My Stupid Girl (4 page)

A blond haired woman barreled through the
door into the room. Her nose was bright red from crying and her arms were
stretched out wide. She passed my bed and went running thru the curtain wall,
leaving it wide open. A tall man with red hair and a mustache came in behind
her, not quite as wild looking but still moving pretty fast. He had his hands
in his pocket and looked like a man who had been relieved of a great burden.

"Oh, Lucy!" The woman stumbled
into Lucy’s arms, practically falling onto the bed.

"Mom! It’s ok. I'm ok!" Lucy
clutched her mom’s neck like she did to mine when I had pulled her out of the
water. It was tender and kind. It made me feel uncomfortable. The quiet man
walked over and kissed the top of Lucy’s head, letting the mom continue her
insanely long hug-fest.

"I’m so glad you’re ok," he
smiled down at her and sat on the other side of the bed. Wow, it was a party.
Tonight’s special: frozen teenage girl.

"I’m okay, Dad." The mom finished
the longest hug ever and adjusted herself to a sitting position, beginning to
chatter even before the dad was through with his (much shorter) hug.

"What happened? Scott called me and
said you fell into the LAKE? Was this what you had in mind? An afternoon swim?
Dragging some poor onlookers in with you? Lucy, you’re supposed to be on the
lake not in it!" The dad patted the mom’s hand and the mom cracked a
smile. A more mature version of Lucy’s loud laugh escaped from her lips.

"What can I say? I like to mix things
up a bit!" Lucy looked around her mom, in my direction.

"Mom! Dad! This is David!"

Oh crap.

The mom looked over at me with wide, green
eyes and instantly jumped up and moved at lightning speed to my bed. Her arms
were outstretched and I swear I could hear the theme song to Jaws playing. I
knew I couldn’t survive one of her super-hugs. She was about to eat me alive; I
was just sitting prey, waiting to be devoured. After nearly suffocating me with
surprisingly strong arms, she held my face in her hands and stared right into
my eyes. No chance of looking somewhere else in my extreme discomfort. My bubble
was being seriously invaded today.

"David, I heard what you did. Thank
you. You saved my baby." The green eyes filmed over with tears. She was an
intense woman whose eyes wouldn't let go of mine. I tried looking down a few
times but hers followed them anyway. I had no idea what to say or what to do,
so I reached my arm around hers and flattened my hair again. She bent down and
kissed my forehand before she let me go. 

I sunk into my sheets, surprised by the
sudden act of affection. I had never been kissed like that before. My grandma
patted my cheek when she saw me and that was about as coddled as I had ever
been. Lucy’s mom wasn't looking at me like the other adults did. Most people
were taken aback by my dark hair and make-up. Maybe she was just so grateful
that I had helped Lucy that she was overlooking my appearance. Or, maybe this
family was just really weird.

"Thank you, David!" she said
again. She was a beautiful woman. She and Lucy looked a lot alike and, judging
from the random hugs and kisses and uncomfortable eye contact, they probably
acted a lot alike, too.

"It’s okay," was all I could
manage to croak out. She smiled at that and then went in for another hug. Can’t
say I minded all that much, though. It was strange how comfortable I felt in
her arms, especially when she was doing every single thing she could to make me
feel awkward. Lucy’s father walked over to my bed and winked at me like we were
sharing a mutual joke about his wife. He held his hand out for me to take.
Seriously? But maybe he was just a classy kind of guy. Maybe he was picking up
the “I’m SO UNCOMFORTABLE!” vibe. I lifted my hand to him, through the
still-present mom-hug, and we shook. It was quick.

"Thank you," was all he said. He
sat in a chair between the two beds, against the wall.

"Hey! Lucy and David! Just like my
parents!" Lucy’s mom announced, coming out of the hug and walking back to
Lucy’s bed. I smoothed the sheets she’d ruffled with the hug. Not that I hadn’t
kind of enjoyed it, but wrinkly sheets annoy me.

"I know, right?!" Lucy beamed at
her mom then they both looked over at me like it was the coolest thing in the
world. We were back to awkward. Lucy’s mom grabbed her daughter’s hand.

