Happenstance: Part Two (Happenstance #2) Page 9

  “Um…yes. Yes. Please come.” At least I would have someone to sit with.

  “On our way in ten,” she said. “See you soon.”

  I set the phone in the cup holder and turned the wheel to the right, into the baseball field’s parking lot. It was already full, with vehicles overflowing into the grass belonging to the fairgrounds to the north. A white, newer, high school bus that read CHISOLM LONGHORNS was parked on the south end of the parking lot, empty. People were still filing in to the gate, but by the scoreboard, I could see that the game had already started.

  When I walked in, Weston just happened to be walking from somewhere near the dugout to home plate with a bat in his hand and a maroon helmet on his head. He looked up into the stands for a moment and then looked down to his cleats, tapping the bat against his left foot.

  He took a step and glanced back one more time, seeing me walk in. He jogged to the fence, sticking his fingers through the holes and hanging on with a wide smile and relief in his eyes.

  “Erin!”

  I pulled my mouth to the side, my emotions torn between being embarrassed by the attention and being flattered by his reaction.

  “Get going, Gates!” Coach Langdon barked.

  He looked back to his coach, to me, and then jogged to his position. I watched him as I climbed the steps. He let the first ball go by.

  “Strike!” the umpire called, holding his fist in the air. The crowd booed.

  Weston leaned forward and twisted his hands around the grip of the bat. The pitcher hurled the ball at him, and Weston swung. The ball met the bat with a crack and then launched, low and straight, right past the shortstop, and bounced into left field, sending the outfielders sprinting.

  The crowd cheered while Weston ran to and reached first base. He kissed his index and middle finger and held it in my direction.

  “Erin!” Veronica called with a smile. She waved me over, and I sat with her on the fourth row, to the left of home plate.

  Julianne and Sam joined us less than an inning later, sitting on each side of me. None of them had a clue how much was riding on this game, and I began to feel guilty about putting that extra pressure on Weston.

  The first two innings, the Blackwell Maroons were up, but the next two were plagued with mistakes, and we were four runs down. I could see the frustration on Weston’s face, and he began yelling cheers and jeers to his teammates from the dugout and the pitcher’s mound.

  Once he pitched the ball, and it came straight back at him. He ducked, and it went straight into the second baseman’s mitt. The crowd let out a collective ooh.

  “Lord, that was close,” Veronica said, putting her hand on her chest.

  “The pitchers should really have to wear helmets too,” Sam said.

  Weston coughed into his elbow and waited for the catcher. He shook his head twice and then nodded. He reared back, hiked his leg, and launched the ball at the batter.

  “Someone’s lit a fire under his ass today,” Peter said after Weston threw three consecutive strikes.

  The umpire called the out, and the players jogged into the dugout. The Chisolm players put on their mitts and ran to their positions on the field.

  In the sixth inning, we were batting, down by one. I could hear coughing from the dugout.

  “Is that Weston?” Veronica said. “He has his inhaler, right?”

  “He always does,” Peter said, trying to sound casual, but I caught a hint of worry in his voice.

  “He’s been having a lot of flare-ups with his asthma lately,” Veronica told Julianne.

  A commotion drew our attention to Blackwell’s dugout, and then Coach Langdon stepped out and yelled. The paramedics standing by rushed to the coach, and players began to hop out, walking backward as they watched in astonishment at whatever we couldn’t see. Peter stood, taking two steps at a time down the bleachers. Veronica took the cement steps.

  “Oh God,” I said.

  My parents stood too, and I followed them down the stairs and through the gate.

  “Let’s go!” Julianne commanded.

  “Weston?” Veronica cried.

  Peter was holding her shoulders as she cupped her hands over her mouth.

  One of the paramedics ran to the ambulance and came back with a gurney and supplies, quickly loading Weston onto the stretcher. That was the first time I got a good look at him. He was pale, his hair soaked and stuck to his forehead. His eyes were rolled back into his head as he gasped for air. His inhaler fell out of his hand to the ground.

