Chapter 45
45
Sybil
Tom paced back and forth across the waiting room, sipping from his paper coffee cup, taking his ball cap off and then putting it back on every few minutes. Lila was thumbing at the screen of her phone, but I watched the bounce of her knee under the big hoodie she wore. When they’d arrived, the sun had just been rising, but now the waiting room was filled with sunshine. That has to be a good sign, right? The storms have cleared. I thought about saying it, but Tom was still pacing and Lila’s knee was still bouncing, and I held it back. Kieran had been with Joe and the doctor for about ten minutes, and I took the seat across from Lila, pulling out my own phone.
Deacon: Emi and I are at the shop and Chad is on his way. Lila called Marcus for help when she heard.
Deacon: How is their grandpa? How’s my man, K?
Sybil: Kieran is with him. No news yet. Is Marcus there, too?
I heard a familiar voice say “Hey,” and Marcus rushed in, taking the chair next to Lila and wrapping an arm around her to pull her in. I watched the two of them, Marcus looking older than he normally did to me, and Lila softer.
“Seems I’m the only one here without a date.” Tom gave Marcus a clap on the shoulder and then took a seat. “If Joe’s back there charming a cute doctor, I’m really gonna feel left out.” Lila laughed with her head still on Marcus’s shoulder, and Marcus sent me one of those “how do I react here?” looks. But Lila chimed in first.
“I mean, some chicks dig scars, but not head wounds and cardiac problems, so I think your feelings will be safe.” She and Tom laughed, and I saw the tears in both their eyes. “He’ll wait to charm a doctor until he’s breathing on his own, and you can be his wingman.”
“That’s…dark,” Marcus said, joining them with a smile.
“You like how dark I am,” Lila said, squeezing his arm.
Marcus kissed the side of her head. “I do.”
Tom gave me a pointed, wide-eyed look in response to their conversation, and I shrugged but wrapped my own arm around his shoulder and squeezed. “I’ll be your date until Kieran gets back.”
We didn’t have to wait long, because a few moments later, he pushed through the doors into the waiting room where we sat, scrubbing his face as he approached, and everyone seemed to hold their breath. He was still in basketball shorts and wore a worn hoodie. “They’re running tests,” he said, “but he’s conscious and talking.”
“Thank God,” Tom said on an exhale.
“It’ll be a few hours until they know anything, probably,” he said, collapsing in the chair next to me. “You can go back to see him, Lila.” He gave a curious look to Marcus and added, “There can be two people at a time.”
She nodded and grabbed Marcus’s hand without saying anything else, though she dipped to hug Kieran before they walked through the double doors.
It was quiet for only a few seconds before Tom asked, “We not gonna talk about that? That kid’s a good one, right?”
I nodded. “He’s a good one. No need to worry.”
“I should call Chad to open up the shop. There are pickup orders this morning.” Kieran pulled his phone out, and I placed a hand over it.
“He’s on his way. Emi and Deacon opened up the shop, though. It’s taken care of.”
He gripped his phone a moment longer until I coaxed him to release it.
“We took care of it,” I reassured him. “You don’t have to handle anything else right now.”
“Okay,” he said, leaning back in the chair. He tipped his head back, resting it against the wall. “I guess it’s good I asked for a deferral,” he said, reaching for my other hand. I studied it as our fingers linked. Everything was so different now, but I squeezed his hand. “I have to help with the shop before I go back.”
I nodded, ready to encourage him to not worry about it for the moment. “There’s nothing you can solve right now. Maybe just rest and focus on Joe.”
He didn’t respond, and I was about to attempt my point again, when his phone buzzed in my hand, “Dr. Charles Wagstaff” flashing across the screen. He opened one eye but jumped up when he saw it. “That’s my mentor from school.”
“Calling on a Sunday?” I asked.
He tapped the screen and walked across the room with it pressed to his ear. He spoke low, and I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
“You think he’ll go home and get some sleep at some point?” Tom asked.
My face flamed, thinking of how the morning had started, and I looked back to Kieran, who had turned away from us. “I doubt it.”
“Good man to have in a storm. Lucky you two were home,” he said, straightening his hat again. “Lucky indeed.”
