I quickly look away, following Olli to the back of the ambulance. Vince and I both fail not to hover while the EMTs take Olli's vitals, measure his blood alcohol, and examine his pupils and reflexes.
“We cannot rule out anything right now. You could be concussed or have inhaled water. We need to take you to the hospital.”
“What? No, I'm fine! Totally fine!” Olli protests, shaking his head. “I just want to go home. This night's been terrible enough. I'mdone.” He tries to untangle himself from the stretcher he's been loaded onto, but the non-baseball-cap EMT puts his hands on his shoulders, pressing him back down.
“You could have fluid in your lungs. If untreated, you might suffocate hours later. It's called dry drowning.”
“Iknowthat. I’m a med student!”
“Exactly!” Vince jumps in, staring Olli down. “So don't be difficult now.”
“I just…can someone come with me?” From one moment to the next, Olli deflates.
“Only one,” baseball-cap EMT says, looking us over.
I turn to Vince and Sasha.
Vince shifts on his feet, then gives me a quick nudge. “Go, we’ll swing by the Nook and then come and get you.”
I nod and climb into the back of the ambulance, squeezing in next to Olli’s stretcher and the EMT. Before I can call out aSee you later, the heavy metal doors slam shut.
Linden, August 14th
Although it’s the middle of the night, the hospital is busy. Once we’re inside, the fluorescent lights erase the time of day, the bustle of the nurses and doctors seeping into the atmosphere, infectious. I’m glad the EMTs are marching ahead, allowing us to bypass the waiting area and get right into the ER, where they flag down two nurses and report their findings with practiced ease.
To them, this is routine. To Olli and me, it’s a nightmare.Around us, the EMTs and nurses are talking about what to do, someone steps away; another person joins the chaotic group. All their talking blurs together into a buzz. We finally come to a stop.Curtains are drawn closed, shutting out at least some of the chaos, but they stay busy, taking blood and measurements with such skilled ease that my eyes can barely keep up.
Before I register all of it, they’re done.
I wonder if I’ll ever get to that same level of practice where all this is just another day at work. Even if I’ll be handling animalpatients, which might make some aspects easier and others harder.
By the end of the examination, Olli is clean and dressed in a gown that opens at the back, sitting on a hospital bed. His eye has swollen completely shut, but at least his nose and lip have stopped bleeding and got patched up.
In the harsh lighting, he looks worse than in the darkness of the beach.
“We’ll be back once we have the results,” the nurse with the round glasses promises after the doctors have left, then closes the curtains behind her, leaving only Olli and me behind.
Still, we can hear a lot of the noises from just behind it, especially whenever there's another gurney wheeled past. Quiet conversations melt into an irregular melody, underlined by the off-beat beeping of dozens of machines.
It makes me even more conscious of the quiet growing between us. I fidget, trying to find something to focus on, but in the end, I speak up after all, even if I don’t know where to even begin. “Are…did you…why did you go?”
“Why do you think?” Olli gives a short huff that might have been a laugh but turns into a pained groan halfway through.
“Did…uhm, did you…talk? To Davenport I mean.”
“No. No, there wasn't anytalking.”
I raise my brows at him, but Olli stubbornly refuses to look up, so I give up with a sigh.
“Olli, I know you’re hurt, but—”
“Hurt? He’s prancing around, pretending he’s fucking a different girl every night with hisbro, the one time he agrees to go out in public with me, that asshole buys out an entire restaurant so no one couldpossiblysee us together, and I’m dumb enough to put up with that shit for a wholeyear, only sohecan dumpme? Fucking right I’mhurt.”
“I-I'm sorry. I didn't—”
Olli takes a rattling breath, then curls forward, drawing up his knees to brace against them. “I just wanted to”—his voice breaks, and he angrily wipes at his face, hissing when he accidentally touches his fresh injuries—“hurt him too.”
“That's—”