  “Go! Go!” Sam barked, helping Julianne and the paramedics push the stretcher’s wheels across the dirt and grass to the sidewalk, and then to the ambulance.

  The entire crowd was silent. The players all took a knee, holding their hats over their hearts.

  “No, no, no,” I whispered, watching helplessly.

  The ambulance sped off with full lights and sirens down Coolidge Street toward the hospital, and Peter and Veronica ran to their cars.

  “Erin! Erin! Come on!” Julianne called to me from the parking lot.

  I ran with her to her G-Wagon. The door slammed behind me, and I watched her twist the ignition and yank the gear into reverse and then into drive.

  “Where’s Sam?”

  “In the ambulance. Weston’s had asthma attacks before. Not in a long time, but he will be okay. He will.”

  “You promise?” I said, my entire body trembling.

  Julianne’s lips pressed together, making a hard line. “He can’t do this again. He wouldn’t.”

  “Who?”

  “God.”

  I blinked and then looked out the window, watching the houses pass by.

  Julianne pulled into the back lot of the hospital where the ambulance bay was located. The ambulance was already parked, its back door hanging wide open.

  Julianne held my hand, and I kept her quick pace as we walked inside to the waiting room.

  Mothers holding feverish babies and an elderly couple, one of them with a deep cough, took up the few chairs available—not that we needed them.

  I wrapped my arms around my middle, and after twenty grueling minutes, Sam appeared. He looked worried.

  “They’re stabilizing him,” he said, but he put his hand on the small of Julianne’s back and led her into the hallway.

  They spoke softly, having an intense conversation. Julianne looked back at me once and covered her mouth with her hand.

  I couldn’t find a comfortable place to put my hands, so I finally resorted to crossing them across my stomach again.

  Sam and Julianne returned, taking me in both of their arms.

  “He’s going to be okay,” Sam said.

  “You’re sure?” I asked.

  “They’re working on it.” He handed me a five-dollar bill. “Why don’t you get us some waters from the vending machine down the hall?”

  I nodded, taking the bill and leaving the waiting room, turning right. I could see the vending machine. It was close to the end of the hall, near the front entrance. On my way, a woman in scrubs rushed past me, pushing a square-shaped piece of equipment with an arm and a camera-like contraption on the end. It looked like a portable X-ray machine, and I imagined she was heading for Weston’s room.

  The vending machine took Sam’s five-dollar bill. I pressed the button for a bottle of water, collected the change that fell into a bin at the bottom, and then repeated the process two more times. The waters felt good against my skin as I carried them back to the waiting room.

  Sam and Julianne were standing next to Coach Langdon and stopped talking when I approached. They took their waters but didn’t open them.

  Sam hugged me to him, and we waited. When I couldn’t wait any longer, I stood by the door, watching the clouds roll by, and witnessed the sky turning dark. One by one the players and the coaches stopped by and ambled around the waiting room like we did.

  Another lifetime later, Peter turned the corner, and everyone gathered around him.

  “The
y have his oxygen levels back to normal. He’s getting a breathing treatment now, but they’re going to keep him overnight. They’ll be moving him to a room upstairs soon.”

  Weston’s teammates’ departures were staggered, and then it was just Sam, Julianne, Coach Langdon, and I. Peter came back in, followed by Veronica and a couple of nurses pushing a hospital bed down the hall.

  I tried to glance past Peter but couldn’t get a good look.

  “Thank God,” Julianne said.

  “Thanks for your help today,” Peter said to my parents. “If you hadn’t helped, I don’t know that he would have made it to the hospital.”

  Julianne glanced back at me when I gasped.

  “But he’s okay now, right?” I asked.

  Peter nodded, touching my shoulder. “He needs to rest. We’ll call you tomorrow.”

  I nodded, and Peter left us for the hall.

  Sam and Julianne breathed out a simultaneous breath of relief.

  “I feel like I should have caught it earlier,” Coach Langdon said.

  “Don’t blame yourself,” Julianne said.

  The coach rubbed the back of his neck. “Ask Peter to keep me updated.”

