Page 115 of Ours

He was the last person I wanted to talk to because I didn’t know if Noemi had told him anything or if he had figured out something had happened with us. I let the phone go to voicemail, but it seemed he was determined to talk to me because he called again and again.

“Yeah?” I clipped.

“How are they? What happened? Do you need anything?”

Lola’s voice was panicked as she kept talking and I couldn’t make out what she was saying.

“Lola, I need you to calm down,” I said, quickly thinking something bad had happened to Lincoln.

“I’m sorry,” she cried.

“Lola, what is going on?”

My heart started to race.

“How is Noemi doing? Have you heard anything about Easton?”

“I don’t know what’s going on,” I said, my heart racing faster.

“Noemi called from the hospital, told Adrian when she called out for work, but I've called her twice and her phone goes straight to voicemail,” she sniffled. “I don’t even know what hospital she’s in.”

“I’m in New York, I didn’t know something had happened,” I said, getting up to throw clothes on. “Can I speak to Lincoln?”

“They didn’t call?” Lincoln's voice came on quickly, making me think I was on speaker phone. “No, can you figure out what the hell happened?”

I tried not to panic, they were fine, it might be something small.

“Ok, how soon can you get here?” he asked.

“Four hours, if they let us leave right away,” I said, throwing on a shirt.

“Ok, I’ll text you when I find out anything,” he said before hanging up, and I seriously hoped it was nothing.

They were assaulted and mugged. Violence wasn’t the answer, but if I knew who it was, I would make sure they disappeared. It took me 7 hours to get to Denver and each hour made me more anxious. Noemi had been discharged, but she had stayed at the hospital with Easton.

Lincoln wasn’t able to get me anything on their injuries just that they had been admitted and Easton had not woken up yet. We arrived in Denver and were on our way to the hospital when we got stuck on the freeway. I was hungry, thirsty, and in desperate need of a shower, but I needed to see them to make sure they were ok.

Lincoln wanted to go to the hospital, but he didn’t want to upset Lola. So, he kept her home, but he got information from his sister who worked at the same hospital they were taken to. It was almost six pm when I walked into the hospital, heading straight for the floor that Lincoln said Easton was on.

I got off the elevator and was immediately greeted by a nurse.

“Hi, who are you looking for?”

“Easton Mercer,” I replied, looking around.

“Are you family?” she asked.

“No, but I really need to see him,” I said, hoping the desperation in my voice came through.

“I’m sorry, sir, unfortunately if you aren’t family, you can’t go in,” she said looking at her computer.

“Has he woken up? I just want to see him for a moment and then I can stay in the waiting room.”

“I’m sorry, he is still unconscious and unless he permits you to go back, you can’t,” she said, already over the conversation. “The waiting room is just down this hallway; you can wait there.”

“Look,” I said, getting ready to throw anything at her to let me see him.

“Nothing is going to work.” She looked at me with an expression that asked me to fuck around and find out.

---