My Stupid Girl Read online

  "I don’t know. Three maybe? I still can’t really feel my toes, but that’s not really painful is it? I mean, if you can’t feel it..." I heard a charming laugh and it pissed me off. As cute as that little line was, I knew if I had tried it I would have gotten flogged with an ear thermometer.

  "You let me know if you need anything, anything at all, okay hun? Just press that little red button and I’ll be right here in a jiff!"

  "Thank you!” I heard Lucy say, all sugar and spice. The curtains opened and shut quickly, spewing Nurse Crankypants back into my side of the room. She looked at me, considering for a moment.

  "If you need me there is a call button right next to you."

  She left the room shaking her head like she was trying to figure something out. Probably how the pair of us made it in here together. I shook my head, too.

  I looked over at the call button that was "right next to me.” I hate those buttons. You have to crawl out of the bed, untangle yourself from the maze of wires, then call a cab to take you over to the freaking thing so you can call a nurse. It's actually easier to just walk around looking for a real human being than to press that thing. Then, when they see you they panic, because instead of a mild beep they can ignore for five minutes, it's some random patient wandering around the ER with fake socks and a butt hanging out for everyone to look at. I contemplated getting up to hit the button a few times, just for kicks.

  Thin fingers interrupted my plan for ER mayhem. Lucy pulled the curtain open. I peeked at her from the corner of my eye without moving my head and knew she’d seen me. I closed my eyes and sighed. I turned my face towards her, hiding my lips behind one of the many hospital blankets and making sure my hair fell in a solid, impenetrable sheet across my eye.

  "I feel really bad," she paused and her big bottom lip went down in a mock frown, "I don't know what your name is, I can’t remember if you told me or not." Her eyebrows went up as her eyes opened even wider. She looked like she was confessing some great sin.

  "That’s ok." I shrugged, acting like it didn’t matter to me that a girl I just saved from a horrific frozen drowning death, not to mention who'd also been a classmate of mine since first grade, didn’t know my name. "I'm David."

  "David!" She squealed. "I like that name. That was my grandfather’s name!" She looked excitedly at me, like me and her grandfather were the only two Davids in the world. Can it be?! Another David?! It’s a miracle!

  "I was named after his wife actually." She didn't seem bothered by the fact that I wasn’t speaking at all. In fact, I was freaking out a little, sitting here in this bed like three feet from her. I wondered if she even noticed. I had a million things going thru my head about this girl. All I knew about her was that she was a part of the popular Christian crowd. Kalispell is a small town with a lot of religion, and all the kids who went to the one big church also tended to stick together at school. They were like a group of double-whammies. They all had money, so they were smug about that, and they all knew they were for sure headed to heaven, so they were smug about that, too. Most people seemed to buy it, but I tried to steer clear.

  This one in particular smiled at everyone and, in turn, people fell at her feet. This made me leery. I didn't want to be another victim in the latest collection of “souls” just because some chick smiled at me. Maybe she was nice, maybe not. I wasn’t incredibly interested in finding out what her motives were for her many random acts of kindness.

  A blond haired woman barreled through the door into the room. Her nose was bright red from crying and her arms were stretched out wide. She passed my bed and went running thru the curtain wall, leaving it wide open. A tall man with red hair and a mustache came in behind her, not quite as wild looking but still moving pretty fast. He had his hands in his pocket and looked like a man who had been relieved of a great burden.

  "Oh, Lucy!" The woman stumbled into Lucy’s arms, practically falling onto the bed.

  "Mom! It’s ok. I'm ok!" Lucy clutched her mom’s neck like she did to mine when I had pulled her out of the water. It was tender and kind. It made me feel uncomfortable. The quiet man walked over and kissed the top of Lucy’s head, letting the mom continue her insanely long hug-fest.

  "I’m so glad you’re ok," he smiled down at her and sat on the other side of the bed. Wow, it was a party. Tonight’s special: frozen teenage girl.

  "I’m okay, Dad." The mom finished the longest hug ever and adjusted herself to a sitting position, beginning to chatter even before the dad was through with his (much shorter) hug.

