Almost Perfect (28 page)

“Who?” I asked. My knuckles were white on the steering wheel. Whoever he was, he would soon be known as the man with no teeth.

“I met him at that stupid frat party. He gave me his number, but I didn’t call him because I thought I had a boyfriend.” There were no accusations in her voice. Sage was just telling what had happened. “When you dumped me, I decided to get back at you. I thought … I thought that if you knew I went out with someone else, you’d be jealous.”

Christ, what could I say? “Sage …”

She ignored me. “So he takes me out to dinner. Takes me for a drive. Tries to kiss me.” Sage stopped and spit on the floor again.

“You told him, didn’t you?” asked Tammi gently.

Sage nodded and then grimaced. “I thought that if I was honest at first, then he might understand. The second he realized what I was saying, he smacked my face into the window.”

I wanted to turn up the radio. I wanted to tell Sage to
shut up. I didn’t want to hear more about her beating. It was all my fault.

“I tried to get out of the car, and the son of a bitch followed me. He fucking tackled me, then really started pounding on me. I kept begging him to stop, but he just smiled and said he was going to fuck me up the ass. I acted like he knocked me out. That’s when he left. Then I had to walk back to where I parked the truck.”

Girlish sobs filled the cab. It was me. I was bawling. If I hadn’t been such a macho fuck, Sage wouldn’t have gotten hurt.

“Logan, watch the road!” yelled Tammi.

“Who was it?” I screamed. “I want his name!”

There was no answer.

“Who was it?”

“Logan,” groaned Sage, “I’ll never tell you. Because if you hurt him, then he’ll know why. And then everyone in the world will know why he beat me up.”

“But …”

Tammi frowned at me, and I shut up. We’d discuss this later.

University Hospital was part of the Mizzou medical school. I figured it was big enough that no one would recognize Sage. I parked in the tiny emergency lot, then helped Sage through the front doors.

“You register her,” said Tammi. “I’m going to try to get ahold of Mom and Dad. Their movie should be over by now.”

It was nearly midnight, but the waiting room wasn’t as
empty as I’d hoped. An old man sat on a bench, either asleep or in a coma. A black family chatted noisily in a corner. It was impossible to tell which, if any of them, was the patient. Two EMTs wheeled a guy in a neck brace by on a gurney.

I guided Sage to the reception desk. A middle-aged woman with many decorative buttons on her uniform took our information.

“Name?”

“Sage Hendricks. H-E-N-D-R-I-C-K-S,” she spelled through a mouthful of blood.

“Date of birth?”

“September fifteenth.” The receptionist entered the information into her computer as if Sage was applying for a job.

“What year?”

“Excuse me,” I interrupted. “This is the
emergency
room, right?”

“Sir, there are a lot of people ahead of you.”

“Will you look at her? This isn’t Jiffy Lube, lady! She’s hurt!”

“Logan,” whispered Sage. She looked at me through her swollen eye. “I’ll be fine.”

I seethed as they filled out the huge admission form, though I nearly lost it when she asked the reason for Sage’s visit. We were told to go sit in the waiting area, but almost immediately an orderly arrived with a wheelchair. Sage touched my hand.

“Go tell Tammi.”

“Sage, I’m sorry.” My apology sounded so trite. That guy could have killed her, and all I could do was shrug my shoulders and say
my bad
.

The orderly wheeled her off. Sage glanced over her shoulder. I think she was about to say something, but when she opened her mouth, she winced in pain. Her chair vanished into the interior of the hospital.

I found Tammi pacing in front of the emergency room doors. Every few steps she’d get too close, and they’d automatically swish open.

“They’ve admitted her. Did you reach your parents?”

Tammi nodded. “They’ll be here soon. Logan, why would someone do that to her?”

And that was the million-dollar question. Why would someone hurt Sage? She hadn’t hurt that guy. She hadn’t done anything to him but reveal a secret. Why was that such a big deal?

Why is that such a big deal? Why is it always such a big deal? If I’d been able to get over it, to see Sage as she sees herself, none of this would have happened
.

Someone was standing next to me. It took me a moment to place the towering bald man who was hovering at my side.

“Mr. Hendricks!”

