Chapter Two
"You can go see her, now," the doctor said as he walked up to meet Kale in the waiting room. As he spoke those words, Kale breathed out a sigh of relief and nodded before standing. The doctor noted he didn't have a shirt on and grimaced.
"So, you've been the one distracting my nurses?" He asked casually, causing Kale to shrug. Sighing, the doctor kept his mouth closed as they walked down to Elliot's room. As they reached the door, a nurse walked out and nodded at them.
"We have her on an adult dosage of morphine for the pain, so she may not be very coherent when she wakes up . . . She was asking for you earlier, before she fell asleep," the nurse said with a smile. Her name tag said Julie and Kale forced himself to smile back at her.
She was short, probably around five feet tall and skinny. She looked a little ridged in her scrubs, but Kale pushed it off, taking in her face. It was round with a pointed chin. She had large green eyes that seemed out of place with her olive colored skin and dark black hair pulled up in a bun. It was easy to see she was Asian, but her eyes really caught him.
"Excuse me?" The doctor said, clearing his throat.
Kale turned back to him and sighed. The doctor was holding the door open for him, motioning for Kale to go in and see Elliot. Swallowing back the urge to just leave, Kale walked into the room and took in Elliot's tired looking body.
She was relaxing in the bed, half sitting up and half laying down. Her eyes were closed, allowing Kale some time to adjust to the new her.
Her right wrist was bandaged and set with a metal clamp. Her fingers were already bruised and slightly swollen. Her entire right arm was bandaged with gauze and her face had been cleaned and sterilized as well. She was in a blue, floral gown, like the rest of the patients and her hair was pulled to the left side of her face in a ponytail, most likely to keep it from irritating the cuts and scrapes on the right side of her head.
"We had to take her into surgery; I apologize it took so long," the doctor informed Kale, who just nodded and watched Elliot sleep peacefully. "Breaking her wrist took a toll on her, but we managed to realign everything. She has carpal tunnel, you know . . . We managed to put in a metal stint and three screws so everything will heal nicely. Also, make sure she doesn't hit her hand on anything; it might cause the clamp to push her stint out of place."
"Why are you telling me this?" Kale asked, not sure why he was explaining Elliot's medical issues to him.
"She said her mother and father considered you a part of her family . . . ?" The doctor seemed to question this, looking over at Elliot's sleeping form with a slight scowl.
"Oh, yeah . . . Yeah, they do," Kale lied, waving it off.
"Alright then. Do you by chance have her parent's numbers?" He asked, watching Kale as he sat down in the chain next to Elliot's hospital bed. He didn't respond to the doctor; he just stared at Elliot as her eyes moved back and forth across her eyelids.
"Kale?" The doctor said his name then, catching his attention.
"Yeah?"
"Her parent's number; do you have it?" He repeated himself.
"Oh, umm . . . It should be in her cell phone, in her shorts' pocket," he said, nodding over to the pile of clothes that she'd been wearing from earlier. The doctor nodded, walking over and pulling out a beat up cell from exactly where Kale had instructed.
"Check under 'the phone'," Kale mumbled, recalling the name Elliot had given her parent's home phone. She hadn't wanted to put "Mom" or "Dad" because she already had that labelled in as their cell phones. Elliot was just weird with how she did some things.
"Alright; I'll bring this back as soon as I give her parents a call," he informed Kale before ducking out of the room, Elliot's phone plastered to his ear.
Kale watched after the doctor, not sure of what to make of him. He was a tall, skinny and elderly man, who seemed oddly familiar with technology. He was kind until he'd heard that Kale was supposedly as close as family to her, which felt weird to Kale . . . because he'd never met her parents formally before. They knew who he was and knew about him, but they didn't really know him.
"You remembered that?" Elliot asked suddenly, causing Kale to jump a little.
"What?" He asked, forcing himself to relax.
"You remembered the name of my home number, in my phone. I told you that almost three years ago, Kale. How can you remember that?" She asked through disbelief. Her voice was slightly slurring, probably due to the morphine and sleep.
"I don't know . . . " He scratched the back of his head with his hand and sighed, "I'm sorry, Elliot. I didn't mean to put you through that. You really should've left when I told you to. You wouldn't be in here right now if you had."
"You wouldn't be here at all if I had left, Kale. Don't try and tell me what I did was wrong, either. You've helped me before . . . I've never seen you like that," she said, pulling the ponytail out of her hair and running her left hand through her brown locks.
