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Breath escapes me. If it weren’t for Jules pulling me along, I probably would’ve stopped right where I was. Instead, we run toward one of the gated entrances to the field as shouts rise up and radios go off. Jules claws at the lock that will get us onto the field.
“What are you doing?” the guy standing on the other side of the field asks. He’s wearing a windbreaker and looks somewhat official. “You can’t come in here.”
“That’s her boyfriend out there,” Jules says, pointing to the field.
My boyfriend. Reid.
“Is he hurt?” I ask. I’m numb. I feel like my brain can’t make connections. Reid got sacked. Okay, that happens. I heard a crack. The guy ran off the field smirking.
“Get out of the way!” the guy says, pushing at Jules’s hands.
When we turn, the paramedics are right there, coming down the walkway toward this gate in the fence. There are three of them and they have a stretcher.
“Jules,” I say, voice twisted in disbelief.
“We need to get in there,” Jules says, grabbing ahold of one of the paramedics. “That’s her boyfriend.”
He looks from her to me. “Just stand back. There’s nothing you can do right now. I’m sure he’s fine.”
Then, they all turn away, hurrying across the field. The crowd parts for them and I see a cleat. A fucking cleat and that’s it.
Jules takes my hand and then we’re running toward the other side of the field. “Cade!” she screams. “Lex!”
We’re running and running, and it feels like the world is tilting. It feels like I’ve been here before in my head. It feels like if I’d been there when my brother passed out, this is exactly what it would’ve felt like. A great big fear of the unknown.
This is what I was so worried about.
The announcer overhead says, “Reid Parker, down on the field. Of course, we all hope he’s okay.”
We’re on the other side of the field now. The team, everyone, is surrounding our quarterback. “Lex!” Jules screams again.
He turns back. Everyone heard Jules scream. Her nails dig into me as he turns away from Reid and runs toward us. He whips his helmet off halfway and when he gets to the fence, he grips it like he might fall over. “I don’t know what happened,” he says. “I was there. I’m always there.”
“Is he okay?” Jules asks, voice trembling.
I feel like I’m going to throw up. I feel like everything is bunching in my head together, like it’s a beehive buzzing and buzzing, but I can’t make sense out of any of it.
“I don’t know,” Lex says. He finally finds my face. “I heard—” He shakes his head. “It’s not good.”
I try to breathe, but I can’t suck in air.
Reid’s hurt.
Brady’s dead.
“I’ll find out,” Lex says. “I’ll come back.” He jogs away backward. “I’ll be back,” he promises.
He can say that, but can he really promise that? No one can really make any promises about anything. We’re all just spewing lies when we promise shit. I know that now. I finally get it.
29
Idon’t stay to watch the rest of the game. We know nothing as Jules and I get in the car to follow the ambulance to the hospital. Lex and Cade stayed behind to finish out the game, our back-up QB going in who has hardly ever played any minutes in his whole entire career at Spring Hill.
I don’t know why the hell I’m thinking about that. I should be thinking about Reid, wondering how he’s doing. It’s almost like I’m too scared to know.
When we get to the hospital, the staff won’t tell us anything because we’re not family. Though, they have told us that Reid’s family has been called. We wait in the waiting room, each of us holding onto the other, though it’s almost as if I’m watching from outside of my body. This isn’t really happening. I can feel Jules’s pain. Hell, I can even hear it. She’s sniffling beside me. But although our hands are clenched together tightly, I still feel numb. I realize that this isn’t healthy. Something’s not right with me right now. I should be breaking down like Jules, especially since Reid is my boyfriend.
Holy fucking shit. Reid is my boyfriend. I—I love him. And he’s in the emergency room right now, and I have no idea what’s going on.