Bad Luck with Love

Chapter 36: News

She listened patiently, shaking her head at some parts, but waiting till I was done before speaking.

“He believed you cheated on him?” she asked incredulously.

“That’s my guess, since he stormed out without giving me a chance to explain,” I wiped my eyes and sniffed, feeling pathetic.

“Ivy, this is not your fault. It’s that creep’s fault. Jake would never blame you for that,” she gave me a tight hug.

“Then why did he just leave? Why didn’t he come talk to me?” tears were starting to fall. I hadn’t cried since I came to the hospital. I had turned off, forcing myself to be numb. But now it was all starting to come out.

“When you thought Jake cheated on you, did you stick around to interrogate him? Sometimes leaving it alone is better than approaching the situation head on,” she rubbed my back comfortingly.

“But I feel so guilty! If I had just pushed Chad away—”

“Ivy don’t even bother thinking like that. You can’t undo what’s been done, the most you can do is sit and pray for the best,” she soothed. “You know Jake, he’s a fighter. And you know he’s fighting really hard right now.”

I felt a hand touch my arm and I pulled away from Sandra to see Tyler standing there, looking awkward and anxious. “Jake’s parents just got news from the doctor.”

I looked down the hall, seeing the Lewis’ standing there, waiting. Sandra took my hand and Tyler ruffled my hair with a small smile. “Everything’s going to be okay, you’ll see,” he assured me quietly. But I didn’t really believe him.

Every step I took down that hallway brought me that much closer to knowing what had happened. Did I really want to know? What if it was something terrible?

I suddenly had the urge to run away.

But I just tightened my grip on Sandra as we stopped in front of her parents.

Jake’s father cleared his throat, took a breath, looking around at all of us. “Jake’s out of intensive care,” he began and I felt my whole body relax.

“Yes!” Nick cheered, high fiving Tyler. Suddenly, my dark cloud had a silver lining.

“It’ll take a while before everything is healed, he’s stable now though,” he continued and I got a sudden bad feeling. He wasn’t finished yet.

“But?” Sandra prodded after a moment of silence, asking the question I didn’t want an answer too.

“He’s…” Mrs. Lewis was crumpled against his side, and her body shook with fresh sobs. Mr. Lewis swallowed hard, Adam’s apple bobbing as he rubbed his tired eyes. “He’s in a coma.”

“A coma?” we all cried out together.

“They don’t know how long he’ll be in a coma for, or if he’ll wake up, or if he’ll even remember anything if he does wake up,” he ended quietly.

Sandra suddenly let go of me and stood right by her parents. They just stood there, looking at each other. Sandra’s eyes were getting wet with tears with every second, standing all alone until her dad pulled her into a hug with her mom.

After the fall out they had when she married Sam and moved away, it was a good thing that they seemed to still love each other. It was just dreadful that it took something like this for it to happen.

“When can we see him?” I whispered, swaying on my feet. Exhaustion was getting to me and so was all this stress of worrying. Tyler held me steady and I clung to him for all I was worth.