along the driver’s side, gravel rocks crunching beneath her running shoes. Knox stepped out of the woods just as the ambulance was pulling up, with Louise’s car right behind it. Katie was cradled in his arms, her head limp on his shoulder.
“Oh, Katie!” her mom gasped as she ran to them. She looked at Bria. “Your father is leaving work now. He’s meeting us there.”
Bria babbled, tears welling up in her eyes again, “I’m sorry, mom. I don’t know—”
“I can bring Bria to the hospital, Mrs. K,” Knox said, interrupting. She wasn’t exactly in the state to drive.
“Thank you, Ben.”
The drive was quiet. God dammit. Why did she push Katie to go for a walk? She said she was tired. Bria should have listened.
“I shouldn’t have made her go for a walk,” she finally said, barely above a whisper.
“Hey, you didn’t know this was going to happen. You were just trying to help her,” Knox reassured her, reaching over to give her hand a quick, but firm squeeze.
When they got to the hospital, Katie had already been taken back to a doctor. Louise came out to the waiting room.
“They think it was just exhaustion, and a reaction to her medications,” she said. “She’s sleeping right now, and they are just waiting for the blood work. Her kidney function is a little questionable right now, so they want to look more into it.” She paused. Louise was seasoned at memorizing a doctor’s words and repeating them calmly. Bria wondered how her mother resisted the urge to panic, to break down. “Ben, thank you so much for your help today, sweetie. I’m so glad you were there.” Louise gave him a hug before ducking back into Katie’s room.
“I’m really glad you were there today, too,” Bria said shyly, looking down at the ground.
“Me, too,” Knox said. “I’m just glad I could help.” Bria sighed and looked around, her racing heart finally starting to slow.
“Wow,” Bria said, looking around the waiting room.
“What?”
“I just didn’t even realize it when we first came in, but I haven’t been back in this hospital since. . .”
“Oh, wow,” Knox said. “Yeah, me either.”
“I think even to this day, that was still one of the worst nights of my life,” she said, this time looking him in the eye. He flashed a nervous smile, and looked down at the ground.
EIGHT
Then, In the Hospital
Bria sat in the waiting room alone, still in her bloody clothes. A few moments later, Mr. and Mrs. Knoxville burst through the emergency doors, with Louise and Joe not far behind. Just as Bria stood up, Mrs. Knoxville enveloped her in a tight hug.
“Oh, Bria. What are they saying? Where’s my baby?” She stepped back, bracing herself for the facts.
“He’s in the operating room right now, Mrs. Knox. He has a broken femur, and a fractured wrist. His head was bleeding, and they are checking for a concussion.” Mrs. Knoxville gasped as Mr. Knoxville held her.
“Bria, we can’t thank you enough,” he said. “I’m so glad you were here tonight. You are his guardian angel.”
The doctor walked out of the room, and pulled the Knoxvilles to a quieter nook in the hall. Out of the corner of her eye, Bria saw her mom slide in, looping her arm around Bria’s waist.
“Honey, are you okay? It’s going to be a while... Why don’t we head home? Dad will stay here in case Ben’s parents need anything,” Louise said, gently stroking her hair. Bria lay her head on her mother’s shoulder.
“No, I want to see him first,” she said. “I’m going to wait here.”
Louise nodded, looking unsurprised by that answer.
“Okay, honey. I'm going to go get you some fresh clothes. I’ll be back.”
Bria sat in silence for a while, hating the drunk idiot who flew through a red light on a Thursday night. Hating the inebriated jackass that almost killed her friend. The cops had told Knox’s parents that the driver had somehow escaped with a broken big toe and a scrape to his face. Bria drifted off into an exhausted, anger-induced sleep.
After four hours of half-sleep on a slopey, uncomfortable waiting room chair, Bria saw Knox’s doctors reappear in front of his parents. He was still resting, groggy from the anesthesia, she heard them say. He needed stitches in his head, and staples in his leg. He had bad whiplash from the airbags, but miraculously, no burns.
“How can that be? Wasn’t the car on fire?” Mr. Knoxville asked.
“Well, it seems he had a quick-acti
ng friend on the scene who pulled him out before the flames reached the driver’s side.”
The Knoxvilles, and her own parents, turned to her.
“Oh, Bria,” Mrs. Knoxville whispered, her lip quivering.