  Sam nodded, and the coach pulled his keys from his pocket and pushed the glass door, walking in quick steps to his car.

  “You ready, honey?” Sam said to me, holding out his hand.

  “He stayed out there because he wanted to win,” I said. “He probably knew what was happening, and he didn’t tell anyone because he wanted to finish the game.”

  Sam offered a sympathetic smile. “It was his last game, Erin.”

  “No, I agreed. He said if he lost his game today, then I wouldn’t have to go to prom with him.”

  Julianne frowned.

  Tears filled my eyes. “He didn’t want to go to Duke. He wanted to go to the Art Institute of Dallas. I gave him my word that if he told Peter, I would go to prom with him. He told Peter, but I couldn’t go. Not after…Weston offered a double or nothing. He asked me to come to game today, and said if he didn’t win, then he wouldn’t bother me about prom.”

  Julianne’s lip trembled. “This isn’t your fault, sweetheart.”

  “I was going to go anyway. I didn’t care what they did to me, I was going to go, but I’ve been torturing him the last two weeks, making him feel like I hated him. I know exactly how it feels to be hated, and I did it to him. That’s so much worse than what anyone has ever done to me.”

  “Erin, honey,” Sam began, but I shook my head and took a step back from him.

  “Everyone’s been saying how he was the awful one, and I was the victim. Even him. But you’re all wrong. I’m the terrible one. I know how hurtful it is, and I…I love him. I know what it’s like to feel rejection from someone who’s supposed to love you. I had no excuse to treat him that way, and he nearly died today over the stupid prom. Just so I would go with him.”

  Those still seated in the waiting room watched the scene I was making, half of them curious, half of them making judgments.

  “You’re exhausted,” Sam said. “Let’s go home, and we’ll bring you back first thing in the morning. As soon as you wake up.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t leave him. I should be here.”

  “I know you want to—” Sam said.

  “No, I should. It’s a should, Sam, not just a want.”

  “Okay,” Julianne said, taking my hand. “Sam, you have an early case. I’ll stay here with our daughter.”

  Sam nodded. “Of course. Of course,” he said, taking Julianne’s keys when she extended them. He hugged us both and pushed the door open, disappearing into the dark parking lot.

  Julianne spoke with one of the women behind the admissions desk, and then she gestured for me to follow her. We walked to the elevator and rode it to the second floor.

  The waiting room was dark and empty. Julianne switched on the light, and we took a seat on a bench seat. She pulled me to lie down in her lap, and I did, letting the tears fall from my eyes, across my nose, and onto her jeans. She ran her fingers through my hair but didn’t speak.

  “I was scared,” I whispered. “I didn’t know how to forgive him. I didn’t know how to be in love with him. I didn’t know how to make it work. I feel like I’ve been waiting for my life to begin, and Blackwell was the holding pattern. I thought Weston was part of that. I couldn’t see anyone from here fitting into my new life.”

  “You were hurt by what you read in those journals. On top of the years of hurt you’ve already endured. No one blames you. Not even Weston. It’s obvious by his behavior. Did he say why he agreed to help Alder?”

  “Just that she offered him a way to do something he already wanted.”

  “Oh,” she said, but it was more of an aw. She placed her palm gently on my forehead.

  “He makes me feel too much. I’ve spent my entire life not letting people get to me. The way I feel about him scares me.”

  “Rest, my love. It will all be different in the morning.”

  I lay there, trying to relax, but as tired as my body felt, I couldn’t close my eyes, afraid of waking up to bad news. Hours went by, and I felt Julianne’s hand relax, and her breathing leveled off.

  Footsteps shuffled from the tiled hallway to the carpeted waiting room, and I looked up to see Veronica standing in the doorway.

  “Guess who’s awake,” she whispered with a smile.

  I sat up, waking Julianne.

  “Is he better?” I asked.

  “He’s asking for you. He won’t go back to sleep. I was hoping you were still here.”

  “Can I see him?” I asked, leaning forward.

