I dropped the pen I was holding; it clattered and burst open as it landed into a puddle of water left by one of the guards who had come in from the pool deck. Ink started flowing out from the pen into the little pool of water, and Todd immediately let out a squawk of protest. "Hey, you broke the pen!"
I ignored him. Shaking a little, I looked him in the eye. "Brandon's in the hospital? What for?" I said, in a voice far from my usual calm tone.
"Something about emergency surgery – hey, wait! Where are you going?" Todd broke off with that exclamation as I rushed to put on my shoes. The moment he uttered the words "emergency surgery," I had felt a terrible chill down my spine. I needed to make sure he was okay.
"Did his mom say anything else?" I asked, bending down to tie my laces quickly.
"Nope, just that he went to the hospital in the morning today and he's been there all day," Todd answered. This morning. That would explain why he hadn't sent me any message or seen mine. "Where are you going?!" Todd demanded as I stood up again and pulled the door open to leave. "You made a mess! The pen is leaking and you haven't signed the payroll sheet."
"And I could give a shit!" I said curtly, and left before Todd could interrupt me with any more unnecessary complaints. Rushing out into the parking lot, I dialled Ben's number. "Come on, come on," I growled as the phone kept ringing; it went to his voicemail, but I simply hung up and tried again. On the third time this happened, he finally answered. "Where the hell were you? I've been trying your number for five minutes!" I said angrily.
"I was napping," he chuckled, and for some reason that only increased my ire.
"Well, wake up," I snapped. "Have you heard from Brandon today at all?"
"No," he said slowly. "I was a bit surprised about that, normally we chat about something during the day while he's in class."
"Yeah, he usually talks to me then too but he didn't today, and I know why. He's been in hospital since morning." I heard a thud on the other side of the line, before some static came through and Ben finally spoke again.
"Sorry, I dropped my phone," he said, his voice shaky. "Do you know why he's been in hospital?"
"That's what I'm going to find out right now," I told him. "That's why I called you. Do you want to come with me? I can come get you and then we can go to hospital."
"Yeah, I'll be ready in two minutes," he said. A thought suddenly struck me and I stopped him before he hung up.
"Wait, before we go there I think it makes more sense to stop at Brandon's house," I suggested. "Maybe his mom knows some details, like which room he's in or something in the hospital?" Ben seemed on board with the idea, and ten minutes later I was pulling into Brandon's driveway. All the lights seemed to be off in the house, and we couldn't see any sign of his mother's car. Brandon's car, by contrast, was parked in the driveway.
"Why is his car there?" Ben asked, sounding bewildered.
