What I Still Hate About You (#2 What I Hate About You) (Wattys 2019)

Chapter 18

The drive to the hospital was silent. I didn't even turn on the radio. My mind was already loud and I didn't want to make it worse by adding extra noise on top of it. Mum sits beside me in the passenger seat, holding the same tissue she had left the house with to wipe her eyes. She rests her head on the window as I drive towards the hospital.

Dereck is waiting for us at the front entrance. Mum runs to him and throws her arms around him as she cries into his chest.

Dereck rubs a hand up and down her back. "It's okay, Jean. Everything is going to be okay. Come on, let's go in and talk to the doctors."

We walk through the doors of the ER. Mum was too upset to speak so Dereck asks about Lindsay. The receptionist tells us to have a seat while she pages the doctor.

It was ten minutes before a doctor comes down to the ER, calling for my Mum. The three of us stand up and stand by the double doors to the ER.

"How is my daughter?" Mum asks.

"She is stable and is currently in a coma," the doctor explains. "She has no injuries, just a few cuts and bruises."

"Do you know what happened?" Dereck wants to know.

The doctor shakes his head. "I don't know all of the details. All I know is it was a horrific accident. Your daughter was at the wheel of the vehicle."

"Was there anyone else in the car with her?"

The doctor nods. "Yes, a male passenger was with her. Unfortunately, he was killed instantly at the scene."

A cry escapes my mother's lips. "Who was in the car with her?"

"The young man's name was Simon."

My body turns cold. There were times when I had wished Simon McGuire was dead or wished I was the one to kill him from the idiotic things he would do. But of course, I have never really meant those things. It was only a figure of speech. Never did I expect for it to happened. My stomach now feels like someone has just kicked me and I wasn't sure if it was the guilt I felt about all of the things I have said to him, or if I just felt sick from the news.

"Come with me and I will take you up to the ICU," the doctor says, opening up the door.

Mum nods and starts to follow, Dereck's arm slipping around her waist.

I stay where I am. "Mum, Dereck, I am going to hang here to wait for Nathan."

Mum nods. Dereck tells me he will come back down in a little while to come get me and Nathan. The two of them disappear through the doors.

I sit down, but only to stand up again. I couldn't sit here while my sister was somewhere in this hospital lying in a hospital bed, barely alive. I hope Nathan wouldn't be too long.

Why have I been such a bitch to her in the last few days? Why were we fighting? I don't want to feel the guilt that if my sister dies, I will never be able to tell her I am sorry.

I glance around the room for a pay phone, but there wasn't one in the ER. I know there is one in the main entrance and for a moment I thought of leaving the ER to make a quick call to Dad before Nathan arrives, to inform him what has happened to Lindsay. But my feet don't make the effort to move. The right thing would be to do was to call him, but I knew if I told him to come down here, Mum wouldn't like him here. The last thing we needed was an argument about the past right here. Besides, Lindsay probably wouldn't want to see Dad's face if she was to wake up.

My eyes drift to two young girls playing with their rag dolls while sitting with their mother. The mother was talking on the phone to someone, informing them they were waiting for results on a test. The girls were fraternal twins. Seeing them reminded me of my sister and I when we were younger. How the two of us were once young and innocent, no fights between us except when we couldn't get our way with something. It made me wonder what really happened between my sister and I. It wasn't just about Dad disappearing out of our lives. It was everything in between as we drifted apart to do our own thing. I pushed her away from my own problems, blaming everyone and myself for Dad leaving. All Lindsay needed was for me to open up to her.