CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Flying Under the Radar

My life continued with me basically spending my days trying to avoid Elyse. I had my lunch switched so I no longer saw Jake, but Charlie kept me company. And we didn’t have any classes together anyway, so as long as I took the long way to most of my classes and avoided the hall where her locker was, I pretty much managed to fly under the radar.

After my “violent outburst,” I didn’t make the cast of the play. I tried not to care. I pretended I didn’t. But being up onstage with Jake had been amazing, and I wished I could be up there rehearsing and having fun with the rest of the cast. Elyse had got the part instead, so I helped paint sets in the art room on the other side of the school, well away from the theater.

“How are they doing?” I asked Charlie, who met me outside just before the cast left the theater so I could stay out of Elyse’s way. It seemed ridiculous that I was the one who had to go out of my way to avoid her. But I was also the one who had something to lose, so I kept far away and jealously wished it was me on the stage.

“Good. Jake is amazing. But Elyse can’t remember her lines. And she overacts. It’s annoying.”

I laughed.

“Are you saying that just to make me feel better?” I asked, leaning against the car and shoving him with my shoulder.

“No! I’m serious. She sucks. She’s as awful an actress as she is a person.” He grinned.

I laughed again.

“Well, isn’t this cozy?” said a voice that sounded so close to the Wicked Witch of the West that it sent a shiver down my spine. I had always hated that character. My own personal wicked witch was sauntering up with her band of flying monkeys. “And I thought you were after your older foster brother. I didn’t realize you liked younger men,” she cackled.

Charlie stood up, squaring his shoulders, and opened his mouth to respond. I stepped in front of him, pushing him back gently against the car.

“Hi, Elyse. I hear you’re killing it in rehearsals,” I said, smiling in what I thought was a friendly way, but my facial expression felt suspiciously like a grimace.

“Aren’t you sweet,” she cooed. “Jake and I have pretty amazing chemistry onstage. And off, if you know what I mean.” She threw her head back and laughed kind of maniacally, I thought.

Charlie was struggling to get around me.

“Don’t start anything,” I muttered, putting myself firmly between him and Elyse again.

“I’m not starting anything,” Elyse said, frowning.

“I wasn’t talking to you. We’re good, right?” I nodded her way, then glanced back at Charlie who was glaring at Elyse. “Right, Charlie?”

“Aww. Look at her protecting her little man. Lucky is all boo’d up with someone on her own level this time.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. She was exhausting, and I had my hands full with Charlie. Where the hell was Jake?

“Well you never had a chance in hell with Jake. But look at you. You got yourself a little Mexican boy to play with. Birds of a feather, right?”

“I’m Dominican!” Charlie yelled, trying to push past me. I had dropped my bag and was literally holding him back.

“Charlie, stop!” He was stronger than he looked, and I was grunting with the effort of holding onto him.

“Dominican, Mexican. Who cares? They’re both brown. Why don’t you just go back to wherever it is that you came from?”

What did she just say? I nearly lost my grip on Charlie for a second and fought to hang on to him. I pulled on the back of his jacket. He was yelling at her in Spanish now.

“Calm down, kid. Even you can do better than this Indian whore.” She spit at me, and I felt bits of it hit my face. I was so shocked, I lost my grip on Charlie, who stumbled. I wiped saliva off my face and stared at her. She walked toward me, sneering. “You’re a piece of shit, Lucky. No one wants your worthless ass. That’s why you’re in foster care. Not Jake. Not even the little Mexican here. No one will ever want you.” She was right in front of me now. “You’re nothing. An Indian whore who has nothing to offer except what’s between your legs.”

I heard Charlie yell “Soy Dominicano!” as I pulled my arm back, my hand clenched tightly. But I didn’t see him until I felt my fist connect solidly with the person in front of me. The person who, a second ago, had been Elyse. But Charlie had somehow ducked away and gotten between us, and my fist hit him in the side of the head so hard, he went down, his face bouncing off the pavement. I heard a scream and only vaguely recognized it as my own as I pushed someone out of the way and fell to the ground beside him.

“CHARLIE!” I screamed. He was limp, his eyes closed, with blood dripping down his face. “CALL 911!” I shrieked, watching as Elyse and her friends turned and walked away without raising their phones.

“I hope she killed him,” I heard Elyse say as I cradled Charlie’s head in my lap.

“Help!” I yelled, whipping my head from side to side, trying to see where my bag was so I could grab my phone.

“Lucky?” It was Jake. He was here and he’d help.

“Jake, please. Call 911. Charlie…he’s unconscious. Oh my god. I think I killed him.” I was hysterical. Jake knelt down beside me, pulling his phone out of his pocket and touching Charlie’s face.

“He’s not dead, Lucky. Calm down. Yes. I’m at Weston Heights High. Can you send an ambulance? My friend is unconscious. I don’t know what happened. Yes, he’s breathing. Okay. Thank you.” He hung up just as Charlie started to move, groaning.