“Can we see him?” Bria asked.
“Yes, absolutely. Right this way.”
Bria stood back, giving the Knoxvilles some time alone with their son. After twenty minutes or so, Mr. Knoxville appeared in the waiting room again.
“Hey, Bria? He’s up. And he asked for you.”
She stood up, her heart racing. Mrs. Knoxville came around the corner.
“We’re going to get some coffee. Go on in, sweetie.”
Bria walked slowly to the door, taking a deep breath before she stepped inside. He lay perfectly still, eyes closed, looking surprisingly peaceful. The hospital gown was only on one arm, leaving part of his chest, and the broken arm exposed. She cringed at the sight of the stitches on his forehead, and his leg lie straight out in a white cast. She pulled the scratchy-cushioned side chair up close to his bedside, and gently placed her hand on his. The tears pricked the back of her eyes again, threatening to spill over any minute. He was a big boy, he could generally take care of himself. But right now, she wanted to cover him, protect him from everything.
“Hey, baby cakes,” he said, his voice coarse and crackly.
“Hi,” she said, wiping the tears quickly from her face. “Look, I know you were pissed at me for not hanging tonight, but this was a little extreme, don’t you think?”
He smiled, letting out a small chuckle, and his eyes closed again. He opened his hand.
“Come here.” Without hesitating, she did just what he said. Bria carefully climbed into the bed.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said, afraid to put all her weight on the bed.
“Pshh,” he said, waving his cast in the air, “you could never hurt me. Besides, I’m on enough drugs right now that you could cut off my foot and I wouldn’t even know.”
She chuckled. But she couldn’t hold a smile for long. She kept seeing him, slumped over the steering wheel, lifeless. She kept thinking about what she would be doing now if he hadn’t woken up. God, what would have happened if she and Brett hadn’t taken Main Street home?
She wasn’t sure exactly what she had with Knox. But it had never crossed her mind that she could run out of time with him.
“Baby cakes,” he whispered, opening his eyes. “B? Why are you crying? Please, no.”
But she couldn’t help it.
“B,” he said, gently nudging her head with his shoulder. “I’m here. I’m all good, see?” he held up his casted foot and arm. He reached across and wiped her tear with his unbroken hand.
“I saw you in the car, and I thought you were dead,” she said. He didn’t say anything. He just stroked her hair.
“Bria Kreery,” he said. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” But he realized she wasn’t in the mood for jokes anymore. “Hey, look at me.”
She did what she was told, again.
“My parents, they said you pulled me out of the car?” She nodded. Suddenly, she wasn’t the only one with tears in her eyes. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I hope I never screw it up.”
A few hours later, Bria woke to someone gently shaking her foot.
“Sweetheart, we have to check Mr. Knoxville’s vitals,” the nurse whispered.
“Oh, yes, so sorry!” she said, jumping from the bed. Knox didn’t budge. He was still sleeping off the night before. She was in such a frenzy trying to get out of his bed, that she almost didn’t notice Brett in the corner of the room. She paused.
“Babe,” she said. He just stared at her, then headed for the door. She followed him out.
“Well,” he said, “Looks like you had a rough night.”
She couldn’t tell if he was being sympathetic or sarcastic.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t call.”
“Well, how could you? You left your phone in my car,” he said, handing it back to her. “Did you sleep with him all night?”
She looked down at the ground. “I didn’t sleep with him. We were just talking and we just fell asleep.”
“Bria, you were practically on top of him when I came in here this morning.”
Okay, now she was sort of pissed. Was he really picking right now to fight about this?
“Seriously, Bria, this is an issue. I get that you wanted to see if your friend was okay, but he is. He’s gonna live. So it’s time to take a step back from him. It’s not fair to me.”
Bria looked through the window slot on the door into Knox’s room. He was awake now, holding up his unbroken arm for the nurse to slide on the blood pressure cuff. How dare Brett come here, and demand that she give up the truest friend she had ever had. How dare he come here, and give this ultimatum today, the day after she almost lost Knox.
“‘Take a step back from him?’ Who do you think you are? He almost died, last night, Brett. Don’t ask me to choose,” she said, looking him dead in the eye, “because it’ll be him.”
Brett’s eyes opened wide. Now he was the one taking a step back.
