“Yeah, hashtag—cute blonde escapes her captor, is shot, falls off a cliff and somehow lives.”
Emily just shook her head. “Ridiculous. I’m sure they got the story pretty wrong, too.”
“The stories are pretty speculative.”
Doctor Lowenstein came into the room and she smiled at Zack. “Good to see you looking so well in street clothes.”
“Thanks, Doc. I feel great.”
She stood next to Emily. “Emily, how’re you feeling?”
Emily nodded, pursed her lips and said, “I’m doing good. I feel a lot better.”
Dr. Lowenstein smiled. “Well, I’ve talked it over with my staff and given your improvement and everything, we want to discharge you tonight, in a few hours.”
Emily smiled broadly. “Awesome.” Then she frowned. “But how come the change?”
Dr. Lowenstein tilted her head. “Given the special circumstances, the staff feels the press and police are distracting. And the police chief advised me he can’t keep bodies here to keep things under control. And the truth is, the last day was only precautionary. It’s not uncommon for us to send people home a day early as long as everything seems up and up. So, I’m going to prepare the papers and you’ll be out of here before dinner.” She looked at Zack. “Maybe you should take her out for a nice meal.”
Zack nodded. “That sounds like good medical advice.”
The doctor patted him on the arm as she walked by.
***
Emily stood waiting by the dull green door. The staff agreed to let her leave via this employee exit, to avoid the reporters. Her mother had snuck out a couple hours ago.
Erica didn’t want to leave, but Emily insisted she should. There was a ton of stuff to do. Emily had already missed the funerals for her father and brother, so it’s not like she had any reason to go home. She didn’t even have a house and her mother was staying in Morristown with her work friend.
She padded down the stairs. Several nurses and aids were at the door waiting. They greeted her with scattered, muted applause, and even some hugs. It was totally bizarre, but Emily didn’t really know what to do other than soak it in. She’d been here so long some of these people had become like friends even though she’d probably never see them again.
A silver sedan pulled up and Zack got out. “C’mon.”
She slid into the car and he sped off into the night. Although they wanted to get her out before dinner, it actually took until about two hours after dinner to get out of there. Her belly wasn’t growling with hunger, but she wouldn’t object to eating a real meal. The hospital food wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t the type of food she was used to eating.
Her body was tired, but overall she felt good. She slid down into the seat and pulled up her shirt to look at her stomach. Peeling off the bandage, she was very surprised to see the wound was just a tiny thing. “Wow.”
“Lemme guess, you thought it was going to be bigger?”
She nodded. “I haven’t looked at it in a few days.”
“The ones on my back are like little pinholes. Even the exit wounds are small after they sew them up.”
She looked back at the wound and started to cry.
Zack reached across the seat and touched her hand. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
The slow steady weeping turned into a full on cry. She couldn’t help it, it just wasn’t fair. “He ruined me.”
Zack looked at her. “Hey, you’re fine. You’ll be back in shape in no time.”
She shook her head. “It’s not that.”
“What is it?”
She wiped her tears. “They said there’s permanent damage. I’ll never be able to carry a baby. I’ll never be a mother.”
Zack pulled the car to the side of the road. “Emily, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
She wanted to punch her stomach, but she resisted. Instead, she punched the dashboard of the car repeatedly until her hand became sore.
Zack gave her a few seconds before he undid his seatbelt and leaned over to her, giving her a hug. “Hey, it’s okay.”
She cried and wanted to scream. Even though they told her days ago, it didn’t really seem like a big deal until right now. Zack released her and sat back into the driver seat, but took her hand.
She sniffled and wiped her cheeks. “I’m damaged goods.”
“No, Emily, you’re not damaged goods.”
She looked into his eyes. “I’m broken.”
“No, you’re not, you’re perfectly fine.”
“No man is ever going to want me.”
Zack shook his head. “That’s ridiculous. And I know at least one that will.”
“You say that now.”
He rolled his eyes. “Emily, I can promise you that you’re going to have a great life. And as long as you want me around, I’m here for you.”
Emily looked over at him. She wanted to say so much, but at the same time, she didn’t know what to say. So she just started rambling with brutal honesty. “I don’t really know what I’m feeling. I don’t know what to feel. We’ve been on such a ridiculous rollercoaster ride and I just want to get off. I’m tired. But the one thing in all this insanity that stayed the same was that I hated the idea of being away from you. When I first woke up in the hospital, I just wanted to see you. Nothing else mattered.”
He nodded. “I know what you mean. I don’t know if you heard me on that cliff, or understood what I was saying. But I think—I mean, no—I know, I’ve fallen for you. I know that’s probably crazy, and I know this might not be the perfect time to say something like that, but—”
She didn’t let him finish his sentence before she ripped off her seatbelt, leaned over to the driver seat, and kissed him softly. Emily slid her lips off his and just hugged him closely while nuzzling into his neck. After a few seconds, she sat back into her seat. “I’m sorry. But this aching in my gut, it’s not from the bullet wound. It’s because no one has ever made me feel the way you do. I like to pretend I have it together, but maybe I don’t.”
