Rush Into You (29 page)

“Excuse me, sir?” I sniffled, trying to keep the tears under control for as long as possible. “I need your help.”

He looked up at me with concern in his eyes, and it dawned on me how vulnerable and disheveled I must have looked. My hair was soaked and tangled together in matted knots, and the rain and my tears had washed my makeup away. I was trembling from the cold and the sheer terror of losing Ryker.

“Okay, okay.” The young guy took a deep breath and wiped his hands down his caramel colored face. His impossibly green eyes darted around the room frantically, seeming to look for help. He looked flustered and unprepared. “Okay. Tell me what you need.”

My tear filled eyes were overflowing, and when I blinked they poured down my cheeks. I didn’t bother wiping them away. “Please, tell me what room Ryker Rosse is in. He was just brought in by an ambulance because of a motorcycle accident.”

The loud clicking of his fingers against the keyboard was such a welcome sound. My hands were clasped together tightly beneath my chin, praying that Ryker’s information would appear on this man’s computer. It felt as if years had passed when the clicking stopped, and he looked up at me.

“He’s in surgery right now, but they have him heading to the ICU afterwards. They’re strict about who they allow in the room, but there’s a private waiting room you can hang out in. There’s always someone there to check in with, so they can update you on the patient.”

“Thank you so much.”

I ran back down the hall towards the elevators near the main lobby, and all but dove into one just as it was closing. I didn’t want Mrs. Gallagher or anyone else to see me. Luckily, I was the only occupant in the small space. I took the time by myself to try and collect my thoughts and calm my erratic heartbeat. If I weren’t careful, I’d drop to the ground from cardiac arrest and become a patient here myself.

If my memory served correctly, the ICU was on the second floor. I found the number two on the wall of buttons and pushed it repeatedly. I knew it wouldn’t speed up the elevator, but my frantic nerves did it anyway. I continued to stare at the dimly lit button, and willed the elevator to ascend. After I waited for what felt like a million years, the machine finally began it’s ascent.

The doors opened, and I was greeted by cold white walls and a heavy silence. The only noise I heard was a faint and steady beeping coming from further down the hall. I navigated my way through the halls of the second floor until I came to a special marked off section holding the intensive care unit. The entire wall separating me from Ryker was made of glass and a dark cherry wood. It appeared warm and classy, and was definitely built that way to try and ease the minds of the patient’s family. As beautiful as it was, the decor didn’t fool me. I’d been in the ICU before, and there were no decorations that could cancel out the sights and sounds of all the machines keeping you alive.

I pressed the large red call button beside the doors to request someone to come speak with me in the waiting room. Because of the tough shape the ICU patients were in, people weren’t openly admitted into the area.

I paced restlessly back and forth in the limited waiting room. I couldn’t contain my tears, and I made no move to wipe them away. No one was here to see me anyway, and if they were, I figured they’d understand. My mind kept throwing endless possibilities of Ryker’s condition my way.

What if he
couldn’t walk ever again?

What if he
were confined to that bed for the rest of his life in a vegetative state?

What if he
died?

My knees buckled beneath the heavy pressure inside me, but luckily there was a chair behind me to catch my fall. I sat down on the scratchy blue cushion, and realized just how tired I was. My body sank further down into the cushions, relieved to be off my feet. My emotions had been all over the place since Ryker’s accident, but I hadn’t had a real moment to process any of them. I figured it was going to be a while before someone had the chance to come to the waiting room and fill me in on Ryker, so I closed my eyes and allowed myself to break down.

The severity of what happened tonight hit me hard. This was all my fault. Once again, the life of someone I loved was at stake because of me. If I never killed all those people in my own car accident all those years ago, Keith never would have confronted me at last night’s race. I wouldn’t have run off in a panic, and Ryker wouldn’t have left the race early without competing against Keith. If he hadn’t left with me, he would have raced last night as planned and tonight’s emergency make up race wouldn’t have been called.

Ryker wasn’t supposed to race tonight, but he’d had to
because of me
.

He got in this accident
because of me.

Keith tried to hurt him
because of me.

I cried uncontrollably, sitting alone in the waiting room. While I waited to hear anything on Ryker, I let my mind take me back to the night of my own accident.

“Let’s get out of here! There’s an after party at Trevor’s!” Maddy screamed even though I was standing right in front of her.

“I thought this was the after party. Or maybe it’s the after-after party?” I questioned, then giggled when I realized I was slurring a bit.

“I lost count a while ago,” Kasey added, “but I’m going to hop from spot to spot until I find a hot guy I can take home with me!”

We all laughed while we linked arms and started dancing our way from the house. I’d been best friends with Maddy and Kasey for years. We actually couldn’t stand each other when we were younger. We thought of each other as competition since we were all popular and in different third grade classes. Then one day, we were all grouped together in a third grade field trip, and the rest was history. We’ve been best friends ever since, and were completely inseparable. It started out as playing at each other’s houses after school, then going to the movies by ourselves with our parents taking turns driving, then lying to our parents and pretending we were having a sleepover so we could go out and party. Now, we were adults, have our own cars, and shared an apartment. We got to do whatever the hell we wanted, whenever we wanted. We had no one to answer to but ourselves. If we wanted to go to six or more parties in one night, then that’s just what we were going to do.

“What was wrong with that last guy you were just talking to?” I asked Kasey as we neared my car.

“Oh God, Gabby! You should’ve smelled his breath! Dude, it smelled like sweaty ass!” Kasey shuddered dramatically.

Maddy squealed at Kasey’s description. “I don’t even want to know why his breath smelled like ass! What the hell was he doing to make that happen?”

