Free Fall

Chapter Ten

~Erick~

I hung out with Kelsey for the rest of the day. I walked her from class to class to prevent anyone from messing with her and walked her to her car after school, ignoring the gawking looks from our fellow classmates. Just as she was opening her door to climb in, I stopped her.

"Do you want to sit with me at lunch tomorrow?"

She bit her lip. "Only if you visit Kendall with me after your practice today."

My heart stopped. "Do you think we're allowed?"

Kelsey shrugged and gave a sly smile. "I may have worked something out."

I slowly started to grin at her. "You are utterly the best, Kels."

She laughed and got into her car, shutting the door and rolling down the window. "I know. Listen, I'll pick you up here after your practice. Or in the back if that's better-"

"No. You can pick me up here. Stop with that 'you might be embarrassed to be seen with me' crap because I don't care what they think anymore. I'm tired of it. But anyway, I have my car here. I'll meet you at the hospital around six?"

Kelsey smiled and nodded before putting her car in reverse and driving away. I situated my backpack on my back and started towards the locker room.

*

"Alright, ladies, pick up the pace!"

We ran past Coach Hatchback, a whistle dangling from his muscular neck and a SLHS cap hiding his military buzz cut. He was making us run twenty laps along the fence of the baseball field, and we were on lap 13 and I couldn't feel my legs. Austin and some of the other guys who sat at our table ran by me constantly and made snide comments under their breath, but I ignored them and continued jogging.

But I didn't expect Cole to come up from behind the pack and fall in step with me. I looked over at him in shock, but he kept staring ahead. "I don't want to hang out with them anymore, Erick." He finally looked over at me, sweat dripping from his forehead. "You've made me see who I've become, and I don't like it. I tried talking to Austin about it being just the three of us again, but of course he wanted nothing to do with it."

I felt a smile creep to my face. "I am going to hang out with Kelsey Hampshire and some of the guys in my pre-Calc class."

Cole stared at the ground for a few paces before nodding. "Mind if I join?"

I reached over and clapped him on the back. "Of course not, man. Glad to have you back."

*

Cole tagged along with me to the hospital. I was really, really happy that Cole wants to change. I've been his best friend since birth and it didn't feel right for me to just turn my back on him. Same with Austin, but it's obvious he has no desire to change his ways.

The door to Kendall's room was wide open. I poked my head in to see Kelsey sitting at the edge of her bed, her back to us as she said something to Kendall. I knocked softly on the wall and Kelsey turned slightly, waving us in.

I waited for Cole to walk in before shutting the door behind us and walking over to Kendall's bed.

"She-" Kelsey turned to us and gaped at Cole.

"It's okay. He's repented his ways." Cole laughed at me and then turned serious.

"I'm sorry for all I've done to you, Kelsey."

Kelsey gave a shy smile before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Don't worry about it."

I decided to finally look over at Kendall and my heart sank to my toes. She had the cannula in again and her once plush cheeks were now tight against her cheek bones, heavy black bags under her dull blue eyes. She had numerous IV's and tubes in her, and her hands and arms just looked like skin and bone. The rest of her body was covered with a thick blanket. She had all her casts off, stitches out, and the bruising had almost all gone away but it looked as if she dodged one bullet to stand in front of another.

"Kendall..." I said under my breath as Kelsey got out of her chair and moved over to Cole. I slowly sank into it and carefully placed my hand over Kendall's small, freezing one, watching as she slowly opened her eyes and lazily looked over at me. I waited for the heart rate monitor to stutter, as it always did when she saw me, but it didn't. I felt my heart break into even small pieces and I withdrew my hand.

"Where..." I felt my heart race as she struggled to form a sentence, swallowing numerous times before continuing. "Were...you?" The last word came out as a long breath and her heart stuttered many times before smoothing out into an even thump thump, thump thump, thump thump. . .

I bit my lip and looked at the shiny floors. "I can sit here and lie to you but the point is, I had started to give up on you. One of the hardest things in life is deciding whether to give up or try harder. It's easiest to give up. So that's what we do. But your not someone I can give up on, Kendall. I know you might think I sound crazy, and we barely know each other and I already care for you so much, but I don't think I'm crazy. We talked about if you dream big, big dreams happen and that's what is basically happening right now. We talked about a lot of things, really. It's hard to forget about someone who gave you so much to remember."

The room got quiet, and I listened to Kendall's slow heart beat and watched her eyes slowly blink. Cole and Kelsey had left the room, but it wouldn't of made much difference anyway. All I could see was Kendall. Not that that's changed.

The walls started to turn a bright orange and red, then faded to grey before the room became dark. I had just gotten up to leave when the heart rate monitor suddenly flatlined.