“Okay,” I heard Kieran say into the phone, but I couldn’t read his tone. “I understand.”
“Everything okay?” Tom asked, though Kieran’s back was to us still.
“Was he calling about the committee?” I asked, my own knee bouncing as Lila’s had earlier. When I’d called about the donation, the school said they’d get back to me, but no one had. I’d let it slip my mind with all the wedding events and my excitement to tell Kieran I’d move with him when he went back.
Lila and Marcus pushed through the doors then, his arm still around her and Lila dabbing at her eyes with her sleeve. “They’re starting their tests now,” she said. “But he looks better than last time he was admitted.” She motioned to Kieran. “What’s going on?”
Kieran tucked his phone in his pocket, and he looked ashen when he turned.
“Did you hear me? His color is good and he’s responsive. We’re so lucky you were there.”
He nodded, his head continuing to bob. “Yeah.”
“What did your mentor say?” I asked, standing. “Did they make a decision?”
He nodded, gaze snapping to mine, but the softness and sweetness I’d gotten so used to were gone, and in their place was something I hadn’t seen from him in what felt like forever. Like his walls were back up. He looked at me like I was a stranger. Like I was a stranger who was bad news. His voice was low and so neutral that I recoiled in my seat. “What did you do?”
“What’re you talking about, kid? She’s been here next to me the whole time,” Tom said, sitting straighter in his seat.
“What’s going on?” Lila repeated. “Who was on the phone?”
My stomach sank and I swallowed thickly. “What did he say?” My voice was shakier than I wanted.
He took a step toward me, close enough for me to see the shadows under his eyes and the shake in his hand. His voice was louder now, filling the space. “What did you do?”
“I wanted to help,” I said, shrinking into my seat again as he approached. “I just wanted to help,” I repeated, the tears falling down my cheeks. “What did he say?”
“He said my goddamn career is over. He said they were going to approve my deferral because of all my potential and hard work, and then they got a phone call.” He tried to step forward, but Marcus had stepped between the two of us. “What did you fucking do?”
Marcus pushed him backward with both hands on his shoulders. “You need to back off,” he said. “Calm down.”
My head pounded, and it felt like the floor under me was falling away. “I just wanted to help,” I whispered. “To go the extra mile. To take care of you like you take care of everyone.”
“Take a breath, son,” Tom said, placing hands on both Marcus’s and Kieran’s shoulders. “Let’s just take a minute here and calm down like he said.”
“I’m very calm.” Kieran paced to the other side of the room. “I’m calm. But I’m not a doctor. I’m never going to be a doctor, because tomorrow I’m going to get formal notification that my request to defer reenrollment isn’t just denied, the offer to return is revoked for ethical impropriety.”
Lila approached him, looking over her shoulder with a wide-eyed stare. “You’re the most ethical person I know. What are you talking about? What do you think Sybil did?”
Only, I knew what I’d done. I gulped a breath and wrapped my arms across my chest. I just wanted to make myself smaller. “I was just trying to help.”
“Why don’t you explain how you helped.” I saw his chest moving up and down fast, the frenetic energy rolling off him in waves.
“I…” I sucked in a breath. “I would move to Texas with you if it got declined, but I thought…”
“You thought. But you didn’t ask.”
“You bullied her into talking,” Marcus said. “Let her finish a damn sentence.”
“I thought maybe you’d think you had to choose between school and me, and if they approved your request, we’d have time to figure it out, so I…” I sucked in a breath again, swiping tears from my face. “I…”
“Offered to donate three million dollars to the school if they decided in my favor.” His voice was flat, and I looked down at my knees, not wanting to see the expression that accompanied Lila’s and Tom’s gasps.
“I didn’t think this would happen,” I tried to explain, the words tumbling from my lips. “I didn’t think…”
Kieran’s voice dropped again, and he waited to speak until I caught my breath from crying, which was so much worse because I knew he wanted me to hear him. “There are consequences. You attempted to bribe the school to approve my request, and now I don’t get to be a doctor. You took away my option. You took away my chance. I can’t even…I can’t be in the same room as you.”
I hugged myself tighter, but it wasn’t doing any good. It wasn’t protecting me from those words, and I heaved another wet sob, but Kieran didn’t say anything else.
He just walked out.