"Yeah . . . " He murmured while he looked down at the floor.
"Kale, look at me," she said, trying to get his attention. He didn't look into her eyes, but he looked up at her casted arm. "Kale, please . . . look at me . . . "
"What?" He asked, looking up into her eyes for a moment before turning away. It hurt him to see that he'd pained her; Elliot was a good person. She didn't talk about anyone or bully people. If she offended someone, she always apologized . . . and she was sincere about it.
She didn't deserve what Kale had just put her through.
"If you think I'm mad at you, I'm not. I just don't understand, Kale. You're always happy and smiling and laughing with everyone. You're there for everyone but when it comes time for you to ask for help, you don't . . . and you reject someone that tries to give it to you when you are in need of it," she whispered, clearly hurt over the entire situation.
"It's my fault you're in this hospital bed. You should've left when I told you to. I would've been fine," he snapped, suddenly.
"What's gotten into you, Kale? This isn't like you. You know you wouldn't have been fine. Being fine is not being dead," she muttered her last two sentences. For some reason, it hurt her more than she would admit to him to see him standing on that cliff.
"Well, doesn't life just suck," he spat out.
The room fell silent, the only sound that came to their ears was that of the commotion in the hallway and the constant beeping of the heart monitor connected to Elliot. Kale kept looking back at her, but she was staring down at her wrist, unmoving.
"I'm sorry, Elliot. I didn't mean to snap at you like that," he whispered, wanting to reach out and comfort her. She just shrugged, staring at her fingers and studying the metal clamp. It was almost as if she was trying to figure out a way to take it off; her wrist already itched.
Just then, the doctor walked into the room and set Elliot's phone down on the table next to her. Then, he checked the machines without saying anything, almost as if he was trying to make them ignore him completely. When he was finished filling out a chart, he turned to Elliot and smiled down at her.
"You're going to be just fine. Your mom is going to pick up your brother from the daycare clinic downstairs when she gets here and then she'll be up to see you. She said she'd call your father at work but she doesn't know if he can get off early," the doctor informed her. Elliot just nodded without looking up from her hand, but he didn't seem to mind as he kept talking.
"You should be able to go home in a day or two. We just have to take a couple more x-rays tomorrow after you're all rested to see if we need to do any more surgery and to check out if you moved the metal stint around in the night," the doctor said before nodding at Kale and heading out the door.
"Elliot, did you hear what he said?" Kale asked through worry.
"Yeah, I heard him," she didn't look at him as he spoke, making him groan and put his head in his hands. Elliot sighed, laying her head back on her pillows and looking up at the ceiling. Then, there was a knock at the door and Kale looked up.
Elliot's mom was standing at the closed door, looking in and smiling weakly at him. He nodded at her before standing, telling Elliot he'd be back. Then, he walked out the door and shut it behind himself.
"How's she doing?" Elliot's mom asked, looking in through the window, again.
"She's kind of bitter, if I'm being honest . . . I don't know if it's a good idea for you to see her right now. I'm not saying that for my benefit, either. I'm saying that because I don't want her to hurt you," he smiled weakly at her.
"You're Kale Couhn, aren't you? I've heard a lot about you. My name's Jessica," she said, holding out her hand for Kale to shake.
"Yeah, I'm Kale . . . I've heard about you, too," he said, taking her hand firmly and shaking it. She smiled before pulling her hand back to support the baby in her arms. Kale returned it, but he couldn't feel it in him. He just felt shitty; like everything was fake and it hurt him to see Elliot in a hospital bed because of him.
"Only good things, I hope," she laughed a little nervously.
"No, nothing bad," he smiled, again.
"Are you okay?" She asked suddenly, frowning a little with her words. She looked into Elliot's room, again, allowing Kale to do the same. She was sleeping, now, her eyes shut, her body relaxing and her left hand cradling her casted and clamped right arm.
"Yeah, I'm just tired . . . Would you like to take a walk with me to the cafeteria? I want to ask some things about Elliot, if you don't mind," Kale said, suddenly. His words surprised himself, but he didn't take them back.
Jessica smiled brightly, seeming to like that Kale was taking an interest in her daughter. Everyone always seemed to think he was such a good, happy kid, but they didn't know what he thought of in his head.
"Sure," she said at last. They nodded at each other before turning around and walking down the hallway. Kale checked the phone in his pocket to see a few missed calls from his mom, but the text that followed wasn't angry.