"Luce, they told me that they want to
keep you two here overnight but I can come and get you first thing in the
morning." She looked over at me again but this time her eyebrows were knit
together, like she had something on her mind. I'm not sure what it meant but I
had a suspicion. Lucy didn't seem disconcerted by the news that she’d be
wearing the stupid hospital beanie overnight. She just looked at me and
grinned. She was probably thinking, “slumber party!”

"Well, I guess we are roomies
tonight!" she said contentedly. She’d be starting a pillow fight or asking
to paint my nails any minute now.

"Cool," was all I could say.
Honestly, though, it sounded great, as long as she kept the glittering nail
polish at bay. Way better than being at my house, that was for sure. It was
then that I realized: I was here, at a hospital, with nothing. I had no
clothes, no makeup. Nothing. I wore contacts and I needed to take them out. I
would have killed for a comb.

Also, I knew the nurses hadn’t missed all
my bruises when they were dressing me. I just hoped that the cops came after
Lucy left.

A few minutes later The Boyfriend Mike came
running into the hospital room looking breathless and concerned, like someone
had just punched the air out him. It was entirely possible that he’d driven all
around town and then run all over the hospital before he’d found the emergency
room. With his giant self sweating and breathing heavily next to Lucy’s bed, it
was getting crowded in here. Mike swept over to Lucy and kneeled down at the
bed rail like she was on her death bed and he was about to start praying.

"Lucy, I’m so sorry I couldn't reach
you; I made everything worse." Mike was whimpering. Not only was he
pathetic, his apology wasn’t even accurate. If my memory served me correctly
(and it usually does) he had her hand firmly in his, but let go when he heard
the ground crack under him. In other words, he’d been worse than ineffective.
He’d let her go. It looked like Lucy was remembering this as well, because she
stared at him for a minute with no expression, then switched to a small smile
that people use for children and old people that they don’t quite like.

"It’s ok, you tried, Mike." She
put her hand on top of his head and patted a few times but shivered and kept
most of her arm inside the blanket like she was still cold. She secured herself
in her heated cave of blankets and hot packs. Mike’s eyes fell to his hands.
Before, I could never decide if this guy was a nice, decent guy or a coward.
Based on what I’d seen, I was going with coward.

“Daaaavid!” My heart leaped into my throat.
I’m ashamed to say I smiled bigger than I would care to admit when I heard my
name being sung down the hall by a voice I knew all-to-well to be Michelle’s. I
could’ve used a little back up right now, someone to guard me from having to
keep watching the never-ending saga of Mike not able to admit that his own butt
meant more to him than a girl he “loved.”

It was like a scene from a movie; three
misfits dressed in black wearing buckles, loops, metal, and leather came
walking in. Each one sported a different piercing and each of them had a look
on their face that would have scared even “just-push-the-button” Nurse Phony.
Isaiah, in all his freaky glory, led the pack into the room.

Michelle sneered at both of Lucy’s parents
and gave Mike a particularly long glare before she jumped lightly onto my bed
and shoved me over with her bony hips so she could check out the wires
sprouting out of my arm.

“Dang boy, you warm enough yet?” She poked
at the heating pads stacked on top of me.

“I know. I feel ridiculous,” I said.

“You look ridiculous,” Isaiah chortled. His
voice was sarcastic and, to the untrained ear, a little mean. But he was
looking intently at me, making sure some part of me hadn’t fallen off and been
lost in the lake.

“How you feeling, Lucy?” The three of us
looked over at Johnny who had his hands in his pockets. The shy guy had been
the only one with enough common sense to go over and check on Lucy.

“Good. I mean, cold!” She looked at Johnny,
then over at Mike, who was up against the wall like three gigantic rats had
cornered him in a horrific nightmare. Someone call the exterminator. Mike’s
scared. Something new and different for him…“Mom, Dad, this is Johnny. He
tutored me a little in Math.” Lucy smiled kindly and, to my surprise, Johnny
reached his hand out to her parents and said, I kid you not, “How do you do?”

Preppy.

Honestly, I was jealous. Johnny had been
raised with nice parents who taught him all the basics. I never would have
thought of offering my hand and then saying something as cheesy as “how do you
do.” There were a few moments of preppy exchange, then Johnny came back to our
side.

The traitor.