  "What happened? Scott called me and said you fell into the LAKE? Was this what you had in mind? An afternoon swim? Dragging some poor onlookers in with you? Lucy, you’re supposed to be on the lake not in it!" The dad patted the mom’s hand and the mom cracked a smile. A more mature version of Lucy’s loud laugh escaped from her lips.

  "What can I say? I like to mix things up a bit!" Lucy looked around her mom, in my direction.

  "Mom! Dad! This is David!"

  Oh crap.

  The mom looked over at me with wide, green eyes and instantly jumped up and moved at lightning speed to my bed. Her arms were outstretched and I swear I could hear the theme song to Jaws playing. I knew I couldn’t survive one of her super-hugs. She was about to eat me alive; I was just sitting prey, waiting to be devoured. After nearly suffocating me with surprisingly strong arms, she held my face in her hands and stared right into my eyes. No chance of looking somewhere else in my extreme discomfort. My bubble was being seriously invaded today.

  "David, I heard what you did. Thank you. You saved my baby." The green eyes filmed over with tears. She was an intense woman whose eyes wouldn't let go of mine. I tried looking down a few times but hers followed them anyway. I had no idea what to say or what to do, so I reached my arm around hers and flattened my hair again. She bent down and kissed my forehand before she let me go.

  I sunk into my sheets, surprised by the sudden act of affection. I had never been kissed like that before. My grandma patted my cheek when she saw me and that was about as coddled as I had ever been. Lucy’s mom wasn't looking at me like the other adults did. Most people were taken aback by my dark hair and make-up. Maybe she was just so grateful that I had helped Lucy that she was overlooking my appearance. Or, maybe this family was just really weird.

  "Thank you, David!" she said again. She was a beautiful woman. She and Lucy looked a lot alike and, judging from the random hugs and kisses and uncomfortable eye contact, they probably acted a lot alike, too.

  "It’s okay," was all I could manage to croak out. She smiled at that and then went in for another hug. Can’t say I minded all that much, though. It was strange how comfortable I felt in her arms, especially when she was doing every single thing she could to make me feel awkward. Lucy’s father walked over to my bed and winked at me like we were sharing a mutual joke about his wife. He held his hand out for me to take. Seriously? But maybe he was just a classy kind of guy. Maybe he was picking up the “I’m SO UNCOMFORTABLE!” vibe. I lifted my hand to him, through the still-present mom-hug, and we shook. It was quick.

  "Thank you," was all he said. He sat in a chair between the two beds, against the wall.

  "Hey! Lucy and David! Just like my parents!" Lucy’s mom announced, coming out of the hug and walking back to Lucy’s bed. I smoothed the sheets she’d ruffled with the hug. Not that I hadn’t kind of enjoyed it, but wrinkly sheets annoy me.

  "I know, right?!" Lucy beamed at her mom then they both looked over at me like it was the coolest thing in the world. We were back to awkward. Lucy’s mom grabbed her daughter’s hand.

  "Luce, they told me that they want to keep you two here overnight but I can come and get you first thing in the morning." She looked over at me again but this time her eyebrows were knit together, like she had something on her mind. I'm not sure what it meant but I had a suspicion. Lucy didn't seem disconcerted by the news that she’d be wearing the stupid hospital beanie overnight. She just looked at me and grinned
. She was probably thinking, “slumber party!”

  "Well, I guess we are roomies tonight!" she said contentedly. She’d be starting a pillow fight or asking to paint my nails any minute now.

  "Cool," was all I could say. Honestly, though, it sounded great, as long as she kept the glittering nail polish at bay. Way better than being at my house, that was for sure. It was then that I realized: I was here, at a hospital, with nothing. I had no clothes, no makeup. Nothing. I wore contacts and I needed to take them out. I would have killed for a comb.

  Also, I knew the nurses hadn’t missed all my bruises when they were dressing me. I just hoped that the cops came after Lucy left.

  A few minutes later The Boyfriend Mike came running into the hospital room looking breathless and concerned, like someone had just punched the air out him. It was entirely possible that he’d driven all around town and then run all over the hospital before he’d found the emergency room. With his giant self sweating and breathing heavily next to Lucy’s bed, it was getting crowded in here. Mike swept over to Lucy and kneeled down at the bed rail like she was on her death bed and he was about to start praying.

