Don't Say Anything

15. Waiting

The damn lady on the phone wouldn't tell me a thing. She just kept saying, "We can't disclose personal information over the phone. You really shouldn't be talking while driving", until I hung up. I tried Will's cell about ten times on the way to the hospital and he never answered. I was hoping that his parents or a friend would pick up so I could hear some actual information, but there was nothing.

He must have gotten in an accident either on the way to or from the bus stop or on the way to my dorm room. I'm going to hate myself if it was on the way to see me. I should have just gone to him. I should have insisted that I go and talk to him because he's not allowed in the dorms anyway. I shouldn't have been so damn sensitive. Why couldn't I have brushed off what he said? She's just wrapped around my finger. I still can't, but I'm more concerned with Will's condition for the time being.

I pull up to the hospital, park, and run inside the lobby. It's quiet. A gross kind of quiet. The only person in the room is sitting behind the desk and looks like she wants to be anywhere but here.

"Excuse me. Can you tell me where Will Hastings is?" I ask her as sweetly as possible. She must be the jerk that was on the phone with me.

"Right this way." She looks annoyed that she has to stand up. I see the game Solitaire on her computer screen and I feel no sympathy for her having to walk ten feet. She points down the hall at a door that says 'Waiting Room' and quickly walks back to her computer before I can even thank her. Not that I was going to. 

I walk into another room that looks similar to the last, only a little bigger and people sitting in a few of the chairs. I approach the desk and the much nicer man tells me to have a seat and a nurse will come to talk to me soon.

I can't stop fidgeting and letting my thoughts run wild. What if he's paralyzed? What if he dies? What if he's really mad at me and blames me for getting in the crash? What if it was my fault that he was in a crash? Where is Leah? Why was I called and I don't recognize anyone else in the room? I look around to try and distract myself.

There's a little boy with his hand wrapped in a towel and his mom is trying to comfort him. There's a young man who looks really nervous. I bet his wife is having their first child. There's another older man sleeping in the corner. There's an old lady reading a magazine. Who knows why she's here. And there's a teenage girl holding a bag of ice to the top of her head. It's silent besides the sound of typing and the mom's soft whispers. The little boy gets called into another room and then a woman in scrubs come through the door and calls my name. I immediately get up and follow her out of the waiting room.

"Hi. How are you?" she asks calmly.   

"Do you know what happened? Is he okay?" She's walking way too slow for my liking.

"For his cousin, you sure do care about him. That's nice to see. You're more frantic than most parents." Cousin? I'm not Will's cousin. But right now I'm more concerned with if he is alive.

"Can you answer my question?" I ask as we stop in front of another door. She writes something down and then keeps walking.

"He'll be fine, I think." That is probably the least reassuring thing you can tell someone at a hospital.

"What the hell does that mean?" Now she's just making me angry.  We get to another desk and she starts talking to another woman in the same outfit.

"This is Jessica, William Hastings cousin," she says in almost a whisper like she's saying some big secret.

"Can you please tell me what's going on?" I ask the other women. She sighs and then gives in.

"We think it was an attempt at suicide," she says and I about pass out.