Haley gave him a grateful smile and snuck into the room. With David’s words fresh in her ears, Haley started talking at once, doing her best to keep her tone even as she spoke to her unconscious boyfriend.
“You gave us all a scare today, you know? But my honor is intact, at least.” She laughed softly. “But next time, please try to ignore the drunken hotheads, yeah? I wouldn’t be able to survive something like today twice. I… I was so scared. The moment I saw you fall into the pool, my heart stopped. Scott, the blood was everywhere. I was sure you had none left in you. I thought… Well, I guess I didn’t think much at that moment. I sort of lost it.”
Haley took Scott’s hand. It was cold and dry. “You should’ve seen David. He went berserk… I’ve never seen him so… so… emotional. Your brother loves you, you know, even if he sometimes makes it so hard to see, he really does. He snuck me in to let me talk to you, even if for only five minutes—”
A sharp knock interrupted Haley’s speech.
“And now I have to go before the nurses discover me and kick me out.” Haley leaned down to stamp a kiss on Scott’s forehead, the part still free from bandages. “See you tomorrow. I’ll be just outside.”
After opening the door only a crack, Haley poked her head out. David beckoned her to come out and shut the door behind her. No one was around; they’d gotten away with it.
“Are you going to be all right out here alone?” David asked.
“Yeah. Maybe I’ll go get a book myself.” Haley lied, she didn’t have the focus to read right now—but David didn’t need to worry about her on top of everything else. She tilted her head toward the paperback in David’s hands. “What did you buy?”
David turned the book in his hands. “A thriller. It’s supposed to be good.” He shrugged and shifted back and forward on his toes before saying, “I’d better get going. Knock if you need something.”
Haley gave him a curt nod and went to sit in the empty row of chairs in the small atrium in front of Scott’s hallway. Wrapped in eerie silence, the Neurology wing of the hospital offered little to do other than stare at the wall and think. Haley shifted her butt to find a comfortable position, then let her emotions run wild.
Her mind flew to Scott at once, to the months they’d spent apart, and to the few days they had had together since he came back… and, especially, to the hole that had appeared in her chest when she’d seen him lying unconscious on the lawn while David tried to revive him.
David.
He was everything and the opposite of everything: good-hearted and cruel, kind and scornful. He had so many layers Haley doubted she’d ever be able to peel them all off and find the real David, or if it was even a wise aspiration to have.
After a long time sitting, Haley lay down and shifted her blank staring from the wall to the ceiling, her brain still buzzing with questions. As her lids started to droop with exhaustion, one final, ominous thought crossed Haley’s mind. She fell asleep wondering if it was possible to be in love with two people at the same time.
***
Haley woke up the next morning with her face resting on a small white pillow and her body under the cover of a hospital blanket.
And where did you two come from?
The answer came to her lips almost immediately. “David.”
She straightened up, groaning at the pain in her sore back. Pillow and blanket or not, hospital chairs were most definitely not a comfortable bed. Stretching her neck left and right, Haley stood up, wrapping the blanket around her like a poncho. She peeked into Scott’s room through the glass; nothing had changed from the night before. Scott slept while his brother read to him. David’s voice didn’t carry out of the room, but it was funny to watch the little expressions he made as he narrated the story. A small frown here, a surprised face there. He grimaced and then pouted in an “aha” sort of way, completely absorbed in the story. And even if Haley couldn’t hear a word of what he said, she had a clear sense of where the book was going, or when the hero faced a trial or scored a point.
“Hey,” someone close by said, making her jump.
Haley turned to find Madison standing in the hall next to her.
“Hi.” Haley greeted her friend with a hug. “What are you doing here?”
“We couldn’t sit still back at the house.”
“We?”
“Jack and Alice came with me. They stopped at the cafeteria to get coffees for everyone. Are there any developments?”
“No. The doctors will take him off medications later in the day. We can only wait.”
“How are you?”
