Page 132 of Tiny Fractures

“I feel the same way,” I say out loud, but more to myself than Vada. “It feels like I’ve finally arrived.”

***

I’m giddy when we pull up to Shane’s at just before 11:30 a.m., though I don’t see Ronan’s car. Steve explains that Ronan was inexplicably tired this morning, then winks at me. When Zack announces that he needs to run home to grab a charger for his camera to be able to fully capture this last Saturday of summer, Steve suggests driving him and picking up Ronan on the way back here.

“We should be back in like an hour,” Steve promises, and he and Zack walk to the car.

Vada and I join our friends on the deck, where I lounge on the large rattan outdoor sofa overlooking the ocean. Summer excitedly tells us that there’s a rumor going around that the hockey coach has a thing with the softball coach, and we all dive into a conversation about how we’ve all been noticing signs that there might be something going on between the two of them.

It’s about half an hour later when Summer’s phone starts buzzing. I don’t pay too much attention when she gets up off her spot on the sofa and takes a few steps away from the group, which is still chatting excitedly, the conversation having evolved to include other teacher-teacher or even teacher-student affair rumors. But then Summer hangs up the phone and returns to us, her eyes huge. All color has drained from her face.

Everyone falls quiet at once.

“What’s wrong?” Tori is the first to ask.

“Zack is driving Steve to the hospital,” Summer says, her voice shaky.

Vada jumps up, eyes wide, her voice frantic. “What happened? Is Stevie okay?” Vada half yells as everyone else stands up, too, ready to leave the house and go wherever it is we need to go.

But Summer’s eyes lock on mine as she shakes her head. “It’s not Steve. It’s Ran. I don’t know what happened; Zack just said it’s really bad and they took him by ambulance to the hospital. Zack and Steve are heading there now.”

The silence that follows is deafening, interrupted only by my heart beating hard in my chest and my frantic breathing. My mind begins to race, trying to come up with an idea of what could have happened to Ronan. Did he get into an accident?

Shane is the first one to break the silence. “What the fuck are we standing around here for? Let’s go!” He herds everyone through the house and out the front door. On our way down the stairs and out to the driveway, Shane provides directions. “Let’s just take my Jeep. We can figure out everything else later,” Shane instructs, and we hurry toward his car. Tori slides into the passenger seat of Shane’s spacious Wrangler, while Summer, Vada, and I hop into the backseat.

“Breathe, Kitty Cat, I’m sure Ran is going to be fine,” Vada says, willing her voice to be soothing, although I can tell she’s worried.

I only manage a meager nod, but I focus to slow my breathing down. It’s threatening to turn into hyperventilation.

“What exactly did Zack say?” Shane asks, glancing at Summer through the rearview mirror while navigating the freeway at a brisk speed.

“Not much,” Summer says. “He just said that Ran is hurt really badly and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. He said we should get there quickly. He didn’t say anything else.”

“But he didn’t say how Ran got hurt?” Shane asks, an edge to his voice and a strange look on his face as he voices the exact question I keep asking myself.

“I swear, Shane. He didn’t say a damn thing more,” Summer snaps, but immediately apologizes for being on edge.

Shane stays silent while Vada, Tori, and Summer start throwing out theories about what could have happened to Ronan.

“Maybe he fell or something,” Vada suggests, her brows creased. “I mean, that would make sense, right? Seems like he’s kind of prone to that with the random bruises and stuff?”

“I don’t know,” Shane says, unconvinced.

I just cradle my head in my hands, hoping to wake up from this terrible nightmare. The fact that whatever happened to Ronan was obviously bad enough to require him to go to the hospital and for Zack to tell us to get to the hospital quickly scares me. Couple that with Shane’s weird expression, the tension in his jaw and shoulders visible, and I feel positively anxious.

After what seems like an eternity, Shane pulls up to the ER, most definitely parking in a handicap parking spot but obviously not caring about the risk of getting towed. I will my feet to follow the others when they walk through the automatic doors of the ER. My senses are instantly bombarded with the sounds, sights, and smells of a hospital. Phones ring and a baby cries in the background as a doctor is paged over the intercom system. I close my eyes and swallow hard, my knees shaking. Vada takes my hand, gently tugging me onward.

Shane, ever the leader of the group, makes his way to the reception desk where a sturdy-looking brunette and an older, graying woman are thumbing through paperwork, answering questions and phone calls, too busy to acknowledge us.

A set of glass doors slides open to the left of the reception desk and Zack walks toward us, his phone glued to his ear. He looks terrible. He spots us and starts toward us, motioning for us to follow him back through the glass doors toward a private waiting area away from the chaos of the ER waiting room.

“What happened?” Shane asks after Zack hangs up the phone.

“I have no idea, man,” Zack says, looking bewildered, shaking his head. “It’s so fucking surreal. Steve and I stopped by my house, grabbed the charger, and then headed to Steve’s to pick up Ran. We could hear Onyx in the backyard going absolutely crazy, barking like mad, and when we walked in the house we heard weird sounds coming from the living room, like these relentless thuds, like someone was kicking something, and when we turned the corner…” He pauses, his eyebrows knitted, his lips pressed together.

We all wait for him to finish.

“It was his mom,” Zack finally says. But this makes no sense. Apparently, I’m not the only one confused.

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