I chanced a glance over at Lucy who looked
at ease, like nothing in the atmosphere had changed. The only little difference
I could see was that she kept shooting curious glances at Michelle, like she
couldn’t figure Michelle out. But, let’s be honest, none of us could.

“Hi,” Lucy said to the rest of my gang, her
hand up in the air and a hopeful kind of look on her face. The only answer she
received was a bubble popping from Michelle’s mouth.

A nurse bustled in with the ear thingy,
saving us all from further uncomfortable silence and started shooing everyone
before even opening her mouth. "I'm sorry, visiting hours are over. Y'all
can come back tomorrow at eight am." The nurse turned to me. "We need
to get you into your own room, David." A wave of mixed relief and sadness
washed over me. I looked over at Lucy and I saw her mouth go down into a little
frown that instantly switched to a half smile and a wink when she caught me
looking at her, right before our nurse snapped the curtains closed. Lucy's
guests stayed on her side and my weirdoes stayed with me, on mine.

“Well, we just wanted to make sure you were
still alive, so I guess you are.” Michelle said, tucking me in tighter, in
spite of her heating pad remarks. I snuggled in deeper and smiled at them. Then
I heard it, the thing I knew someone was going to do to me. I had come so
close, I had tricked myself into believing it was over. Isaiah started making a
kissing noise and pointing to the closed curtain. He reached his hand up to his
face and started pretending he was making out with it. I could have killed him,
butt hanging out and everything, I didn’t care. We were in the ER, his chances
of survival were greater.

He went running out the door as I threw one
of the heating pads at him. The cord got caught in mid air and landed with an
unimpressive thump on the floor. I crossed my arms and huffed at the three dark
smiling faces that were 'pinky waving' at me as they left.

Everyone left after hugging, kissing, and
fussing over Lucy. The mom gave me another hug and the dad gave me a nod of
thanks. Mike waited for them to leave and shook my hand as he left. He stood
there for a minute like he was going to say something, but left when I started
smoothing the sheets again. The guy seemed grateful to me for saving his
girlfriend and wasn't acting like a jerk because he’d been shown up. Let the
record show however, that he had totally been shown up.

A guy in scrubs came in and pushed my bed
into a new room, with Lucy calling, “Later Gator!” behind me. With all the
blankets and tubes and stuff I felt like I had a big neon sign above my head as
they moved me a few feet down the hallway: “DROWNED RAT BOY!” My heart sank as
the scrubs guy pushed me through the door and there were two police officers
waiting for me. Even though I was bummed that I wouldn’t be able to pass out
immediately, I appreciated them not doing their thing in front of everyone
else.

"David?" The first police officer
said to me. Like there was another punk kid who needed the attention of police
in this hospital and he had to make sure this is the one they were talking
about. I didn’t answer his obvious question. I re-covered myself with blankets
so they were smoother and adjusted the tubes so they hung off the bed at right
angles.

 "I'm officer Dean and this is Officer
Cosby. Can we talk to you for a minute?" Officer Dean sat down on the bed
next to me with what I knew was an attempt at becoming my "friend"
and earning my "trust." I’d done this before.

"Sure, Officer Dean. Nice to meet you,
Officer Cosby." Both of their faces lit up when they heard their names.
Obviously, their trust-gaining tactics were successful on this impressionable,
troubled young boy. I was getting tired. It had been a long day and now I had
to deal with this. Not that they didn’t seem like nice guys, I was just
exhausted, and I wanted to cut to the chase.

 "David, your nurse noticed that you
had some bruises on your upper arms and lower back in different healing stages.
Do you mind telling us how you got those?" He spoke softly and seemed
genuinely concerned for me. I guess that’s why he became a cop. To protect poor
beaten kids, like myself. I didn’t really want to go through the whole Q&A
with the super-concerned cops.

"Look, guys, if you’ve seen my file,
you know my history. I'm going to be eighteen in under a year. I want to just
ride it out. I don't want to go to a foster home. So if we could just skip all
this that’d be great." If these cops had done their homework, they already
knew I had been taken from (and returned to) my father a few times. When I was
nine I went to live with another family for a couple of years.

"Do you have any family around
here?" Officer Cosby asked me.