Chapter 27
The rest of the night was a blur for Rick. Flashing lights, ambulances, police. The hospital.
He hadn’t slept except for an hour or two in the chair in Nika’s room.
He’d given her dad the easy chair. He didn’t seem to sleep much better than Rick.
Nika had been the only one to sleep, but Rick figured that was probably the painkillers they had her on.
She’d spent the next morning in and out of consciousness, and it wasn’t until late afternoon the following day that she seemed more like her usual self.
She was sitting up in the bed now, poking suspiciously at her eggs. “I’ve never liked breakfast for dinner.”
“They’re not going to fight back,” Dawson said. “Just eat them. You need the protein.”
Nika sighed and dutifully shoveled a bite into her mouth.
“Knock knock.” Rick’s mom pushed aside the privacy drape, a take-out tray of coffees in her hand. “I brought sustenance for the noninjured.”
“That’s okay,” Nika grumped. “I have Jell-O. Everyone loves Jell-O.”
“I’m beginning to suspect that you don’t.” Rick stood to give his mom the chair and to take a cup of coffee.
Daphne slipped into Rick’s chair without argument. “God, what a night. I checked on your friends for you. Alexis’s parents said she and Landon are being kept for observation but should be fine.”
Nika sighed with relief. “I can’t believe they’re okay. There was so much blood.”
“If you and Rick hadn’t interrupted,” Dawson said, “they probably wouldn’t be.”
Daphne hummed in agreement before taking a sip of her coffee. “It was touch-and-go at first. I guess they were pretty out of it when they came to?”
“Datura.” Dawson reached over, taking his cup of coffee from the tray. “Otherwise known as Jimsonweed. And a nasty head wound.” He held up his cup. “Thank you.”
Rick stared at him blearily. “Did you use actual words right then?”
Dawson snorted a laugh. “You need sleep, kid. It was in the paper this morning. Someone stole or leaked a crime scene photo. The police are probably pissed.” He sipped his coffee and gave a blissful sigh. “She had an actual murder board.”
Daphne blinked at him, shocked. “What?”
Dawson placed his palm over his heart. “An actual honest-to-god murder board, but, like, Pinterest-style. It was color coordinated, with that scrapbooking tape people use and cute cutouts. Like something out of a preschool classroom.”
Rick rubbed a hand over his face. “I can’t tell if that’s more or less disturbing.”
“More,” Nika said promptly.
Dawson pointed a finger at her. “Eat.”
“Yes, Dad.” She shoved another bite of eggs into her mouth.
“She had Datura on her board,” Dawson said, swinging the conversation back around. “Nasty stuff. Can cause hallucinations, confusion, tachycardia…all kinds of things. Would have made the kids easier to control, I think.”
Rick looked over at his mom as he unfolded another chair and set it next to Nika. “So she’s definitely going to jail?”
“If they found all that,” Daphne said, “I certainly hope so. Between those headlines and the ones saying that Mr. Cooper has been released, then I’d say the police are feeling confident.”
Rick leaned forward, putting his head on the side of Nika’s hospital bed. “Then it’s over.”
Nika reached down and brushed the hair on his forehead to the side, smiling. “Yes, it’s over.”
Rick looked up at her. “We missed homecoming.”
“They canceled homecoming,” Dawson said. “For very good reasons.”
Nika ignored her dad, staring down at Rick. “So? You didn’t want to go.”
“We missed our homecoming. I bought you flowers.”
She brightened. “You did?”
“He did.” His mom’s eyes narrowed. “And I’ll bring them to liven up your room, if you finish those eggs.”
Nika was so pleased by this that she shoved another forkful into her mouth. “Thanks, Mrs. Hicks. I would like that.”
Her dad held his palm out, and Daphne leaned over and high-fived him.
He gave her a tired grin before turning back to his daughter.
“I can still cook you all dinner. We can make it a welcome-home-from-the-hospital slash glad-you-all-survived celebration instead, which is eight million times better than homecoming.”
Nika’s face fell. “Not everyone survived.”
“I know,” her dad said gently. “And I can’t imagine what those families are going through. It’s a nightmare.” He went to the other side of the bed and pressed a kiss into her hair. “But I’m grateful, so grateful, that you’re still here with me.”