  "Lucy, I’m so sorry I couldn't reach you; I made everything worse." Mike was whimpering. Not only was he pathetic, his apology wasn’t even accurate. If my memory served me correctly (and it usually does) he had her hand firmly in his, but let go when he heard the ground crack under him. In other words, he’d been worse than ineffective. He’d let her go. It looked like Lucy was remembering this as well, because she stared at him for a minute with no expression, then switched to a small smile that people use for children and old people that they don’t quite like.

  "It’s ok, you tried, Mike." She put her hand on top of his head and patted a few times but shivered and kept most of her arm inside the blanket like she was still cold. She secured herself in her heated cave of blankets and hot packs. Mike’s eyes fell to his hands. Before, I could never decide if this guy was a nice, decent guy or a coward. Based on what I’d seen, I was going with coward.

  “Daaaavid!” My heart leaped into my throat. I’m ashamed to say I smiled bigger than I would care to admit when I heard my name being sung down the hall by a voice I knew all-to-well to be Michelle’s. I could’ve used a little back up right now, someone to guard me from having to keep watching the never-ending saga of Mike not able to admit that his own butt meant more to him than a girl he “loved.”

  It was like a scene from a movie; three misfits dressed in black wearing buckles, loops, metal, and leather came walking in. Each one sported a different piercing and each of them had a look on their face that would have scared even “just-push-the-button” Nurse Phony. Isaiah, in all his freaky glory, led the pack into the room.

  Michelle sneered at both of Lucy’s parents and gave Mike a particularly long glare before she jumped lightly onto my bed and shoved me over with her bony hips so she could check out the wires sprouting out of my arm.

  “Dang boy, you warm enough yet?” She poked at the heating pads stacked on top of me.

  “I know. I feel ridiculous,” I said.

  “You look ridiculous,” Isaiah chortled. His voice was sarcastic and, to the untrained ear, a little mean. But he was looking intently at me, making sure some part of me hadn’t fallen off and been lost in the lake.

  “How you feeling, Lucy?” The three of us looked over at Johnny who had his hands in his pockets. The shy guy had been the only one with enough common sense to go over and check on Lucy.

  “Good. I mean, cold!” She looked at Johnny, then over at Mike, who was up against the wall like three gigantic rats had cornered him in a horrific nightmare. Someone call the exterminator. Mike’s scared. Something new and different for him…“Mom, Dad, this is Johnny. He tutored me a little in Math.” Lucy smiled kindly and, to my surprise, Johnny reached his hand out to her parents and said, I kid you not, “How do you do?”

  Preppy.

  Honestly, I was jealous. Johnny had been raised with nice parents who taught him all the basics. I never would have thought of offering my hand and then saying something as cheesy as “how do you do.” There were a few moments of preppy exchange, then Johnny came back to our side.

  The traitor.

  I chanced a glance over at Lucy who looked at ease, like nothing in the atmosphere had changed. The only little difference I could see was that she kept shooting curious glances at Michelle, like she couldn’t figure Michelle out. But, let’s be honest, none of us could.

  “Hi,” Lucy said to the rest of my gang, her hand up in the air and a hopeful kind of look on her face. The only answer she received was a bubble popping from Michelle’s mouth.

  A nurse bustled in with the ear thingy, saving us all from further uncomfortable silence and started shooing everyone before even opening her mouth. "I'm sorry, visiting hours are over. Y'all can come back tomorrow at eight am." The nurse turned to me. "We need to get you into your own room, David." A wave of mixed relief and sadness washed over me. I looked over at Lucy and I saw her mouth go down into a little frown that instantly switched to a half smile and a wink when she caught me looking at her, right before our nurse snapped the curtains closed. Lucy's guests stayed on her side and my weirdoes stayed with me, on mine.