Haley wrapped herself tighter in the blanket. “I’m holding in there.” She turned her gaze once more to the inside of the room.
Madison imitated her. “Is David reading to Scott?”
Haley nodded. “Yeah, he said something about keeping Scott’s brain stimulated while he’s unconscious.”
“What’s the book?”
“A thriller. Something with a famous actor on the cover. I can’t remember the name.”
Madison narrowed her eyes at the paperback and scoffed. “Leave it to David to torture Scott with mass-market fiction even on his sick bed,” she said jokingly, speaking like a true book snob.
Haley studied her friend. “I know you’re not a fan of David’s, but—”
“David’s all right,” Madison interrupted.
Haley coughed in shock. “Even after what he did to you?”
Madison hesitated, staring at the floor and chewing on her lower lip.
“What is it?” Haley asked.
“He apologized to me a while ago.”
“When? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He asked me not to…”
Haley frowned questioningly.
“When he apologized, I had just spotted you two together at the library, so I accused him of having an agenda; of apologizing only because he hoped I’d report to you so that he’d score points. That’s when he made me promise not to tell you, to convince me the apology was about me and not you.”
“You still could’ve told me.”
“I wasn’t sure the gesture wasn’t a reverse psychology trick, and I wasn’t convinced he had no angle.”
“And you are now?”
“Yes, I believe he was sincere. David can be horrible, but he’s also good sometimes.”
Nailed it, Haley thought, then added aloud, “That’s why you’ve been talking to him again.”
“Uh-huh.”
Haley would have asked more, but they were interrupted by Alice and Jack bringing the coffees. Soon after that, a procession of nurses and doctors began when the time to wake Scott up arrived.
The young doctor from the day before closed the blinds. As before, David was the only one admitted into the room. He came out what seemed like an eternity later with a big smile on his face.
“Someone would like to see you,” he told Haley.
The last lump of worry Haley didn’t realize she still had in her throat vaporized, and she hurried inside. Scott was sitting on the bed, his back resting on a mound of pillows. He was pale and had bluish circles under his eyes, but he was smiling… even more when he spotted her.
“How are you?” she asked, approaching.
“I’m… still recovering from the realization that I’ve become a sorry, college frat boy cliché.”
“Oh, so you’re playing the ‘let’s-joke-about-it’ angle?”
Scott smirked. “Too soon?”
His green eyes sparkled and his smile was sexier than ever. He winked, and Haley knew everything was going to be fine.
Seven
Madison
Will I see him today?
First-day-of-school jitters mixed with unrequited-love anxiety as Madison walked into the Baker Center building, the facility where a lot of Humanities classes took place. The first course of the fall term was a creative writing workshop Scott should be attending, he
ad injury permitting. She hadn’t seen him since the previous week at the hospital. After two days in observation, Scott had been discharged with the doctors’ recommendation that he be kept under constant supervision for at least a week. So Haley and David had taken turns playing nurse, meaning Madison had seen little of her roommate since release day.
Haley had temporarily moved in with Scott, and her visits home had been quick and targeted. She’d come to grab a change of clothes, drop off her dirty laundry, and not much else. When asked about Scott’s recovery, she’d say he was doing fine and everything was okay. Answers not nearly satisfying enough for Madison.
She tried not to resent Haley; at least, not more than usual. That first night after the accident had been hard. When everybody had gone home, Madison had wanted to stay. Even if visitors for Scott were still forbidden, she’d wanted to wait outside his room to be close to him, just like Haley had done. But Madison didn’t have that right because she wasn’t his girlfriend, and asking to stay would’ve been too weird for everyone. An implied reminder of an awkward truth everybody knew and nobody wanted to discuss.
Well, except for David, maybe. He was always game for a self-pitying chat about the “happy couple.” Madison half-scoffed, half-smiled.
