Chapter 392 - I Don’t Know

Chapter 392: Chapter 392 - I Don’t Know

Karen didn’t respond.

"Come on, asshole. Wake up."

Nothing.

Roxie sobbed.

"You said everybody leaves you. Fine. Then fucking stay. You stay."

Angela broke completely at that and leaned against the side of the car, crying so hard Mason finally moved behind her and held her shoulders.

Karen suddenly coughed.

Everybody froze.

Zac reacted first, helping turn her slightly while Roxie recoiled in panic. "What’s happening?"

"She’s okay. Let her cough."

Karen coughed again, weak and wet, and Roxie felt like she was going to throw up from fear.

Then sirens sounded in the distance.

Angela looked up immediately. "They’re here."

Roxie almost collapsed from relief.

The ambulance came around the curve seconds later, lights cutting through the trees before it pulled into the lot. Everything became fast after that. Paramedics came toward them carrying equipment while asking questions, and Roxie struggled to move away from Karen long enough to give them room.

"What did she take?"

Roxie stared at the paramedic.

"What did she take?"

Her mouth opened, but nothing came out.

Zac answered for her. "Unknown pill and alcohol. We don’t know how much of either."

One paramedic moved beside Karen while another asked when she had taken the pill.

Roxie shook her head. "We don’t know."

"How long has she been drinking?"

"We don’t know."

"Any medical conditions?"

Roxie looked helplessly toward Angela, who could only shake her head.

"We don’t know."

Every answer made Roxie feel worse. They were supposed to know Karen better than anybody, yet when someone finally needed information that could actually help her, none of them knew anything.

The paramedics moved Karen onto a stretcher, and she barely reacted.

Roxie followed immediately. "I’m going with her."

One of them stopped her. "One person can ride."

"I’m going."

Angela grabbed Roxie’s arm. "I want to go too."

Roxie turned toward her and saw how destroyed she looked. "I can’t leave her."

"Neither can I."

The paramedic looked between them. "One."

For the first time Roxie hesitated because she couldn’t imagine leaving Karen, but she also couldn’t stand the thought of Angela being left behind crying like this.

Zac came up behind her and put a hand on her back. "Go with Karen. I’ll bring Angela. We’ll be right behind you."

Angela nodded rapidly through her tears. "Go. Go with her."

Roxie grabbed her and hugged her so hard Angela gasped.

"We’re coming," Angela whispered against her. "I swear."

Roxie let go and climbed into the ambulance.

Karen was already strapped onto the stretcher with oxygen being placed over her face, and the sight nearly broke Roxie all over again. She sat beside her and grabbed Karen’s hand while the paramedics continued working around them.

"Karen."

No response.

The doors closed, and for one second Roxie could see everyone outside through the rear windows. Angela was sobbing against Mason while Zac stood beside the Tesla staring directly at Roxie. Dylan was already moving toward the car, and Ethan remained near his motorcycle.

Then the ambulance started moving.

Roxie looked back at Karen.

The paramedic kept working, but every second made the helplessness worse. Roxie squeezed Karen’s hand between both of hers and watched her face, waiting for even the smallest movement.

"Please wake up."

Karen stayed still.

Roxie leaned forward until her forehead almost touched their joined hands.

"You wanted me to stop chasing you."

Her voice broke.

"I’m sorry. I can’t."

Karen didn’t move.

Roxie squeezed her hand harder while the monitor continued beeping beside them.

"You can hate me tomorrow."

Her tears fell onto their hands.

"Just give me tomorrow."

By the time the ambulance reached the hospital, Roxie had lost track of how many times she had asked Karen to wake up. Sometimes Karen moved enough to give her hope, a twitch of her fingers, a faint sound, a small tightening of her face when the paramedic touched her.

Then she would go quiet again and Roxie would find herself staring at her chest, waiting for the next rise because she no longer trusted anything unless she could see Karen breathing for herself.

The ambulance slowed sharply outside the emergency department, and one of the paramedics was already standing before the doors opened.

"We’re here."

Roxie tightened both hands around Karen’s. "Karen, we’re at the hospital. You hear me?"

Karen didn’t answer.

The doors opened and everything moved quickly. The stretcher came out first, Roxie climbing down behind it so fast her legs nearly gave under her after sitting cramped for so long. She stayed beside Karen until they reached the entrance, where nurses were already waiting and asking questions while they pushed her inside.

"What did she take?"

"I don’t know."

"How old is she?"

"Eighteen."

"Any allergies?"

Roxie opened her mouth and stopped. "I... I don’t know."

"Prescription medications?"

"I don’t know."

"Medical conditions?"

"I don’t know."

Each answer made her feel worse. She knew Karen’s favorite food. She knew what she ordered when they went out, which teachers irritated her, which songs she played when she was pissed off, how she chewed gum when she was hiding something and exactly what her face looked like before she said something mean just because she thought it was funny.

None of that helped now.

The nurse continued writing while walking beside the stretcher, and Roxie followed until they reached another set of doors. When she tried to go through with Karen, a nurse stepped in front of her and gently stopped her.

"We need room to work."

"I’m going with her."

"You need to stay here for now."

"She won’t wake up."

"They’re taking care of her."

Roxie tried looking around the nurse. Karen was already being transferred onto another bed while several people moved around her, attaching wires, checking the oxygen, calling out numbers Roxie didn’t understand. A doctor leaned over Karen and spoke loudly enough that she should have reacted.

She didn’t.

"Karen!"

