Sam scrolled through his notifications, looking for something, anything, from Kristy. There was still a part of him that just couldn't believe she had abandoned him. Even if she did want to break up, she wouldn't have sent a 'Get Well' message or anything? As a fellow trans person, shouldn't she at least have some empathy for what had happened to him? He was the victim of a hate crime here? Didn't she feel any sort of kinship with him?
But no. There was nothing. Sam had no texts from her. He had no facebook messages. He had no Snapchats, emails, or anything. It must be true. Kristy really was ghosting him. She really didn't want to speak to him. She cared so little about him, that she didn't even care to know if he was alright.
Sam tried to come to terms with this. He tried to convince himself to accept it. Some people were selfish. Some people had no loyalty. He had been blindsided by Kristy. He hadn't expected this betrayal. Then again he had fallen for her so hard and so fast. He'd been too caught up in infatuation and lust to remember to be suspicious. He had trusted her so openly and without hesitation.
It was the soft way that her smile curled. It was the sweetness in her eyes and the way that her irises made the all of the light that they captured dance. It was her shy bashfulness and her delicate mannerisms. It was the gentle way that she clung to his arm. It was the lilting music of her laugh. He had been so utterly captivated by everything about her, and he had never once taken the time to consider that she might not be all that she seemed.
Sam sighed aloud. He kicked himself mentally for allowing himself to be hurt. He wasn't usually so trusting of people, and this was exactly the reason why. Just when you became attached to someone, they would vanish out of your life, without even giving you the decency of an explanation.
Sam glanced at the time. It was only two-thirty. His parents wouldn't be coming around until five and he had no idea if Brad was going to be coming at all today. It was nearing the end of the semester, so Brad had several big projects due in the next couple of weeks. Brad had been coming every couple of days since Sam was admitted, and Sam appreciated that he was even doing that. Sam remembered that Brad had complained a couple weeks ago of having so many end of term assignments due this week. He had a museum visit to complete, along with a paper comparing two pieces of art that shared a common theme. He had two history papers to do, and three hour anatomy lab that he had to prepare for.
Sam felt his pain. It was terrible when you had one of those semesters where all of your classes have instructors that seem to be harboring the delusion that you don't have other classes, or a part-time job, or you know, a life. Some professors wanted every one of their students' lives to revolve around their one course. This was tricky when you were taking five or six courses simultaneously.
Sam leaned back against his pillows and rolled his eyes without being conscious of doing so. Turning in assignments wasn't something that he had to worry about now. Sam's father had called his adviser and explained what had happened. He was being excused from his courses for this term. It was nice to know that he wasn't going to have to struggle to keep up while laying in bed, beaten to a pulp. But it also really sucked that he was going to have to retake all of the same courses next semester. He'd made it three quarters of the way through the semester, only to have a bunch of bigoted sociopaths destroy all of the work that he'd done. He was either going to have to hustle to make up credits next year, or be a semester late in graduating. The latter seemed so abjectly inconceivable to him. How could he graduate without his best friend Brad by his side?
As if he'd been summoned by Sam's thoughts, Brad's grinning face appeared in the doorway.
“Hey, dude!” Brad called as he swaggered in. “What's up?”
Brad moved Sam's wallet and a small pile of Science Fiction books that Sam's mother had brought him to read, and plunked down in the chair next to Sam's bed.
“Hey Brad,” Sam said. “It's the craziest thing, I was just thinking about you.”
“Oh yeah?” Brad replied with a smirk. “What were you thinking about? How much you missed me?”
Sam laughed.
“Sort of,” he admitted. “I mean, almost. I was just thinking that it sucks we probably won't get to graduate together now. I'm gonna be a semester behind.”
“Oh man,” Brad groaned. “Don't think about that now. Just focus on getting better. Besides, you get to enjoy a nice little break. You get like four weeks off. Just enjoy it and be glad those assholes didn't kill you.”
Sam shook his head.
“No, they couldn't have done that.”
Brad grunted.
“You said yourself that you were way outnumbered, dude. I'm pretty sure that they could have.”
“Maybe,” Sam admitted. “Can't I be grateful to be alive and pissed off about the inconvenience in my life at the same time?”
“I don't know,” Brad said. “I think you're either grateful or pissed. I don't think you can be both.”
“You might be right,” Sam sighed. “I'm just in a foul mood lately. It's not just getting my ass kicked and having to take a break from classes, though. It's like Kristy picked now to ghost me? I haven't brought this up because I wanted to just forget it, but Kristy told my parents that she didn't want to come see me. They called her and she said that she was going to break up with me anyway and that she didn't care about coming to visit.”
Brad's eyes widened.
“Wow,” Brad said. “How does that even make any sense?”
“I know,” Sam said. “It seemed like she really liked me.”
“At least your parents calmed down and called her.”
Sam studied Brad's face with confusion.
“What do you mean? They calmed down?”
“Well, yeah,” Brad said. “You know, because they wouldn't let her in to see you when you were in the ICU.”
“What?! What are you talking about, man?”
Brad scratched his head guiltily.