  Veronica stepped to the side. “He’s in two ten.”

  I shot up from my seat and tried not to run down the hall, searching every plaque on the wall with numbers until I reached Weston’s room. It was dark, and I walked in slowly.

  He was sitting up, his dark form stiffening when he recognized me.

  “Erin,” he said, his voice weak. He patted the thin blue blanket, wanting me to sit in the empty spot next to him.

  His hand was taped, with IV tubing leading to a bag of saline. A cannula was in his nose and hooked over the back of his ears, the oxygen flowing from an apparatus on the wall.

  He was still pale and seemed frail in the baby-blue hospital gown he wore. His feet reached all the way to the end of the bed.

  I sat next to him, just like I’d wanted to since we’d arrived, but now that I was there, the words didn’t come.

  He kept his head back, resting against several pillows that were used to prop him up.

  “Did we win?” he asked.

  I laughed once. “Who cares?”

  “I do. I really don’t want to miss taking you to prom.”

  I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll go with you if you still want me to.”

  He frowned. “Well, hell. If I’d known all I had to do was have an asthma attack to get you to go with me, I would have had one weeks ago.” He winked.

  “That’s not funny.”

  His face crumpled. “I would have never let them embarrass you at prom, Erin. I agreed to try to get you to like me and to try to get you to prom. I never agreed to let them humiliate you.”

  “Not now,” I said. “Wait until you’re feeling better.”

  “I need to know that you understand. No, more than that. I need you to believe me. I agreed to get closer to you, but it was just an excuse, Erin. Alder was willing to hand me something I’d wanted for a long time…without harassing you about it. She wanted to get you to prom, so she was going to back off. They all were.”

  “What about what happened on the corner that day with the Erins and Brady? What about her stopping by my work?”

  “If she completely backed off, she was afraid you’d figure out what they were up to.”

  “What you were up to. You keep talking like you weren’t in on it.”

  “It was the only way to be with you without making you eve
n more of a target. What kind of chance would I have then?”

  “It wasn’t just to keep me from catching hell.”

  “Okay, I admit it. I wanted to be with you and just enjoy it. I knew they wouldn’t leave us alone. At the time I thought it was the perfect solution. If you want to get home, sometimes you gotta steal a base once in a while.”

  “It’s not a game, Weston. If it hadn’t gone the way you wanted—”

  “If I really thought there was no way to avoid what they were going to try to pull at prom, we would have had our own, at our overpass, just you and me. I wouldn’t have risked it. You’re right, I was sneaky about it, and it’s not a game. But at the end of the day, there was no way to break up with Alder to be with you and make that work. It would have been miserable. I would have lost you. You would decide it wasn’t worth it. You would have avoided me like the plague until you left for college, and that would be it.”

  I looked up at him. He looked as if he were physically in pain at the thought.

  “But everything’s changed. You should have told me.”

  “I couldn’t risk it, Erin. I thought I was crazy about you before, planning all that out just for a chance with you. I didn’t think it was possible to love you more, but it’s happened. I panicked. I didn’t know what to do.”

  “Tell the truth. Even when it sucks. Even when it’s not about me anymore. Like the Erins being half sisters.”

  His chin nearly touched his chest when he looked down at me. “You know about that too?”

  “I read all of them. I know everything.”

  He thought about that for a moment, shaking his head in awe. “Crazy to think how different things would have been if they had somehow found out without the accident.”

  “I don’t want to. It would make me crazy thinking about the what-ifs when there are already so many what-happeneds to deal with. I just want to know the whole truth about what happened, Weston. If I know, I feel like then we can all move forward.”

  “Even us?” he asked.

  I shrugged against his chest with a small smile. My eyes had adjusted to the dark, and I could see his thoughts spinning behind his eyes.

  “Okay, here’s the whole truth: I’ve thought about how to be with you since middle school,” he said. “It was our senior year. I didn’t have much time left, and I was getting desperate. You think Sonny was smart enough to come up with that plan on her own? Who do you think planted the seed in that warped brain of hers?”