The Beauty Underneath

Chapter Twenty-Six: Wendy's Story

Simon was the only left in the house. Gina, Josephine and I went to the hospital. Josephine was crying hysterically through her handkerchief. Gina was driving and I was sitting in the passenger’s seat. She was driving quickly and I was pretty sure she’d get a ticket if there were any police around. I didn’t cry but I wasn’t also calm. I don’t know what I’m feeling. It was a mixture of nervousness and horror and anger. He knows he can’t drive, but why did he drive the damn car? Winston was a smart guy – he wouldn’t do anything stupid.

We arrived at St. Augustus’ Hospital. Gina offered to park the car while Josephine and I go inside the hospital. The hospital was really packed, even though it’s already night time. I took the arm of a crying Josephine, and led the way. I know she can’t think straight now. The only family she had for the past years was going through a very difficult war.

“Winston Andrews,” I blurted out at the receptionist. She was a blonde and she looked very tired. She looked like my mother from far away. I tried to ignore that thought. “Where is he?”

She turned to me. “He’s still in the Emergency Room. But he’d be transferred in Room 214 if… if it had gone well.”

“It will go well!” Josephine snapped at the receptionist. I never heard Josephine talk like that to someone.

“Where’s the Emergency Room?” I asked her.

“Turn to the left and that’s the place. I hope he’s going to be well,” she told me.

I smiled slightly. “I-I hope so, too.”

Josephine and I practically ran to the Emergency Room. There were not a lot of people hanging around there. I saw a big white door and on top of that, was ‘Emergency Room’ in big red letters. I was looking for a place to sit down and wait when I suddenly saw Wendy, pacing around.

And everything in me just snapped.

“You!” I growled at her.

She turned around and she whitened. “Erin! I-I’m so sorry— I shouldn’t have—”

But whatever she was going to say was cut off when I slapped her face. I was about to pull her hair too when Josephine took my hand and stopped me. “Stop this, Erin,” she suddenly said coolly.

“But she’s the girl who seduced Winston. If she hasn’t done that, I wouldn’t have been angry. Winston and I wouldn’t have fought and he wouldn’t have been in this stupid hospital!”

“Whatever you want to do won’t wake up Winston. It’s better if you just sit down and calmly talk with this girl,” she advised, her voice soft.

My mouth dropped open. She wants me to talk to her? “No, I’m not going to do that—”

“It is very obvious she wants to tell you something. And you need to listen, Erin.”

I took a deep breath and turned to Wendy. She was biting her lip, and her cheek was still red from where I had slapped her. I sat down on a chair and she sat down beside me. Josephine, meanwhile, took the seat two meters away from us, to give us some privacy.

“Whatever you want to tell me now, you better spit it out,” I told her snippily. “As you can see, I’m not really in the mood to just ‘talk’ right now.”

“I’m really sorry,” Wendy said quietly. “I just want to piss you off so you would leave Drama Club. You don’t know how important that is to me.”

“Why is it so important for you to bring me down? I’m not doing anything wrong. It’s not my fault Mrs. Parker like me better. I didn’t tell her to do so,” I said and sighed. “If you’re just jealous, then you should deal with it on your own. Why do you have to drag Winston and my personal life into this?”