Chapter 43 #2
At least she hadn’t ruined her personal relationship with Karina.
Elissa leaned her head against the window, watching the shadowy shrubs and trees pass in the headlights on the curvy state highway. Part of her heart lay ahead, part behind. She’d made her choice, and now she’d have to live with it.
* * *
“Hey, chica, we’re here.”
The rideshare driver’s voice woke Elissa. She must’ve dozed off as they hit I-10. She rubbed her eyes and wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth.
“Thank you,” she said, pulling out her phone. Only a bit past one in the morning. The driver had made great time, and Elissa added a generous tip.
“Hope your mom is okay.”
Elissa got out. “Me too.”
She watched the red taillights pull away and called her sister as she walked into the hospital. Ami answered on the first ring.
“Where the fuck have you been?”
“It…it doesn’t matter. I’m at the hospital. Where are you?”
“Emergency waiting room. I see you.”
Elissa hung up and looked around. Her sister waved frantically, and Elissa hurried over. Her brother was curled up in a chair, looking so small for a boy so tall. Her dad sat on the other side of Leo, his head in hands braced on his knees. She’d never seen her family so forlorn.
“Hi,” she said, standing in front of them.
Her dad wiped away the tears brimming in his eyes.
“Hi, kiddo.” He stood and encircled her with his arms.
“I’m sorry, Dad.” Her voice quavered. Guilt settled in her heart, dark, heavy, and intimately familiar after the past few weeks.
He released her. “You’re here now. That’s what counts.”
Elissa wasn’t too sure but didn’t have time to think as Leo uncoiled himself from his chair and hugged her tight, resting his head on top of hers.
“I’m glad you’re here, Lissa. We were starting to worry about you, too.”
“I’m fine. I just picked the worst day to go tech-free.”
“No shit.”
“Swear jar,” their dad said automatically, then gave a rueful smile. “Later.”
“How’s Mom?” Elissa asked.
“She should be fine. She’s in the recovery room, and they’ll let us see her once she’s settled in her room.”
“Can I talk to you? Over here?” Ami didn’t wait for Elissa’s answer. She grabbed her arm and dragged Elissa out of listening range of Leo and their dad. “I don’t know whether to hug you or hit you.”
Elissa flung her hands out in a helpless gesture. “Both?”
And in an instant, her sister’s arms wrapped around her.
Ami’s breathing was heavy, like she was trying to hold in sobs.
Elissa didn’t. She held her sister tight and allowed the tears to come, the tears she’d been holding back since she turned on her damn phone.
After a few minutes, the crying stopped, as if they’d mutually agreed to cease.
Elissa pulled away, releasing her sister.
She regretted it the next second, when Ami punched her shoulder.
“Ow. Bitch,” she said.
“You deserved it, Lissa. You didn’t answer your phone, and I had to take care of everything. Where have you been?”
“Tell me what happened first. Then I’ll tell you where I’ve been.”
“Fine.” Ami dropped into a chair. “Mom got into an accident on her way to meet up with friends. They couldn’t reach Dad—interviews for a new lab manager and his phone was off.
They couldn’t reach you, so the hospital called me.
Dragged Dad out of his lab, brought him here, and picked up Leo from his friend’s house.
I kept calling and calling, and we worried something had happened to you, too.
I’ve never been so angry and so relieved at the same time when you finally texted back. Your turn.”
“Not yet. What’s happening with Mom?”
“Her leg broke real good. I think the doc said a compound fracture. She also had a broken arm, but it was a normal break. They took her for surgery around nine. They came out about two hours ago to say it went well and took Dad to visit when she woke up. Just before you got here, he came back. They should be moving her soon but won’t let the rest of us visit until she has her own room.
That’s it. That’s all I’ve got. Your turn. ”
Elissa sighed. It was time to admit her failings. God, the guilt was eating at her.
“I ran away. I didn’t want to be the good girl anymore, so I ran to my motorcycle-riding…I don’t know what he is. My knight in shining armor? And he took me away from it all, like a prince in a fairy tale.”
“About fucking time!”
It wasn’t the reaction she’d expected. Anger, frustration, sadness, but not this tacit acceptance of her failure as a daughter and as a sister.
“What?”
“Listen, I’m not saying it was the best day of my life.
It could’ve turned out to be the very worst, but what you said this morning?
How I needed to step up? Well, I did, and it sucked.
Now I know how you’ve felt all the times you’ve had to do the same.
If you were fucking your brains out, then good for you.
You deserve it after all the crap we’ve put you through. ”
Ami drew her in for another hug. Elissa’s hair dampened from her sister’s tears.
“Now, can you please take over? I’m so done being strong for those two. How the fuck did you ever manage it, Lissa?” Ami broke the embrace and punched her sister’s shoulder again, but softer than before.
“I pushed my feelings down deep and pretended they didn’t exist.”
“You know that’s not healthy, right?”
“That fact is starting to dawn on me.” They chuckled together, and Elissa wiped her eyes. “I’ve got your back, brat.”
They returned to the rest of their family, arm in arm. Ami snagged a box of tissues off a table. Elissa settled herself into a chair between her father and Leo and grabbed a couple of tissues from the box Ami had purloined.
They waited but not long.
A tall woman wearing blue scrubs exited a door marked “Hospital Personnel Only” and walked straight to them. Elissa licked her lips and held her breath.
“That’s one of the nurses. She came out with the doc after the surgery,” Ami said.
“Dana is being taken to room 402. Mr. Wright, why don’t you come with me and I’ll update you on the way. The rest of you can join us in about half an hour, okay? Let your mom settle in,” the nurse said.
She smiled, only a brief uptick in the sides of her mouth, and the tension surrounding her family softened.
“Thank you.” Peter Wright kissed Ami on the head, patted Elissa on the shoulder, and ruffled Leo’s hair. “See you in a bit.”
As he walked away with the nurse, the Wright siblings collapsed into their chairs. Elissa passed around the box of tissues to dry the tears of relief.
“Lissa, I’m hungry,” Leo said after a few minutes.
“Nice to meet—” Ami grinned mischievously.
“No dad jokes!” Elissa said. “Let’s just feed the poor boy.”
“Yeah, there’s a vending machine around here somewhere.”
Ami pulled their brother up and dragged him down the hall.
Elissa followed, the weight on her shoulders suddenly lessened.
Her mom would be okay. She’d spent the past year worrying about cancer, but in the end, it was a stupid car accident that almost took her mom away. Something no one could predict.
Just like no one could’ve predicted Elissa would fall in love with Ryan DeMarco.
Oh god, she’d left him there. Didn’t even tell him what she felt. Didn’t let him help her. What had she been thinking? She hadn’t been, obviously. And now there was no way to make it up to him.
But that was a problem for future Elissa. Now, she had a brother to feed and a mother to see.