Anyway, Scott didn’t know about Madison’s feelings for him—at least, she hoped he didn’t. But she could trust Haley with her secret; she’d never tell him, even if Scott was her boyfriend. And neither would his brother. So explaining to Scott why she’d felt the need to camp outside his hospital room for a whole night would’ve been inconvenient, to say the least.
Catching a glimpse of herself in the hall’s windows, Madison checked out her reflection, hoping the extra care she’d put into her makeup and outfit that morning wouldn’t be too evident. Satisfied with what she saw, Madison stepped into the classroom with an inhale of anticipation, her heart beating a little faster than usual. But a quick scan of the intimate space revealed Scott hadn’t arrived yet.
The classroom was super small. Teachers liked to keep workshops limited, and this one was no exception, with only twelve students admitted. An oval, wooden table occupied most of the space and, around it, half of the thirteen chairs were already taken.
With a sigh, Madison took a seat with an empty chair on either side. Scott could be late; there was still time for him to walk in and sit next to her. Four students had yet to arrive, which gave Madison a fifty-fifty chance of spending the next three hours sitting beside Scott. Those odds reduced drastically when Clare Montgomery came in a few minutes later and sat on Madison’s left.
Still one free spot, Madison thought, throwing a hopeful glance at the empty doorway.
With little to do before the professor arrived, and not wanting to stare at the door like a hawk, Madison busied herself organizing her notepad and pens on the table. At five minutes to one, a towering shadow appeared in her peripheral vision, making more than one head turn—female heads. Madison followed their gazes to the threshold, dismissing the newcomer with a quick glance.
Two seconds later, she did a not-so-subtle double take. It was Scott, wearing a longish military green shirt and faded jeans, looking unbelievably gorgeous with a new half-shaved, half-long undercut hairstyle so different from his usual that Madison hadn’t recognized him at first.
“Scott.” She jumped up from her chair. “You made it.”
“Hey.” Scott smiled, and the whole room seemed to brighten.
“How are you?”
“Great…” He gave her a quick hug and took the chair next to her, earning Madison a few eye-daggers from her fellow female students. “…all things considering.”
“What’s up with the hair?” Madison asked.
Scott turned his head to show her his nape, passing his hand on the lower, buzz-cut half. “I felt ridiculous going around with a huge bald patch in the back of my head, so I shaved half off.” A large adhesive bandage was still plastered on the spot where he’d hit the pool rim. Turning back toward her, he added, “I still have to get used to it.”
Well, me, too. The top of Scott’s hair now fell on his forehead, seeming much longer than it had before, and the style really suited him.
“Why? You look great,” Madison blabbed. She instantly regretted the spontaneous comment and tried to rein in the furious blush that threatened to make an unwelcome appearance whenever she was this close to Scott.
“Haley likes it, too. But it’s good to have a second opinion.” Scott winked.
Madison’s stomach flipped, and she scrambled to find a different subject other than how good Scott looked. “So you’ve recovered from having to listen to a thriller feast for a whole night?” she joked, feeling one hundred percent like the book snob she was.
“David is a pretty good narrator, actually.”
“Still, I would’ve picked a Jack London novel if I had to read to you for twelve hours straight.”
Scott turned his gaze on her and studied her for a second. “He’s my favorite author. How did you know?”
Madison’s face heated up, again.
Good job, Madison, she chided herself. Reveal your little stalking habits, won’t you?
“Oh, really? London is one of my favorites, too,” Madison lied.
“Really?” Scott’s face brightened up at once. “Which one of his books do you prefer?”
Madison was struggling to find something to say—she had read The Call of the Wild for another course and remembered doing an allegory study on White Fang, but that was as far as her Jack London knowledge went—when the professor came in, greeting all of them with a severe, “Good morning, class,” that snuffed out all conversation.
Ding-dong, saved by the proverbial bell.
Phew.
And it’s only the first day, Madison cursed inside her head. How am I going to last a whole year?
I have to be strong and pull through, she repeated to herself. Be strong and pull through.
