“I’m business for now, I guess?” It seemed like the typical student answer this morning, but slightly lackluster telling Sadie.
“They have a good business program here. I’m a double major actually. International Business and Accounting.”
“That’s impressive.”
“Well, a girl needs to learn how to make the deals when running a company, and also make sure no one else is cheating her.”
I looked at her again. Sadie had a presence that was undeniable. It was hard to describe. She was a classic beauty, like her Jackie styled suites. However, it wasn’t just her looks that were striking. I realized why she was living in the honor dorm. Sadie had intelligence and charisma. She would run the world one day while everyone else sat and watched.
“Oh, I almost forgot, sweetie. A really cute guy stopped by looking for you. Dark hair? Blue eyes?”
“Oh…that's Jess.”
“Hmmm…boyfriend?” She hesitated on the last word fishing for information. This would get interesting. I never had to explain our attached at the hip type connection back in Arlis. Everyone just knew.
“No, we grew up together. He’s a…childhood friend.”
“That is one lucky childhood, sweetie.”
“I guess you could say that.”
Her hazel eyes lingered on my last words while her lips pursed into a bow. I think she was trying to see if I was lying. If she only knew, yet that was the cool thing about Austin; no one did know about me.
“So I came back to see if you had arrived. I’m going to the student organization fair. I thought you might like to come?”
“Ok, sure…I’m really not the club joining type, but I don’t mind going.”
“It’s never too early to plot the direction of your life. You need to think about your future from day one and get ahead. Everyone here was first in their class, president of five clubs and nailed the SAT. You have to do something to stand out. I don’t know you, and I have no idea what you plan to do here, but no woman runs her own company by accident. It all comes from purpose made decisions.” Her eyes studied me again.
“So you plan to do that? Own a company?”
“That I do, sweetie. I plan to run my own company, and maybe marry someone who plans on running the country.”
“What?”
“Sorry, I got off on one of my Hillary moments.” She rolled her eyes.
“As in Clinton?”
“Yeah, I tend to be a little obsessed with her at times. She’s a brilliant lady. I find it fascinating to watch the ambition and determination of someone like Hillary Clinton. She knows what she wants and isn't afraid to jump in and take charge.” She finished with a satisfied smile.
“Wow, well I guess lead the way.”
“Great! I’m thinking debate team.”
“Sure?”
I wasn’t use to being around someone who was a tight wound up ball of ambition. In the moment, I pondered if this girl ever had fun or if college was a business plan. It didn’t matter. Fun wasn’t the motivation for me in college anyway. I was here on someone else’s buck and for a very different purpose.
The more Sadie talked, the more I felt sucked into my new chapter in life. She could push me in the right direction. As we got in the elevator, I thought about Jess. Part of me really wanted to call him, but I knew it was time to get used to having a life outside of each other.
Chapter 26
Today, 1:33 a.m.
I wait impatiently, for my father to return. The beauty queen watches me silently from the other side of the room. Lifting up the spoon, I struggle to swallow another bite of chicken noodle soup. I will it to stay in my stomach, knowing the importance of food right now.
My father comes in the door, but says nothing. His jaw clenches as he reaches up to scratch his solid, gray head. I take another bite to show I am eating. Gagging, I force the liquid to go down my throat. His tired eyes watch me in the chair. “I think you should just rest a little longer, Pumpkin.”
“Why? Just get a wheelchair and get me the hell out of this room.”
“You’re still not feeling very well. I…um, think you should just stay here. Try to sleep again.”
“You want me to just go to sleep? No Dad, I need to see Dr. Mason.” He absently slips his eyes toward the beauty queen and then back to me. He wasn’t telling me something. “You have to stop lying to me…you have to stop, Dad. Just take me to see him and then…I’ll lay down again.”
“I’m sorry. He’s not here.”
“What? Where is he?”
“Look. I think…”
“Shut up!”
My words hit my father like arrows. I hoist myself from the chair and stumble out the door. I hear his feet coming up behind me. I cut to the left and through an empty side hallway. I know the passage ways better than him. I find a flight of stairs and make my way down and around a corner.
The waiting room sat empty except for a lone man in the back corner. They were gone; every last one of them. I pound on the desk with my fist. The frizzy-haired woman glances up. She freezes, seeing my face.
“Where’s Dr. Mason.”
“Um, he’s not here, ma’am.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s in Dallas, ma’am.”
Fear cripples me at the ankles. I slide down the side of the counter. My father watches a few steps away. “I’m sorry, Pumpkin.”
“Why are you doing this to me? You know how…how important.”
I rub my raw eyes, feeling the dizziness in my head. It hurts so incredibly bad. Biting down on my lip, I feel the comfort of the sharp pain. I clench tighter and tighter to take away the raw ache inside my chest. The metallic taste of blood coats my tongue.
“I’m just trying to protect you. You are not handling this very well and I just thought being here was better for now.
“Like you can say anything about handling things,” I snarl at him. “I was there, Dad. Remember? I was there. You stopped existing. You stopped and…”
His face twists up in sadness before I could even get the words out. I want to blame everything on him but I knew it would make nothing better. Yelling cruel words made no difference right now.
“Your friend called back.”
“What?” In my fog of misery, I fail to see the beauty queen approach in her silent nurse shoes. She sits down next to me on the floor.
“Your friend. She said her plane should get in around nine in the mornin’. It’s the earliest one she could get out of Chicago.”
“Sadie’s coming here?”
“Yeah.”
“How? I don’t understand.”
“Your dad had me call her.”
Looking up at my sad father, I watch him swallow hard, his Adam’s apple shifting in his throat. He was trying. He was trying so very hard to help me right now because he did know. My father was handling things for me while I could not bear to face this chapter of my life.
“You called Sadie and she’s coming?” I peer back at the beauty queen as she nods yes. “But she had um, she um had the campaign dinner. It was yesterday or today or tomorrow. I don’t know. She’s coming?”
“She was upset about not getting one earlier, but she wants you to know that she’s comin’ into Dallas.”
“I’ll get the truck.” My father mutters in a gruff voice before exiting through the revolving door.
I turn back to the girl sitting next to me, knowing our paths were about to split again as I left the hospital. Her eyes sparkle with tears. “Alex, I’m really sorry.”
Never in a thousand years did I ever think I would receive an ounce of comfort from those shiny lips. She leans over and wraps her small arms around my body. I let myself relax against her warmth, clinging to her as we sit on the floor of the hospital waiting room.
I whisper against her shoulder, “Thank you, Ashley.”
“If you need anythin’…when, um, you get back…maybe…I could do somethin’.”
“That would be nice.” I swallow hard, feeling my tears roll down in Ashley’s pretty hair.
Chapter 27