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“Yes, thank you,” his mom adds.
“You don’t owe me a thanks. I should’ve insisted it was a bad idea to split up, gone with him up to that room, and gotten Frat Cat out myself.”
“It sounds like everything happened quickly,” his momsays. “And you both did the best you could. Now we can just hope for the best. Thank you, Ty.”
I tear up because there’s still a part of me that’s worried…that has this deep fear that something terrible is gonna happen.
I can’t imagine they’re free of it either.
After we say our goodbyes, I pull up another number in my phone.
Grant’s.
My hand trembles.
If I ever needed him, it’s now when I’m scared as fuck that the docs are gonna come in and tell me they couldn’t help Lance or that he’s irreparably injured with something he’ll have to live with his whole life because of less than a few minutes of exposure to the smoke.
Grant would have been able to be here for me. Even when things were hard with all he was dealing with, he always had a way of making me smile.
“I wish you were here right now,” I mutter.
Of course, it’s not just to help me because of what’s going on with Lance, but so much that we’ve missed out on.
Tears break free, rolling down my cheeks.
Fuckin’ A.
I push through my uneasiness and call Mom, realizing just how bad it is that I’ve contacted so many people and she’s the last on my list.
“Honey? What’s that on your face? Where are you?”
I have no doubt she recognizes the inside of a hospital room. We’ve seen enough of them.
I hesitate before forcing out, “I’m at Peachtree Springs Medical Center. I’m fine. Mostly. I don’t know. I’m not injured, but my boyfriend is.”
Now’s not the time to ease her into this shit. And she needs to know how important he is to me. How hard this is right now.
It’s difficult to tell if Mom is more shocked by that than she was when she first noticed my face and the hospital room, but I say, “There was a fire at Sigma Alpha tonight, and Lance, the guy you know as the prick president from Alpha Theta Mu…only he’s not a prick…like, not even a little bit…and he’s hurt.”
I tell her what happened, from the fire up until this point, and when I finish, she says, “I’m glad you’re both in the hospital right now. Hopefully they’re doing what they can.”
“We both know there are limits to what they can do,” I snap. “What if something happens? What if he’s seriously injured? What if he’s not gonna be okay?”
She’s quiet.
“You’re not saying anything because you know there’s a chance that could be true.”
“As we’ve seen firsthand, sometimes bad things happen to really good people, Ty. And it’s impossible to know what’s going to happen with any of this.”
Doesn’t help, but she’s right. I swallow the truth with an uncomfortable gulp.
“You know, I get a mammogram every year, and sometimes they find something.”
“What? Why is this suddenly coming up? I don’t need more things to worry about.”
“It’s not unusual, Ty. Sometimes they find a cyst or something they’re concerned about, and I have to get more tests. During all that stuff with Grant, because of all the worry and uncertainty about him, I was paralyzed by it at times, so I wouldn’t mention it to you. Because I didn’t want you to beworried too.”
This breaks my fucking heart. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that alone.”