"F!": My Grungey Seattle Adventure (With My Besty and With Mudhoney)

9: 'Good Enough'

3:46

REX

I'm now reaching for the third donut, devastated. Holly's not coming. I can't even be angry at her anymore, because now it feels like I did something to make her not want to see me. Screw this; I don't even want to see her anymore. She doesn't deserve to have me as a friend. She doesn't deserve me buying her donuts. She doesn't deserve to taste the heaven in this Boston creme.

The people around me are starting to give me peculiar looks, which I understand. I mean, I've been sitting here by myself for ten minutes now, eating from a half-dozen box of donuts, waiting on a friend who ditched me for an undisclosed reason. I hope it's not an emergency -- she didn't make it sound that way, though. I hope it's not an adventure, either. She very well could be going on an adventure right now, without me. 

In avoidance of the judgmental looks bombarding me inside, I leave the shop to sit in my car and wallow in my own self-pity. My phone rings a moment after I take a seat behind the wheel. The caller ID seems to be blocked, so I wonder who would be calling me at this time, if not Holly.

"Hi..." a familiar voice croaks.

It is Holly! She sounds distressed. Now for her to tell me everything that happened, whatever the hell it all was. I try to keep the mood light by saying "Heeeey bestie" through a synthetic grin. "What's goin' on, are you okay?"

"...Are you?" 

"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you okay, though?"

"You just -- you sound unusually cheerful."

"I'm asking you if you're okay. What the fuck happened, man? Why are you so fuckin' late?"

Holly chuckles. "Now you sound more like yourself. I'm okay, I just..." She sighs.

I'm prepared for a long venting session. She'll cry about how she was so scared to see me and how she had a panic attack in her car and almost got into an accident... and I'll be like, 'it's okay, Holly, I saved you three donuts... no, actually two. Let's just go home!' and she'll be like, 'Rex I never told you but the real reason I came is because I want to move to Seattle.' And I'll be all, 'why?' and she'll be like, 'I want to get the band back together!' And I'll be like, 'you read my fucking mind.' And we'll jam, get a bunch of new songs together, and-

"So, I'm at Harborview..." she begins. "...uh, Medical Center." she says it like it's a question.

"Oh my God, are you okay?!"

"Yes, I'm fine! I'm fine. I'm here because..." she sighs in frustration. "I don't know how to explain this to you-"

"Just start from the beginning. When you texted me. What happened then?" 

"Okay. Please don't be mad at me for this. I... you know Matt Lukin?"

"Matt Lukin? As in... 'I've got a spot at Lukin's'?" I sing.

"Yeah."

What does he have to do with this? "How--"

"I saw him on my way up here."

"No way."

"Way. So he was being an asshole to me on the highway, and I decided I'd follow him just for a bit, which led me to Pike Place Market. Next thing I know he's laying on the ground outside, unconscious and I'm calling him an ambulance."

WHAT the hell did I just hear. "Dude, I-I'm sorry, I guess I... I'm glad you followed him."

Holly sighs. "Me too, man. So yeah, the paramedic let me ride in the ambulance, and there's so many COVID patients getting emergency care there, so many ambulances coming in, that they're still parked outside waiting to get into the building."

"Who's parked outside? Wait, what?"

"The ambulance. The one that Lukin's in. They're just out there, waiting to get in, blocked up by like four other emergency vehicles."

"Oh, okay. Dang... okay, so where are you now?"

"Uh, I'm in the lobby of the Emergency Department."

"Inside the hospital?"

"Yeah. They let me leave the ambulance, so I went inside and asked to use their phone because... I left mine in the car," she sighs.

"Ohhh, okay, that's why -- yeah. Your caller ID wasn't showing up on my phone, so I was all confused... where's your car?"

Holly sighs again. "At Pike Place."

"Okay, I'll come and get you. You can get your car and we'll drive home."

"Okay," Holly says, sounding relieved. "Thank you so much, Rex, I'm so sorry about all this."

"No problem; see ya later. Bye, bestie."

"Bye."

"Bye."

I hang up the phone and sigh heavily. I guess I'm going to Harborview!