“What I’m wondering is how you girls know what sweaty ass smells like.” I doubled over laughing at my own joke as they both immediately snapped their heads in my direction with a nasty glare. “Hey! You guys started it! I couldn’t resist!”

We all climbed into my beautiful, cherry-red, brand new Dodge Charger and got ready to head out. “Okay which way?” I asked the girls as I pulled out into the street.

“Take a right up—”

Maddy started to give me directions when I slammed on the breaks and interrupted her. “Wait! Where’s the Goose and Bull? Kasey, do you have it?”

“I thought you had it! Maddy?” Kasey looked confused.

“No! Gabby, turn around. We need to go get it,” Maddy demanded, “That bottle is still pretty full and I have a ton of drinking to do tonight!”

Before she even finished her sentence, I already had the car turned around and was pulling back up to the house. “Okay Kasey, you go get it since you were supposed to have it in the first place. And hurry up,” I ordered.

“Why the hell do I have to go?” she took one look at my expression and gave in, knowing I wasn’t going to budge. “All right, I’ll do it.”

I turned up the volume on the stereo and leaned my head back against the driver’s seat. I couldn’t wait to get to Trevor’s house. He threw some awesome parties, and I knew there would be a ton of people there. Hopefully Cole would be there too.

“You think Cole will be at Trevor’s tonight?” I asked Maddy, trying to sound nonchalant like I didn’t care either way.

“I hope so! You need to get laid tonight, girl!” she yelled excitedly at the same moment Kasey came back with our liquor.

I laughed at Maddy and turned to Kasey.”It’s about time!” I joked.

“Yeah, I just searched that house top and bottom, about to flip out if someone took it, but I discovered it was right inside this huge bag of mine the whole time,”

We all started cracking up laughing at the same time. I drove off as Kasey played bartender in the back seat, mixing us drinks in our travel mugs. Once we all had a drink in our hands again, the party was back on with just the three of us. Maddy started giving me directions to Trevor’s house again, and we were all singing along to the radio at the top of our lungs. Or maybe we were all screaming the songs, very off-key. It didn’t matter—we were having a blast.

“I want to be completely fucking shit faced once my birthday rolls in. If it’s midnight and I’m not slurring and falling down, I’ll be pissed!” I yelled over the music.

“Gabby, you’re already shattered. We all are! It feels fucking amazing!” Kasey screamed.

Maddy agreed with me as usual. “We definitely can still get more drunk! I say we should down eighteen shots together in celebration of your eighteenth birthday, Gabby! Call Cole and tell him to set them up. Tell him we’ll be there in five minutes. We’re just a few blocks away!”

I reached over and grabbed my smart phone from the compartment beneath the radio. I started texting Cole while I drove to let him know we were about to be there, and he needed to pour our shots. I decided to get a little flirty because some birthday sex would make this night perfect.

“How’s this sound, girls? Hey sexy, almost—”

“LOOK OUT!” Kasey screeched at the top of her lungs, terrified.

I looked straight ahead, forgetting about my text completely as my eyes focused on the car in front of us. My drunk mind instantly sobered at the realization that we were going to crash. I had swerved into their lane and was heading straight for them. I cut the steering wheel as hard as I could in the opposite direction, trying my hardest to avoid the inevitable collision.

We were all screaming, scared shitless of what we knew was about to happen. I glanced to my right and saw Maddy and Kasey. The look in their eyes was one I would never forget. They held a look of utter disbelief and dread—the look of a person who knew they were about to die.

Maddy’s eyes held a trace of something else…blame, maybe? She’d wanted to drive tonight. She thought it’d be a better idea since I planned on getting really drunk for my birthday. I convinced her we’d all be getting really drunk together anyway, so it didn’t really matter. Plus, my car was better.

That whole exchange happened within the quickest moment, but it felt like slow motion. There was no more time to think as the impact of the two cars crashing shook my body to its core. I felt my head whip forward at lightning speed as something heavy flew over my right shoulder. Sharp pieces of glass rained down all around me.

Blinding pain cut into my body, igniting my body in flames. My hand reached for my face, wiping hot liquid from my eyes. Everything around me began to darken, my mind suddenly confused and my body tired.

The last thing I’d heard before my world turned black were the excruciating screams of my best friends.

A STARTLED YELP flew from my lips when a firm shake on my shoulder snapped me awake. I must have dozed off. The stress of tonight was just too much. Slightly disoriented, I looked around as my present reality sank in. A kind looking nurse, maybe in her late thirties, stood above me with a sympathetic smile and compassionate eyes.

“Who are you here for, sweetie?” Her voice was soft like she didn’t want to scare me again.

I cleared my throat and rubbed the sleep from my puffy eyes. “Ryker Rosse. He was in a motorcycle accident. I need to see him.” I stood up, and walked toward the doors that would lead me to Ryker.

The nurse followed behind me, and she nodded understandingly. “He’s asleep. He was in surgery for a long time, and he’s recovering now. If you go in there, you have to let him rest.”

“Yes, I know.” I stared impatiently at the door waiting for her to open it.

“What’s your name?”

“Gabby.”

“Gabby, I need to warn you…it’s not going to be easy to see him like this. You might not even recognize him.” Her gaze locked on mine to make sure I was listening. “You need to prepare yourself for what you’re going to see when you walk in there. The worst of Mr. Rosse’s injuries was the internal bleeding. His spleen ruptured from the trauma to his stomach, which we were able to repair. His left elbow is broken, and his left leg suffered a lot of trauma. He fractured his femur, broke his fibula and tibia, and fractured the small bones in his foot. His right leg didn’t have any damage to the bones, but there were lots of bruising and swelling. There is a significant amount of road rash covering Mr. Rosse’s body. It would’ve been worse if he hadn’t been wearing a leather jacket, but his hands and legs are still in rough shape.