Page 75 of The Coach

I find a coffee shop and order some toasted sandwiches along with extra-strong coffee and snacks for later. We might be in for a long wait. I wish I could see Andy. I hate the thought of her sitting there by Darcy's bed all alone, just waiting for her friend to wake up. I make my way back to our seats and hand out the food and coffee.

"Thanks, Brad, this looks amazing."

I give Jasmine a nod and sit and sip on my coffee.

Luna has been silent, and really, what else can she say? This is a fucked-up situation for them all. We're just finished with our sandwiches when Andy comes through the doors. She is a mess, her tear-stained face pale, so much pain in her eyes. I run over to her and pull her into a hug against my chest.

"Has something happened?"

"She's awake, but she wouldn't stop screaming until I got out of the room. She doesn't want to see me."

"Hey, it's okay. She'll come around, and she is just processing what happened. Give her time."

I usher her back over to her sister and friend. They hop up, wrapping their arms around each other. "You guys can go in and see her. She doesn't want me in there."

They pull back, looking at her, unsure. "Okay."

"She's in room 212. Just down that way." She points.

The girls walk tentatively through the doors. I'm sure they're both scared of what they will see once there.

"Do you want something to eat?"

"I can't eat. My friend nearly died tonight because of me." I pull her into me again as she breaks down.

"Shh, baby, I've got you."

Chapter Twenty-Five

Andy

I'm sittingin the ER waiting room in a daze. What the actual fuck happened tonight? This is not the friend I know, the one I went to college with and have been so close to for years. When I looked at her frightened face tonight, she looked like a complete stranger.

The last few months start to flash back through my memory. The night Darcy and I hooked up. The weekend after when she told me to go for Brad, then us finding out he was cheating on his wife—or at least we thought so from Jasmine's message that night. Darcy was the one adamant that he would be.All men are cheats and liars, she said to me, just like my high school boyfriend. She had joked I should just go for chicks from now on, and I laughed it off with her, not thinking she meant her.

Then all the strange things started happening. The stalker things. What was the first thing that happened? My car so I was late for practice on Brad's first day. Everything makes total sense now. All the things lead back to this, to her, I know it. She was the one with access to the house, to my car, my room, the changerooms. I have complete clarity of this whole messed-up situation. I'm no longer scared by this, I get it. "It was her all along, doing this stuff to me, wasn't it?"

"Probably," Brad says. "We don't really know anything for sure, but it all adds up to that being the case."

"I can't believe it. You think you know someone. But I didn't really know her at all. What makes a person so desperate that they do such awful things to someone they care about? Then try and kill themselves when they don't get what they want."

"I guess in this case it was love."

"She doesn't love me. If she did, she wouldn't do this to me."

"Andy, are you okay?"

"No, I'm not. I just sat there holding her limp hand for hours, for her to kick me out as soon as she came to. And now I have just worked this whole fucked-up situation out. I'm not okay. Not at all."

The girls are making their way back to us. They were quicker than I thought they would be.

"They're telling us to go home and get some rest," says Jasmine. "She'll be kept in here for a couple of days under suicide watch. She's tired and just needs to sleep."

"Okay, let's get home then," offers Brad, leading us out the door.

Brad drives me home,and Jasmine and Luna go together in Jasmine's car. The entire way home, I just stare out the front window. I keep seeing her standing there in the dark, blood dripping from her wrists. I don't think I will ever be able to get the image out of my head. I scrub my hands over my face and try to take myself anywhere but back there. It's no use. I just see the blood and feel my fear when I realize I don't know what to do. I really thought she was going to die.

The car pulls up to a stop and I'm surprised to see we have arrived back at home already.

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