I’d tried to stay gone as much as possible during those weeks. I’d taken up studying at the college library and picked up every possible shift I could get at work. I just hadn’t been able to stay in that apartment. Life had gone on for my family upstairs. And every time I had been forced to listen to them talking or laughing, it’d shredded me.
Late one night, I heard a loud commotion upstairs. I assumed that it was Flint and Quarry arguing or Till wrestling with them. Any other day, I would have been up there before the first shout. But at that point, I had lost them all.
“Quarry, stop!” Till yelled before the door slammed.
Feet pounded down the stairs, and the wall shook with the sound of glass shattering.
I glanced out my window for long enough to see Quarry sprinting away. He stopped at the end of the sidewalk as if it were the edge of the Earth. He looked to the left, then the right, and then crumbled to the ground.
I raced outside after him, completely unsure what the hell was going on but still positive I needed to help.
“Quarry!” I called, rushing toward him. “What’s going on? Are you okay?” I squatted down and scanned his body for any possible injury. But only his tear-stained cheeks seemed to be worse for wear.
He didn’t say a word as he turned and threw his arms around my neck. He was nearly the same size I was, and I struggled to remain my upright. It was pure force of will that I didn’t topple over.
“What’s wrong?” I turned to gain better traction, but if the shake of my knees the moment I met Till’s devastated eyes were any indication, the ground had fallen away completely.
He stood on the upstairs breezeway staring down at us, his hand furiously rolling his bottom lip.
“What?” I mouthed up at him while holding Quarry tight in my arms.
It was such a simple gesture that it should have confused me, but my heart dropped to my stomach the second he lifted a finger and tapped his ear.
Oh, God. Quarry was going deaf too.
I helplessly watched her holding him. I wasn’t sure if Quarry was crying, but I knew with absolute certainty that salty tears were flowing from Eliza’s eyes. Right then, as they were wrapped comfortingly in each other’s arms, I wasn’t sure which of them I was more jealous of. I made my way down the stairs, stopping just before I reached them. What the hell would I even say? So, like a coward, I backed against the wall out of sight.
“Hey. You want to go somewhere with me?” Eliza asked Quarry.
“Where?” he replied brokenly.
“Just come on.”
I wanted the best vantage point to see how she was going to handle this. I had failed earlier as I’d tried to work the results of the genetic testing into a casual conversation. I hadn’t known what else to do though. Eliza usually would have helped me with something like that. She would have known exactly how to tell Quarry that he going to go deaf and warmly assure Flint that he wasn’t.
I quickly jogged back up the stairs, fully expecting her to take him back to her apartment, but Eliza surprised me as she guided him around the side of the building.
I leaned over the railing and watched her stop at the edge of the flowerbed.
“Welcome to purgatory.”
“Um. Purga-what?”
“Purgatory. You know . . . the suffering point halfway between heaven”—she pointed to her window then out into the space in front of them—“and hell.”
“Till made this up, didn’t he?”
Eliza laughed. “What gave it away?”
“No one else is weird enough to consider your window heaven.”
“This is true,” she softly giggled.
I bit my lip and shook my head to keep from joining her.
“Come on. Sit down,” she told him. “In purgatory, you can cuss as much as you want.”
I lost them as they sat, and their voices became muffled from my position in the breezeway. I quietly snuck down the stairs and settled on the cold concrete beside Eliza’s front door—only a corner divided me from joining them.
“I don’t want to know that I’m not going to be able to hear one day. It’s not fucking fair! Why did he have to tell me? He’s such a dick!” Quarry shouted.
“So, you’re pissed at Till for telling you?”
“Damn right!”
“Q, he didn’t have a choice. You’re going to have doctor’s appointments and treatments and all that stuff. Was he supposed to lie you? This is kinda need-to-know information.”
“No! I don’t know. Maybe.”
“He’s not going to lie to you. And I know for a fact you wouldn’t want that.”
“You don’t fucking know what I want!” he yelled, but then they fell silent. A few seconds later, his voice returned on a whine. “Eliza, I don’t want to go deaf.”
It broke me. I didn’t want that either. I should have been the only one. I’d gladly bear that burden alone.
“I know. It fucking blows!” She exaggerated the curse for his benefit.
I was sure his eyes lit and hers watered.
“But it’s not Till’s fault. He loves you, Q. I know the old ‘misery loves company’ saying, but I can guarantee that he would way rather face this on his own.”
Fucking mind reader.
God, I missed her.
God, I loved her.