“I don't know,” Brad mumbled. “I didn't want to get involved because it just seemed like family stuff. I felt weird talking to you about your parents. Besides I thought that they would tell you all about what happened. You haven't been asking where Kristy was, so I figured that they already did tell you. I didn't know that they called her and asked her to come back though. They kicked her out of the hospital the first day that you were here. You were still in surgery and me, Kristy, and Lizette were the first ones here. Your parents got here and lost their minds. They screamed at Kristy to leave and they would only let me in to the ICU to see you when you were in that coma. I felt bad for Kristy, but I didn't want to argue too much. It just didn't seem like my place, and I was also worried that they might not let me in if I argued with them too much. They were really pissed.”
“Oh my god,” Sam muttered. “This is the first that I'm hearing about any of this.”
“Sorry dude,” Brad said sheepishly. “It was a weird situation.”
Sam nodded.
“I get that,” Sam said. “I'm not mad at you man.”
“Okay,” Brad said. “I'm glad.”
“So, Kristy just left? She didn't try to come back?”
Brad shook his head.
“I'm not sure what happened,” he replied. “That first night you were in here, I called her after I got home. I told her how you were. She asked tons of questions. She wanted to know all about how you were doing and she sounded really relieved when I told her that your surgeries went okay and that you were in stable condition. It sounded like she was really worried about you.”
Sam furrowed his brow and frowned.
“So did she call you again after that? Or did you try to call her?”
“I mean, I didn't try to call her again. I guess I just figured that she would find some way to come see you. Has she tried to contact you directly at all? Through facebook or anything?”
“No” Sam murmured. “I just went through all my notifications on all my social media platforms. I've got nothing from her.”
Brad leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest.
“I'm sorry to hear that man. Unfortunately, you might need to just move on from her. Some girls are just mean and self-centered. You should be with a woman who's there for you when you need her.”
Sam nodded.
Everything that Brad was saying made sense. He didn't want to accept it, but maybe the sooner that he let go of Kristy the sooner he would feel better. As it was, his heart ached insanely. He felt so sad. He felt so betrayed. He felt so utterly crushed.
How could everything that they had shared have been fake? How could he have felt something so strongly and she hadn't felt it? How could she just go on with her life, without even saying good-bye?
Chapter Twenty-One
“I just don't understand why he isn't answering me!” Kristy cried, flinging herself face first down onto her unmade bed. “I've texted! I've sent emails! I even sent him a facebook message. Why isn't he answering me?”
Lizette sat down on the bed next to Kristy and patted her softly on her lower back.
“I know, Kristy,” she said gently. “It's tough. Just try to hang in there and we'll see what happens. Do you think we should try calling Brad to see how he's doing?”
Kristy shrugged, with her face still buried in her mattress.
“I don't know. I mean, I really want to know how he's doing, but he hasn't answered me. What if he doesn't want to talk to me?”
“Okay, how about this,” Lizette said. “I'll call and get an update from Brad, but I won't mention you. I'll just pretend like I want to know. How's that?”
Kristy sat up, wiping a few fallen tears from her cheeks. She bit her lip and nodded.
“Sure,” she said. “That sounds good to me.”
“Alright,” Lizette said with a smile. “Hold on, let me just grab my phone.”
Lizette departed from the room, returning only seconds later with her iphone in hand. She was already scrolling through her contacts in search of Brad's number.
Kristy felt her body stiffen as Lizette pressed call and then put the phone on speaker. A ringing came from the phone and Lizette placed it on the bed between the two of them.
Kristy twisted her fingers around each other as they waited for an answer.
On the third ring, the call was picked up.
“Hello?”
“Hey Brad,” Lizette said cheerfully. “How's it going?”
“Not bad, Liz. How's everything with you?”
“Good. I'm good. I just wanted to check in and see how Sam's doing. It sounded pretty serious last time we spoke.”
“Yeah, he's doing better,” Brad said. “I think I told you a couple days ago, but he's out of the coma and they moved up to a regular observation wing.”
“Yeah,” Lizette said. “You told me that when I ran into you in the dining commons. But has he improved any since then? Is he gonna be able to leave soon?”
“Actually, the doctor said today that he probably only has to stay a couple more days.”
“Oh that's great!” Lizette said. She looked up and locked eyes with Kristy and the two of them smiled.
“Yup,” Brad said. “He's moving around now. He's still hurting, but not as bad. His broken ribs have to heal, but his brain bleed stopped and that was the most serious injury.”
“Oh great!”
“Yeah, he's gonna do fine. He's just pissed about having to take the rest of the semester off. He's worried about being behind and not getting to graduate on schedule.”
“Oh, well that's understandable,” Lizette said. “Nobody wants to be here any longer than they have to be.”
“Right, but the guy almost died and he's getting himself all worked up about his course plan. You can't explain to him that he's got priorities all mixed up either. He just doesn't want to hear it.”
“Oh man,” Lizette said. “I don't know. It's probably like the salt in the wound. He ended up in the hospital with a bunch of serious injuries and he has to throw away an entire semester's worth of work. It's like those jerks beat him up twice.”