The nurse caught Roxie by the shoulders when she tried to move around her.

"Miss, you need to stay here."

"That’s my friend."

"I know."

"She doesn’t know anybody in there."

"They’re helping her."

Roxie looked over the nurse’s shoulder until the doors closed and Karen disappeared completely from sight.

Only then did she stop fighting.

Her whole body started shaking.

The nurse told her someone would come speak with her as soon as they knew more, then disappeared through the same doors.

Roxie stood beside the waiting room chairs without sitting. She kept staring at the entrance to the treatment area and telling herself that Karen was finally where she needed to be. Doctors were with her. Nurses were with her. People who actually knew what to do had her now.

That should have made Roxie feel better but it didn’t.

Her phone vibrated in her hand.

Zac.

She answered immediately. "Where are you?"

"Parking. Where are you?"

"Emergency department. They took her back already."

"How is she?"

"I don’t know. She still wasn’t waking up properly."

"We’re coming in."

The call ended, and less than two minutes later Zac came through the entrance with Angela almost running beside him. Mason followed closely behind them with Dylan, while Ethan came in several steps later.

Angela saw Roxie and immediately rushed toward her. "Where is she?"

"They took her inside."

"Is she awake?"

Roxie shook her head. "I don’t know."

Angela stared at her. "What do you mean you don’t know?"

"I mean I don’t know, Angela. She kept going in and out in the ambulance and then they brought her through there. They won’t let me follow."

Angela’s face crumpled before Roxie had even finished speaking.

"She was breathing, right?"

"Yes."

"When you got here?"

"Yes."

"She was still breathing when you got here?"

"Yes, Angela."

Angela grabbed her.

Roxie wrapped her arms around her automatically, and Angela started crying against her shoulder so hard that her entire body shook.

"She’s going to be okay, right?"

Roxie closed her eyes.

She couldn’t answer that.

Angela pulled back when Roxie stayed silent. "Roxie."

"I don’t know."

"No, tell me she’s okay."

"I don’t know!"

Angela covered her mouth and sobbed.

Zac reached them then and put one hand against Roxie’s back. He didn’t ask about Ethan or why Roxie had waited so long to call him. He didn’t say anything about the argument that had been sitting between them in the Tesla.

He just stayed beside her.

Mason stood several feet away staring toward the treatment doors, his face so pale that Roxie barely recognized him.

"Did she talk in the ambulance?" he asked.

"Barely."

"What did she say?"

"Nothing that made sense."

Mason looked away and dragged a hand over his face. "Fuck."

Dylan pulled several chairs closer, but Angela was the only one who sat. Even then she perched on the edge like she might have to jump up at any second. Mason sat beside her after a while, elbows against his knees, while Ethan remained near the wall and Zac stayed beside Roxie.

A nurse finally came through the doors.

Every one of them moved.

Roxie reached her first. "How is she?"

"We’re still evaluating her. Do you know how much alcohol she had?"

"No."

"Any idea what medication or substance she took?"

"Someone saw a white pill. Karen said she took one, but she didn’t know what it was."

"Did you find packaging, a bottle, anything with her?"

"No. Just alcohol."

The nurse nodded. "We’re running bloodwork and toxicology. We also need family contact information."

"Her aunt."

"Can you call her?"

Roxie nodded and immediately pulled out her phone.

Karen’s aunt answered after several rings.

"Roxie?"

"We’re at the hospital."

There was a pause. "What?"

"We found Karen. She was barely waking up, so an ambulance brought her here."

The aunt’s voice changed immediately. "What hospital?"

Roxie told her.

"What happened?"

"She’d been drinking and she took something." Another silence followed, and Roxie felt anger starting to creep through the fear.

"I’m coming," the aunt finally said then the call ended. She didn’t even ask how Karen is doing.

Mason looked at Roxie. "She’s coming?"

"Yeah."

"Finally."

Zac touched her arm. "Sit down."

"I can’t."

"You’re shaking."

"I know."

He looked at her for a moment before letting it go and staying beside her instead.

The hospital continued moving around them as if this were a normal evening. Phones rang. Nurses walked past carrying folders. A child cried somewhere down the hall. A man on the other side of the waiting room complained about how long he had been sitting there.

Roxie hated all of it.

Karen was behind those doors and everybody else was still living normally.

Angela had stopped crying loudly, but tears kept running down her face while she stared at the doors. Every few seconds she wiped them away only for more to come. Mason sat beside her silently. Dylan stood nearby with his arms crossed, and Ethan remained farther back, clearly unsure where he belonged but unwilling to leave before they knew something.

Then an alarm sounded from behind the treatment doors.

Roxie looked up immediately.

A nurse walked quickly across the hall.

Another followed her.

Zac straightened beside Roxie.

The doors opened briefly when someone pushed equipment through, and Roxie caught a glimpse of Karen lying on the bed with several people gathered around her. One nurse was watching the monitor while another adjusted something near Karen’s arm.

"What’s happening?"

Nobody answered.

The doors closed again.

Angela was already standing. "Why are they running?"

"I don’t know."

"What happened?"

"I don’t know."

Another alarm joined the first.

Roxie felt her stomach turn.

Zac moved closer before she even realized she had started walking toward the doors.

Inside, voices became louder.

"Pressure’s dropping."

Roxie froze.

Angela heard it too.

"What does that mean?"

Roxie looked at Zac.

He couldn’t answer.

Angela grabbed Roxie’s arm. "What does that fucking mean?"

"I don’t know!"