Chapter 25
I STAYED
KIARA
“Where did you go?”
I closed the door and leaned my head on the cold wood, taking a deep breath and hoping I could keep up with the small talk with my father.
“Swim competition, remember?” I chuckled and turned to face him. “Oh, wait, why would you? You’re too busy delivering babies in the hospital and drowning your sorrows in work rather than talking to your daughter about it.”
He was sitting at the dining table reading a book with his glasses on and the dim yellow light cast a shadow over his face. He looked tired and exhausted.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and walked past him. “Good night, Dad.”
“Kiara.”
I stopped, clenching my hands in a fist.
“Come back here and sit with me. I . . . I have made dinner for us.”
I said without turning, “I don’t want to eat—”
“I bought Gulab Jamun's for dessert.”
I looked back at him and saw him close the book, remove his reading glasses, and look at me. His obsidian eyes were warm and glistening with unshed tears, dark shadows underneath them.
“Please?”
I nodded and willed myself not to cry in front of him. I walked back to the dining table and helped set up our plates even though I had no urge to eat.
“Do I want to know why Ethan is not with you and you came back in a cab?” he asked, eating the paneer biryani he made. It was Mom’s favorite dish.
I shook my head, swallowing the food in my mouth. “He . . .” I cleared my throat. “We had a fight after we won, and I came back home.”
“If Damini were here, she would have handled this nicely,” he muttered to himself and I paused.
“But she’s not, Papa. She is dead!” I snapped, “What do you want to talk about? And please don’t tell me you were waiting for me to talk about my silly love life, which is non-existent.”
He took a deep breath and leaned back on his chair. “Fine, you’re right. But I want to know what he did to make you cry.”
I stared at him. “I can’t tell you. He was hurt and said things he didn’t mean. Well, I hope he didn’t mean, and they were hurtful.”
Dad didn’t say anything for a while. “Do you think he will apologize to you later?”
I shrugged, pushing the food around.
“I will talk to him, then,” he said in a stern voice.
I closed my eyes and looked at him. “No, Dad. He is—”
“He made my daughter cry,” he said and pursed his lips. “I do want to talk to you about something.” He continued without waiting for my reply, “I got a job offer back in India.”
I nodded, blinking at him, “Okay. That’s good, I guess.”
Dad ran a hand down his face. “I was wondering if . . . if we could move back to India. Both of us. And Karan too after he finishes his masters.”
I dropped the spoon and shook my head. “No. I am not—I don’t want to go to India.”
He opened a paper from his shirt pocket and showed it to me. “Just think about it, Kiara. These are the universities that I hope you’d like, and you can go over them—”
I stood up from the chair. “No. My answer is no.”
Without taking the paper, I marched to my room and shut the door.
I fell on the bed and screamed in my pillow.
I took a deep breath and turned around to stare at my ceiling.
Ethan’s scent was all over my bed and the bedsheets smelled like cinnamon with a woodsy, musky scent. And the cologne he used.
I squeezed my eyes shut when tears pooled in my eyes and slid down my face. I pressed the heels of my hand on my eyes. “Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Ohmygod, stop crying.”
I started crying more and it turned into a full-on sobbing. I curled into a ball and overthought about the words Ethan had said and the suggestion of my father to go to India. My crying session was interrupted by a phone call. It was from Katherine.
“Hello?”
I heard shuffling and lots of voices in the background when Katherine said, “Kiara, finally! Can you come to the hospital right now?”
She seemed worried and I knew something didn’t feel right. “Why? What happened?”
I heard Eveline’s cry in the background, and I sat up on the bed. “Katherine, is Eveline okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, she’s all right. Ethan and Rio are admitted to the hospital.”
My heartbeat leaped. “What do you mean Ethan and Rio . . . is he okay? Are they okay? What happened?”
I paced in my room to grab my handbag and shoved in it my driver’s license and wallet.
Katherine replied, “They got in a fight with Winter High students and Ethan has a concussion, so he is still unconscious. Just come here if you can.”
“I’ll be there in ten.”
I rushed out of the room and grabbed the keys of Karan’s car and only paused to say, “I am going to the hospital. Ethan and Rio got in a fight and E is concussed. Bye.”
I ignored my dad when he called me back in the house and rushed to the parking to get to the car.
I wanted to see Ethan right now. I didn’t care if he had said those words to me and meant it.
I needed to be with him. I took a deep breath and bit my lip hard and tried not to cry even though tears welled in my eyes.
It felt all the same. Just like the day when Principal Inez called me in the office to tell me that my mom was in the hospital.
No, no, no, no. Ethan is all right. Nothing will happen to him.
I can’t lose him too. I won’t. Katherine said it’s just a concussion.
But what if he—no, Kiara. He is alright.
He is Ethan Kane, my best friend. He will be all right. He has to be.
After parking the car, I rushed to the lobby of white walls and it all came back to me.
How I had run to see my mother and—no. This is Ethan.
He will be all right. I swallowed the lump in my throat and sighed in relief when I saw Helen and Julia, Volt, and Katherine sitting and pacing outside his room.
“Is he okay?” I asked, gasping for breath. “Where is Rio?”
Katherine hugged me and said that he would be all right. The doctors already checked upon him and said he might wake up any moment and Rio was all right too. He had minor bruises.
The shutters were closed, so I couldn’t see him, but I sat outside, impatiently waiting for him to wake up so I could scold him.
Volt was there when it all happened. Ethan was already in a bad mood, so when the whole swim team was leaving for their celebration party, Paul and his swim team teased them and said some things.
One of the things was teasing Rio about his sexuality, so Ethan punched one of the guys and all hell broke loose.
Next thing you know they were fighting with each other and even though security came, one of them had smacked a baseball bat on Ethan’s head.
I winced when Volt said that. But he was all right because security stopped every one of them and then Ethan passed out when nine-one-one was called.
We all waited, and I wasn’t surprised to see Dad in the hospital in the middle of the night, who came to check up on Ethan.
He assured all of us that he was going to be okay.
I would believe that when I saw him with my own eyes and talked to him.
His mothers were in the room, sitting with him, and Evey was taken to her aunt’s home.
Ryan and Carter came too with food for all of us, but I denied it. I couldn’t eat. I had no appetite.
I took a deep breath and wrapped my arms around myself as the stench of medicines surrounded me in heavy air. I tucked my hair away and Volt squeezed my hand in reassurance.
Ethan had woken up half an hour ago and was talking to his mothers. Even Rio, who got stitches on his forehead, was waiting with us to talk to him. I sat up as soon as Julia walked out of the room.
“How is he?” I asked. “Can we see him? Can I talk to him?”
She smiled at me and laid a hand on my shoulder. “I am sorry, sweetheart. He doesn’t want to see you or anyone right now. He said he wants to be alone for a while.”
I nodded and sat down, ignoring the way my heart squeezed in my chest with hurt. Did he still hate me for telling him that I had kissed Liam?
“Why don’t you all visit him tomorrow? Your parents must be worried and Rio, sweetheart, go take some rest,” she reassured everyone. “I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to talk to you all tomorrow.”
I hugged them goodbye and knew I couldn’t sleep without seeing or talking to him. I stayed and sat on the chair, hugging myself and hoping he wouldn’t hate me for telling him the half-truth.