I nod, thinking the less I talk, the faster it will be. Just then, the curtain jerks open and I see my dad standing there. He’s got on an old T-shirt, faded sweats, and his eyes are red like he’s been crying. He must have gotten woken up out of bed to come here.
“Dad,” I say softly, and there’s a crack in my voice.
“Lo.” He rushes to my side and holds my face as he looks me over. “Are you okay?” He turns to look at the doctor. “Why is my son strapped down?”
“He was attempting to run out of the room before we had a chance to fix him up,” the doctor answers without looking up. “He was a danger to himself at the time, but I believe he’s calm enough now to undo them.”
He loosens the straps and then hits a button for the bed to sit up so that he can adjust the sling and put it in place.
“Son, what happened?”
“Celeste, I need to get to her,” I say, ignoring his question.
“Okay, I’ll take you to her just as soon as they’re finished. What are your injuries?”
The doctor tells him about the cut and my three fractures. As my dad listens, his hand finds mine and squeezes. When he hears the part about being in a sling with minimum mobility for eight weeks, he looks at me, and his eyes are so sad.
“That’s the end of rowing this season,” he says with finality. There’s no disappointment, just regret that he has to be the one to tell me.
It’s strange because a few months ago I would have thought my world was ending, but now it wasn’t even my first—or tenth—thought since the accident.
“It doesn’t matter,” he says, reading my thoughts. “All that matters is that you and Celeste are okay.” He turns to the nurse. “Can you please bring him a wheelchair?”
“Dad, I'm okay, I can walk.”
“You’re my baby boy, and you’ve just been in a horrible car accident that could have taken you from me. If I say you’re getting in a wheelchair, you’re getting in a goddamn wheelchair.”
The nurse ducks her chin as she hides her smile and then turns to leave through the curtains.
“Okay,” I agree, seeing that going along with this is going to make it go faster.
“I love you so much, Lo.” He leans down and places a kiss on my forehead. “I can’t lose you.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” I reach up with my good arm and hug him close.
There are a lot of things we need to talk about, but seeing him like this reminds me that I’m always first for him. That comes with tangled strings every now and then, but at the end of the day, he’s always in my corner.
Once my arm is wrapped, and they’ve gotten me into a sling, the nurse comes in with the wheelchair. “I’ll take you to her,” she says, and my dad helps me off the bed and into the seat.
We have to take an elevator up a level to where Celeste is being treated. When the doors open, I see her floor is marked Trauma. My stomach twists as she pushes us to the second door on the right, and I see my love in the hospital bed.
“Celeste.” I jump out of the chair before anyone can stop me and go to her side.
“Apollo,” she cries and reaches for me. “I was so scared. When I woke up in the hospital and you were gone, oh god, I thought—”
“Shh, I’m here. I’m right here, beautiful.” On the other side of her bed is her mom, and she wipes away the tears on her cheeks.
“Who is her doctor?” I hear my dad ask, and I turn around to see him talking to Celeste’s mom. She says something, and my dad shakes his head. “No, I’ll take care of it.” Just then, another nurse walks in the room, and my dad takes out his cell. “I want Dr. Yadkin on this, he’s the number one brain surgeon in the country.”
“Rory, it’s not necess—”
He cuts Anna off by holding his hand up. “She’ll have the best. End of discussion.” Someone must answer on the other end of the phone, because he starts barking orders. “Yes, get him here right away.” Then there’s a pause. “Doesn’t matter what it costs, you get him here within the hour or I’ll have this hospital turned into a gas station.”
When he hangs up the phone he comes to the other side of Celeste. He’s quiet as he gently takes her hand. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Thank you,” she answers softly before she turns to face me. “Your arm,” she says as she just now notices. “What happened?”
“Nothing, just a few bumps and bruises. I’ll be fine.”
“The doctor on call said Celeste had a grade three concussion and they want to rule out brain injury.” My dad moves to stand beside Anna, and for a moment she looks at him before she bursts into tears and falls into his arms.
“It’s going to be all right,” he says to Anna and then looks at me. The soft smile he gives me lets me know that he will make damn sure everything will be by the time he’s finished with it.
“Hey,” I say to Celeste and brush my thumb over her cheek. “I love you.”
She smiles and reaches up to touch my cheek the same way. “I love you too.”
Chapter Seven
Celeste
I stretch slowly as I start to wake up. I can see the sun peeking through the dark, heavy drapes that Apollo closed. I’m pretty sure his plan is to block out the rest of the world. He kidnapped me and brought me back to his bedroom, and I don’t think I’ve left this room since I was released from the hospital a few weeks ago.
He’s still carting around a load of guilt on his shoulders, and I hate that he is putting any of this on himself. It was an accident. If anything he’d been superhuman that night. All the nurses playfully teased me about his antics when he first got to the hospital. He was bleeding everywhere but on a mission to find me. I love that man. He did everything he could and more.
Most of the bruises and cuts have faded by now. It helps that Rory had some crazy expensive plastic surgeon that showed up using state-of-the-art lasers on me. Apollo’s dad wouldn’t settle for anything but the best. I know he’s doing it for Apollo’s sake, and as much as he and I don’t gel, I do respect how much he loves his son. So much so that he knew helping me would in return help Apollo.
“You’re awake.” Apollo stands from his desk and shuts his laptop before coming over to the side of the bed to sit next to me. I slip my hand up his shirt, wanting to touch his warm skin.
“Are you over there doing my homework again?” I tease, but he only shrugs.
His arm is still in a brace, but he’s able to take it off and on. If anything, he’s having more lasting effects than I am. There were a few days I had double vision and a killer headache, but that has passed. So have all the muscle aches from having been thrown around inside of a car. We were both lucky because they said the other car that hit us was going fifty miles an hour.
“Are you hungry?” He brushes a strand of hair out of my face.
“Not really.” I let out a yawn and wiggle to sit up. I don’t know why he even asked. Either way he’s going to try and get me to eat something.