Chapter two hundred and twenty-five:
Zac climbed out of bed early in the afternoon. He was sure Becky
had been in his bed earlier, but when he woke, she was gone.
Thinking nothing of it, he marched off to the shower, and took his
sweet time. He sang loudly assuming everyone in the house was already awake. He
shaved and changed into a clean pair of jeans and t-shirt. On his way to the kitchen,
he peeked into the girls room to find the beds neatly
made and not a trace of Becky.
He wandered down to the kitchen and still found no trace of her.
Assuming she was somewhere else in the house, he simply opened the fridge and
searched around for something to eat.
He found a half empty box of Chinese food and eagerly removed it.
He popped it in the microwave and before he could set the time,
the phone rang.
He waited two rings to see if someone else answered. Zac shrugged
and assumed no one else was home and reached for the phone. “Hello?”
“Hey, Zac. Are you out of bed yet?”
“Yeah, why?” Zac asked in confusion.
“Can you do me a favor? Becky is down here are
the hospital and I want to know if you’ll come get her. Jen is in
surgery and she’s pretty upset. I think it would be best if she went home for a
couple of hours.”
“Where are you?”
“We’re at the hospital.”
“Jeeze, you steal my girlfriend and take
her halfway across town?” Zac joked.
“Hey, she was here when I got here. I thought you dropped her
off.”
Zac sighed to himself and decided to let it slip. She knew the
risks of being out alone, but with her best friend sick, she was under duress.
And he knew that.
“Zac? Zac!”
“I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.” Zac replied.
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“Luke, will you sit down already? Wearing a hole in the floor
isn’t going to solve anything.”
Luke sighed and stood in place. “I know… does it usually take this
long? I mean, what if something has happened?”
“They’re professionals, Luke. They know what they’re doing. If
this wasn’t normal, someone would have told us.”
Luke nodded. ‘You’re right.”
“You’re a mess.”
“I know… I… I’m crazy about her. I mean, I knew the second I met her
that I loved her. Being broken up for even those short couple of months nearly
killed me, I don’t know if I can handle it if…”
“Don’t think about that.”
“I won’t be. I’ve got to stay here and go to school… I won’t see
her again until Christmas.”
Luke sighed and sat back in his chair. “I know… I hate seeing her
like this… and I just… I hate myself for not realizing this before. I mean,
look at her. How stupid do you have to be to not know something is wrong?”
“Luke, none of us saw it. It’s not like she stopped eating. No one
thought anything of her going to the bathroom after; we didn’t know she was
throwing up. Becky didn’t know, and neither did I and we see her every day.”
“I know. I just… god, I wish I could have done something. I feel
like if I had known, I could have stopped it before it got this far…”
The doctor walked into the waiting room and cleared his throat
heavily. He removed his surgical mask, looking stern.
Luke and Taylor both leapt to their feet for the news.
“We caught it just in time.” The doctor said, finally smiling.
“She’s going to be okay.”
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