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“Sir? Can I help you?”
“Sorry yeah, I'm looking for an Addi Rayon.”
She types on the keyboard quickly, her mass of dark curls bouncing around. “She's in emergency surgery right now. You can wait in the ICU waiting room. She'll be getting a bed there until she's stabilized.”
My heart races. It's that bad? ICU bad?
“Are you okay, sir? There's a water fountain over there if you need a drink.”
I don't answer, just mumble a thank you before taking off in search of the elevators. I spot them around the corner and catch one just in time.
Four floors later, I make my way to the ICU unit and stop by the nurses’ station. “Hi, I was told Addi Rayon is up here in emergency surgery. Is she out yet?”
The blond nurse eyes me suspiciously. “Are you next of kin?”
I shake my head. “No but—”
“Sorry sir, but only next of kin can visit in the ICU. Hospital rules. You can wait in the waiting room if you'd like and next of kin can keep you informed. But you won't be able to see her until she's out of this unit.”
I curse under my breath.
“Cole?”
I turn at the sound of my name to see a woman standing behind me, her eyes red and puffy, her cheeks red. A guy stands next to her and rubs her shoulders. She looks vaguely familiar, and then it dawns on me who she is. It's Leigh. Addi’s friend she's always talking about and the one from the party.
I rush toward her. “Is she okay?”
Leigh shakes her head and begins crying again. My stomach burns, twisting and turning inside. “We ... they … they don't know yet. We'll know more after she's out of surgery.”
“Do you know what happened?”
She cries harder, her boyfriend, I assume, grabbing her some tissues from her bag. “Sorry, sorry,” she mumbles, but I wave her off. “This is Joe, by the way, my boyfriend.”
We shake hands, and he goes back to comforting Leigh. “All I know is that she was hit by a car when walking home.”
I thought I felt sick before. I was wrong.
Nausea rolls through me, the feeling worse hearing what happened the second time.
“Let's go to the waiting room. They'll come get us with any updates.”
I follow Leigh and Joe down the hall a few yards and take a right into a small room with chairs and a TV. The place is empty besides one older man sleeping in the back corner. “Where are Addi’s parents?” I can’t help but ask. “Only next of kin can go back there.”
We take seats next to each other. “I have yet to get in touch with them. Neither has answered my calls. The hospital considers me next of kin for Addi. She has me listed as her sister.”
Hmm, I knew there were ways around it.
I sigh and lean my head in my hands. “I hope we hear something soon.”
Time passes, but to me, it feels as if it's crawling. The clock ticks each second away painfully slow. No news yet, and it's been several hours. I pace back and forth for the fifth time in the past twenty minutes. I'm sure Leigh and Joe are annoyed, but I can't help it. This no news is killing me.
“Addi’s family.” A doctor comes to the door and looks around.
The three of us jump up and rush over. I try to read the doctor’s face, but it doesn't reveal a thing, which only makes my nerves shoot through the roof.
“She's out of surgery, and we are currently working on stabilizing her. The surgery went well. There was no internal bleeding, and we set her broken arm back in place. She does have a few broken ribs and an array of bumps and bruises, so she's going to need to rest and let her body heal. She's lucky, though, because the car was going slow, according to witnesses and a police report. It could've done a lot more damage.”
“Thank you, doc, thank you so much. Can I see her?” Leigh swipes the tears leaking from her eyes.
