Blurred Lines

Chapter Six

"Do you know what happened?" I asked, looking up at the window we walked past. In the glass reflection, my red and puffy eyes were obvious. I looked like a wreck.

Dad shook his head and stuffed his fists into his front pockets. "I don't know. One second she was fine and the next," he paused. "The next she just wasn't."

We took the elevator down and kept wandering around the hallways aimlessly. Stopping by the bathroom, Dad excused himself to use the restroom and I waited outside the doors, watching people rush back and forth. An old man walked out of a hospital room with an old woman and began to walk down the hall, passing a woman with dark hair not too far away from me.

"Yes, I'm his girlfriend. I came as quick as I could but I was on a business trip," she explained. The woman faced away from me, but I could see the doctor that she was talking to.

I looked away down the hall at some other nurses chatting, trying not to be nosy. But her voice was so high pitched, it was impossible to not listen in on their conversation.

"What happened?" She whined, looking back and forth between the doctor and the patient in the room next to her. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the police officer standing stoically next to the barely conscious man lying in the hospital bed next to him.

"There was a car accident," replied the doctor. He lifted his clipboard to look at his notes and my pulse kept tripping at the possibility of a connection. But there was no way, it was too much of a coincidence.

"Yes, I know that," the woman snapped. "This morning. I mean, what happened to him?"

This morning. My heart started to beat a little faster and I couldn't help but stare.

"Ma'am, your boyfriend was driving under the influence and got into a car accident with another driver." He paused and the woman gasped, snapping her head to look through the window at the man. "He has a broken leg, sternum, and lots of bruising, but surgery went well and we are keeping an eye on him."

Too much of a coincidence.

She sniffled. "Can I go see him now?"

The doctor stepped back and nodded as the woman rushed through the door and out of my view. I swallowed and took a couple of steps forward towards their room. My mind was racing as I tried to focus on my feet, one movement at a time. I felt like a tornado was blowing through me, ripping up my thoughts and tossing them into the air. My head was spinning and I desperately wished there wasn't a connection, but deep down I knew there was.

"Excuse me?" My voice came out raspy, but the doctor still looked over in my direction from his spot at the computer. "Did you say that he was in a car accident? This morning?"

"Yes, I-" He stopped himself and frowned. "Are you friends or family of Dave Harvey?"

"Um, no," I stuttered. Dave Harvey. His name was Dave Harvey.

He pursed his lips and looked around me, searching for a guardian I presumed. "Why don't you keep moving along." It was less of a suggestion and more of a command. "Mr. Harvey is only requesting essential visitors at this time."

I nodded slow, as if my neck was made of honey, and began to walk away. The police officer watched our interaction, his hands remaining calmly clasped together but his beady eyes remained observant.

"Blair!" Dad rushed up behind me and touched my shoulder, making me jump. "I couldn't find you at first, I thought you were going to wait for me." He looked back at the patient room I was just in front of, his eyebrows furrowing with confusion. "What were you doing? Who was that?"

It was a conscious effort to peel my eyes away from the blank wall and look at my dad, I still felt like I was stumbling through a foggy haze. "I think that is the man who hit mom's car."

"What?" Dad paled and grabbed my elbow, dragging me over to the wall. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me," I whispered. "His name is Dave Harvey and he got into a bad car accident this morning because he was driving under the influence."

Dad's jaw twitched as he grinded his teeth together and looked back at the patient room. The officer's eyes narrowed at us, but we ignored his glare.

I stared blankly at the woman with the black hair who was holding Dave's hand and planting kisses on his forehead. She wiped tears from her cheeks and they smiled at each other.

"Unbelievable," I muttered. "I wonder if that woman knows that her irresponsible boyfriend sent an innocent person to the emergency room this morning."

****

It was a shorter chapter today, but I hope you enjoyed it!

- Payton