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Hospital.
“Why are we in a hospital?” I asked.
13
elijah
When Austin had called Gage,we quickly found ourselves in possession of twelve bottles of beer, in four different flavors. And we’d had to try them all.
We didn’t get blindingly drunk, not so much I’d forgotten any of what happened, but we were pretty far gone.
And as I watched Austin process the last few hours, and recognition spread across his face, I knew he’d just remembered too.
“Oh.” He pressed a palm to his forehead.
I suspected he was in a bit of pain, between his ankle and everything else. The doctor refused to give him anything stronger than acetaminophen, because he was drunk. “Yeah, oh.” I didn’t know what else to say.
“I’ll grab the doctor.” Kandace stepped from the room.
I should have volunteered to do that. It wasn’t as though I had anything to say to Austin.
We’d decided to go for a walk when we were each about three beers in. The town was quiet that time of night, which gave it a whole new vibe. A peaceful-but-eerie kind of feeling. We’d ended up at the park, where I pushed Kandace on the swings until we were all giggling.
And then I wanted to climb onthe big climby thingy with bars and wood.
Cue the drunken jokes about wood. Kandace had corrected me, and told me it was a jungle gym, which gave Austin an excuse to tease me for not knowing everything after all. He’d also pointed out I couldn’t swing on the horizontal bars very well, because I had a broken thumb.
Didn’t matter. I wanted to go anyway. Now that I was several cups of hospital coffee into sobriety, I could look back on the decision and see what an idiot Drunk Eli was. He’d been convinced that he could impress Kandace that way. That Austin was winning, and I just needed to prove I was big and strong.
Fucking Drunk Eli.
Austin was helpful, though. He held my legs while I swung across the bars. It was going great until I slipped and he slipped and we tumbled down with me landing on top of him. Which was when he snapped his ankle.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
He grinned. “Totally worth it.”
What? “No it wasn’t. You’ve got a broken bone because I was a drunken moron.”
“And it hurts like fuck. But I made my choices. Besides, sometimes you need people looking out for you. You don’t always have to be the strong one.”
Seriously? He was lying in bed, in obvious pain, and he was being cool about it. I couldn’t hate him. I couldn’t forgive him. I felt horrible about what happened regardless of his assurance.
Fuck.
Kandace returned with the doctor, who spent a few minutes checking Austin’s foot and asking a series of questions about pain, mobility, and who would be staying with him for the next two to four weeks, while he needed to keep his weight off his foot.
“I’m from out of town—”
“He’s staying with me.” I talked over Austin. This was my fault, and it was up to me to make it right.
Austin stared at me, and for the first time since he’d walked back into my life, I swore he was completely out of words.
“Great.” The doctor made a few more notes on his tablet, then dropped it in a coat pocket. “We’ll schedule a follow-up for you, to discuss if surgery is needed. And, I’m sorry to ask but my daughter is a huge fan. Could I…?”
“Selfie? Autograph? Of course.” There was Austin again.
While Austin was being discharged, I called an Uber for us. Kandace needed to get her car still, because we’d been too drunk to make the drive ourselves. As we were all seated, Austin tried to get the driver to drop him off at his hotel.