“Oh my god! Charlie! Stay still. You’re hurt.”

“Lucky, what the hell happened?” He was dialing again. “Sarah? It’s me. Charlie got hurt. The ambulance is on its way, but can you meet us at the hospital? I don’t know. Okay.”

“I…we were talking and Elyse came out and called him Mexican and said she thought he should go back to where he came from and he was upset and then she called me worthless and a slut…and she spit at me. I lost my temper. I tried to hit her but Charlie got in the way.” I was sobbing even though Charlie was now struggling to sit up.

“Stay down, man.” Jake held him down gently. “You’re all right, Charlie, but you need a doctor.” He looked over at me. “You knocked him out?”

“No! I don’t think so. I hit him by mistake and he went down and hit his head on the ground. I think that knocked him out. Oh my god, Charlie. I’m so sorry.”

“Stop crying on me, Lucky!” he croaked.

The ambulance arrived then, and EMTs pulled me away and strapped Charlie to a stretcher.

“Do I have to go to school tomorrow?” he asked one of the EMTs.

“Probably not,” the guy said, laughing. He shone a light in Charlie’s eyes. “I think you have a concussion.”

“Is he okay?” I asked him desperately. “Did I give him brain damage?”

“I doubt it. He seems fine, but we’ll take him in and have him checked out. You can meet us there.”

Jake pulled me away so the EMTs could get Charlie in the ambulance.

“Come on. We’ll follow in the car.”

I got in. Numb at first. Then scared. Terrified that Charlie would lapse into a coma or something before we got there. Or that he’d have some kind of lasting brain damage that changed him entirely. Or that he’d be dead.

“Can you go faster?” I begged Jake. He stepped down on the pedal and we lurched forward. Sarah was getting out of her car when we pulled up.

“What happened?” she asked, looking terrified. “Where is he?” Jake took her arm and started leading her to the front of the hospital.

“The ambulance brought him in. He’s awake. I think he’s okay. Maybe just a concussion. But they need to check him out.”

“A concussion! What happened to him?”

We were at the door now. I opened my mouth to answer. Then closed it.

“Lucky?” She stopped and turned to me. She was even more scared than I was. She loved him. I could see it all over her face. I was about to answer…or try to, when Edward ran up.

“Where is he? Is he okay?” He looked frantic, and I realized all over again how much these two loved the boys. Maybe could have loved me. “What happened?” He was looking at Jake.

“It was me,” I told them, stepping in front of Jake. “It’s my fault.”

“You did this?” Edward asked incredulously. I nodded. “How?”

“I…I was aiming for Elyse, and Charlie got in the way. I hit him by mistake and he…he hit the ground hard. With his head,” I clarified.

“Oh my god.” Edward turned and bolted through the doorway, closely followed by Sarah.

“Come on,” Jake said, holding out his hand. I hesitated for a second. But I couldn’t put off seeing Charlie forever. If I had hurt him in some way that was going to affect him for the rest of his life, I needed to know. I needed to see for myself if he was all right. I took Jake’s hand and let him lead me in after Sarah and Edward.

“I didn’t mean to hurt him,” I whispered.

“I know you didn’t. He’ll be fine, Lucky.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“I don’t. But let’s go find out.”

I nodded, following, trying not to look at all the people in various stages of injury or illness lining the hallways.

“He’s in here,” Sarah called, leading us through a set of double doors and into a hallway that was alive with doctors and nurses, machines beeping, and a few patients wheeling machines looped with tubes and wires around beside them.

Charlie seemed so small tucked into his bed. A doctor and nurse were talking quietly while the nurse made notes on a clipboard. Charlie looked pale and sickly with his head sporting a bandage and his eyes closed. The doctor looked up.

“Are you the family?” he asked. Edward and Sarah nodded, clinging to each other. “He’s asleep. We have to wake him up hourly because he has a concussion. He took quite a knock to the head.”

I stared at Charlie while the doctor spoke, willing him to be okay, to wake up. To be his happy, puppy-dog self again. But he slept on, with just the odd movement of his eyelids and the beeping of a heart monitor to show he was still alive.

“Is he going to be okay?” I choked out.

The doctor glanced at me.

“Yes. He’ll be fine. He’ll have a massive headache for a day or two, but he’ll be back to normal before you know it.”

“Oh, thank god!” Sarah said, lowering herself into a chair beside the bed and taking Charlie’s hand in hers. Edward stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders.

“You should go home,” he told Jake. “Both of you. Get some sleep.”

“Okay. Tell him we were here, when he wakes up,” Jake said, pulling me toward the door. I wanted to stay. I wanted to be there when he woke up so I could tell him how sorry I was. That it had been an accident. That I would do anything to take it back.