“Wow,” was all he said, before he turned and headed out the big brown doors. And if she was being honest, that was the last moment she felt anything for Brett, at all. She could say she was sad about the break-up, but she would be lying. After the overwhelming amount of pressure she felt with him the night before, and the shame she felt for not following through, this was actually a bit of a relief.
Later that day, Bria walked out into the hallway to raid the vending machine. She had picked at Knox’s hospital food, but they had both agreed that Snickers bars, Doritos, and coffee would be a more well-rounded lunch. His parents were bringing them dinner later, but for now the vending machine would do. She had watched all day as kids from their school paraded in and out, bringing flowers and hugs—and dramatic tears from some of the girls who swooned over him. She rolled her eyes as Courtney Blake recounted her own tale of when she heard about the accident, wiping tears from her cheeks. “I can’t believe we almost lost him,” she had whined to her friends. Oh, for Pete’s sake.
As Bria turned back toward Knox’s room, she collided with Courtney, sending the snacks and coffee everywhere.
“Oh, sorry,” Courtney muttered, quickly returning her eyes to her phone, without bothering to pick anything up.
“Hey,” Bria heard someone say, “let me help you with that.” He was tall and broad, with sand-colored hair, and big, dark eyes.
“Thanks,” Bria said, taking the Snickers back from him.
“You’re Knox’s girl, right?” he asked. She shot him a look. She wasn’t sure how to answer. “Sorry, I should have said. I’m Johnny Ridges.”
Ah, she knew the name. He was the quarterback for the Centerville Eagles, their rival school. Johnny was the Brett of Centerville, his name was all over town.
“Oh, hey,” she said. “I’m not his girl, but I’m here with him, yeah. He’s my best friend.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear he’s doing better today. I came to drop these off,” he said, holding up a stack of greeting cards. “We made them at school today.”
“That’s really nice of you,” she said.
“Yeah, well, rival or not, he’s a good guy.” She looked toward Knox’s door, feeling her stomach do a flip.
“Yeah. He is.”
NINE
Now
After a few more tests, the doctors cleared Katie to go home. Fighting a sinking guilt, Bria waited on her for the rest of the week, bringing her treats and trashy magazines, and watching all of their favorite movies on repeat. She took her to her doctors’ appointments and out to eat at all of her favorite restaurants. It had been nice, but Bria’s week off was almost over. She’d be starting her new job the coming Monday, but for some reason, her excitement about the promotion had faded significantly.
As she got up to rinse out their ice cream bowls in between e
pisodes of Jane the Virgin, her phone buzzed. Drew.
“Hey, babe,” she said, holding the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she scrubbed.
“Hey, how’s she doing today?” Drew asked.
“Much better. I think the chocolate ice cream is helping,” she told him.
“Cool. Are you coming home for the weekend?” he asked. She was caught off-guard. It was Friday. Why wouldn’t she be going home? After all, she hadn’t seen her fiancé in almost a week. She thought quickly if there was any reason she would need to stay in Dalesville, but she had none.
At least, none that she could say out loud, especially to Drew.
“Yeah, definitely. I was going to leave around four to head back, so I’ll get there around the same time you do.”
“Perfect. Tara and Cody wanna go out to that new Indian place I told you about in Dupont,” he said. Bria sighed to herself—she didn’t really like Indian food.
“Great,” she said, her voice dripping with phony enthusiasm.
“Okay, well, break’s over. I’ll see you in a few hours. Love you!” he said.
“Love you, too.”
After she and Katie finished their TV binge, she got up to pack up a few things for the weekend.
“Where are you going?” Katie asked.
“I’m going to head home for the night,” Bria called from Sam’s bedroom, where she had been sleeping.
“Oh,” Katie said. She could hear the disappointment in her sister’s voice, even from three rooms away.
“I do need to see my fiancé sometime,” she said, lifting Katie’s chin with her finger. “But I’ll be back Sunday.”
Just as Bria kissed Katie goodbye and headed to the screen door, Knox appeared on their front porch. She felt her heart pounding into the walls of her chest like a bowling ball.
“Hey,” he said. He held a bouquet of roses, and a stuffed bear.
“Hey,” she said, quizzically.
“Is Katie home?” he asked. She smiled.
“Kates,” she called over her shoulder, “door’s for you.”
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