“You’re going to be discharged?” I ask Ted quietly once the doctor goes to get his papers. “That’s good news.”
The fact that he isn’t hurt so bad he has to stay the night again I wouldn’t want him to have internal damage, no matter what he did to me in the past. I didn’t become a nurse because I want people to suffer.
“R… right,” Ted stammers back, strangely nervous now. “Yes, I am getting out of here.”
I narrow my eyes curiously at him. “You have somewhere to go, right? Do you know what you’ll do without your bike? I would offer you a ride somewhere, but I don’t have a car right now. I don’t need one here. You know how it is, everything that you need is within walking distance from my house, so I just… well, I don’t have one.”
I feel silly in this small town. I can drive, I have a license, but no car. I wonder what he thinks about that, maybe that I never really grew up.
“Yeah, I don’t really have anywhere to go,” he replies in a voice even littler than mine. “It doesn’t matter if I have my bike or not. I don’t have anywhere to go. My home is… well, out of the question. And not really a home.”
“Hmm, and your parents are miles away,” I say, knowing far too much about him. “So, there isn’t anyone that you can stay with? I take it you don’t want to go back to the city.” This isn’t even a question. I can see it all over his face. “Okay, you can come and stay with me until you figure out what you are going to do. I have the room. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m at my mother’s old house. She lives in England now with her boyfriend, so…”
It’s the right thing to do, since he’s an old friend of my family. But it feels weird. Awkward, I mean, he’s my ex… but not really. We shared ten minutes and a kiss. But the tension between us right now is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
“No, thank you,” he shoots back. “I can’t come and stay with you. Not right now.”
“Oh.” I don’t know how to take this. To be honest, it feels like old rejection all over again. I feel like I’m that eighteen-year-old girl with the high school crush getting rejected yet again. Seriously, how many times can one girl get pushed away?
“I didn’t mean that to sound rude,” he counters when he sees how this affects me. “I just have stuff that I need to do. I don’t want to… you know, involve you… that’s all.”
He’s acting shady, not really looking at me, like he was that night. I know when Ted Landon is hiding things from me, and this is one of those times. This is a red flag flapping in my face, reminding me I shouldn’t let him in after the way that he betrayed me last time… so why do I feel like I am being yanked in again? I can feel myself getting sucked back into that high school crush.
I’m not a dumb teenager anymore. I am a twenty-four-year-old woman who should know better. You know what they say, fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, well…
But here I am, offering my help and my home because I have a soft spot, and can’t forget about our childhood promise. Get married at twenty-five. How convenient for the universe to bring him back right now, right before. Good grief Chloe, knock it off. You aren’t in a romantic comedy.
“So…” I force a smile on to my face. “A cab to the train station when you get discharged?”
He nods, but it honestly doesn’t look like that’s what he wants. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he left without anything. I bet he doesn’t even have his wallet. He had nothing on him when he crashed, and seeing as he doesn’t call the place he was staying his “home”, I’m pretty sure he’s in trouble.
“Is that the cops?” The color drains from his face as he peers over my shoulder outside his room. “Why are they here? Did they ask for me?”
“They usually only talk to people if there was more than one person in the accident. I think you’re fine.” But he doesn’t look fine. He looks like he might throw up. “You didn’t cause any damage, so I don’t think you were reported.”
He’s barely paying me any attention. “Right, not for me…
“Why would they be here for you?” I demand firmly. “You’re hiding something from me, Ted, I can see it.”
His eyes meet mine and I spot an apology there. I guess I’m not going to get any answers right now but at least he’s being honest with me by not denying it. Obviously there is something going on and he doesn’t want to admit it.