Something About Sarah

Chapter 16

Benjamin

I walked into the hospital room. Sarah looked so broken in the bed, her foot bandaged. She still managed to look beautiful though, probably without a shower or a decent nights sleep in the past couple days. 

“Hey,” I said. 

“Hi,” she replied back. “Listen, about the other-”

I held my palm up, stopping her. 

“Can I just explai-?”

“Please don’t,” I said, “I just want to be friends.”

“Ok, friends,” she said. I didn't realize how much it would hurt when I said that. And it didn't really help that she agreed so quickly. 

“So, uh, I gotta go see Layla. She said she wanted to see me, so . . .” I trailed off. 

“Oh, ok, see you later. Friend,” she added awkwardly at the end. 

“Bye.” I lied about Layla asking me to come. I realized that I was in there for a total of about a minute and forty seconds. I just wanted to get out of there. But I wouldn’t completely lie to Sarah. I would go to Layla’s place. 

***

“Hey,” I called out as I walked through the door. 

There was no response, so I walked over to the kitchen, where I would always find my Aunt Lucy cooking something. But instead of my aunt, Layla was there. 

“Hey Layla,” I replied. 

She ignored me, and remained hunched over whatever she was doing. 

“Hello,” I called, tapping her on the back repeatedly, trying to bug her so much that she couldn’t ignore me. 

“I’m ignoring you,” she murmured, still immersed in whatever she was doing. 

She finally turned around and started moving beautifully designed cupcakes over to the buffet/island. 

“Nice cupcakes, Layla,” I commented.

“Shut up Ben,” she said, continuing to transfer them. 

“What’s your problem?” I finally shouted, annoyed. 

“Listen. I went to visit Sarah in the hospital and she seemed totally bummed about something. She would normally tell me what was bothering her, but she didn’t, and I wasn’t going to pry. I mean, she’s in the freakin’ hospital with, like, the bleeding equivalent of a broken foot. My reasoning? You’re the only person she’s really been hanging out with, therefore, you’re the cause of her problems. And as her best friend, I have to take her side. Right now, I don’t really care if you are my only cousin.”

“Thanks for the fair judgement,” I deadpanned. 

Angry, I just walked home. And then I realized I left my car at Layla’s. Crap. 

This day was turning out to be a great one. 

***

“Man, Layla is pissed,” Derek called out as he walked inside and sat next to me. 

“And she has no reason,” I mumbled. 

“Don’t worry, this will probably blow over in a day or two.”

“What even happened? You know, except for the whole foot thing,” he asked. 

“It’s a long story,” I mumbled. “So you found her at the beach.”

“Uh, yeah,” he said hesitantly, “Well, she didn’t really need finding. She was screaming so loud, I’m sure people on the other side of the ocean could hear her.”

“Well, she had half of a beer bottle wedged into her foot,” I defended, “What were you doing on the beach anyway?”

“Ok,” he finally said after a little while, “But don’t tell Layla.”