He punched me so hard I didn’t feel it. My face actually went numb. I was literally airborne for one second; the crush of my skull on the concrete drove white spikes through my line of vision.

He loomed over me, a look of pure hate on his face. I couldn’t move. For the first time in my life, I feared I was
going to die. Sage’s father was going to stomp me to death, right there in front of the hospital.

“It wasn’t him!” Tammi was screaming, trying to block her father. “It wasn’t him, Dad! He didn’t …”

Mr. Hendricks grabbed me under the arms and yanked me to my feet. “Get out of here!” he shouted. “If I see you again, you’re dead! Do you hear me, Logan? Dead!”

Bobbing and weaving, I stumbled across the parking lot, not paying attention to where I was going. I wanted to get away from Mr. Hendricks, but also, I just wanted to get away.

I found myself in an unfamiliar area, hospital offices on one side, an empty construction site on the other. I leaned against an orange-and-white barrel until my eyes began to focus.

This was my fault. All of it. I put Sage in that hospital, the same as if I’d punched her in the face and left her bleeding on the side of the road
.

She’d been upset because of me. She’d wanted revenge because of me. I was even the one who’d taken her to that frat party. All of this happened because of my own stupid self.

Eighteen years old, and I’d already ruined someone’s life. Sage might not recover from this, at least inside. And I had no idea how to make things right.

I
WANDERED
through the morass of parking garages and hospital office buildings. My skull hurt worse than the hangover from the other day. Every lot, every garage looked identical. When I passed a pickup truck with a tarp in the bed, I considered lying down for a quick nap.

Eventually, I noticed the Rollins Dining Hall. Behind that was Gillett, Laura’s dormitory. The building was locked up for the night; you needed to swipe your student ID to enter. Luckily, a couple was bidding each other a slobbery good night on the stairs and buzzed me in so they could have a little privacy.

So what was I going to do, just stagger into Laura’s room with a head injury and no ride home? I thought about banging on Brian’s door. He’d probably still be up, but that might have been a bit much for a guy I hardly knew. I paused in front of Laura’s dorm room, took a deep breath,
and knocked. After about thirty seconds, an unfamiliar female voice mumbled, “Who’s there?”

“It’s Logan.”

I heard someone get out of bed and walk to the peephole. “It’s some guy. He looks drunk.”

“Get out of here, or we’ll call the police!” Laura blearily shouted.

“It’s me, Logan!”

“Huh?” I heard Laura get up and pause in front of the door. “Logan!” She quickly threw the door open.

I didn’t pause to say hello as I collapsed on Laura’s bed.

“Logan! What’s the matter?”

I opened one eye. Laura and her roommate, Ebony, were staring at me. Laura looked deeply concerned. Ebony looked like someone who’d been woken from a sound sleep by an incoherent stranger.

“Aspirin,” I muttered. “Water.”

Laura began rummaging through her medicine cabinet. Ebony approached me with a somewhat less contemptuous expression on her face.

“Sit up,” she ordered. She then placed her thumbs on my cheek and stared me in the eye.

“She’s a nursing student,” explained Laura.

Ebony examined my eye, which had almost swollen shut.

“Get in a fight?” she asked, gently poking at my scalp.

I shrugged. Up close, Laura’s roommate was even cuter than in her picture. Longish hair, chocolate skin, and dark, dark eyes.

“You’ve got a pretty big goose egg on the back of your head. How many fingers do you see?”

“Three.”

Ebony waved a finger in front of my face, making sure my eyes could follow it.

“Your brother will live, Laura. But he needs to go to the hospital.”

“I can’t,” I replied, swallowing the pills my sister offered me.

“Why not?”

“Because the guy who did this is there.”

Laura was trying to help me to my feet. “Then we’ll go to Boone Hospital, or the VA. C’mon.”

I pulled away. “Laura, I just need to crash.”

She sat down next to me. “Will you tell me what happened? What are you doing in Columbia, anyway?”

“Um …” Ebony sat on her bed, obviously wondering if she was going to get any sleep that night. She let out a long-suffering sigh and grabbed a robe.

“I think I’ll go stay with Bethany. And you really should see a doctor, Logan.”

When we were alone, Laura handed me a soda. “So are you going to talk to me?”