“True,” Brad said. “Listen Lizette, I'm glad that you called. That's really sweet of you and everything, but honestly I was hoping to hear from Kristy.”
Kristy felt her heart plummet down into her gut.
“Why hasn't Kristy tried to contact Sam?” Brad asked. “He keeps checking his phone waiting to see if she texted him, and what was up with what she said to his parents?”
Kristy felt her mouth pop open. Was this guy kidding? She had texted Sam at least fifteen times in the past week. She'd sent four emails and one facebook message. And Sam was waiting to hear from her?
“Uhh, Brad?” Lizette asked. “Has Sam been checking his phone? Because Kristy has been blowing up his phone like crazy. She only stopped yesterday because she gave up on waiting for him to get back to her. She figured he was upset or something.”
“Sam doesn't have anything on his phone from her,” Brad said. “And if Sam was mad, he'd have a really good reason to be. Why did Kristy tell Sam's parents that she was going to break up with him and didn't want to come down to the hospital?”
“What?!” Kristy shrieked.
Lizette jerked her head up and glared at Kristy with daggers in her eyes. She mouthed an angry “shhhh!”
“What was that?” Brad asked.
“Nothing,” Lizette said hastily.
“No really,” Brad pressed. “Was that Kristy? Kristy are you on the phone?”
Both women winced guiltily.
“Yes,” Kristy said. “I'm here. I just really wanted to know how Sam was doing and I wasn't sure if either of you guys would want to talk to me.”
“Yeah, sorry Brad,” Lizette said sheepishly. “We shouldn't have been sneaky, but she was just really worried about Sam and I wanted to help her out.”
“It's okay,” Brad said. “But Kristy? Did you really reach out to Sam? Or are you lying? Because that dude has been going crazy trying to figure out why you've been ghosting him. He thinks you never even cared about him at all.”
Kristy felt a tightening in her chest.
“But this is all a mistake,” she insisted. “I don't know what's going on, but I sent him texts, emails, everything. I've been trying to get in touch with him all week. And I don't know what you're talking about with his parents. I went back to the hospital the day after Sam was admitted. I thought that maybe his parents would have had a chance to calm down and would let me in, but his dad screamed and yelled at me to leave. He called me a freak show and said that he didn't want me to be anywhere near his son.”
“Whoa,” Brad said. “That's nuts. His parents are telling him that they called you and asked you to come see him. They're saying that they had a change of heart after they kicked you out of the hospital that day he was in surgery. They said when they called you said that you didn't need to come because you were thinking of breaking up with Sam anyway. They said you told them that you didn't need to waste your time sitting in a hospital for someone that you didn't even want to be with.”
“Brad, none of that is true,” Kristy insisted. “Listen, I'll explain all of this to Sam myself. I'm coming down to the hospital now. Are his parents there?”
“I'm not sure,” Brad said. “But hey, I'll meet you guys down at the hospital. Meet in the main, front parking lot and I'll come in with you. If his parents are there, I'll distract them so that you can explain everything.”
“Okay,” Kristy said. “Me and Lizette are leaving now. I'll see you in a bit.”
Lizette hung up the phone and looked at Kristy with a smile.
“See,” she said. “I told you that it might still work out. It's all just a misunderstanding, and now we're gonna work it all out.”
“I hope so,” Kristy said. “I really hope so.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Thirty minutes later, Kristy and Lizette found Brad in the hospital parking lot.
“Alright,” Kristy said with determination.
“Let's do this.”
“You shouldn't be nervous, Kristy,” Brad said. “Honestly, Sam is just going to be really happy to see you, and you know Sam, he'll listen to what you have to say.”
Kristy bit her lip and nodded.
She knew that what Brad was saying made sense. Sam was a kind and reasonable man. Of course he would listen to what she had to say.
They headed inside and made their way towards the wing where Sam was staying.
“It's this way,” Brad said, taking the lead. “He's just down the end of the next hall.”
They stopped at the room at the very end of the hall, and Kristy and Lizette followed Brad inside. But Brad stopped short after taking only two steps inside. Kristy peered around his shoulder and immediately saw what the problem was.
The only bed in the room was empty. The bed was being stripped down by two nurses who was animatedly chatting about their weekend plans.
“Uh, excuse me,” Brad said to one of them. “We're just here to visit our friend, Sam. He was in here yesterday. Was he moved to another part of the hospital?”
The short brown-haired nurse that he spoke to smiled warmly.
“Oh, your friend was released,” she explained. “He left just about two hours ago.”
“What? But the doctor said he would be in here for another few days at least.”
She shrugged.
“The doctor changed his mind, I guess,” she said. “He must be recovering quicker than expected. Anyway, that's good news for your friend. I know that he was really excited to get out of here. Maybe that's why he didn't call you. I think he was just so happy to be discharged.”
Brad nodded.
“Yeah, that sounds like him,” Brad said with a sigh. “Sam's not always the best when it comes to communicating.”
“Thank you,” Lizette said to the nurse with a nod.
The three of them wandered out into the hallway, stepping off to the side as two orderlies passed by, pushing a bed occupied by a sleeping elderly woman.
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