I know you're probably having fun with your friends, so don't worry about calling me back. I just wanted to see how your day was and to tell you I'll be late coming home tonight, so don't wait up. I love you; see you tomorrow morning, it had said.
As they reached the cafeteria, Jessica ducked into the bathroom to change her son's diaper and Kale found a booth to sit at. The hard plastic didn't help his already sore back, but he ignored it as Jessica smiled at him when she sat down.
"Before we go into anything, may I ask why you're shirtless? I mean . . . I know Elliot is almost eighteen and I have no say in her sex life . . . I just don't want her doing anything in a hospital and I do-"
Kale cut her off with a slight chuckle, "No, that's . . . That's got nothing to do with sex. When she pu- I mean, knocked me over down the hill, I landed on her wrist. It broke and to keep her from seeing the bone and blood, I took my shirt off and wrapped it around her hand. That's really all it was. I promise."
"Alright, that's good," Jessica smiled. Then, she sucked in a breath and blew it out, looking into Kale's eyes. Finally, she spoke, again, "I just didn't know you and her were a thing, you know? She usually tells me everything."
"Oh . . . umm, no. We actually aren't . . . Elliot's just a friend of mine," Kale didn't know if that was the right thing to say, but he didn't have a way of taking it back down. Jessica frowned slightly, nodding at his words.
"That's too bad . . . You're both really good kids," she muttered.
"Yeah . . . "
That's all Kale could really say. Jessica was right about Elliot -- she was a good kid from what he saw . . . but Kale had a lot of problems. Most of them were just his family and personal life, but sometimes, that stemmed into him helping other people.
"So, what did you want to know about Elliot? I thought you were good friends," Jessica said, soothing her son before he started to scream. He was chewing on a rubber ring and he'd dropped it on the table, causing him to cry. Kale smiled and picked it up, handing it back to him to chew on.
"Thank you," she said.
"No problem," Kale murmured. "I guess I just wanted to know if I could help her in anyway . . . You know, to make the healing of her wrist any easier. I mean, she's in most of my classes at school and I know she's probably screwed over for the rest of spring break, but I want to help in anyway I can."
Something inside was telling Kale not to actually do anything for her, partially because she prevented his death but also because hurting her had ultimately hurt him. He didn't want to put her -- or anyone else -- through that, again.
"I don't know, really . . . I mean, Elliot likes to draw a lot and play the guitar, but she's not really in any kind of after school activities or sports. She's got some college packing to do, which you might be able to help her with if she lets you. She wouldn't let anyone in the house help her, but I'm assuming that's because of Thomas," she smiled down at her son in her arms.
"When did you have him?" Kale asked, picking up the ring and handing it to him, again.
"He's almost nine months old, now. You didn't know?" She asked, furrowing her eyebrows together.
"No, I mean . . . I haven't talked with her in a long time. We used to text and call on the phone sometimes. We stopped hanging out around two summers ago when she stopped coming down to the skate park, I guess . . . She was worried about college before Junior year and I was still wrapped in my group of friends," Kale explained, thinking back to the last conversation they'd had.
"So, you were the guy she talked to? I'm a little disappointed you stopped, then. She was always so happy when you would call and text her," Jessica smiled, causing Kale to nod in wonder and surprise. "Oh, I guess you didn't know that either."
"No, I didn't . . . " He slowly said, watching Thomas gnaw on the rubber ring.
Just then Kale's phone vibrated in his pocket. Sighing, he excused himself to look at it, surprised at the name that appeared on the screen. He'd never changed it; he actually thought he'd lost it before when they stopped talking.
"Hold on; Elliot just texted me . . . " Kale slowly stated.
"Well, speak of the devil," Jessica smiled. He nodded, reading the message to himself.
What, did you run off with my mom? Get your ass back up here, he smiled at the words and shook his head. Looking up at Jessica, she smiled back.
"Go; I'm going to get something to eat. It's been a long day," she explained.
"That's right; you're a nurse here . . . I forgot about that," Kale said, standing and bending over to kiss Thomas' head. He giggled and hit him in the eye with the rubber ring, causing Kale to shake his head slightly.
As he walked away, he pulled out his phone and tapped the reply button. Then, he texted her back: You're so demanding, El. I'm coming, you pain in my ass.
She texted back almost immediately, Good, because I need a foot rub. Hurry up; you owe me.
Sighing, Kale shoved his phone back into his pocket and spoke to himself, "I do owe you . . . my life. I owe you my life."