“I …” I suddenly noticed that Laura was wearing a T-shirt that read
PHYSICISTS DO IT WITH FORCE.
I remembered Mike’s major, and my eyes narrowed.

“Logan, c’mon.”

I took a swig of the soda and looked at my sister. Because I’d lied to Laura, Sage was flat on her back in a hospital bed, and I’d just had the shit knocked out of
me by her father. I lacked the strength for more lies. I needed advice.

“Laura.” I didn’t look her in the eye. “You were right about Sage. And … I knew. She was honest with me from the start. I didn’t like it, but … I dunno, I guess she got to be kind of special to me. I tried to tell myself it didn’t matter. But when you found out, I was just so embarrassed. I broke up with her.” There. I’d said it. There was no going back. I think I might have felt relieved at this confession had it not come exactly one day too late.

Laura didn’t reply. When I looked up, her face was in her hands. “Logan, I’m so sorry. I should have minded my own business. I was just afraid she was lying to you, but I should have known she wouldn’t do that. Why did I have to go and open my mouth?”

I gingerly placed my head on the pillow. “I was the one who fucked up. I made Sage into the bad person, and she was the one who told the truth.”

Laura sniffled. “If you want to get back together with her, we can just pretend this never happened. I won’t mention it again.”

So Sage had been right. As long as I was okay, Laura was okay. But now it no longer mattered.

“It’s not that simple, Laura.” I briefly related how Sage had tried to get back at me and ended up in the hospital. I glossed over how her dad had used me as a punching bag.

“Oh, Logan, I’m so sorry. What kind of bastard would hit a girl? Even a girl like Sage?”

I thought back to New Year’s and how I’d been a hair away from punching her myself. In this whole sorry
episode, I’d done nothing right. I’d had a thousand opportunities to be selfless and understanding, but I’d always been small-minded and cruel. I’d yelled at Sage when I found out her true sex. I’d mocked her at the comedy club. Then I’d slept with her and then dumped her to avoid a minor humiliation. And now she was in the hospital.

Sage would have been so much better off if she’d never met me.

“Logan? Are you asleep?”

I kept my eyes closed. “I’m on my way.”

“Can I do anything for you?”

Blackness surrounded me. “Call Mom. She doesn’t know where I am. Tell her I went for a ride with Jack or something. And Laura?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for being understanding. I wish I had your attitude.”

I felt Laura kiss me on the forehead.

“Good night, little brother.”

I heard her make a brief phone call. Then she turned off the lights and crawled into Ebony’s bed.

“L
OGAN
, are you sure you don’t want me to come in and talk to Mom?” My sister and I were dusting down the gravel road toward home. Laura had gotten me up early to drive me back to Boyer. I’d thought about trying to visit Sage before we left, but decided to wait. Especially if her father was still at the hospital.

“I’ll be okay. Mom’s working the breakfast shift, so she won’t be home, anyway. You told her Jack and I went driving and ended up in Columbia, right?”

“Yeah, but you know she’s going to assume the worst. Especially when she sees your face.”

My eye wasn’t black from Mr. Hendricks’s punch, but my cheek was discolored enough to make Mom ask questions. I had a strange center-of-the-brain headache, and I wondered if maybe I should have followed Ebony’s advice and seen a doctor.

I tried to smile. “I’ll think of something. And thanks for everything.”

Laura parked in front of the trailer. She kissed my cheek, causing me to wince, and drove off.

Mom’s car was still in the driveway, but she sometimes carpooled with another waitress. I was glad she wouldn’t be home. All I wanted to do was drink a gallon of water and sleep for twelve hours. Then I could face the world and decide what I could do for Sage.

Tammi must have told her parents what had really happened. After I got some sleep, I’d call the hospital and see if it was okay to visit.

But then what? If it hadn’t been for my ego, Sage wouldn’t even be there in the first place. I’d promised to always be there for her, and I wasn’t. I’d promised to be her friend and help her when she got scared, and I ran off. I’d promised Tammi that I’d look out for Sage and protect her. So where was I when that psycho was punching her teeth out?

I was so preoccupied that when I found Mom sitting in the living room, I almost said hello and headed to my room.

She had moved her easy chair to the middle of the floor and was staring daggers at me. For all I knew, she might have been sitting there since Laura had called the previous evening.

“Mom!”