The school year couldn’t have started in a worse way, and now she had to actually read all of Jack London’s novels back to back—and preferably before the next class she’d share with Scott.
Georgiana
Georgiana felt strangely self-conscious walking the familiar halls of Caspersen Student Center with her bump clearly showing for the first time since she’d gotten pregnant. At the end of the spring term her stomach had still been smooth and flat, but over the summer a giant bubble had popped out of her midsection and, at twenty-two weeks pregnant, no amount of color blocking or smart dressing could disguise her giant belly.
Eyes followed her as she strode toward her class, trying to project her usual confidence. The indiscreet stares didn’t really bother her; Georgiana was used to making heads turn. Over the years, she’d grown accustomed to the extra attention; basked in it, really. Rich, beautiful, and the daughter of one of the most powerful and recognized lawyers in Boston, usually people wanted one of two things when they looked at her: to date her, or to be her.
But not today. Guys were throwing surprised side-glances at her stretched-out belly, and then, horror-struck in a glad-it’s-not-me way, they’d stare at Tyler walking beside her. But what rattled Georgiana the most was how girls showed the same attitude. Instead of envying her, they seemed to pity her.
Um, hello? I’m married to the most gorgeous guy in our year, what’s with the pity-party?
For the first time since getting married, Georgiana realized that not everyone dreamed of having a husband and a family, at least not as early in life as Georgiana would have both. Yeah, right. These were career-hungry women. The halls of Harvard Law School probably weren’t the best focus group for proud stay-at-home-mom wannabes. Not that Georgiana was ever going to be a stay-at-home anything.
Still, Georgiana was relieved when what had felt very much like a walk of shame ended. Unfortunately, things did not improve once inside the classroom.
For one, Rose was there. The bane of Georgiana’s exist
ence, not only was she Tyler’s best friend, but also Ethan’s girlfriend. They were the two most important men in Georgiana’s life, her husband and her brother, and Rose had her claws sunk deep in both. And if that wasn’t already enough, today her nemesis looked too attractive for her own good in her prim class uniform—dark jeans, light-blue V-neck sweater with a white shirt underneath, blue blazer, and women’s derby shoes. Plus, and what irked Georgiana the most, Rose was thin like a stick.
And for two, the sneers in here were far worse than outside. It didn’t take Georgiana long to catch her fellow female students staring at her belly in groups of two or three, and then gossiping among themselves in hushed tones with their heads bent together. Again, not a single envious face among them, only derision and pity.
Georgiana let Tyler slide into the middle seat and took the outer seat of the row—with the baby pushing on her bladder, she had to go to the restroom so often that letting Tyler sit next to Rose was a strategic necessity. Gosh, these seats were uncomfortable. Her bump barely fit under the narrow table that spanned the entire row of chairs. Georgiana soon realized she wouldn’t be able to bend forward and take notes. Oh, hell. Never one to give up, Georgiana placed her tablet on the table and opened the new dictation app she’d bought foreseeing this eventuality.
A sudden burst of laughter made her snap her neck up. She swept the room with a burning, ice-cold stare until her eyes came to rest on a group of three girls who used to hang on Georgiana’s every word. Now they giggled among themselves while purposely not looking at her.
Let’s see how much you’re going to laugh when your ovaries are all dried up and you’re still spinsters living with their ten cats like lonely, crazy cat ladies, Georgiana thought bitterly.
The school year couldn’t have started in a worse way. And now she had to pee, again!
Haley
Last first day of school ever, Haley thought, with the same melancholy she remembered from her first day of senior year in high school. Only this time, graduation was the real thing. There wouldn’t be a new school the following year; only work, and the beginning of a different phase of life. Job applications and adult responsibilities were concepts scary enough for Haley to almost second guess her decision of not applying to grad school. But the one thing she wasn’t going to need for sure in this new, grown-up life was more debt. No need to be scared of the future, anyway. Different didn’t necessarily have to mean worse.