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While Annalise fills out paperwork and fumbles for her insurance card, Tripp manages to weasel between us, and before I can rectify the situation, the triage nurse leads her to a room behind the desk, Avery following behind. Awkward silence descends, settling amidst the low murmur of the sniffling, hacking crowd waiting for their turn in back.
I prop up the wall near a window. Rather, it props me up. I’m beyond...beyond.
Tripp and I make eye contact. I’m in for it, and it’s going to get ugly. Sighing, I muster a stroll toward the exit and wait on the sidewalk. Might as well get this over with once and for all.
I don’t wait long.
Tripp plants himself a few feet away, lasering me with a scowl that warns the gloves are off.
“You didn’t tell me. You knew she was sick, and you didn’t tell me.”
“She didn’t want me to—”
“I don’t care.”
“Tripp, that night…”
“Tell me about that night.”
“It’s not my story—”
“Tell. Me.” His voice is a rumble of thunder in a Texas spring.
“I went looking for her. I found her in bed—”
Somehow, his affect gets harder.
“I came to tell her I was leaving. I…I knew you wouldn’t want me hanging around.”
A sound, feral an unambiguous, comes from his throat.
“She was burning up with fever and half-delirious. I carried her to my truck and straight to the ER.”
“Did you know…”
I shake my head. “How would I?”
“You’d been shacking up with her for what? Three? Four days?”
“Don’t say it like that.”
He shakes his head. “Whatever. Then what?”
I guess I’m not telling him anything too private, not at this stage of the game. “I was going to call you. I had the phone in my hand, but then a nurse came and got me. They were about to take her into surgery. At that point, I still didn’t know what was wrong. She looked awful, but she pleaded with me not to call you.”
He looks away.
“I wanted to, I did, but she was insistent. Panicked. And then, when she made it out of surgery, I decided to give it ’til morning.”
His face is scrunched and tight. “Let me get this straight. My little sister was at death’s door…unless she’s exaggerating?” He cocks a cheek up.
This time I’m the one who looks away.
“So, I could have lost my only sister…and you didn’t let me know?”
“I was respecting her wishes.”
He cranes his neck back, staring at the sky, but I doubt he’s counting the copious stars. More likely counting to ten before his fists start doing the talking. Finally, he nails me to the hospital bricks with a face that spells out, chapter and verse, the death of a friendship.
