Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103530 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103530 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“I don’t—” I began, then remembered that hospitals had morphine. “Yeah, probably a good idea.”
Some of the wedding guests had exited the canopy to view the carnage, which didn’t help with the bear situation. Daisy, the big, cuddly, harmless grizzly bear that had laid my leg open to the bone, broke free and lumbered off toward the sea, while guests flung themselves out of her path.
“And animal control!” I shouted. “Call them, too!”
Then I sat down. Not out of choice. Even my non-injured body parts stopped working.
“Matt!” I heard a familiar voice shriek.
“He’s okay,” Scott assured Charlotte as she ran up to us.
I looked up at her and tried to smile reassuringly. Instead, I opened my big, stupid, woozy mouth and my blood-starved brain ejected, “Scott, if I die… I’m sorry I had sex with your sister.”
And then everything got intensely wavy.
“I’m gonna… rest,” I declared, and had the brief sensation of my head thumping the ground.
* * * *
(Charlotte)
The emergency room waiting area had much better air conditioning than the beach and I was freezing.
My family’s attitude toward me was equally frosty. I rubbed my bare arms and suffered in silence.
“I can’t believe you had sex with my best friend,” Scott said, bouncing his head lightly against the wall.
“I can’t believe you let a bear maul your best friend and ruin your wedding!” I shot back at him.
“Right, like I planned this!” he said, his voice rising above the acceptable murmur for a public waiting room.
“Children!” Mom snapped at us in warning, and we both straightened our posture.
“Lauren ruined the wedding,” Dad said calmly. “By not showing up.”
“And by bringing a bear,” I added morosely. I knew I wasn’t the aggrieved party here. Not by a long shot. But I still indulged in private petulance that my awesome sex night had been ruined.
The big button-operated doors to the emergency department opened and a nurse in blue scrubs came out. “Charlotte?”
I looked guiltily at my brother and parents and pointed to myself in question. And the nurse nodded. “Your friend is asking for you.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Scott muttered.
I rose slowly, head hung in shame. It should be Scott going back to comfort his friend. Although Scott needed comforting, too. Then again, he had our parents. Matt didn’t seem to have anybody. At least, nobody close by.
“He’s very drugged up,” the nurse warned. “They put him under light sedation for the procedure and he’s had some IV pain killers.”
“Should you be telling me this?” What about doctor-patient confidentiality?
“He gave us permission to share his information with you and a Scott Holmes. Is that your husband?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No, my brother. Matt is his best friend.”
A look of relief crossed the nurse’s face. Oh god, what had Matthew been saying under sedation?
The nurse pushed back the curtain around a cubicle, revealing Matt lying flat on an ER cart, his leg propped up on pillows. He rose on his elbows and the nurse admonished, “Head down.”
“Oh, right.” His voice was sleepy and peppy at the same time. He gave me a big grin. “Charlotte. There’s my Charlotte.”
Your Charlotte? I let it slide, since he was on drugs. I pulled one of the plastic chairs up next to the head of the cart. “How are you feeling?”
“I got to be in the trauma bay.” His eyes went comically wide. “Did you hear I got attacked by a bear?”
I couldn’t help but giggle at him. High-on-anesthesia Matt was adorable. I smoothed his hair back; usually it was combed and, I suspected, full of product. Now, a dark curl stubbornly flopped over his forehead.
“I’m so glad you’re here.” He reached up for my hand, and I noticed the IV in the back of his. The tube was dark red and snaked up to a small bag of blood on the stand attached to the bed.
The nurse moved around him unobtrusively, consulting the monitor that displayed Matt’s vitals.
“We’re going to be late for the wedding,” Matt said suddenly, rising up on his elbows. The monitor started to beep.
“Head down,” the nurse repeated firmly.
“Right, head down.” Matt closed his eyes. “I’m gonna miss the wedding. I’m the best man.”
“There isn’t going to be a wedding,” I said, trying to make the sentence sound soothing. But there was no good way to break the news. “Lauren is M.I.A. She left Scott a letter but he wouldn’t tell us what it said.”
“It said ‘I’m a cunt,’” Matt declared loudly.
I shushed him. “Hey. Language. Other patients can hear you.” Then, quieter, I added, “But yeah, it should have probably said that. It’s the only excuse for leaving someone at the altar.”
“The altar was ugly.” Matt turned to the nurse. “Don’t you think the wedding was ugly?”
“I wouldn’t know,” she said breezily. “But I do know if you don’t keep your head down, I’m going to have to keep it down for you.”