Zack touched her arm. “No, trust me, Emily you’re more together than any girl I’ve ever known. And I know exactly how you’re feeling. Maybe it’s the chaos of everything, maybe it’s the pure insanity of it all, but I get it.”
She smiled. He did get it. He always seemed to just get it.
Chapter 32
After the long ride, Emily got out of the car and tried not to cry. She looked at the charred rubble that used to be her home. Her father and brother were gone, and so too was the only home she’d ever known. They’d been in this house since she was four years old. It was like her entire life had been erased with a delete key.
Though she wanted to stop them, the tears rolled on a river of fresh pain. There seemed to be no end. Zack walked up next to her and put his hand on her back, giving her a little rub of encouragement.
“I just had to see it,” she said as they walked up the sidewalk, ducking under the police tape. There was almost nothing salvageable, just as her mother had already warned her. But she wanted to walk through it, anyway.
It smelled horrible. Virtually nothing was recognizable at first, but the longer she looked through the debris, the more things started to appear. She spotted a half-charred piece of molding that used to span the door above the dining room. The silver pen that used to sit by the telephone stand, part of the Canadian flag she’d gotten on her trip to Toronto, the vacuum, a piece of silverware—it was all there and ruined.
A piece of a picture from their family vacation to Disney World remained. The frame was charred and the picture ruined, but it still hung on what remained of the fireplace. It wasn’t enough to save.
Climbing over some fallen bricks from the chimney, she came to the back of the house and saw where the entryway to the garage used to be. Then like a single beacon of wonder, something stood perfectly preserved, not by luck, but by the very nature of the object. It was a familiar steel bucket. In it, the white quartz rocks she’d long ago co
llected from the stream behind the house. She walked over to the bucket and squatted. One stone sat on the floor. It wasn’t going back into the bucket. It was part of this rubble now.
Zack stood behind her. He didn’t know the story, but he asked her if she wanted him to carry it. She shook her head and picked up the heavy bucket herself. Using all her strength to carry the load while stepping through the debris felt good, and as she got to the rental car, Zack popped the trunk. She needed both hands to get the bucket over the bumper, but she was able to get it into the trunk. Her abdominals burned in agony when she let go. She winced and bent over until the pain subsided after a few seconds. It was going to take some serious work in the gym to rehab those muscles back to where they’d been.
She turned back around and looked at the wreckage. “I can’t believe it.”
Zack leaned on the car next to her. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”
She’d lost so much of the past, present, and future. Wiping a tear, she said goodbye to her home and her family as it had existed, one last time. “I’m ready to go.” Just before getting into the car, she looked over at Harry’s house and paused. Something about the fact it still stood really got her angry. If not for the crime scene tape all over the house, she’d bust in there and rip it up. Of course, there’s no point in taking any action like that. It would be a useless exercise in futility and stupidity. She was better than that.
With a calming deep breath, she slid into the car. Emily grabbed her new phone and logged onto her Facebook account as Zack pulled away from the curb. There was a lot on her feed about the friends she’d lost, or about how others were leaving for college. There were a ton of well-wishes for her from friends and family. But all the run-of-the-mill things seemed so pedestrian. Life was going on for everyone else and that made her sad about where her life was going. She logged out of her account and put the phone away.
Under normal circumstances, she’d be at school already. Hockey tryouts were still going on for a couple more days. Not only wasn’t she ready, she didn’t even want to go. It seemed so unimportant right now. Maybe she’d feel differently in a few weeks, or months or maybe next year. But there was no way it was happening right now. Her heart just wasn’t in it. “I don’t think I want to go to school anymore.”
“Really?”
She nodded.
Zack pursed his lips. “There’s no rule that says you have to.”
“I just feel like there’s no way I can go. I know some people might say it would be good to get back to normal, but I don’t know what normal is anymore. I don’t want people judging me. But I’m also not going to do something that doesn’t feel right. Going to classes, listening to some pedantic professor ramble on about something I couldn’t really care less about—I don’t want it. I don’t know what I want to do with my life anymore.”
“It’s your life, Emily. You’re a very smart person, you know what’s best.”
She looked at him. “People would say it’s crazy to give up the chance to go to Yale. Do you think it’s crazy?”
“Who’s to say what crazy is? Don’t let anyone tell you how to live, ever. No matter what you do. You’ve been through a harrowing experience. Life will never be the same as it was, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Plans change, life changes. If I’ve learned anything, it’s to roll with the punches. Nothing is set in stone except for the words on our graves. So every day before that we have to be ready for anything and adapt accordingly. It’s the trees that can bend in the wind and not break that are able to best weather the storms.”
She nodded and forced a half-smile. “You’re so smart. I don’t know a lot right now. But I know I want to be with you.”
Zack sighed. “I want to be with you, too. But please, don’t let that be what steers you away from school or anything. I’ll go wherever you go, if you want me to. You could go to school and we could get a little two-bedroom place near campus. I can help you adapt, whatever you want that makes you comfortable. If you want me to walk away so you can have space or find yourself, or whatever, you just name it. Don’t ever feel you can’t be one hundred percent honest with me.”
