“You have the game tomorrow and all.”
“Yeah.”
He gets up and starts to walk away, but then he turns around and says to me what he said that day, “It was supposed to be the start of our forever.”
And instead of saying the stupid thing I did back then—That was summer, Chase. Everything was perfect there. This is real life—I say, “Who knows, Chase? Maybe it will turn out to be something better than you even imagined.”
A bad feeling.
Chase
I go home.
Lie on my bed.
Stare at the ceiling.
It’s only nine o’clock, but I feel thoroughly exhausted.
Worn out emotionally.
And possibly a little tipsy.
But I can’t sleep.
So I focus on hydrating myself for tomorrow’s game and try to watch the game film I had started before Dani interrupted me.
At about twelve thirty, I pad quietly down the stairs in search of a snack, only to find my dad sitting at the kitchen counter.
“Do you know where your sister is?” he asks me, his face full of worry. “She’s not answering her phone. And it’s way past curfew.”
“Where’s she supposed to be?”
“Out with Pace. I thought they were going to a movie. Called his dad. Pace isn’t home either.”
I run upstairs, grab my phone, and call Damon. I don’t know if it’s from watching the video tonight, but I have a bad feeling about all this.
Damon answers, sounding like he’s been asleep.
“Do you know where Pace and Haley were going tonight?”
“Uh, no. Why?”
“She’s not home. Neither of them is answering their phone. It’s late.”
“Oh shit. You sure they aren’t at his house? Um, like maybe in his room?”
“His dad said he wasn’t home. I’m assuming he checked.”
“Yeah, I’m coming over.”
I run downstairs. “Damon doesn’t know. Did Pace’s dad, like, double-check his room?”
“Yes. Plus, his car isn’t home.”
Just as Damon rushes in the front door, Dad’s phone rings.
And based on the way the color immediately drains from his face, I know it’s not good news.
“Go wake up your mom,” he says as he scribbles down notes.
I run to my mom’s room in a flat-out panic, afraid my sister is dead.
“Mom, wake up,” I say, shaking her shoulder. “It’s Haley.”
Mom’s eyes fly open. “I just had a dream about her. Oh my God.” She jumps out of bed, runs into her closet, and comes back out in jeans with her pajama top on.
“Damon,” she says, “will you stay here with the kids?”
“Uh, sure,” he says to her, his eyes big.
“How do you know—” I ask, my hands shaking.
“I don’t know. I just do,” Mom says.
“Pace and Haley were involved in a car accident,” Dad says when he sees her. “She’s having emergency surgery. I don’t know much else. We need to get to the hospital.”
“Let’s go,” Mom says. “Chase, you come with us. Grab a phone charger.”
We’re just pulling out of the garage when Dani knocks on the driver’s window and scares the shit out of all of us. Dad rolls his window down.
“I’m coming, too,” she says. “So is Damon. He’s on his way out. Jennifer is going to stay at your house.”
Dad hits the unlock button, and Damon jumps in the back with me, followed by Dani. We’re still getting buckled up when Dad barrels out of the driveway.
He drives fast but not too fast. None of us really says anything, but Damon is on his phone. I can see that he’s already texted Pace’s parents and that they were just called by the hospital as well.
My mom is braiding and unbraiding her hair and seems to be repeating some kind of mantra. I lean forward, closer, and hear, “Please let them be okay. Please let them be okay. Please let them be okay.”
Dani reaches across her brother’s lap and grabs my hand, squeezing it tightly.
Damon puts his hand on top of both of ours, tears filling his eyes, and says, “My Hay Girl needs to be okay.”
His phone dings with a text. He reads it, turns the phone upside down so he doesn’t have to read it again, and looks up to the ceiling of the car.
He takes a deep breath, trying to hold back his emotions. “Pace is in bad shape. His mom isn’t sure.”
“Are they at the hospital already?” my mom asks him.
“On their way. Pace’s dad is on staff there. I think someone called him and possibly gave him more info.”
“Oh my gosh, no,” my mom says from the front seat.
And I see why.
There are red and blue flashing lights everywhere ahead of us.
Dad grabs her hand, holding it tightly.
“Close your eyes, kids,” Dad says. “I have a feeling this might be the scene of the accident.”
Damon and Dani do as told, tightly shutting theirs.
I can’t.
I have to see it. I reach up and touch my mom’s shoulder.
She turns to me and whispers, “It looks like a similar crash to what you and I were in. Wide intersection. Based on the damage to the cars, one car was going straight while the other car turned.”
“Which car were we in?” I ask her.
“The one that turned.”
“Is that what happened to them, you think? Pace’s driver’s door is smashed completely in.”
“Yeah,” Mom says breathlessly.
“And we were okay, so that’s good, right?”
“I sure hope so.”
“And what about the person who hit us? I don’t think you ever told me. Were they hurt at all?”
“Uh, well,” Mom starts to say, but then she starts sobbing.
I squeeze her shoulder again in comfort, which only seems to make it worse.
“The person who hit your mom died at the scene, Chase,” Dad says. “But we know that didn’t happen to Pace or Haley, or they wouldn’t be in surgery.”
We get to the hospital and rush into the emergency room, where we are basically told to sit and wait. Mom has to sign a bunch of papers. Dad paces but never really takes his eyes off Mom. Pace’s parents arrive shortly after we do.
And finally, a nurse comes out.
“Phillip, Jadyn,” Pace’s dad says, “are you okay with her discussing both the kids’ injuries in front of us all?”
“Yes,” my mom says.
“As are we,” Pace’s mom says.
I can tell she’s been crying. And I can’t blame her.
Damon, Dani, and I haven’t really said much, but the three of us have been sitting in the waiting room in the same position we were in the car. Damon in the middle. Dani on his left. Me on his right. And one of each of our hands is stacked on top of each other, resting on Damon’s knee.
“I can only speak to your children’s condition when they came in through our emergency department.” She checks a chart. “Haley Mackenzie was with us for just six minutes. She had an open fracture of the left leg, complicated by an arterial lesion. She was conscious and stable when taken to surgery. EMTs indicated that she was riding in the passenger seat, wearing her seat belt.