  “Well, we just wanted to make sure you were still alive, so I guess you are.” Michelle said, tucking me in tighter, in spite of her heating pad remarks. I snuggled in deeper and smiled at them. Then I heard it, the thing I knew someone was going to do to me. I had come so close, I had tricked myself into believing it was over. Isaiah started making a kissing noise and pointing to the closed curtain. He reached his hand up to his face and started pretending he was making out with it. I could have killed him, butt hanging out and everything, I didn’t care. We were in the ER, his chances of survival were greater.

  He went running out the door as I threw one of the heating pads at him. The cord got caught in mid air and landed with an unimpressive thump on the floor. I crossed my arms and huffed at the three dark smiling faces that were 'pinky waving' at me as they left.

  Everyone left after hugging, kissing, and fussing over Lucy. The mom gave me another hug and the dad gave me a nod of thanks. Mike waited for them to leave and shook my hand as he left. He stood there for a minute like he was going to say something, but left when I started smoothing the sheets again. The guy seemed grateful to me for saving his girlfriend and wasn't acting like a jerk because he’d been shown up. Let the record show however, that he had totally been shown up.

  A guy in scrubs came in and pushed my bed into a new room, with Lucy calling, “Later Gator!” behind me. With all the blankets and tubes and stuff I felt like I had a big neon sign above my head as they moved me a few feet down the hallway: “DROWNED RAT BOY!” My heart sank as the scrubs guy pushed me through the door and there were two police officers waiting for me. Even though I was bummed that I wouldn’t be able to pass out immediately, I appreciated them not doing their thing in front of everyone else.

  "David?" The first police officer said to me. Like there was another punk kid who needed the attention of police in this hospital and he had to make sure this is the one they were talking about. I didn’t answer his obvious question. I re-covered myself with blankets so they were smoother and adjusted the tubes so they hung off the bed at right angles.

  "I'm officer Dean and this is Officer Cosby. Can we talk to you for a minute?" Officer Dean sat down on the bed next to me with what I knew was an attempt at becoming my "friend" and earning my "trust." I’d done this before.

  "Sure, Officer Dean. Nice to meet you, Officer Cosby." Both of their faces lit up when they heard their names. Obviously, their trust-gaining tactics were successful on this impressionable, troubled young boy. I was getting tired. It had been a long day and now I had to deal with this. Not that they didn’t seem like nice guys, I was just exhausted, and I wanted to cut to the chase.

  "David, your nurse noticed that you had some bruises on your upper arms and lower back in
different healing stages. Do you mind telling us how you got those?" He spoke softly and seemed genuinely concerned for me. I guess that’s why he became a cop. To protect poor beaten kids, like myself. I didn’t really want to go through the whole Q&A with the super-concerned cops.

  "Look, guys, if you’ve seen my file, you know my history. I'm going to be eighteen in under a year. I want to just ride it out. I don't want to go to a foster home. So if we could just skip all this that’d be great." If these cops had done their homework, they already knew I had been taken from (and returned to) my father a few times. When I was nine I went to live with another family for a couple of years.

  "Do you have any family around here?" Officer Cosby asked me.

  "I have a grandma. She lives about an hour away." I didn't want to move an hour away. I wanted to finish high school where I was right now. The people in this town were at least used to me and my funky style. I didn’t want to start over. Especially not if I was going to get sent back again halfway through the year.

  "David, I know you’re not enthusiastic about this, but we have to pursue it. Can we have your grandmother’s number, please?” Officer Cosby was still speaking in a low voice. His eyes didn’t leave my face and his eyebrows were raised with concern.

  I shrugged. "Yeah. Whatever." I looked down at my hands as I recited it for them. My bruises weren’t that bad. It had been a few weeks back and he had been drunk. Definitely not as bad as some of the incidents in the past.

  "Is there anything you need or that we can do for you?" Officer Dean asked.

  "No." I just wanted them to leave so I could be by myself for a moment before the nurse came in and started bugging me with ear temperatures or something.

  "Please let us know if there is anything more you want to tell us, okay. David?"

  I nodded. They both stood up and Officer Dean held out his hand for me to shake.

  "I heard about what you did for Miss Peterson. You are a town hero, son." I shook his hand quickly and let sink in what he‘d said for a while after they’d left. Town hero? Joy.