She looked over at him. “You’d do that for me?”
He laughed. “Emily, I’d do anything for you. I hope you know that considering what we’ve been through. I know we haven’t known each other very long in terms of actual time, but it’s all relative, I guess.”
She nodded. “We fit a lot of bonding into a short time.”
“I’d say that’s the understatement of the century.”
A smiled crept into her lips. “Hospital bonding is pretty powerful.”
He chuckled. “Yes it is.”
“But how come two bedrooms?” She gave him a coy smile.
He flashed his eyes off the road and quickly over to her. “I never assume anything. And I’d never push you into a situation you weren’t ready for. And it’s not because you’ve never lived with a guy before, it’s just common decency. I’d be happy to do it. You’ve been through a lot and having something to count on is the first step to dealing with things. So understand you can count on me for anything.”
It meant a lot to hear him say it. She felt it while they were out there, but hearing it had another level of certainty. Emily leaned back into the seat as the sun started blasting into the windshield. “Where’re we going?”
“I don’t know. Where do you want to go?”
She shrugged. “Somewhere people don’t know me and don’t care about me.” They had to get up at six in the morning just to come over here and avoid being hounded by the press. The internet was having a field day with their story. It was everywhere. People were calling her mother for exclusives, nonstop. She had to change her cell number. Emily looked out the window. “I want to go somewhere the summer never ends.”
Zack twisted his lips. “Is that from a movie?”
She shrugged. “I think it’s from a song.”
“I’d say we should go to Virginia Beach but…”
“Actually, that’s not a bad idea.”
“Really?”
She shook her head. “I won’t let him take anything else away from me.”
“I get that. But I was thinking somewhere a little more tropical.”
She twisted her lips. “Like?”
“Like Sanibel Island in Florida.”
Emily nodded. “Okay. But I’m going to need to go shopping for some clothes, because I don’t have any.”
“That’s doable.”
She looked through the little purse her mother brought her. It had some of the essentials, including her credit and debit cards. There was plenty of cash in her account to sustain her for a long while.
Chapter 33
Zack walked around the store wasting time while Emily tried on a few clothes. And by a few he meant a pile the size of a shopping cart. Her plan was to stop at every cool store they passed on the way to Florida and buy a few things. After all, she needed an entire wardrobe, and they had nothing but time. Her mother had bought her a few things while they were in the hospital, but it didn’t constitute an entire wardrobe. It was just a few pairs of under garments and some gym clothes.
He was kind of hoping she’d model the clothes for him as she tried them on, but no such luck. Some cute brunette was shadowing him though, clearly hoping he’d check her out. She was giving him the quick smile, look away with chasing eyes move. That move used to work on him every time, but not this time. Just a quick smile back at her was all she was getting.
His aversion didn’t seem to dissuade her, though, and she moved closer to him. Now she was looking at him more intently. And while sliding between a few racks of jeans, she stepped in front of him. “Are you Zack?”
He looked at her a bit more closely. “Do I know you?”
She bit her lip. “Kinda. I’ve seen you on TV. You’re that guy. Right?”
Zack tried not to give it away. “No, I think you’ve got the wrong per
son. I keep getting that lately. My name is James.”
She looked suspiciously at him. “Oh, okay.” She touched his shoulder. “Well, I’m the kinda girl that doesn’t mind much. And I wouldn’t mind much if you wanted to get to know me better.”
Zack smiled. “I’m flattered, really, but I’m with someone.”
“Oh, yeah?” She glanced around. “I don’t see anyone around here.”
“I’m walking around a woman’s clothing store, and I’m not with my mother.”
She smiled, but then her face changed. “Okay, handsome. I get it.” She looked past him and turned away.
Zack turned to see Emily standing behind him. “Hey.”
She smiled. “Hey. Was someone keeping you company?” Emily watched the girl walk away. “She’s cute.”
Zack laughed. “I guess you can’t blame a girl for trying.”
Emily stepped back. “What do you think of this?”
Zack took measure of the thin-strapped, mid-thigh, yellow sundress. He frowned. “It looks positively horrible. You need to take it off right now.”
She twisted her lips to the side. “Ha, keep dreaming. You have to earn that.”
“Wow, what’s a guy gotta do?”
She playfully waved her hand. “I’ll let you know when I think of something.”
He watched her head back into the dressing room. Never in his life had he wanted to be around someone more. It was amazing. The more time they spent together just made him want to spend more time with her, which didn’t even make sense. If you’re with someone, how can you spend more time with them? But that’s the strangeness he was feeling.
Rick was the only friend he’d ever had that he could spend every waking moment with and never grow tired or bored with them. He wished Rick were around to meet Emily. The two of them would’ve gotten along well.
The popping noises towards the front of the large store didn’t quite register, but then he knew exactly what he was hearing. They were gunshots.
People were screaming and running towards the back of the store. Zack spun around towards the dressing room doors and Emily busted out in her familiar denim shorts and T-shirt. The look on her face said it all. She shook her head in confusion.
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