Concrete Secrets.

Chapter Five: Hospitals Suck

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Copyright 2012

~S.

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Chapter Five: Hospitals Suck

            The hospital waiting room was hot and crowded. As soon as they stepped inside, Elli and Dakota went to the front desk to ask questions about Tamera while Ethan, Gwen, Espi, and Jack sank into the uncomfortable waiting room chairs. Jack leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes. Gwen stared blankly at the TV. Espi faced Ethan, a million questions on her mind.

            “Are you sure you’re okay, E.? You look really shaken up.”

            Ethan nodded slowly. “I’m fine; I’m more worried about Tamera.”

            “You hit Riley Hernandez over the head with a Snapple bottle after having to watch him beat up the girl you like, and you still walked away alive. You should be freaking out,” Jack commented, his eyes still closed.

            Ethan shrugged. “Maybe it’s the shock,” he allowed.

            Dakota and Ellinora joined them

            “Tamera’s been stabilized,” Elli said. “We can go see her when we’re ready.”

            “Go ahead, Elli,” Espi said. “She needs her best friend right now.”

            “Come with me?”

            “Of course.”

          The two of them disappeared through the door leading to the rest of the emergency room. The two of them looked so different: Elli’s dark brown hair against Espi’s bright blond. Espi was taller than Elli, so Elli’s head easily rested on Espi’s shoulder. In this time of grief, it was good to know that somebody’s love life was going well.

            “Did they say how she was doing?” Jack asked, putting an arm around Dakota’s shoulders.  

            “She’s a bit groggy from the pain meds they gave her. It’s lucky she didn’t lose a lot of blood or have any internal bleeding from all the times Riley kicked her. She should be okay in a few days.”

            Ethan nodded, closing his eyes and sighing heavily. His friends left him a blissful silence. Behind his closed eyelids, Ethan saw Riley kicking, punching and traumatizing Tamera on repeat. He remembered how scared and helpless he had felt, especially when he had stood up to the jealous, temperamental jock. Kicking, punching, and pushing. To be honest, during his moment of brief heroism, he didn’t think hitting Riley over the head with the bottle would make him back off. Kicking, punching, pushing all over again. His eyes flashed open; he couldn’t handle the images passing through his head anymore. He decided to watch the hospital patients walking around the waiting room.

            A hunched old man shuffled past with a walker, a tired expression, and thin graying hair. A tiny young woman with a leg cast was wheeled into an important looking office and trying not to look hopeful. A pair of twins with matching neck braces guided each other down the hall. What really caught Ethan’s eye was the little girl huddled up against her mother in the corner of the waiting room.

            The little girl looked about eight, although her eyes seemed much older. Her blond hair was short and tangled, and her face was streaked with dirt. Her clothes—a T-shirt with flowers on it and jeans that looked way too big—were worn and had small holes in them. Her little, beat-up shoes swung in the air; her feet didn’t touch the ground. Her eyes were startlingly the same bright green as Ethan’s. They made her look like she was thinking and understanding a million things at once, whereas Ethan’s eyes just made him look high.

            Her mother was worse: her hair was long, blond and looked like it hadn’t been brushed or washed in days. Her cheeks were hollow and her lips were dry and thin, like all the moisture had escaped from them. The tendons and veins on her hands, wrists and neck stood out noticeably from her pale, dirty skin. Her clothes were baggy in all the wrong places, as if she had gone weeks without eating enough. Her green eyes were hooded and sunken, and unlike her daughter, she looked completely defeated and scared.

           Ethan was wondering who they were, why they were at the hospital and why they looked so familiar when Espiranza was suddenly in front of him. “She’s asking for you, E.,” she whispered.

            He stood, almost robotically, and followed Espi through the double doors. The hallway to Tamera’s room seemed endless. Ethan kept his eyes straight ahead, not daring to even glance into the other patient’s rooms. He had been to the emergency room once when Dakota’s dad had gotten into that car accident, and had made the mistake of looking into somebody’s room. The blood, gore and severity of that person’s condition had freaked Ethan out so much, he couldn’t even watch those hospital dramas anymore. The blood in real life was much worse than in Grey’s Anatomy. At least in Grey’s Anatomy, they didn’t show the extent of the non-stop bleeding, endless screaming, worried families, and the distress and hurriedness of all the doctors on duty.         

            Espiranza stopped at a closed door marked 213. “She’s right through there. You’ll both be fine.” She patted him on the back and went back into the waiting room.

            Ethan braced himself and walked into Tamera’s room.