Nika’s eyes welled up. “Me too, Dad.”
Dawson waved a hand at Rick’s mom. “Come on. Let’s go check out the food in the cafeteria and give these kids a minute.” He turned a gimlet eye on Rick. “Because when I come back, you’re going home to eat, shower, and sleep.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “But especially shower.”
Rick nodded at him. “Yes, sir.”
Dawson laughed as he waved Daphne through the privacy drape.
Nika ran a hand through Rick’s hair, and he closed his eyes, the motion soothing.
“Keep eating your eggs,” Rick mumbled. “My mom doesn’t bluff. She won’t bring your flowers until that plate is clean.”
“I hate them. They don’t even taste like eggs. There’s no hot sauce and no salt.”
Rick grinned, his eyes still closed. “But you’re going to eat them anyway, because your dad will keep fussing if you don’t.”
She sighed. “I know.” After a second she spoke again, much quieter. “I also want to see what flowers you picked out. No one’s brought me flowers before except my dad and my grandparents.”
“You deserve all the flowers, and I’ll bring you some new ones if my mom doesn’t bring the ones I got, but I really want you to eat your food. You lost a lot of blood.” He heard the scrape of her fork on the plastic plate, and he almost smiled.
He spent the next few minutes resting his head on the hospital bed, listening to her eat.
Such a simple thing, the noise of a fork on plastic.
The ice rattling in the almost empty cup.
He’d been trying to forget all morning that there had been a short span of time where he wasn’t sure if he’d get to hear those sounds ever again.
When he’d held his wadded-up hoodie to her skin and watched it soak up more of her blood.
Her eyes had kept slipping closed, and he’d kept snapping her name, trying to keep her awake.
In the background, Martina had talked to the 911 operator, and all he could do was sit there.
He’d felt helpless as he’d watched Nika Page almost bleed out in front of him.
Like he’d watched Paxton’s blood run along the bathroom floor.
Her lips had gone almost as blue as Bryce’s had been when Rick found him in the locker room.
Her name had come this close to being listed alongside Kylie Mason’s and Mr. Stephens’s in the paper’s litany of victims. Just one more notch on Mrs. Haysmith’s murder board.
They’d already lost so much.
And he refused to waste even one second more of his life. “Hey, Nika?”
“Yeah?”
“Want to go to prom?”
Ice rattled as she set her cup down on her tray. “If you weren’t interested in homecoming, I fail to see how you’ll be interested in prom. Also, that’s months away.”
Rick opened his eyes and looked at her. Nika was still pale, her freckles standing out in relief. Her hair was greasy, her eyes tired. But she smiled at him, and he thought she might be the most beautiful person in the world. “If you’re there, I’m interested.”
Nika contemplated this for a moment as she finished off the last bite of her eggs.
“I think, yeah, I’d like to go. Bryce and Paxton, Kylie—they’ll never get that chance.
And poor Mr. Stephens…” She set down her fork with a click.
“Yes, I’d like to go. I want to put on a pretty dress, dance awkwardly with you in a gym, get our photo taken, and leave immediately. Ten minutes, tops.”
He laughed.
“I’d like to see you in a suit,” Nika said softly. “I bet you clean up nice.”
Rick canted his head to the side. “Do I need to be cleaned up?”
Nika answered without hesitation. “No.” She reached out and traced his eyebrow solemnly with one finger. Then her lips twitched like she was fighting a smile. “I like you as is, a guy so hot and so oblivious that he almost got murdered because of it.”
Rick laughed weakly, snaking an arm around her. “Too soon.”
Nika snorted. “My dad says humor is an excellent coping mechanism. It’s how you take your power back from scary, awful things. Why do you think so many nurses have such deadpan gallows humor?”
Rick gave her a squeeze. “Then you’ve got yourself a prom date.”
The corner of Nika’s mouth quirked up. “I do, huh?”
“You do.” Then he leaned in, finally doing what he’d wanted to do all morning, all week, all month, and possibly since he was born. He kissed Nika Page.
And the best part?
She kissed him back.